That young buck got put in the spin cycle.
It’s very normal to see bucks lower their heads and clash antlers during their rut (also called their mating season). That’s when males use their size, weight, and their head-mounted weapons to spar with other big boys in order to establish dominance. Only the biggest and baddest bucks get first dibs on interested doe, and as you’ll see in this video below, they’ll fight like hell to earn that right.
When is mating season for deer, you might be asking? It’s a good question, and it’s actually a bit difficult to narrow down a specific rutting season for whitetail deer. The window for their mating season (and thus interactions like this one below) typically stretches from August through February. However, there are “peak rut” seasons, and those end up being somewhat regional specific.
Regardless, something about the ferociousness and violent nature of this fight tells me this battle between two bucks – one a spike and one more mature – definitely had to do with a doe.
Either that or it was one of the most fierce battles over territory that the world has ever seen. This well-placed trail camera captured it all, and to be clear, this isn’t one of those wild animal videos where it’s hard to tell which one was victorious. The winner of this tilt is undoubtedly the larger buck that sent its opponent quite literally spinning through the air.
When the video first starts, the two males are already in the middle of an intense brawl. And within seconds, the spike buck goes from formidable foe to flying frisbee. As you’ll see when you press play, it gets caught up in the air and lifted by the other buck’s antlers like a figure skating pair.
It’ll all happens in one, chaotic-yet-swift movement… and just as quickly as the spike buck went tornado-ing into the night sky, the two white-tails went sprinting off to continue the squabble elsewhere:
Unbelievable. You know that spike buck regrets trying to jump up in the air. Little did it know… it can do one heck of a helicopter impersonation. That’s the day it found out, and likely set a reminder for the rest of its life to never go airborne during a fight.
Social media users that came across the video posted by Buckmasters Nation could barely believe what they were seeing. Buckmasters was right to ask “Have you ever seen two bucks go this hard at it?” I’d say no, and much of social media said the same:
“Spike probably got with his doe in the pre-rut.”
“Absolutely rag-dolled that spike.”
“Mess with the bull and you get the horns.”
“He just hit him with the chopper F-5 slam. Never seen that before.”
“Wow, I’ve seen some fights, but this… wow.”
“It’s weird how they don’t holler. If that was happening to to me, I’d be hollering.”
That last one is quite possibly the best comment I’ve ever seen on an outdoors video… and it’s so true.
