I almost forgot to include that the bottom ribs in pic 5 apear to show damage and blood stains, consistant with a heavy wound and thats why the scavengers starting to eat in this area I would assume that the animal was wounded befor it got to this tree and conclude that this animal was possibley in flight when it mis calculated a turn and got himself photographed.
Great pics Antlergetter
Stevecat

After viewing the pics some ?'s came to mind:
I agree with all who thought his left side entered the gap at a high speed and appears to have broke his neck. but........
What was the sign on the ground, tracks, sign of struggle ?> Was the neck verterbra broken after you freed him ?
That sucks, what a shame.
Was the cape still good ? Did you mount it ?

Stevecat,Skyhigh...... This deer put out a great stuggle. The roots of the tree were dug clean out of the ground, and the bark at the bottom of the tree was tore all to pieces. I did come to find out after i found him that a fellow hunter thinks he wounded him next to the back hip a week earlier. The deer was being ran by wild dogs at the time. But how he got stuck in there is still a mystery!! He was not dead when he got stuck, and he was found on a semi-steep incline, with the smaller tree was on the downhill side. There was a trail close to the tree on the downhill side. There is no way the deer could have been running by the tree and got wedge in there that low. Just exactly what happened will probably be never be known for sure. But the majority seems to think he was making a rub.

Sky high? I dont think so , You gave the facts , and some things dont make a whole lot of sense.
And this is what I meen .
In one post you state that the whole body of the deer was off the ground, and it took a half hour to get it out of there ,This would be a min of 45" if the hinde quarters are on the ground. 60"+ if not. ( But in your reply to me you stated that a trail was down below the hill), so I am left to asume that the deer jumped off the trail , up the hill ,trying to make a rub (while streching)and some how angeld off to the left and got himself locked between the two trees?
FACT: 1. your avg. rub will be between 24"-34" from the ground
FACT:2 avg, neck length of a whitetail this size is 18"in the relaxed upright state (front of shoulder to top of eye.This alows me to measure the photos to a close degre of accuracey.(Though the neck is streched)+2"
The marks on this tree are 40+"
Also I wonder why you mentiond the deer coming down the hill(no one said anything about that>
Also pic. 5 shows inpact mark from the right brow tine aprx. 3" above the left ear
same pic shows left brow tine locked on tree shoot .
Right brow tine clearley showes strugle visable on the right side of shoot (same pic)
and yet no rub marks from the direction of the trail, but rather from an angeld slant, from top of hill that no one mentioned except you in you response to me and I cant understand why you brought it up!
Relaxed or streachd +22"MAX-This puts this deer well beyond any place he would like to put his horns . and making rubs 40"+ in trees
using this information and the info you yourself gave ,it is easy to dismiss any chance of this being any kinde of a rub.
A rub?Not plausable
Not possible
Just simple

Stevecat, when calculating how high he was you did not take into consideration the downhill slope. When I stated the rear of the deer was the only thing touching the ground you can see what i meant in pic 3. It took 30 min because of the tightness between antler and tree. If you examine the bottom of the tree in pic 3, you can also see how high up the bark of the tree was. All the pics with the deer still in the tree is exactly the way I found it. I hadn't even touched it yet in most. Pic 2 and pic 6 is a pic from the back side and clearly shows the height. Pic 3 was taken from the uphill side looking down on the deer, and pic 5 was taken from downhill looking uphill. Also, one last thing in pic 3 the bark is tore up above where the deer is stuck, that had to happen before the deer was stuck, that much bark would not be rubbed off that area from one single blow.


I can already see that I am going to have to go back to the scene with a tape measure and show some measurements and different angles. I'm going back down there in a couple weeks to get film from my stealth-cam, so I can possibbly do it then.

Antlergetter , please dont take all this as an attack ,I am only having fun enjoying examining the the facts,and getting your response.
(Though I believe im right) lol,
I cant wait to see the actual measurments and compare them to what ive come up with ,
I know I am real close , and yes I did take into account that the tree sat on the side of a hill, I also gave you alot as far as measurements,just to help your argument.
This is what I used to measure.
Pic 5, shows the deer in close prox of the tree, it also shows the left ear neerly perfectley lateral to the circ. of the tree , this helps me make a very good measurment of the tree.
Given most all deer have ears that are 3.5" wide at the widest part (margin of error less than .2) this tree has a aprox.DIA. of 16.5" with a cir. of 49-50" (given it is perfectley round)
Pic.4 shows a view of the buck head on, the distance between the very start of the rack (flush with the scull) is neerley always 3",This would give the buck an inside spread of 21"
also the shoot on the side of the tree starts between 18"&19" from the base of the tree and has a 3" wide DIA, and has a circ.of 9.5"
By the way ,What is the inside spreadof the buck?
And did you finde any wounds neer the rump ,like your friend said that may have shot him a couple of weeks earlier?

Awesome deer to meet a demise like this. Would like to think it was a quick painless death but based on the description you gave of the tree and ground sounds like this big guy put up quite a fight to free himself.

Bummer!! Keep his antler in view and as Uncle Ted say - Long Live The Beast!!!

Antlergetter.

Its a shame, but at least a young looking buck like that shows your area has good genes!!

Hoyt--

I hope you are joking about a shot in the dark!

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