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Three White-tailed Bucks Locked by Antlers

Just about every deer hunter has heard stories about or has even seen, maybe even found, two white-tailed bucks dead after their antlers ended up getting “locked up” during a fight. It’s just not that uncommon for bucks to get their antlers locked together while fighting. However, slim to none have heard of three bucks after becoming locked! As rare as it may be, check out the photos of these three white-tailed bucks that were found locked during the rut.

The bucks were located on a ranch in East-Central Texas and from the information that I received one of the bucks was still alive when the trio was found. Apparently, the antlers were cut from the dead deer and one very tired buck was lucky enough to run back off into the woods. He was probably greeted by another ornery buck looking to kick his butt yet again.

The urge to breed is a powerful one. It seems plausible that two bucks would fight for the the breeding rights to a doe or to an area, but it’s wild that another buck would pile on, too. Whitetail bucks must just be pumped full of testosterone just prior and during the rut. Don’t get in their way. You just never know!

Grape is Good White-tailed Deer Browse

Deer Food: Grape (Vitus spp.)

Class: browse; preferred by deer

Description: There are many species of grape throughout the white-tailed deer’s range, but all species seem to serve as good sources of deer forage. In areas with high deer populations, grape leaves will not be found within the reach of a deer, but foliage can be found higher in brush and tree canopies. Common grape species include mustang, post oak, and muscadine.

Grape is deer browse

Grape plants are vigorous and clump forming or high-climbing woody vines occurring on moist sandy soil and loose clay soil in both bottomlands and uplands. Most grape species are very aggressive, often outcompeting other vegetation in an area.

Grape plants are usually found along fence rows, adjacent creeks, and within forested areas. Growth can be encouraged on properties managed for white-tailed deer by loosely stacking brush piles so that small, protected grape plants can establish with the physical protection of the pile and then grow outward where deer can consume the leaves.

The fruits are also eaten by many birds and mammals, including deer and wild hogs. These animals will plant the seeds of the highly sought after fruit directly into the areas they frequent, such as brush piles!

Grape Photos:

Mustang (2 photos above)

Post oak (above)

Muscadine (above)

Time to Hunt for Shed Deer Antlers

Hunting for shed antlers means getting out in the woods at a different time of the year. If you’re like most white-tailed deer hunters, then you spend the majority of your time in the woods during the fall and winter of each year. However, the habitat that white-tailed deer live in — just like the animals themselves — are found there year-round. Shed hunting is a good opportunity to get out and explore the area you hunt, learn more about it, and possibly even find some nice shed antlers.

With spring just around the corner and whitetail bucks beginning to shed last year’s antler growth, there is a good opportunity to learn more about your deer hunting area as well as the deer that live there. Hunters get excited when bucks start growing their antlers each year because it’s a chance to witness the affect of past management activities and offers a look ahead to, hopefully, future harvests. It really is something to get pumped up about.

Shed Hunting Season

Then, on the other hand, there are some hunters that also get pumped up after the hunting seasons have already ended. Those guys and gals are the shed hunters. Once winter sets in, it marks the fact that soon whitetail bucks will be dropping, casting their coveted antlers. As it turns out, there are ways to get a huge set of antlers on your wall other than shooting the big boy. He may have eluded you during the season, but you can still find his shed antlers!

Finding shed deer antlers not only ends with great rewards you get to take home, but also with some valuable information you can tuck away in your back pocket for next season. Information such as the quality of bucks that made it through the last hunting season, the number of different bucks that were in the area, and specific areas that these bucks used while in your area.

Shed antlers also allow you to physically track bucks that you may have been keeping a close eye on. Measurements that can be taken from year to year include common measurements such as beam length, tine length, and mass measurements.

Shed Hunting Tips

Look in and around late-season food plots and other food sources.
Examine deer travel corridors, water sources and anywhere deer commonly travel.
Use a game camera to monitor the deer herd and ensure most of the bucks in the area have already shed their antlers before your start. More antlers on the ground ups your chances at finding them.
Don’t wait too long to hunt for sheds. Rodents will eat and destroy cast antlers due to the coveted minerals they contain. In addition, warming weather will spur forb and grass growth and make finding antlers much more difficult.
Keep an eye out for new hunting locations. This may inspire you to cover more ground, increasing your chances of finding deer sheds.

Deer Warts or Tumors?

When deer hunters head out into the field they don’t usually think to themselves, “Man, I want to harvest a healthy deer.” But we all do, even though we don’t really think about it. So., what if you harvested a deer with warts? Most hunters would be a little concerned because, after all, warts are not normal on white-tailed deer.

Although injuries and diseases are some things hunters and property owners serious about deer management try to avoid having in their herds, it usually can not be avoided.

These “deer tumors”, which are more accurately wart-like growths, and are formally referred to as cutaneous fibromatosis. The virus that causes such growth on the skin can be transmitted between deer, at least experimentally.

Deer fibroma occurs occasionally in white-tailed deer living in North America. Although the ailment is not common, it not extremely rare either. The cutaneous growths can vary in diameter, but usually vary from about 1/4 inch to 4 inches in size.

These wart-like growths can be found growing by themselves or in clusters, typically on the front-end of an infected deer. The whitetail buck featured in the above photos has warts caused by cutaneous fibroma on the underside of his neck and face.

Although these tumor-looking growths are not believed to directly harm the deer, the presence of these warts could cause additional stress or points for additional injury on an animal.

From a hunting or deer management perspective there is little that can be done once a deer contracts fibroma. In some cases the infection may not even be noticeable, but as in the example above, the warts may be very obvious. The virus has been successfully spread under experimental conditions from deer to deer, but the chances of this happening in wild deer herds is unknown.

Interesting Facts About White-tailed Deer

For those that work close-hand to better manage deer and deer habitat, we are always learning how we can improve the conditions of both. To better understand how we can enhance available deer habitat, deer nutrition, and the health of a deer herd, any information we can gather about deer help the cause. Here are some additonal facts you may not know:

1. White-tailed deer establish a home-range territory and will not leave it! It has been documented that deer will starve rather than leave their territory. Moral of the story — maintain adequate nutrition!

2. Wild white-tailed have been known to live at least to 11-years in the wild, but I suspect a very small percentage live even longer. Now those are mature deer!

3. With optimal habitat conditions, deer populations can double in size annually! Without regulated hunting and proper harvest management, deer will destroy wildlife habitat and suffer tremendous population die-offs.

4. If you took 2 white-tailed deer in the absence of predators, in just 7-years those two animals alone can produce a herd of up to 35 animals! I wish my savings increased at that rate.

5. In areas of overpopulation, deer cause an over-browsing affect we call a “browse line.” You do not want a browse line on your ranch! After a browse line is created, it takes years under a low deer density for browse plants to re-establish and recover.