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Spike fight

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BSK

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Over many years, I've collected hundreds upon hundreds of trail-camera pictures of bucks sparring--from young to old bucks--especially in early to mid-October, and usually in food plots. However, the following sequence of photos is one of the first true serious fights I've caught on trail-cam, and of all things, the fight is between two little tiny spikes over a scrape. In the first picture, notice the aggressive posture of the little spike on the right; ears laid back and all puffed up:













...and to the victor, goes the spoils. A measly little scrape!

 
Cool!
I've never caught a true all-out brawl on camera either, but I did get to witness one last season on Thanksgiving Day morning between two 3.5 year old 8 point bucks. They fought all the way down a hillside, sometimes with both of them tumbling down the hill locked up bouncing off of trees on the way down, and continued pushing each other around when they got to the bottom (until I shot one of them!). When they are really going at it the way those two were, I don't know how they keep from breaking each other's necks or gouging their eyes out.
 
Southern Sportsman said:
They better be careful, somebody's liable to lose an eye.
Click to expand...

I was analyzing trail-cam pictures for a client today and came across a sequence of pictures of a nice 2 1/2 year-old 8-point grooming the top of a little acorn spike's head. Eventually, the little spike starts butting the older buck in the throat, and a "sparring" match ensued. You could tell the 8-pointer was struggling to find a way to make their antlers match up. Eventually he gave up trying to "lock antlers" and just let the little spike push against his forehead!
 
BSK said:
Southern Sportsman said:
They better be careful, somebody's liable to lose an eye.
Click to expand...

I was analyzing trail-cam pictures for a client today and came across a sequence of pictures of a nice 2 1/2 year-old 8-point grooming the top of a little acorn spike's head. Eventually, the little spike starts butting the older buck in the throat, and a "sparring" match ensued. You could tell the 8-pointer was struggling to find a way to make their antlers match up. Eventually he gave up trying to "lock antlers" and just let the little spike push against his forehead!
Click to expand...

One of the coolest thing about hunting, in my opinion, is watching nature interact.

In all seriousness though, i was watching one of those douche filled, high fence hunting shows on TV the other day, and they walked up on a full fleged fight between two 140 class deer and I couldn't help but wonder how more bucks dont loose an eye, as hard as they go at it with that many sharp tines thrashing about
 
I couldn't agree more Southern Sportsman, especially considering the position of browtines very near the face during sparring matches and fights. I get to see literally hundreds of bucks every year on trail-cam. Yet I can remember seeing only two or three with a missing eye.
 
I've seen all age bucks sparring but only witnessed one true fight (albeit it very short) between 2 big mature bucks. They hit together so hard that one of them was temporarily knocked unconscious. I've heard several all out fights from the stand and even found broken antlers afterward. I see bookoos of broken antlered bucks during season and on a few occasions those broken antlers have been the saving grace from being shot.

My archery 3D targets (8 point, 90" bucks) get hammered every year. I've had to replace a couple from being destroyed by the backyard bucks. I finally set a camera over one of them and caught the culprit...a spike.
 
:cool: I got what I believe to be a 2.5 year old 7pnt and a 3.5 year old 8pnt fighting on my camera. They were fighting at a mock scrape me and my 7 year old made. He thought it was hilarious peeing in the scrape. I need to post the pics when I get a chance.
 
I actually got to witness a serious spike fight the second Wed. of muzzleloader. I was amazed, never seen two bucks that young go at it that hard. Just like your pics, they circled each other with ears back and hair bristled and then squared up and went at it. It was pretty cool. I have witnessed 3 fights this year, one buck was envolved in two different ones. Never seen this many in one year.
 

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