The whitetail rut is North American deer hunters' favorite time of the year for a slew of reasons, many of which are advantageous to hunting strategy, and many that benefit the curious spectator in each of us. During this glorious time, bucks begin displaying far more aggression toward one another in an effort to win over suitable does by dominating their opponents. This compulsive behavior leaves bucks vulnerable, as their guards are lowered in regards to hunters and heightened to their antlered foes, but it also makes for some incredible shows should you sit in the right place at the right time. We see a hunter get a taste of both sides of that figurative coin in the following video from one of the YouTube's most popular hunting channels, The Hunting Public, when Ted Miller closes in on a monster Iowa buck who's earned the nickname "The Shed Dog Buck."
Ted decides to try using a decoy setup during the state's early muzzleloader season and it ends up working to perfection. His target buck spots the decoy and annihilates it moments before Ted squeezes the trigger to bring this monster down.
It really doesn't get much more exciting than that. This buck was not happy to see that decoy and took out his frustrations on it in a most violent fashion. That would get any hunter's blood pumping. The fact that this buck was an absolute giant just added to the fun of this hunt. Ted was lucky that 8-pointer didn't destroy the decoy first!
As if the hunt itself was not exciting enough, the little extra bit of drama when he had a hard time finding blood was just icing on the cake of this hunt. It probably made the short recovery even sweeter. This video just goes to show that using a decoy for deer can be an effective method of hunting when conditions are right, and the bucks are looking to pick fights with rivals. This big boy thoroughly thrashed his "rival!"
His line near the end: "Bucks like this, they don't come around too often," is something of an understatement. We cannot imagine harvesting a buck of this caliber once, let alone twice! What an awesome deer and a great hunting video. Congrats Ted, on your monster buck from all of us here at Wide Open Spaces!
For more outdoor content from Travis Smola, be sure to follow him on Twitter and check out his Geocaching and Outdoors with Travis YouTube channels.
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