Coyotes Attack And Kill Perfectly Healthy Buck

Stan Mask took a picture of this young 8-point as it listened to the bleating of a 6-point buck being attacked by coyotes not far out of sight.

Stan Mask, of Woodbury, was hunting 3 miles from his home on opening morning of rifle season when he heard at least two coyotes attack and kill a perfectly healthy buck that he just watched feed on acorns and ease out of sight.

“At 9:50 a.m. a 6-point buck shows up feeding on acorns and walks by my stand at 20 yards,” said Stan. “He was in great shape. He made a turn to the left and went down the ridge and out of sight.”

All was quiet for the next 10 minutes.

“At 10 a.m., an 8-pointer is walking in front of me and a deer starts bleating and screaming or whatever you call it from the direction of where I saw the 6-pointer go. It was something like I had never heard before, it hollered six times,” said Stan.

“The 8-pointer freezes right in front of me and is staring at the noise. After about five minutes of silence, the noise starts again. The deer hollers about four times and goes quiet about 10 more minutes. It hollers twice and no more.”

The 8-pointer leaves and Stan calls his brother about what had happened, and they meet up at Stan’s deer stand.

“We go down to the bottom of the ridge and see two coyotes about 80 yards away. We go to where we saw the coyotes standing, and the same 6-pointer that I saw is dead. The bite marks were only on the back legs and spine. It was a long and horrible death. I never truly realized how much danger a healthy adult deer is under until now.”

It didn’t take long for coyotes to break down this 1 1/2-year-old 6-pointer in Meriwether County on opening morning.