Doomed 10-Pointer Set Free

Kevin Black, of Duluth, was on his way from Thomaston back to his Upson County hunting club on the afternoon of Saturday, Oct. 3, when he looked out his truck window and saw a strange and alarming sight. Standing beneath a massive water oak not far off the road were two bucks, their antlers jammed together, and one of them apparently dead.

Kevin sent his wife on to camp to get fellow club members Jamie Martin, of Jonesboro, and Tony Roberts, of Locust Grove. Jamie and Tony rushed back to the water oak and found Kevin and a live 10-pointer and a dead 9-pointer, which had been partially eaten by scavengers. An intense fight had obviously been followed by a struggle to stay alive.

“You would not believe the woods, it looked like a bulldozer had been through there and just devastated the place,” said Jamie.

The three hunters quickly decided to try and free the 10-pointer. The buck’s right eye had been put out in the fight, and though it tried to keep its left eye on the men, it allowed them to approach.

“The three of us got down there and just worked and worked and worked with their horns, and we even tried to break the dad gum horns off.”

After a 15-minute struggle, the hunters were able to separate the racks by lifting the decomposing carcass of the 9-pointer over the back of the 10-pointer and pulling.

“It was a pretty messy situation to say the least,” said Jamie. “As soon as we unhooked him, the 10-pointer dropped his head back to the ground like he thought he was still hooked. We grabbed the dead one and dragged it way away, and he finally lifted his head up. His front legs were spread apart like he was just about to fall, and he was shaking pretty bad.

“We wondered if he was going to die anyway and thought maybe we should go on and kill him, but we watched for another 10 minutes. He finally raised his head and walked off, real wobbly. We followed him for 100 yards before he trotted off and left us.”

The dead 9-pointer had an inside spread of 15 inches and 8- to 9-inch tines. The 10-pointer had a wider, higher rack.