Bucks amok: Sunburst ranch family untangles deer (includes video)

By MICHAEL BABCOCK • Tribune Outdoor Editor • December 4, 2008

The chores at the neighbors’ ranch went way beyond the usual last Friday for the Walleweins of north Toole County. The family had to gang up to separate two trophy whitetail bucks that had locked horns while fighting during the rut.

The Walleweins farm and ranch near Sunburst and when neighbors Robert and Dana Pace took a short vacation, the Walleweins agreed to do the Paces’ daily chores.

“I sent my son Lance over to do chores and right away he came back,” said Mike Wallewein. “He said two deer were locked up in the corral right by the barn so we all piled in and took off.”

Wallewein, his son, Lance; daughters, Jesse and Jamie; and Jamie’s friend Steve Smith, went to help the deer.

“The deer had been at it for awhile,” Mike Wallewein said. “They had been going through barbed wire fences and there was a lot of blood on their legs. When we got there they were still in the corral and were lying down. They were just whipped but when we got there they jumped up and away they went through another fence.

“We hazed them into a hedgerow of caragana and they crashed back and forth through the trees,” Wallewein said. “Then they tripped up and threw themselves down and that is when we jumped on them. One got up and we had to throw him back down.”

One deer’s antler had pierced the other’s tongue and had gone through the lower jaw while the other’s had pierced the first deer’s face under the eye.

“Those horns locked up tighter than if they had grown that way. We struggled for awhile and the only way I could get them apart was spreading the two and getting the one out of the mouth and over nose. The other side, I could see, was going to come unlocked fairly easily.”

Jesse and Lance sat on one deer while Mike Wallewein sat on the other. He told his kids to get ready to jump when he got the deer undone.

“I undone them. The one with the horn through its mouth took off. I was sitting on the other one and I jumped up but it just lay there. It was so winded. It gave me a chance to count the points. I rolled it over with my foot and then it jumped up and took off.”

Jamie Wallewein, who works and lives in Cody, Wyo., was home for the holiday and she photographed the ordeal.

“I took pictures the whole time,” she said. “It was pretty crazy. I have never been that close to any deer before in my life. It was amazing how fast they were moving. My dad said it took all his might to pry them loose. It was pretty neat.”

The deer — one a six-by-four and the other a five-by-five — appeared to have survived the ordeal although they were fairly roughed up.

“I am pretty sure they are sore but they got away and they will be there next year,” Wallewein said. “I don’t hunt but it was just violent the way they fought each other. They were still able to move pretty fast and we had trouble keeping up with them.

“The adrenaline was running pretty hard for awhile but we were pretty winded. It is not something I have ever seen. I am sure it happens but nobody sees it or is able to help them. I figured they would die that way.”