Monster bucks testosterone gets the best of them

[DTro]

I just finished reading a story in the Timberjay (local paper out of the Vermilion area). A couple of monster bucks near Aurora decided to see who was king. Luck was on the side for one of the big bucks as he speared the other in the brain and killed it, but who was the lucky one? The "lucky" deer still alive was now stuck and tangled with the dead deer and when found was being eaten alive by coyotes

Both of these bucks were monsters and perhaps stcatfish can get ahold of the pics from the Timberjay and post them, I'm sure everyone would enjoy them.

[Studer]

That is an unbelievable story. Pretty weird the way that mother nature works. I would love to see some pictures!!

[Mark Christianson]

Wasnt that story in the Outdoor News a week or two ago?

A CO dispatched the live deer.

At least the story was awfully similar. There was a pic of the deer locked up in the article.

[Steve Foss]

As outdoor editor at the Tjay, I wrote the story and toned the pics for the paper. I would have put one of those pics up here, but they run afoul the "no dead animal pics" FM policy.

[Hotspotter]

Stfcatfish:

Might want to email FM on that one, I think it should be fine. People post pics of their harvested archery/shotgun deer all of the time. I hope it's ok, sounds like a cool pic!

Joel

[Steve Foss]

Yeah, Joel, my bad. I must've been in dreamland when I read them the first time. I'll post the pic later when I'm home from work. It was taken by the DNR guy who got the report of the deer.

[Steve Foss]

Here's the story:

Rutting fight ends in death for two trophies

By Steve Foss

Deer hunters near Aurora will have two fewer trophies to bag when the season opens this weekend.

Two big bucks — a 12- and a 13-pointer — locked antlers during a rutting fight and died last week. While such fights aren’t uncommon and locked antlers happen now and then, some of the circumstances were unusual, according to game officials.

John Kangas, a local excavator, saw the deer in a field several miles south of Aurora last Tuesday morning. They were locked up, and three coyotes were feeding on the hindquarters of both deer. When Kangas walked up and scattered the coyotes, he saw that one of the antler tines from the 13-pointer had punctured the skull of the 12-pointer, which was dead.

The 13-pointer was still alive, however, and Kangas phoned DNR conservation officer Mark Fredin.

Fredin came out and put down the 13-pointer and gave Kangas a possession permit. They separated the two deer. Kangas said he plans to have the heads mounted and then locked back up the way they were originally found.

Given the way they were mired, Fredin says, it appears one deer had flipped the other one over its back during the fight.

The bucks were pretty well known in the area, since hunters frequently scout bucks before the season starts. Kangas said he’d seen the 12-pointer alone and in fine shape the evening before he’d found them locked.

“A lot of guys have been watching them,” Kangas said. “They’ve been out quite a bit htis summer and fall, and we’ve been watching their antlers grow.”

Kangas said it was a shame the deer died, since they could have passed on their genes for big antlers to future generations for several more years, but said there are bigger bucks around than those two.

Fredin, who said the circumstances were a bit strange but not unheard of, was philosophical about the loss of the animals, as well.

“It should cut down on some road hunting,” he joked.