White Tail Deer Sparing
BY Herschel Smith
2 hours, 52 minutes ago
That’s either an 8-pointer sparring with a 6-pointer, or a 10-pointer sparring with an 8-pointer. It’s hard to tell with the mix of horn in the video. The one of the right is clearly more mature, and the smaller buck will fight right up to the point of death, or if he’s wise, leave before that happens and learn from it.
On April 5, 2026 at 9:08 pm, X said:
Interesting.
I killed a buck last fall right at dark. When I walked up to the spot where I shot it I found a small 4-point antler laying on the ground. No deer. Weird. 15-20 years away I find a deer laying in the snow with its left antler freshly missing. Yep, that was his. But his right antler was also missing. Really weird.
I field dressed him, then flipped him over on his belly to let the blood drain out, and I saw that the skin above his shoulders was all torn up. Then I understood what had happened. He had lost his right antler in a recent fight, and gotten gored above his shoulders when the antler gave way.
His left antler must have been weakened from the fight and it came off him when I shot him and he hit the ground.
Again, a very small rack (and a medium-sized body) so I suspect that he must have gotten his ass kicked by a much bigger deer. Despite the small rack it was a memorable hunt, because I has seen him browsing in a copse and waited two and a half hours for him to present a shot, which he finally did at about five seconds before dark. Shot him with a .223 at about 130 yards and it absolutely decked him.