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Concrete Statue Puts Smack-Down on Rutty Buck
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January 06, 2010
Concrete Statue Puts Smack-Down on Rutty Buck
By Scott Bestul
If you’ve ever hunted over a decoy, you know that a whitetail buck will attack inanimate objects that resemble other male deer. My cousin has had two different 3-D targets—left out in his yard overnight—thrashed by rutting bucks. But a whitetail in Viroqua, Wisconsin, learned the hard way that sometimes those impostor bucks will fight back.
One morning in early November, Mark Brye looked out from his rural home and noticed the elk sculpture that decorates his lawn was lying on its side. Laying 20 feet away was a very dead whitetail buck. Apparently the buck had wandered into the Brye yard during the night, spotted the “bull”, and mistook it for another rutting whitetail. The buck paid dearly for his courageous challenge, as the statue—which weighs 640 pounds—fell on the buck as he sparred with it. After getting body-slammed, the buck staggered off a few yards and died.
Brye and his wife Carol got the lawn ornament as a Christmas gift from their children four years ago. Brye is a devoted elk hunter and enjoys rising in the morning and looking out his window at the sculpture that reminds him of his western hunts. After seeing the dead buck and the tipped-over statue, Brye called a conservation warden to report the incident. The warden issued a tag to Brye that allowed him to keep the whitetail. The warden’s note on the tag read “lawn ornament fight-lost.”
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Comments (33)
I have seen this before, and it still doesn't surprise me. You have a very life-like deer statue in a backyard that is also very close to the woods. How can you not expect this to happen? Especially once the rut comes along, it is essentialy a decoy, is it not?
Nate
That really sucks for that deer. If only it could recognize a fake elk and stay away it would have lived.
Unless the buck was out of his home range and never ventured on the property you would think the buck would know about the statue and not treat it differently than a shrub, tree, deer stand, ....
dont forget about the testosterone factor
How does a whitetail buck get a 640 pound concrete elk to fall on him rather than away from him? And then get away? Might have been another buck involved.
Are we sure he was "fighting" the elk. Maybe he's just laying on the ground having a cigarette.
Ouch
Wait, so we've got a whitetail deer attempting to fight an elk here (albeit a concrete one)? I wonder if that really happens in the wild...
What a way to go, that sucks. dukkillr Ya I have seen a small elk and a good sized muley spar. Not very long though.
nice one buck hunter!
a sad story with two bright-sides: 1) a Wildlife Officer with a sense of humor, and 2) the good sense to leave the meat where it would be used.
has anyone seen rabbits breed? it's the same thing after the deed is done the male (buck) collapses to his side and nearly looses consciousness from his efforts
I bet a moose would have broke it.
That is crazy strong buck huh
i did a story on this for my class a very long time ago i believe it was back in early part of november, very late on getting to the story i think
hey at least the statue owner got some meat out of the deal besides just a broken up statue
that must have one heck of a fight to nock ofer a 640# cotcret elk i've heard of that before but never seen it ( would like to thow )
Oh my god! that is halarious! I have heard of deer attacking decoys but i have never heard of any ones dying from it.
Do they also do "Deerwin" Awards?
wow thats crazy, this may have convinced me to invest in a decoy
I wonder if it fell on him, or if he busted his skull or neck ramming it?
buckhunter,
LMAO, a + 1 for you sir...
“lawn ornament fight-lost.”
I wish I had that happened in my yard!!!
How did the concrete elk fall on the deer? But that sucks for the deer.
that just shows the power of a buck full of testosterone.
imagine what the people that have been attacked by one feel like
Saw this a little while back and thought it was pretty crazy.. amazing how hard they attack something..
Sounds like a great way to get some badly needed deer meat. Love the story also..
Buckhunter your a bad man. LOL that is a hilariously ridiculous comment.
+1 for buckhunter.
Yeah, testosterone makes you stupid.
I´ve seen somewhere an image of a moose trying to do a half scale buffalo statue. I mean, it is motionless, cold and hard as rock, you fool! what does it take?
60256, do you not realize that deer basically eat, poop, breed, and repeat ? You make it sound like it's the home owners fault for having a lawn ornament, and not the animal with very little train of thought other than the above mentioned.
anyone else on here have a 640 pound decoy?
I had a Big tom turkey try to fight one of my grandparents pink flamingoe lawn ornaments.
thought it was against the "law" To BAIT!
Actually, I live near Madison and saw this story in the paper... the paper didn't say anything about the elk falling on the deer, besides how could you prove that? What the article did say was that the deer's skull was shattered and the rack was dangling... what should be assumed happened what that the buck rammed the statue hard enough to knock it over and break his skull in several place but yet have enough left in the tank to crawl off as far as he did before expiring.
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Are we sure he was "fighting" the elk. Maybe he's just laying on the ground having a cigarette.
How does a whitetail buck get a 640 pound concrete elk to fall on him rather than away from him? And then get away? Might have been another buck involved.
I have seen this before, and it still doesn't surprise me. You have a very life-like deer statue in a backyard that is also very close to the woods. How can you not expect this to happen? Especially once the rut comes along, it is essentialy a decoy, is it not?
Nate
Unless the buck was out of his home range and never ventured on the property you would think the buck would know about the statue and not treat it differently than a shrub, tree, deer stand, ....
dont forget about the testosterone factor
Wait, so we've got a whitetail deer attempting to fight an elk here (albeit a concrete one)? I wonder if that really happens in the wild...
That is crazy strong buck huh
i did a story on this for my class a very long time ago i believe it was back in early part of november, very late on getting to the story i think
hey at least the statue owner got some meat out of the deal besides just a broken up statue
that must have one heck of a fight to nock ofer a 640# cotcret elk i've heard of that before but never seen it ( would like to thow )
Oh my god! that is halarious! I have heard of deer attacking decoys but i have never heard of any ones dying from it.
Do they also do "Deerwin" Awards?
I wonder if it fell on him, or if he busted his skull or neck ramming it?
buckhunter,
LMAO, a + 1 for you sir...
“lawn ornament fight-lost.”
I wish I had that happened in my yard!!!
How did the concrete elk fall on the deer? But that sucks for the deer.
that just shows the power of a buck full of testosterone.
imagine what the people that have been attacked by one feel like
Saw this a little while back and thought it was pretty crazy.. amazing how hard they attack something..
Sounds like a great way to get some badly needed deer meat. Love the story also..
I had a Big tom turkey try to fight one of my grandparents pink flamingoe lawn ornaments.
That really sucks for that deer. If only it could recognize a fake elk and stay away it would have lived.
Ouch
What a way to go, that sucks. dukkillr Ya I have seen a small elk and a good sized muley spar. Not very long though.
a sad story with two bright-sides: 1) a Wildlife Officer with a sense of humor, and 2) the good sense to leave the meat where it would be used.
I bet a moose would have broke it.
wow thats crazy, this may have convinced me to invest in a decoy
60256, do you not realize that deer basically eat, poop, breed, and repeat ? You make it sound like it's the home owners fault for having a lawn ornament, and not the animal with very little train of thought other than the above mentioned.
anyone else on here have a 640 pound decoy?
nice one buck hunter!
has anyone seen rabbits breed? it's the same thing after the deed is done the male (buck) collapses to his side and nearly looses consciousness from his efforts
Buckhunter your a bad man. LOL that is a hilariously ridiculous comment.
+1 for buckhunter.
Yeah, testosterone makes you stupid.
I´ve seen somewhere an image of a moose trying to do a half scale buffalo statue. I mean, it is motionless, cold and hard as rock, you fool! what does it take?
thought it was against the "law" To BAIT!
Actually, I live near Madison and saw this story in the paper... the paper didn't say anything about the elk falling on the deer, besides how could you prove that? What the article did say was that the deer's skull was shattered and the rack was dangling... what should be assumed happened what that the buck rammed the statue hard enough to knock it over and break his skull in several place but yet have enough left in the tank to crawl off as far as he did before expiring.
Post a Comment