The Top 5 Deer and Deer Hunting Stories of 2015
Daniel Xu 12.18.15
The year is about to come to a close. As we prepare to welcome 2016, here is a list of the top five deer stories covered on OutdoorHub over the past 12 months. There may not have been any unicorn deer or marijuana-eating bucks, but it was still an eventful year for our favorite animal nonetheless.
1. The 300-inch Ohio Buck in consideration for the next Pope and Young No. 2
Can you imagine bagging a wild deer so large that other hunters simply refuse to believe you, even when you have the pictures to back it up? That’s exactly what happened to Dan Coffman, who harvested this massive wild deer near Junction City back in October. With a rough score of 300 and 5/8 inches gross, it is expected to be the largest deer ever taken on film.
If those measurements are accurate, then Coffman’s buck could also have a shot at becoming number two on Pope and Young’s top 10 list for all time non-typical deer harvested by a bow and arrow. Pope and Young’s current world record non-typical is a buck harvested by Michael Beatty in Greene County, Ohio in 2000. That deer measured 294 inches net.
“Congratulations to The Break Team Hunter, Dan Coffman, on his world class whitetail!!! Yes, it is 100% free range,” wrote The Break TV on Facebook.
The Coffman buck is slated to appear at the 2016 Archery Trade Association Show in Louisville next January.
You can read the original article here.
2. 14-year-old Texas hunter takes super rare black whitetail
Think albinos and piebalds are rare? Then get take a gander at this all-black whitetail buck harvested in Texas. 14-year-old Brooke Bateman of Dallas bagged this buck while hunting with her father in Stephens County in November. According to The Dallas Morning News, at first the pair mistook the deer for an Angus calf. Upon closer inspection, the Batemans realized they were looking at a deer so rare that many hunters never even heard of it, much less seen one.
“It was nerve-racking, but I knew I could do it,” Brooke told the paper. “At first I was so excited that I couldn’t pull the trigger. Dad helped me calm down with deep breaths. I found the deer in the scope again, took a deep breath and shot. The deer fell over backwards. It was awesome. I love hunting with my dad.”
The black color is caused by a rare condition called melanism. It occurs more in central Texas than anywhere else in the world, but only about one hunter a year is able to bag a black deer. Not bad for this teen hunter’s first buck.
Read the original story here.
3. Legendary Oregon mule deer “Buck Norris” found dead
“Buck Norris” may not have half-a-dozen black belts and a starring role in an acclaimed television series, but to the hunters in central Oregon, he was a legend. The wild 10-year-old buck with the massive rack was popular with local shed hunters and wildlife watchers, making his home near the Nosler manufacturing plant in Bend. For years, Buck Norris evaded hunters, but in the end succumbed to a vehicle accident in June.
“ODFW staff in the Bend area and statewide are saddened by the loss,” Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife spokesperson Michelle Dennehy said in a statement. “Unfortunately, vehicle-wildlife collisions happen throughout Oregon and are more common around high density areas and in the Bend/central Oregon area in particular. While Buck Norris’ habit of staying within Bend city limits helped protect him to an older age, it finally put him at risk.”
Read the original story here. A video of Buck Norris can be seen below:
4. First-ever Wisconsin mule deer taken by hunter
A mule deer in Wisconsin? Now we’ve seen it all. State wildlife officials confirmed in November that a hunter did indeed harvest a wild mule deer.
“This is a real rare case,” said Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’s big game section chief Bob Nack. “They’re not native and we don’t have a breeding population at all. We have had reports in the past mostly from captive situations where deer have escaped, but this is a real rare occurrence.”
The lucky hunter was Randy Haines, who took the buck near Amery with a bow and arrow. Since mule deer are not protected in Wisconsin and it was deer season, Nack said there was absolutely nothing wrong with the harvest. It is not known exactly where the deer came from.
Read the original story here.
5. Bear caught on video attacking deer in Colorado lawn
Warning: this video may be considered graphic by some.
Sometimes nature does home delivery. This video was captured by a flabbergasted homeowner as a bear dragged down and mauled a deer in his very backyard, reportedly somewhere in Colorado.
The deercould do little more than bleat in panic as the bear bit it in the back of the neck and went in for the kill. The video cuts off shortly before we see the end of the struggle, but the homeowner said he ended up chasing the bear off the property with a shotgun—possibly because nobody wants a bear having lunch on their lawn and then loitering around afterwards. The fate of the deer is unknown.
Mother nature at its finest!
Posted by J.d. Gieck on Sunday, June 7, 2015
