A Buck With Good Potential. And A Buck That Has Me Wondering What’s Up?
Robert Hoague
Normally, the bucks in this area keep their antlers until March. However, a couple of days ago as daylight was fading and the inside of the woods was already quite dark, I saw a buck that’s antlers didn’t look right. It was walking parallel to me and I could see one long antler on the side toward me, but I did not see a second one. It might have been because he has shed an antler or it could be that I was unable to see it because of the low light. This morning I saw that buck again and got some pictures before he moved on.
But let’s back up to the first deer sighting of the morning. A nice buck, a couple of inches outside his ears, and generally looking good. I took his picture as he walked along.
The buck continued toward the strip of woods in front of me. He is right at the stage where he will really blow up antler wise; with wider, heavier, and longer tines.
He took a left in the dried grass and weeds adjacent to the treeline. This actually brought him in closer to me and I got a better look at his rack. He’s a 9-point and he has a tic on his left main beam that could be a busted point. His tines slant in and so do his brow tines. Walking away, his right brow tine is longer than the one on the left. That just might be enough information about his antlers to recognize him when he has his next set of antlers later in the year. It looks like he has moved into my area and I’m good with that. In July 2017 I will be looking for him and his developing new rack.
When he went out of my view and I got out my coffee thermos and the hot coffee tasted good. This is a luxury that I don’t allow myself to have during deer season, but it hit the spot this morning. (And it ain’t that bad during turkey season either.)
Wait! What’s that?
I set down the thermos and stared at the deer I saw. It was a buck and appeared to only have one antler.
I took more pictures. Sometimes, as he moved his head around, I thought there might be a white streak where the left main beam would be. But I couldn’t tell for certain.
He moved and his tail came up. But he wasn’t on alert, he was, well, you know what.
Then he walked straight into the woods. and disappeared.
I’m left wondering; did he shed his left antler, or did it get broken off? Right now I’m uncertain. But maybe he will be back. And just to up my odds of finding out I put a game-camera close to where he was today, before I came back to the house.
