Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Buck Battle - Several Pics

Will do this as two posts as I believe there's a limit on the number of pics allowed.

Cookie was on the spot for a good meeting of the minds between two bucks. Wish the boys had held off until sunrise, but one has to take what Mother Nature dishes out. Seems a lot of the good battles take place about 1/2 hour before dawn.

The resident champ has held the ground for about 3 seasons, and is easily recognized by his ears. Antler conformation and body condition suggest he's on a downhill slide, however.


The Challenger showed up about 1/2 way through this year's rut (Nov 15th) moving in from turf about a mile or so away.


Champ spotted the newbie about 150 yds out and immediately headed across the ring. Head down and ears back are sure signs of serious business and are typically sufficient to alter an invader's thoughts.


The Challenger seemed to feel up to task, however, and responded similarly.


First contact with the Champ mistakenly using an uphill approach.


Continued in next post:

Great pics! Most (including me) will probably never get to witness two beautiful Mulies battling it out. Tell Cookie nice job and thanks for the pics....

The tangle lasted about 90 seconds or so and ended in a small stream literally at Cookie's feet.






Unfortunately the close proximity and a battery failure interrupted image captures for the midstream portion of the battle. Cookie was not a pleasant person to be around durning those moments. Both bucks ended up thoroughly wet, and the resident Champ was dethroned. He moved east to a small basin though and took over a slightly smaller group of does.


The new ruler of the roost usurped the herd and hung around for about 3 days.


When things get serious, one would not want to be on the receiving end of these efforts. If one ever gets the stare and lowered ears, it's time to step back. They do get it on.

Hoping they both show up again in 2016.

Have a good one,

great photos! those are some bruiser bucks

Great pics and a better story!

tks for sharing those photos and your narrative was great too!


really enjoyed it

Love when you post those

One of my buddies sent me a picture from one of his game cameras.

It sets in a plot of CRP ground and the rather large buck was caught on the camera with a leg stuck in his.
Rather size chunk of meat on the non hoof end.

+1

Terrific!

Nice! It's "nuggets" like this that are the cream of hunting experiences!

Years ago I was backpack caribou hunting 12 miles deep in the Kenai mts early in the rut. Shot a yearling bull in the pass out of a group of 30 or so animals. The rest ran across the valley and joined up with another 180 or so up on the slope aboce,including 5 huge bulls, less than 600 yards away. (The entire Kenai Mt caribou herd runs about 330!)

I interrupted dressing out my kill several times to watch the various fights.

amazing to see this photo essay, thank you for sharing! I've never seen a mule deer in person, hope to some day though.

Superb!!!

But then, a challenger appears, calling himself Der Poohbah!

Troops:
Thanks for the comments. Yes, one rarely sees knock down drag outs between the big boys. With about 3 weeks of 10-hour days in the field, Cookie saw only two instances where serious will was present. The second was also an early AM event, but in dense cover with no photo opts.

One frequently sees yearling bucks engaged in friendly shoving matches, but they typically part after some token pushing and continue feeding along a common path. Most of the time a little posturing by an obviously superior animal is all that's needed to move out competition.

This guy had no issues with challengers that we saw.


I think this was the same animal in 2014.


Within 100 yds of the same locale. Small throat patch and a wisp of white below that. No brow tines, a few more scratches and some trash though in 2015

Thanks for posting!

A couple of years ago I was fortunate enough to take these pictures.....

choot em

Awesome pics 1minute! Thanks!

Tell Cookie thanks and great pics!

Outstanding!!!