BOWHUNTING BLOGS

I was lucky enough to bump into long-term friend Jim Shockey at the ATA show this year. I cant believe it was 15 years ago when I first stepped onto the SHOT Show floor, and was fortunate enough to meet Jim & his wife.  Jim was one of the few people who was willing to give me five minutes of his time while I pitched him on the Internet and how cool it is and that you could have you own website...blah, blah blah.  Honestly, I think Jim thought I was from Mars but he was polite enough to listen to me. When I finally shut up Jim's words were something along the lines of "I'm not really sure what you're talking about, but I want one!" Since that time we have created several different versions of his website through the years and are in the process of a new redesign for 2010 which will be the best yet! For those of you who have not watched Jim on TV or have purchased his videos, he is the REAL DEAL! Jim is as hardcore of a hunter as they get, he is very intelligent, and truly a great guy.

 
We're getting ready to rebuild Jim a new website which will have significantly more interactivity and a lot more video action so stay tuned and we'll make sure that will let you know what is the website is launched.

Two other websites we're very proud to have recently built are Lee & Tiffany Lakosky's website for their hit show The Crush and New Archery Products all-new website.  If you're ever in the need for website development services for your business  - hunting or otherwise - give us a call, we'd love to help you out.  You can learn more about our web development services and view our portfolio online at www.rhinogroup.com

From left to right - Marc Baird, Lee Lakosky, NAP President Andy Simo, Tiffany Lakosky, Todd Graf, and Justin Zarr

We are also excited to be working with a brand new TV show coming for this fall -The Legends of the Fall.  Here is a photo of the cast of the all new show. Mike & Bonnie McFerrin, Eric Hale, Chris Ward, Mark Luster & David Bogard.  We will be starting to build their website very shortly, and I'll make sure to post a link as soon as it's finished.

This past weekend I went out to one of my hunting spots to check a few trail cameras, inspect my food plots, and look for some early shed antlers.  Between my good friend Jim Carlson and I we picked up 3 fresh sheds, including a matched set to a buck that I have been hunting for the past two seasons. I have never seen this buck on hoof, but I sure do have plenty of trail camera photos of him! I'm really glad to see he made it through the season and I'm already looking forward to chasing him again next fall. 

 
My buddy Jim holding the first matched set of the season.

 
Here is a photo of Jim from several weeks ago when he shot this monster buck late in the season hunting over a food plot.

Just after Jim finished his photos, he went to start dragging the deer and off came the one of the antlers. Personally, I think he did it on purpose to make the inside spread larger! "Of course I'm kidding"

 
Here is a photo of the buck I called "Flyer" from this past October.  He doesn't have a lot of tine length, but he's got some great main beams and a lot of mass.

 
Here is another photo of him still alive on 12/22/2009

Here I am posing with Flyer's sheds and another shed that we picked up.  The smaller shed is off a buck I passed earlier in the season.

Looking back on my season I feel like I have really grown a lot over the past year or two when it comes to hunting. I don't feel the need to pull the trigger on every deer that walks by. This is the first year that I can think of where Justin actually shot more deer than I did - I'm kidding Justin. I feel like I have reached another pleateu in hunting where I would rather let them walk and really hunt for a specific deer or just wait longer until the monster steps out. Maybe I am just getting older or my buddy Alex Phillips has really got me convinced not to shoot smaller deer. Whatever's going on I am having the most fun ever - especially when it comes to planting food plots and giving back to wildlife. I highly recommend the giving back part to all hunters, as it is the least that we can do to help preserve the wildlife we all love so much.  Seeing deer pile into a food plot during harsh conditions and eat their hearts out on much need nutrition is really rewarding.

The photo above is a brassica field torn apart by deer looking for food.


My corn is still holding out, but it wont be long and it will be gone.


In just about every row of corn that I walked was pile after pile of deer droppings.


Here's a turnip that is just waiting for a deer to eat it. If you have not tried planting food plots or you are looking for more food plot advice check out www.foodplots.com for some great tips and general information on food plots.

I'm not sure why the older I get the years seem to fly by faster and faster. If i'm not thinking about preparing the properties for food plots, or hunting during the season the next thing that excites me the most is the ATA show each year. This show is where you get to see alot of industry friends, all the new bowhunting gear coming out for the upcoming season. Last year I was just to busy to switch out my bow but this year, I have already seen and have heard about some pretty cool items. The ATA does a fine job putting together this trade show and has done so for years, its very organized and attracts just about everyone in the bowhunting industry. The only two compaines that I know will not be here are Scent-lok and Mathews - which I don't know why?

Justin and I arrived here today and was invited to Outtech's Innovations Party - kind of a sneak peak to all of the Outtech's companies that they rep for. They really out did it this year, great appitizers, Bad Boy Buggies gave away a buggy and country music singer Craig Morgan put on one heck of a show.  I'm not a huge country music fan myself, but I had a good time at the party and could tell everyone else was too!

 

Were going to be busy tommorow seeing all of the new products, and we will be sharing what we find out right here on the site!

Bad Boy Buggies giving away a free buggy before the concert.



Angie Denny from Table Mountain Outfitters, Art Helin from New Archery Products, and our own Justin Zarr enjoying the pre-show festivities.  Justin is always good for an interesting photo!



I'm interested to find out what this "Invisible Hunter" is all about....

As far as the ending of my hunting season goes, I was able to harvest a late season doe and a good friend of mine Don Spolum harvested a nice 140 class while hunting during a cold front.  Hunting late season food sources before a cold front is a great way to connect on a late season buck, no doubt.  Congrats to Don on a great trophy, I'm glad I got to share the experience with him.

This is one happy ending to someone who has been getting his gear stolen. I sure enjoy reading the stories when the bad guy gets caught.

Here is the article from WAFB.com / Channel 9 - Louisiania's News.

I recently checked one of the trail cams I have over my mock scrape and found these great clips that I wanted to share with you.  First you'll see me coming in and freshening up my Mock Scrape with some Mrs. Doe Pee's doe urine, then you'll see a small love struck buck who is looking for love in all the wrong places.  He's not the biggest buck in the woods, but he sure does put on an impressive show for the camera.  You have to love the rut!

I knew when I found the head had been knocked off my target that I would have some cool trail camera videos, but I never expected this!

Sweet, sweet November is finally upon us!  If you're a crazy bowhunting nut like myself this is the time you live for, so make sure you're ready to go because the heat of the rut is right around the corner!

October ended on a high note for me, as I was able to film myself harvesting a beautiful Illinois buck that some of my neighbors had nicknamed "Tank".  The ironic part about this particular hunt is that the buck did nearly the exact same thing my 192" buck did last fall.  When you see the footage you'll see what I'm talking about!

Just like last year I was able to catch this buck coming out of his bedding area during daylight, no doubt going to check out some of the local does.  That's been the key to my October success lately.  Find where they're bedding and get them while they're still predictable, because you never know where they are going to end up once the rut hits.

You can tell by the body size on this Illinois brute why he earned the nickname "Tank"!  Justin and I gross scored him at just over 144 inches.

Tank is a buck that we knew well, with multiple trail camera photos of him being taken all summer and fall.  Proof yet again that they can be valuable tools to get a good inventory of the bucks living on your hunting property.  Tank was one of the most visible bucks in the area as you can tell by the photos below.

My shot was a little further back than I had wanted, but with the massive 1 1/2" cutting diameter of the NAP BloodRunner Tank only made it 175 yards before expiring.  It was a tough blood trail at times, but thanks to the help of my good friends Don and Glen Spolum we recovered Tank with relative ease.  Thanks for the help guys, I really appreciate it!

The NAP BloodRunner really did a number on this buck, which is why we were able to recover him within 200 yards from the shot.

We'll have the video posted right here on Bowhunting.com very shortly.  We're a little behind right now, been spending too much time in the treestand and not enough behind our computers!  I'll be sure to let you all know when it's posted.

As always, if you're looking for any last-minute gear before the rut really kicks into high gear check out our online shopping cart.  We've got over 14,000 bowhunting products so chances are we have what you're looking for!

Well guys, it's October 20th and we all know what that means!  The rut is just around the corner and those few precious weeks we wait for all year are almost upon us.  I hope you're all ready for what lays ahead of us!  Of course if you're looking to stock up on some last-minute gear in time for November remember we have over 14,000 bowhunting products in our online shopping cart so chances are we have what you need.

The past few weeks I've been spending quite a bit of time trying to learn my new properties and find out just how the deer are using the food plots I worked so hard on this summer.  I've seen a lot of deer movement during the daytime, which is very encouraging.   However, the bigger bucks seem to be laying pretty low still.  From what I've seen so far I've been able to readjust a few of my stands in preparation for the rut, which I'm hoping is going to really pay off with a nice buck.

Daytime action on opening day in one of my food plots.  Very encouraging!

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It's always nice to see your hard work pay off.

Last weekend I was able to harvest a nice doe on film, but unfortunately I didn't have a cameraman with me or my camera light so I didn't get any of the recovery on tape.  I put a perfect shot on her and my NAP BloodRunner really did a heck of a job.  She went down just out of sight and I was able to recover her without a problem.  If this had been a big buck I definitely would've worked a little harder on the footage, but I figured this would have to do for now.  I'll make sure I'm ready when primetime comes!  Check out the video below for the shot, and some really cool footage of a few bucks and does feeding in my brassica plot.

My mock scrape is really starting to see some action as well.  You may have read my post here on creating the scrape, and it sure didn't take long for the local bucks and does to find it and start using it.  I'm hoping a few of the big boys in the area start hitting it before too much longer so I can show you some of those photos.

Well, it's time to get back at it!  Good luck to everyone, and be sure to check out or online store if you need any last minute supplies!

Way back in the spring when I was first putting in my food plots you may remember a small soybean plot I put in at the top of a ridge.  It was in one of my early season treestand hanging videos in our video section.  Well throughout the course of the summer the beans were growing great, but the local deer population (a few does in particular) absolutely destroyed this plot and ate it down to almost nothing.  Being one of my first real food plots that I've planted I was amazed at just how much they ate and how much damage they did!  Knowing that this spot wasn't going to produce much for food come fall I decided to broadcast some brassicas into the bean field and see what happend.  I was pleasantly surprised when they came up and are growing quite well.

My broadcasted brassicas are really coming up quite well.  Much better than even I expected.

Additionally, I went back a week or two later and broadcast some winter wheat into the field as well.  Both the wheat and brassicas will generally germinate without too much soil cover so broadcasting is a pretty effective method for planting them.  It really helped me save this nice hunting plot, and produce enough food to still draw some deer in come October and November.

Broadcasting seed into a spring plot that didn't grow well or has been eaten out can save your hunting come late season.

After reading Justin's blog post about creating some mock scrapes I figured I'd give it a try as well, so I called up my friend Sam Collora at Mrs. Doe Pee for some advice.  Sam sent me some mock scrape scent to try out and I'm anxious to see how it's going to work.  Sam has an interesting method for preparing his mock scrapes which involves putting wax paper down underneath the soil to help hold the scent in and prevent it from leaching out when it rains.  I have to admit, it's a pretty good idea and Sam is an expert when it comes to how whitetails use scent to communicate.

Here are the instructions that Sam sent over.  Try them out if you're interested in creating a mock scrape of your own!

"We recommend you start early to mid August building continuous scrapes, so they will be open and active by September when the bucks rub out of velvet.  This is a very productive time for continuous scrapes.  The buck's hormone levels are peaking, shutting down antler production, telling the buck to shed their velvet.  This testosterone surge is also getting them started int eh sparing mode, figuring out their pecking order and establishing dominance.  This is the same time perdio their bachelor groups start breaking down.  They will soon be making their own scrapes, marking the territory they have claimed as their own.

Start your scrape with finding a location.  Tery to set the scrape in an ara that has a history of scrape activity or is conducive to deer movement.  Set it up where the prevelant autumn winds will be favorable.  Pick a spot with an overhanging limb (licking branch).  Be sure you can set up a treestand or ground blind near or on a travel route to or from the scrape. 

The spot I chose for my scrape didn't have a good overhanging limb, so I used some rope to tie a limb down that would work.  Then I clared my spot and started to dig my hole.

After locating your scrape site, start by clearing a 2 foot area clear of leaves, grass, and other debris.  In the center of teh scrape dig out a bowl shaped area 6 to 8 inches deep and approximately 12 inches across.  GBring along a piece of wax paper large enough to cover the hole.  Crumple the wax paper then straighten in back out and line the inside of the dirt bowl.  Then fill the liner back in with dirt.  This acts as a waterproof liner to hold the scent even if it rains.  Keep in mind this should all be done while wearing rubber boots and gloves if possible.  You want to leave as little human scent behind as you can.

Adding wax paper to your scrape helps keep the scent contained even if it rains.

Finish the scrape off by adding lure directly to the center of the scrape.  Use 1-2 ounces per application.  Repeat every 5-10 days depending on your circumstances.  If you keep your scrape active throughout the entire season, will will continue to draw bucks.  Good luck and good hunting!"

Finish it off with yoru favorite scrape scent and you're ready to go!

I spotted this doe while out creating my scrape.  She must've known it was still September because she didn't seem too worried about me!

Here's a few great scrape making products that you can try out if you're interested in starting your own mock scrapes.

Tinks Power Scrape Starter

Code Blue Scrape Mate

Active Scrape

Wow, I can't believe tomorrow is October 1st already!  First the Wisconsin archery season snuck up on me and already it's been nearly three weeks and now Illinois is going to open up.  Where does the time go??

Opening weekend in Wisconsin I headed up to my favorite hunting spot with Justin along to do some filming for me.  Between Justin and his cameraman Mike, myself, and staff member Josh Fletcher we're really working hard at documenting our season on film and putting up new videos every week.  We want to show you the good and the bad of our seasons, and all of the gear we use to help us be successful.  If you haven't already checked out our vidoes, including some great reviews on the bowhunting gear we sell, click here to take a look. 

That first weekend was hot, temperatures were in the 80's and Justin and I defintely weren't ready for that!  Our first morning was pretty exciting as we had a nice buck sneak up on our position but unfortunately due to the thick cover Justin wasn't able to get any footage of him.  Just being able to see a nice buck on that first sit really sets the tone for the season though. 

During the afternoon on Saturday we checked a bunch of trail cameras that I had set out in some of my best buck spots.  Much to my amazement, we didn't have many bucks to show for our efforts!  We had a lot of does, but not a lot of bucks.  It just goes to show what a big roll food plays in the location of these bucks early season.  With not a lot of food in these spots there just aren't any bucks right now.  But once mid-October hits and these bucks start checking out the resident doe groups they seem to magically appear out of nowhere.

One of the new cameras I'm currently testing out, the new Moultrie Game Spy i45.  So far I've been pretty impressed with the quality of this camera, and am looking forward to trying out the cellular feature that sends photos to a website so I can view them from home.  You can purchase these cameras in our online store by clicking here.

Our first evening hunt was extremely uncomfortable as we were directly in the sun and in full camo after trimming some shooting lanes we were HOT!  But we survived and saw a lot of deer, but once again didn't get any good footage of them due to the thick cover.

After hanging some new stands on Sunday afternoon we got back out that evening and sat over a bean field were all the action was at the previous day.  We certainly weren't disappointed and saw nearly 20 deer this evening, and Justin was able to get some really good footage of a nice 2 1/2 year old buck that came out in front of us.  I did have a shot at one doe that night, and believe me I wanted to put my new NAP Blood Runner to the test, but with the hot temperatures and a 3 hour drive home in front of us I elected to pass.  Although in hindsight I wish I would've taken the shot.  Oh well, that's hunting I guess!

The first of many videos documenting the 2009 season of the Bowhunting.com staff.

My next trip to Wisconsin was this past weekend and I had some more great encounters.  Without a cameraman I was filming myself and really trying to work out the bugs in my camera setup to make sure things are right for when it's crunch time.  I managed to get some great footage of a few small bucks sparring, and had another opportunity at a doe but with camera light fading I once again elected to pass her up.  I'm confident that when the time is right, and the camera is rolling, I'll be able to harvest a few deer later this fall.

A couple pieces of new gear I'm using for this fall that I've been really happy with is the new ScentBlocker Freak Nasty suit.  Both the jacket and the pants are very well built and have a LOT of pockets to organize all of my gear.  They're light enough to wear when it's warm out, and loose enough to layer under for some of these colder mornings we're having.  All in all, I really like this new suit and think it's pretty close to the perfect bowhunting gear.  Check it out at this link.

Justin walking back to the truck after our 1st morning's hunt.  He is also using the ScentBlocker Freak Nasty suit and really likes it. 

With the Illinois season opening tomorrow you can bet I'll be back in the woods shortly, so stay tuned for some more photos and new videos each week!

Geared up and ready to go, bring on October!

For those of you guys who have not met Dean Elbe from Treehopper, he is a phenomenal guy. Next time you are at a show, it is absolutely worth stopping by and seeing him. The product of his that most of you have seen is the Treehopper belt. This is a great system to be used when hanging stand sets and we highly recommend it. We always recommend using safety belts when hanging any tree stands.

Treehopper’s products are available here on the website. We have also recently built treehopper’s website at www.treehopperllc.com. Dean just emailed me a story and some photos from his Alberta hunt. Read below and enjoy his story!

Bowhunting in Alberta

We drove back to the area we had seen an unusual antelope the day before. His horns went forward on his head and then flared until they were almost parallel with the ground. He would not score well, but was really unique and I wanted to try and get him.

We found him right away, that proved to be the easy part. We made one stalk on him right away and got to within 100 yards before we popped the buck decoy up. He quickly rounded up his does and left, he wanted no part of a fight. We waited 5 minutes and decided to go back after him. This time we went with the buck decoy and 2 does. He only had 6 does with him so we thought he might want to add more and take them from the little buck decoy we had.

We knelt down about 150 yards from him. When I kneel down I ball my right hand into a fist and rest it on the ground for balance. I put it squarely on a small cactus. Dang that hurt. I yanked my fist up and had 2 cacti attached. One was easy to pull out the other I could not get off. I finally had to ask Troy to yank it out; he put gloves on and pulled it.

The buck had moved another 50 yards away so we hustled after him with me pulling cactus spines out of my knuckles with my teeth. We closed to 100 yards again, he had no idea we were there until the decoys popped up. Again he quickly lined up his does and bolted.

We decided to go find a more cooperative buck. Soon we glassed one and studied it and himmed and hawed about the size. I finally decided that if we were trying to talk ourselves in to catching him he was not big enough, so we headed out to look for a different one.

An hour later we saw two bucks together one dink and one NICE buck. They showed no real signs of rutting so we grabbed a doe decoy and got within 150 yards of him. We could not get any closer. We popped up the decoy and the big boy saw it instantly. It was not until the little guy came towards us that the big boy committed. He trotted in to 32 yards. I made the shot count. The G5 Striker did its job; he went 60 yards and piled up.

What a humbling experience. We have scored him over and over and had a P & Y measure on the phone walking us through it. He grosses 87 inches; I will never shoot a buck that big again wow what a rush. Decoying antelope is addicting.

That afternoon we set up a ground blind on the field we sat on the night before right next to a round hay bale that had a lot of deer around it the night before.

Dan won the coin flip so he took the ground blind and I a tree stand about 200 yards from him. At 6:30 six bucks walked to him, 5 year and a half olds and 150 inch 10 pointer. The 10 pointer winded him at 76 yards and bailed and took his posse with him.

Ten minutes later a nice 8 pointer walked 25 yards from him. Dan shot and hit him farther back than he wanted. We decided to leave him over night.

It took us over an hour to unravel the 100 yard blood trail this morning, blood was very scarce. We found him dead in his bed Dan hit liver and one lung. High fives all around!

It is supposed to break 100 tonight so it will be tough but we will wait to see wind direction and pick a stand.

I have to give my friend Jim Carlson a ton of credit for my food plot success this fall. He has coached me the entire way and I can't believe how great all of my plots are looking. I have already been dreaming of sitting over these plots when the time is right. I am totally convinced that it is going to attract more deer to my properties then ever. Here are some photos of how the plots look. Jim, thanks again for the help and letting me borrow your Great Plains no-till drill. What a great piece of equipment!

Key Points to remember for foodplot success!

1. You hear it time and time again - test the soil!  Having the proper pH level in your soil is critical for maximizing your plots.

2. Control the weeds to get the best tonage.  Round-Up ready corn and beans are great for this.

3. Timing , Timing, Timing - watch the weather and try to plant before it rains.

4. Plant different sources of food for different times of the year.  This provides you with different options to hunt over at different times of the season.

5. Buy good quality seed.  Don't spend all of your time working on food plots and put in low quality seed.  If you're going to do it, do it right!

6. Get yourself a copy of Farming for Wildlife, this magazine will get you pointed in the right direction as well.

Here I am preparing the no-till drill for planting my buck forage oats. I decided to do this last minute so the field that I am converting over to native grasses next spring would have some sort of food source for the deer this fall.

My corn is looking great as well. Thanks to Dave R. for the tips!

 

Here you can see my Brassicas are really starting to come in good.  I planted them the last week of August and with the recent rain and cool weather to retain soil moisture they shot up out of the ground in no time.

 

Back at home I've changed up a few things with my bow/arrow setup and I'm shooting dead on.  My new NAP BloodRunners are flying perfect.

Wisconsin opener is this weekend and you can bet I will be hanging from a tree somewhere with Justin! I have about 3 more loads of laundry to do so it's time to go.

Good Luck to all my Wisconsin friends!

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New Archery Products, a leading manufacturer of broadheads, arrowrests, vanes and other archery accessories, has recently announced its new BloodRunner Practice Head answering the demand of the hunter. Knowing hunters like to preserve their broadheads for the field, NAP engineered the BloodRunner Practice Head to perform with the same accuracy as the BloodRunner Broadheads.

The new BloodRunner Practice Head enables the hunter to use his Practice Head to sight in his bow and continue to practice for the hunting season, saving the broadheads for harvesting the animal. The BloodRunner is a hybrid design taking elements from a fixed blade broadhead as well as that of a mechanical head. The 1” cutting diameter provides excellent flight characteristics delivering field point accuracy. Upon impact, the BloodRunner deploys to an expanded 1.5 inch cutting diameter creating a massive blood trail. The unique ferrule design provides added strength with excellent penetration. The blade thickness is 0.036” with sharpness you come to expect from New Archery Products. The Practice Head imitates the same flight characteristics allowing the hunter to have confidence in his broadhead. The BloodRunner Practice Head comes packaged with two 100 grain Practice Heads for $19.99.

If you have already purchased a 3-pack of NAP BloodRunner Broadheads, email info@newarchery.com to receive a FREE BloodRunner Practice Head and all we require is that you pay $4.95 for shipping and handling

It’s been a while since my last, since January, when my son was diagnosed with an unusual condition called intracranial increased venous pressure. Over the last 6 months I have witnessed a lot of things, leading me to decide that my little 5 year old son is much stronger than I will ever be. After meeting literally 20 to 30 doctors, having over 20 MRIS, 20 CAT Scans and 3 brain surgeries my little man is doing much better.



Thank goodness for all the great doctors that I’ve met at Childrens Memorial Hospital; they’ve unquestionably been able to help my son and today he is doing great. With all the behind us I want to take this time to discuss some of the new equipment and new things that I’ve been working on at my hunting properties in the hope that I will have a successful year this fall.


With the purchase of a new Kasco no-till drill and a John Deere, in addition to my existing equipment, I was extremely excited about working and getting my food plots done this year. I’ve included many photos to support what the different food plots look like, as well as a really neat video to be able to see some of the results.

 

 

 

I’ve also been working a lot on tree plantings. I highly suggest not ever using the corrugated plastic around the base of your trees because as I found out, it’s nothing more than a rodent attractant. Ultimately what ends up happening is the rodents get in that nice sheltered area and gnaw away at your trees and eventually you end up finding out that your trees have died. I have since found a new product and have upgraded to a better protection device for trees. See my photos below.




Both the Rhino Group and Bowhunting.com have been working harder to do a better job leveraging video on all of our websites. We have been using both video and new technologies in our website development that we do for a variety of companies. If you'd like to see some of our current video product reviews click here.




Below you can see that I took down all of the deer in my office to remodel it. Seeing all the deer lined up made me realize that I sure have shot a few whitetail bucks in my time. And this is only about ¼ of the bucks that I have harvested.


Another thing I did while planting was to modify a sprayer to go behind my New Holland in order to incorporate a foamer so I had a better idea where my spray was being laid down. I had a lot of fun making those adjustments and I will soon have a post just on that alone. In the mean time here are a couple of photos of what the sprayer attachment looks like.

 

 

On November 6, a relative, Donna Viereck, called to tell us that she was driving to Canton, South Dakota and had seen a buck in the distance with his head down. It wasn't moving, and although she honked the car horn repeatedly, he wouldn't raise his head. 

She grabbed her binoculars and looked at him, and saw that the buck's horns were entangled with those of another one, which was dead. So she called us and asked if we wanted an adventure -- untangling the animals! Well, we went, pronto!!! I took my camera and we walked right up to them.

 

They were tangled in an old fence line just east of a golf course, where some railroad tracks had been. The live buck was on the high side, and the dead buck on the slope. The other buck had been dead for 2 or 3 days, we estimated.

Terry attempted to break a point off the dead buck's rack with his pliers, but couldn't.... He tried turning the dead buck's head but the other one just became more frightened and started backing up. 

The live buck had the bigger rack - a 5 x 6. The dead buck was bigger bodied and looked to be an older deer. It had more "stickers" on its rack.

 

The now scared buck eventually got out of the fence, and out in the open. Terry pulled an old post out of the fence line and used it to try and pry the racks loose, but it didn't work.

We finally decided to go to a friend's house in order to borrow his chainsaw, but then we thought something quieter would be better, and so got a hacksaw instead. Terry sawed the main beam on the dead buck and then other one was free!

The buck didn't realize this for probably 30 seconds or so. When he did, he started striking the dead buck in the face repeatedly.

 

He finally raised his head a little, and then a little more. He stood there with his head held high looking at both of us and we wondered if he were going to try charging us too! Then he turned and ran off rather wobbly. He went a short distance, lay down briefly, and then got up and took off in the direction of the Big Sioux River. 
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Terry and Sherry, thanks for the great story and photos, and for setting the big guy free! Maybe now one of our readers has the chance to meet up with him under better circumstances.

Photos by Terry and Sherry Bolding

Not much to say but this doe must have a fawn near by. This is why owning trail cameras can be so much fun.