Let’s get our heads together and think about it.

[Native Hunter]

 

[Mennoniteman]

That's a great one of a kind picture for sure. In the course of viewing several hundred thousand game cam pics I thought I had seen it all, but I can't recall ever seeing a three way sparring contest before?
Often when two bucks are sparring and fighting a third will be standing off to the side and watching, but I don't recall really seeing one trying to join in while the first two are in progress.
Most often it appears that the other bucks on the scene are on a different level in the pecking order and are either junior bucks that don't want to get involved because they've been whupped already, or senior bucks who are too snobby to lower themselves down to that level of competition. Have you ever seen this three way sparring before?

 

[Native Hunter]

That's a great one of a kind picture for sure. In the course of viewing several hundred thousand game cam pics I thought I had seen it all, but I can't recall ever seeing a three way sparring contest before?
Often when two bucks are sparring and fighting a third will be standing off to the side and watching, but I don't recall really seeing one trying to join in while the first two are in progress.
Most often it appears that the other bucks on the scene are on a different level in the pecking order and are either junior bucks that don't want to get involved because they've been whupped already, or senior bucks who are too snobby to lower themselves down to that level of competition. Have you ever seen this three way sparring before?

I don't recall seeing this before either. I thought it was an unusual picture and figured several of you would enjoy seeing it.

One thing that stood out to me this year was the intense fighting I had on cameras in the second rut and even toward the end of the second rut. It was very unusual for me to see this. A good example is this pic below where two of the older deer were locking horns out in an open food plot in daylight. I didn't see any other pics that would lead me to believe they were fighting for any nearby doe at the time.

 

[Mennoniteman]

In my observation, the younger bucks are sparring for the fun of it almost every evening all fall, but the old boys rarely get into it, and when they do, it's a real fight to determine who the dominant buck is. It's rare around our areas to see an older buck sparring for the fun of it.

 

[Native Hunter]

Same here. I guess our second rut was above average this time.