Walton County Hunters Save Locked Buck

On Sept. 8, I was walking to check my trail camera for pictures at my Walton County hunting lease when I saw a deer from behind. I watched it about five minutes, and it never moved.

I stepped to my left to see its head and realized it was a buck. I stood there for a few minutes. Its head moved some, but something was not right. I walked a little closer for a better look, and I could not believe what I saw.

There were two bucks locked together. They were both 8-pointers. The live one was the biggest with an approximate 16- to 18-inch spread. The one lying down appeared to have been dead for a day or two.

The live buck started jumping all over the place trying to get loose. He jumped completely up in the air, sometimes so high he would do a flip and land on his back. He was twisting his head and grunting.

Here’s the buck after it was separated from a dead 8-pointer.

Of course I could not kill the buck because it was not yet deer season. I backed off and went to get my buddy, Russell Arnold, of Monroe. He thought I was really pulling a joke on him until he saw the deer. After we watched the deer trying to pull loose for about 45 minutes, its whole body started to shake. I told Russell the deer would probably die over night. We decided to come back the next day.

The next morning we got our knives and a saw to get the deer heads. Well, we were in for a surprise. The deer was still alive. It started jumping all around, grunting and carrying on. While we talked about our options, the deer lay down with the dead one.

After Russell sawed both antlers off the dead deer, the live buck just lay there for about 25 minutes. Then it stumbled off. About three weeks later, I got a trail-camera photo of the deer alive and well.