Here’s the story… the guy that found them had left his stand Sunday morning and was walking back to the shack when he noticed a tine sticking out of the swamp grass just off  the side of a four wheeler trail.  He walked over to check it out and found the two bucks frozen in the swamp ice with only about one foot of each deer’s side and about 10 inches of the tines above the ice.  After getting help from some hunting partners, they managed to chop the deer out of the ice and get them loaded onto a flatbed trailer.  The deer were then brought back to the shack and the word started to spread.  The “smaller” of the two was a massive 8 pointer that green scored an estimated 150+ inches and the “larger” monster was a true swamp buck with what was thought to be 18 scorable points and a green score of 190+ inches.  From what has been heard since these photos were taken, the two bucks are gaining statewide attention and the larger buck actually has 23 scorable points.  It is thought that the bucks had been dead for 2 weeks before being discovered.  Because of this, the capes had begun to deteriorate and were not capable of producing a  mountable cape.  However, new capes have been supplied and the bucks  are in the process of being mounted locked together in battle.  The twine on  the antlers was to prevent the bucks from coming unlocked when the heads  were removed.  Also, check out the cup on the tip of the main beam on the big guy!  Hope you enjoy the pictures.  A truly once in a lifetime opportunity.

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Here other posts of similar events:

This pair got locked and the winner drug the other around until he got tangled up in a barbed wired fence: Deer Locked Horn-to-Horn

The winner here drug the other around while other critters — assumed Coyotes — ate the loser: Another Deer Locked Horn-to-Horn

Here’s a really cool post about Elk getting antler locked. Amazing Two Bull Elk Locked Horn-to-Horn

My favorite is a 3-way buck lock-up.

See all my posts on Antler Lock-ups here.

For more photos of deer locked horn-to-horn, or more precisely, antler-to-antler, check out these posts.

For all of you deer hunters, this is a pretty rare thing:

Attached is a picture of my daughter, Morgen, who went deer hunting for the first time this last Saturday morning. Little did she know she would get a trophy that most people have only seen in magazines.

Morgen killed a 12 point buck whose rack was still locked with a 9
point buck. The 9 point buck was dead and little more than the bust and remnants of the hide were left. If you look closely at the picture, you’ll see the two bucks are literally cheek to cheek.

This is extremely rare. Hunters will find two dead bucks whose
racks are locked together. To make a kill of a live buck is just
amazing. For Morgen this was a once in a lifetime event. The 12
point buck is a magnificent animal. We can only speculate that the
hide from the 9 point buck was all ripped and tattered from coyotes.

We were hunting the 7D ranch north of San Angelo. Since this email is going quite literally all over the world I’ll explain that this
ranch is over 200 square miles in size.

We would like to thank the Sugg family (Joel and Chris especially)
for inviting Morgen out to the ranch and being a part of a lifetime
memory. We got many many pictures. Needless to say, everyone else took a lot of pictures.

The deer have been dropped off at a taxidermist but it will be 4-6
months before the mounting is finished. This is a story that will
be told over and over for many years to come.

I’m really proud of Morgen and I just want the entire world to know.

Our best to you all and for sharing this little but of excitement
(even for those who are not hunters… thanks for understanding).

Mark Priest

However, as rare as this is, I do have other posts of similar events:

Deer Locked Horn-to-Horn

Another Deer Locked Horn-to-Horn

Two Bull Elk Locked Horn-to-Horn

Trophy of a Life Time

OK, here’s how this works. Most bucks (males) will develop antlers.  I say most as some do not and, some females will grow horns.  See one of my first posts to this blog, Spike Dyke.  The antlers usually start to grow near the end of the first year of life.  Antlers are not “horns”.  Antlers grow every year and horns are permanent.  Antlers are dead bone.  Horns are more like the skin material used for nails and hoofs.  As antlers grow they are covered with a very hairy skin covering that is usually colored red or deep burgundy.  This gives the appearance of felt or velvet covering.  Near the end of summer the Buck’s horn growth stops and the velvet dies and starts to shed.  To help this shedding bucks find a sapling or other soft shrub in order to rub it.  The rubbing helps the buck shed the velvet.

What is interesting is that bucks will tend to favor a particular species of tree or sappling depending on which part of the country you are in.  And, sometimes more than one buck will rub the same tree.  They seem to prefer soft barked trees.  I understand that the antlers are rather sensitive at this stage so rubbing a soft barked tree makes sense.

This poor fellow got his antlers stuck and probably starved to death.

These pictures came to me via email.  They’re tagged with www.fouraranch.com.  I checked their site but didn’t see the pictures posted there.  Give them a visit for more spectacular photos of monster trophy whitetail bucks.  They have a big protein feeder that helps the nutrition of the buck which inturn causes massive antler development.  One photo shows 4 real nice bucks snacking at the feeder at one time.

Poor fellos got stuck and expired.

Another view of the whitetail buck that got stuck while rubbing.

Another view of the whitetail buck that got stuck while rubbing.

Another view of the whitetail buck that got stuck while rubbing.

Here is how my day started yesterday ( 11-29-2007)

Got a call that 2 bull elk were locked up and one was dead the other still alive. The bulls were in a field about 15 miles Northeast of Monticello.

When I got there I actually found 2 bulls locked antlers. I thought this only happened in other areas… J. and I were going to tranquilize the bull and saw antlers. One problem… we did not have enough of the drugs to do a good job. So we walked out there and sawed the one point off of the dead bulls right antler and then we had to saw the main beam of the left antler to get the other bull free. The whale tail was over the bulls eyes, lodged between the eye guards. When we cut it free the bull stood there for awhile catching its breath with the piece of the antler still in it’s antlers. When it took off the piece of antler came out…

WOW! this was for sure one of the most memorable days. Enjoy the pics.

TJ Robertson
Conservation Officer
Moab District
State of Utah, Division of
Wildlife Resources
(435) 820-6015 Cell phone
tjrobertson@utah.gov

The good farmer helps the buck out. The last photos shows the deer to be a little dazed by the whole ordeal.

I wonder where this happened? By the terrain I’d say in the mid-west US somewhere. I wish I knew the story behind this remarkable set of photos.

Anyone know the details?

Check out the similar stories.  This one is another whitetail buck horn-to-horn lock up and this is Elk bucks locked horn-to-horn.

In the first photo notice the bulge under and to the left of the deer’s eye out between the nose and the eye. (left eye)

On the second picture, the bulge is more noticeable and you can see what appears to be a wound in front of the deer’s right eye.

Look at the third picture; this explains it all.

I guess you could say this was a “nine pointer”.

I don’t know if this buck got the doe, but she wasn’t worth it.

Whitetails are overpopulating and spreading West. I’m on a hill here and use a spotting scope to check out miles of floodplain, normally underwater ( John Martin resevoir) but now a vast prairie after 7 years of drought. There I can witness the clash as whitetail bucks spread into the area attempting to breed the mulie does and pushing out the bigger mulie bucks. Recently a clan of really big whitetail bucks have been seen feeding, 6 of them with no mulies in sight. rut is over.I got up one morning about a week ago and looking thru the scope saw one buck feeding, none of his buddies in sight. seemed wierd, and as I
looked closer (he was about 1.5 miles away) I could see small animals (young deer??) running around him. Finally I made out one of the small critters, they were Coyotes! Now this was really weird, a deer calmly feeding as coyotes circle around? Deer and coyotes friends??

No, I doubt it. finally it hit me, he hadn’t put his head up or even hardly moved the whole time I observed him, HE WAS HUNG UP RACK TO RACK WITH ANOTHER DEER I COULDN’T SEE, probably dead on the ground. The coyotes were getting ready to have a meal!!

So I jumped in the truck and headed down there. After a ten minute drive and a 1/2 mile hike (I forgot it was 20 degrees with a twenty mph wind in my face) I started coming on this incredible scene. However,
while I was still about 100 yards away I saw a well chewed deer hind quarter on the ground. And, sure enough, this big ten point whitetail was locked up with another similar size deer that was HALF EATEN!!!

This poor guy had to stand there (and no doubt fend off attacks all night long) while his buddy was devowered!!! it was really a heart wrenching scene.

And in typical human fashion, I decided to intervene. As I got really close, he recognised me and took off, hauling the half deer on his head as best he could. He got running pretty good and then stepped on the carcass and went ass over teakettle, then laid on his back, totally spent. I could have gone over and tickled his big white belly.

After a while, he got back on his feet. I pushed him into some salt cedars. He hooked the halfdeer on a stump AND GOT OFF and ran away with a slight limp (hope he wasn’t hamstrung). Just an incredible wildlife drama.

- Doc A