I don't think I ever did get around to putting pictures of these two up. I know I told a few folks about it. Digital camera went on the fritz, so I bought a new one last week and pulled my memory card out of the old one... when I installed it in the new camera, I found these in the memory and thought I might share with everyone, since y'all are into this sorta thing.
These two bucks, both 4.5 years old per the jaw bones, got their horns locked together and effectively killed each other. This picture was taken on October 26, 2007, in Sussex Co., VA.
Like most deer do when mortally injured, one of these two went to water. I suspect that once they had their horns locked up, one eventually broke the others neck. The one that got his neck broken was the lucky one I suspect. Encumbered by his new buddy, the other deer no doubt found the daily necessities hard to manage and headed for the pond.
I don't know how long they had been there, but by the smell of them, I'd say at least a good week. My golden, Dutch, actually found them.... this pond sits about 130 yards north of our club house, and when I let him outside he took off like a stripe'ped assed ape for the pond.... I figured it was just normal swamp collie bahavior.... he hit the water and thats when I saw what he was swimming for. Once I got closer, I was sure he could smell it from inside the house.
I took these pictures mostly for the game warden, or just incase nobody believed it. I got possession tags from the game warden for both deer. I still haven't gotten around to scoring them, but they are both over 130" gross for sure. Thats a whole lot of deer to come off a 250 acre tract of land.... and there was still another bigger deer in there that I got trail cam pictures of in November. These deer were locked together so tightly, that even after (pardon the graphic description) I had removed the heads and cut the face off one of them, I had to do a fair amount of twisting and contorting to separate them.
EDIT/UPDATE: Thanks to the Boone and Crockett Club for teaching me how to score heads and making me and several of my co-workers associate scorers... I have gained a new found respect for the organization. The larger/wider (rack on the right in next to last picture) of these two scored 129 4/8" net. The smaller/more massive buck with the neat curled browtines (rack on the left in next to last picture) scored 126 6/8" net.
And here is the hero who found them.... with his reward for such a nice find.... a fun bumper thrown in the water... what more could a duck dog want!
Fatal buck fight...pictures included UPDATE: SCORES
