Caught On Video: Georgia Hunters Untangle 8-pointers, One Partially Eaten By Coyotes

Greg Gaston had a close encounter with a nice buck recently, although it wasn’t the sort of encounter he was hoping for this deer season. Greg and two friends had to break up two Jefferson County bucks locked together while fighting on the afternoon of Sept. 21. By the time they discovered the bucks, one deer had died and been partially eaten by coyotes. The release was captured on video.

“My dad was just cruising around the farm about 1 o’clock Monday afternoon (Sept. 21, 2020),” said Madison Gaston, Greg’s daughter. “He saw a buck standing up in the peanut field, and it didn’t run off, and he thought that was kind of weird.”

Madison said the incident occurred on their 125-acre family farm in Bartow that is owned by her uncle, Bruce Sammons. When Greg first saw the deer standing up in the peanut field, he didn’t know it was locked together with another buck. The foliage in the peanut field was just high enough to hide the dead buck.

“He got out of the truck and walked up to it, and that’s when he saw the dead buck laying there. They were both all tangled up,” said Madison. “He tried himself to untangle them with his bare hands, and the buck charged him a little.”

Greg was all alone and knew that swinging antler tines was nothing to mess with. He did the smart thing and called his buddies, Curtis Tanner and Dennis Holden. Fifteen minutes later and two cuts with a Sawzall and the smaller of the two 8-pointers was free and standing.

“It took the buck a good two or three minutes to trot off. I guess it was in so much shock,” said Madison.

Madison is a hunter and said the family farm is used for deer hunting. They had just put trail cameras up a few days prior, but they hadn’t captured pictures of either of the 8-pointers.

“The one that didn’t make it was the shooter. He would have been the wall-hanger,” said Madison. “The one that did make it was not the shooter.”

It’s unclear if the buck fight is what killed one of the 8-pointers or if it was the coyotes that brought the buck down and killed it. Greg added in the video that if anyone shoots a Jefferson County buck this fall with two sawed-off antler tines, you’ll know the story behind it.

Editor’s Note: Greg, we thank you for thinking of GON. Without supporters like you, we don’t get to share the crazy things that happen outside with our readers.