Story resident Brad Jones put his skills as a nature documentarian to the test on Sunday when he stopped to film two rutting white-tailed deer near Sheridan.
He didn't expect to become part of the action when the battling bucks brought their fight to him, barreling through a fence and lurching toward him.
"I had to dive behind my pickup truck to avoid them," he said. "If I'd have held still, they'd have went through me."
Jones managed to capture the lead-up to the near-miss on video. Despite avoiding a near collision with the pointed end of a deer, he joked about the unusual incident.
"I was nearly killed," he said.
On The Ropes And Out Of The Ring
Jones found the two battling bucks in a fenced field near Big Horn, south of Sheridan, on Sunday morning. They were rutting so aggressively that he decided to pull over and film them in the act.
"I pulled over, parked, and got out my phone," he said. "I walked to the front of my truck to film them, and that's when it got really crazy."
The bucks battled each other through the open field until they hurtled through the barbed wire fence. Their momentum carried them up an embankment and right toward Jones.
"I quit videoing immediately when that one came through the fence," he said. "I don't know if the smaller one ever knew I was there, because I wasn't more than a yard or two away when he bolted. I barely got out of the dang way."
Having avoided being wiped out by a white-tail, Jones picked himself up and assessed the scene. It appeared the fencing was the finale to this buck bout.
The losing buck fled, while the winner paused for a moment to size Jones up. Then, it retreated toward the harem of does watching the battle from the other side of the field.
"He actually stopped for a minute and glared at me, then took off for parts unknown," he said. "I live in white-tail country, and I've definitely seen some brawls, but that was one of the most aggressive fights I've seen."
Stuck In The Rut
The rutting season for Wyoming's white-tailed and mule deer usually occurs in late fall. They prefer to challenge each other in open fields, unobstructed by fences or other obstacles.
With their hormones raging and harems of does on the line, bucks can become oblivious to everything except each other when they lock horns and tussle for dominance.
"It's serious business for them," retired wildlife biologist Franz Camenzind told Cowboy State Daily. "It's serious business for them, (and) when the gonads migrate to the brain, it can get pretty ugly."
Earlier this month, two mule deer bucks crashed into the exercise room of a home in Denver, Colorado, during a particularly aggressive rut. They survived the defenestration with minor injuries but were tranquilized and escorted off the property by Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
In December 2022, a mule deer buck crashed through the basement window of a home in Colorado Springs, Colorado, during a particularly aggressive rut. Colorado Parks and Wildlife wardens "blame(d) the rut for this scene."
The rut can also make deer more aggressive toward people. In October 2022, Evanston residents Wanda and Daniel Kaynor were seriously injured by a mule deer buck that had taken over their front lawn.
After the buck aggressively attacked the couple, Linda was hospitalized with seven puncture wounds and a broken vertebra. Daniel escaped mostly unscathed with only a single antler puncture.
"That buck wasn't just going to forgive and forget," Wyoming outdoorsman Paul Ulrich told Cowboy State Daily. "He was pissed off, and if it wasn't for Mr. Kaynor, the buck would have continued the fight, and the ending would have been far more tragic. The lesson is don't piss off anything with antlers."
Duel To The Death?
Bucks often die during rutting season, either from injuries they sustain from other bucks or, in rare instances, wasting away from exhaustion and starvation after becoming inextricably entangled.
Jones wished he could have gotten another look at the fleeing white-tailed buck he narrowly avoided. He thinks it might have gotten a parting shot from his opponent.
"I'd like to see how tore up he was," he said. "When you watch the end of the video, when he got slammed into the fence, the other buck hit him with its antlers really hard. I didn't get a good look, as that would have been on the other side (of his body)."
The irony is that Jones had two unfilled buck tags and was on his way to check the trail cameras he'd set up on a nearby property. He could have grabbed one of those bucks, but he couldn't have taken either.
"This was within a quarter of a mile of where I was going," he said. "I've shot one this season, but I would've loved to get the big-bodied mature buck. That guy was a tank."
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
