Bucks fighting in december?

[milo1346]

I drove up in the cemetary by my home on saturday, the opening day of gun season, and theres a lot of woods up there, and i saw 8 deer up in the soybean field , so i watched them for a couple minutes, 6 does and 2 bucks. All of the sudden the 2 bucks started clashing antlers for about 25 seconds then the smaller buck jumped in the air and ran about 10 ft then started grazing again, then he came back for more and did the same thing. How come the bucks would still be fighting at this time of year? Also that is a very cool thing to see i have never seen that before.

 

[Ghost]

Two mature bucks coming across the same doe in heat may not be good, especially if their pecking order had not been clearly established before.

Two younger bucks may have just been "playing" as I witnessed Saturday as well. Two year and half olds were smacking heads for about 3 minutes.

 

[kansasbowhunter]

Last year in early February I videoed a 170" 10 pointer that was bedded down with a small 8 pointer. After 10 minutes they both stood up and stretched and then started sparing lightly.... I about chit my pants, I was hoping and praying that they would knock off their anters.... No such luck, however, exactly 4 days later the big one lost his antlers and I was able to find both of them....

Mark...

 

[smokepole]

I shot a 140" ten that was fighting with another on on Saturday afternoon. There were 9 does and 2 bucks in the group. None of the deer scattered after the shot and I realized I should have shot the other one as it was probably about 20" bigger. The one I shot won the fight and had a much bigger body, so maybe I made the right decision.