Many hunters and landowners believe that predators are a major threat to deer management on their properties. Over most of the white-tailed deer’s range the primary predator of concern is the coyote. It’s true, coyotes do kill and eat deer. The real question is, “How many deer do coyotes kill each year?” That is a hard one to nail down because it depends on many local variables, but it is a question that many hunters and deer managers would like to have answered.

There are other animals that will also kill deer, such as bobcats, bears, feral hogs and mountain lions, but because of a hosts of variables, these species are typically believed to have little impact on local deer populations. But coyotes, well, that is one animal where most deer hunters will say predator control for the benefit for a whitetail deer herd should take place. It’s a rather simplistic view, but in a few cases it could be exactly what the doctor ordered.

Source: “When Marlin Smith placed his Moultrie trail camera on his hunting lease this summer, he was hoping to capture some stunning whitetail deer pictures. Those hopes were realized within the first week of the camera being in the woods, but in a gruesome way that Smith would have never imagined.

Documented in extreme detail was the grisly death scene of a record-class buck at the jaws of some blood-thirsty coyotes.

Smith, a northeast Texas resident, had placed his camera on his 4,800-acre deer lease in nearby Oklahoma. The property he hunts is owned by a large timber company. It is located in some foothills far removed from paved roads and county highways. This is the third year he has been deer hunting the property. But it is the first time he has ever seen brutal whitetail deer pictures like the ones in this series.”

Most deer biologists will tell you that predators do kill deer, but at a rate that only results in minor deer losses. Some will profess that predator control is a critical part of deer herd management, a practice necessary to maintain the balance between deer predators and whitetail. The fact of the matter is that both sides can be right.

In areas with good deer habitat, coyotes alone are unable to control deer numbers. It just will not happen unless other factors are at play. Keep in mind that I specifically said in areas good deer habitat. In these situations, coyotes can provide a level of “control” to slow the growth of a local deer herd, but they will not cause it to decline. Controlled deer harvest will still be a necessary part of the overall management equation.

It’s important to remember that whitetail deer are currently negatively impacting the plant communities in which they live because of overpopulation across the deer’s range. This has happened in the face of growing predator populations. Coyotes take their biggest toll on fawns, but that has not kept whitetail deer from thriving in one of the most coyote-rich areas in the world, South Texas.

The game camera photos of coyotes attacking and killing an Oklahoma deer bring to life most hunter’s biggest nightmare, predators removing a big buck from the deer population that they themselves could have shot. After all, the buck was really nice. What deer hunter would not have loved to put their tag on that animal? I think it’s reasonable to assume that this coyote-killed buck was nothing more that compensatory mortality. It was highly probable that the buck was ill and would have died anyway. The coyotes were just doing what they naturally do—removing the sick and the weak from the deer herd.

This white-tailed deer hunting season has really been one for the record books, and not just in Texas. Not only have the true-to-life hunting stories been amazing this year, but now it seems whitetail hunters around the Lone Star State are processing the story of a two-headed deer being shot near Rock Springs, Texas. The website reporting the rare harvest has come up with some pretty amazing stories in the past, but this one is luring in the hunters like a a young buck to a doe in heat.

For those of you that have yet to hear about the alleged two headed deer hoax, the photo may blurry, but the story is at least an entertaining one. In fact, I’m kind of surprised this story did not take place in Louisiana because it definitely has the makings of a Thibodeaux and Boudreaux joke. Only in this one it’s Bill and Steve Jr. out at their West Texas deer lease.

“… Bill had his 7mm magnum with him, saw the deer was at least a 10 point buck, and took a shot at it. Meanwhile, Steve Jr. shot the 8 point looking out of the other side of the cedar with his .270. The bucks ran about 20 yards through the brush and collapsed into a mesquite tree.”

“… The game wardens said under the current Texas rules that these two men should have put a deer tag on each set of antlers. But, as this has never occurred before in their lifetime, they agreed to reduce the fine by one-half.”

“… The 8 point end of the buck had been shot twice before behind the front shoulder, but as there were no vitals behind the shoulders, the holes had healed up maybe as much as two years earlier.”

The story of the two Texans with the two-headed buck may not be true, but I imagine it will find it’s way into many deer camps in the future. I’m sure some special beverages helped create the original two-headed deer story, so I imagine next deer season some additional beverages combined with a hunter’s creativity and a campfire will make it even more amazing. Cheers, to the fake two-headed deer!

The white-tailed deer hunting season may be in the recent past for most of us, but hopefully we all have the memories and some good eating to help us make it through until next season’s opener. Until then, it’s time to focus on habitat management and wishful thinking that this spring and summer will be a wet one. Almost as much as the deer hunting itself, the one thing that I will really miss about deer season is hanging out at camp discussing deer management and trading hunting stories from past trips.

It seems ironic to many non-hunters that hunters really do respect the animals that they pursue and kill. The same can be said of deer hunters across the whitetail’s range. Deer hunters relish the opportunity to tag just a single buck each year, but some lucky hunters manage to tag a couple of bucks each fall. This was the case for Illinois’ Phillip McGowan. While out deer hunting this past hunting season he never expected to stumble into two bucks, especially two bucks locked together. Here is his story:

“My name is Phillip McGowan from Bloomington, Illinois. This hunting season, while deer hunting on private property in Woodford County, Illinois, I experienced something most hunters have never encountered and never will encounter during their lifetimes. I shot two bucks; However, after shooting the first buck, to my surprise, I had all the time in the world to shoot the second. Both whitetail bucks were locked by their antlers due to a freak sparring accident that would ultimately be their last.

The buck’s antlers were so intertwined, that after shooting the smaller buck of the pair, the larger buck literally drug the smaller deer backwards. That is, until I was able to get a good, steady shot the second buck. Each of the deer were decent-sized bucks in good body condition, which is remarkable for two competing bucks during the rut and due to the unnatural living arrangements. They must have become locked shortly before I encountered them.

Eventually, these whitetail bucks would have died and someone would have came across the two skulls, cleaned by scavengers. However, to actually see both bucks alive and for a split-second and to observe how they moved in tandem–having avoided the entire bow hunting season and the first season of shotgun hunting–is an honor and a story my I and my family will pass on for generations to come. Attached are some pictures of the locked bucks.”

The state of Nebraska is known for some big-bodied, big-antler bucks, but nobody, not even deer hunter Kevin Petrzilka, was expecting to bag a potential Nebraska state record whitetail just outside of the town of Loma in Butler County, Nebraska. But that’s what he did. And if the measurements hold up the buck looks to rank at least number 6 on the Boone and Crockett Club’s all-time list of whitetails with typical antlers taken by a firearm. To say this 17 point whitetail buck is big would be a serious understatement of an animal of remarkable proportions.

In fact, the Petrzilka buck is sizing up to be the largest buck taken by firearm in North America since 1993! An official Boone and Crockett Club scorer put the preliminary score at 203 4/8 inches over the weekend, but the antlers must go through the mandatory 60 day drying period before they can be officially scored for the record book. For those keeping score, the current Nebraska record for a typical whitetail buck is 199 1/4 inches on a buck taken in 1983 in Saunders County.

Deer antlers usually shrink when hunters walk up on their kill. However, that didn’t happen to Petrzilka. The inside antler spread on Petrzilka’s deer was 21 inches and the heavy mass followed the tines from the base all the way out to the ends of the beams. The antlers have eight points on one side of the rack and nine on the other. “My boy got there first and all I heard him say was, ‘Big! Big! Big!” Petrzilka said. The local taxidermist had this to say about the antlers of this potential Nebraska state record typical buck:

“If the buck stays as a typical, because there is a concern that his G3’s may count as non-typical, he will rank near the top in the world. No matter what happens with this buck as far as scores go, he is a once in a lifetime trophy and will be in a few magazines, no doubt. I have physically seen a couple bigger non-typical deer in person, but this is the biggest typical by far.

Milo Hanson’s world record typical buck is 213 inches just to put into perspective, and Nebraska’s #1 typical is 199 inches. Time will tell, but I had to share because it is obviously the buzz in this part of the state.”

Mr. Petrzilka said he knew the buck was big, but did not take time to notice the buck’s rack before he fired at the deer, which at the time was 150 yards away and on a dead run. “It was there, I shot and it was over with,” he said. “I sort of wish I’d missed and Dillon got it, but it worked out.” I’d say so.

A big part of deer management is maintaining promising bucks in healthy condition until they are mature and ready for harvest, so there is nothing worse than finding a dead buck that you did not shoot, but how would you feel if you found not one, but three dead bucks on your property? Okay, it gets worse. What if those three bucks totaled 450 inches of antler? That is exactly what a hunter in the mid-West found on his Ohio farm while walking through the woods. Apparently, two bucks were fighting for the right to breed area deer when a third buck jumped in to kick both of their butts. That didn’t happen.

The three whitetail bucks were found dead, drowned in a creek on the Ohio property. This is not the first time three bucks have locked horns and died, but it’s the first I’ve heard about this phenomenon year. And the quality of the bucks involved is impressive, so you know the guys hunting this property had to have been more than a bit deflated. I know that I would have been sick to my stomach. Here is what a staff member of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources wrote after being called out on the 3 dead bucks:

“Wow, 3 bucks locked together, wow! Wish I could have walked up them alive. This is the result of three bucks all fighting for one lady. They had the bank of this creek all tore up. All together, I estimated the deer to score well over 400 inches of antler. The biggest one was a massive 6×5, approximately 165 inches. The other two were around 130 to 140.”

The bucks were all green scored and the 9 point went 130-ish, the 10 point went 140-ish, and the big 11 point went 169 inches. It looks like the young guns will get to do the breeding on that Ohio property this year. That is why it’s important for anyone serious about deer management to keep quality bucks of all ages on a property at all times. Simply amazing!