A Deerhunt In Progress - 2005

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December 16, Afternoon -  Another Fighter

AFTERNOON: Between my truck and the Ridge I walked smack into a flock of wild turkeys. They dispersed into the cedars and scrub oaks. So I abandoned my plan to set up a second Double Bull on the Ridge. I left the blind in its carrying case by the trail I use to come and go and went straight to the Matrix blind.

Before getting in the blind I set out another HotTrails dominant buck candle and fired it up.

A few minutes after 5:00 I saw a deer cautiously walking in my direction. It was directly downwind of the HotTrails and getting his nose full of the heated dominant buck aroma.

I had the mesh down on the window so the pictures aren't as detailed as normal. It was a spike and he came right on over. 

Then I heard a wheeeeeezzee sound to my right and looked through a small slit in the mesh and saw a large bodied buck. Then he made a sound that was more like a short growl than a grunt. Several seconds passed and he walked around the scrub oak between us and I got his picture as he became visible. He had a pretty unusual rack.

Here he is looking right at the candle and the Spike is a few yards in front of him. 

He laid his ears back and was on the Spike in a heartbeat -- he slammed his brow tines right in its chest. The Spike almost went down and the bigger buck gave him another pop. And the spike ran like he was running for his life.

I must have made a little noisr trying, unsuccessfully, to get the camera on the Spike's butt beating. The new buck looked in my direction for a little while. However, he didn't look concerned. 

At this close range I saw what was up with his antlers. The right main beam is broken. And every tine, except for the brow tines is broken off. Talk about a Fighter.

The Brow Tined Fighter turned and walked back toward the trees where I first saw him. But before he left he stopped and looked in the direction of the candle. He had a discoloration in front of his right flank.

Then he shook his tail and walked down the ridge. 

Daylight faded and on the way out I picked up the blind I had stashed and returned to my truck.