RE: Duel to the death of two deer...
You can tell he has an understanding of whitetail behavior but this part sounded somewhat cheesy for my taste (like a romantic novel in a way)but overall that would be crazy to find something that happen like that and I bet he loves whitetails by the way he writes (you just never know when you will rattle that big one in):
"I imagine they were thrashing around," Wayne Bessinger said.
The pair, most likely rivals for the affection of a female, were "sort of floating on their sides with their heads under the water," Bessinger said.
Somehow, they had inadvertently stumbled out onto the frozen pond and fell through.
"There were chips of ice scattered all around the perimeter."