South Dakota Hunter Tags Whitetail Buck with Gorgeous Moose-Like Paddle

Final summer time, Brent Wiesenburger of Aberdeen, South Dakota began getting path cam photographs of a really uncommon deer—a buck with half of its antlers melded right into a hardened paddle as an alternative of the everyday factors of a whitetail buck.

Wiesenburger manages the meals plots and hunts on personal property in north-central South Dakota, about 80 miles from residence. He spent all of archery season pursuing the unusual buck with nothing to point out for it.

“I had in all probability 8 shut encounters with him however was by no means in a position to get a shot on him,” he tells Discipline & Stream. “We’ve had an incredible quantity of rain, and all of the meals plots are tall. He was inside vary, however I may by no means shoot due to the duvet of the meals plots.”

In the meantime, Wiesenburger, who usually tells his buddies concerning the deer he’s chasing, was uncharacteristically tight-lipped, solely letting slip that he’d discovered a “particular deer” however that it wouldn’t “rating properly.”

Wiesenburger additionally tried to puzzle out why the deer’s antlers had shaped in such a novel means. “There are some photographs of his chest displaying a giant tumor he carried all summer time lengthy. Then it blew up, and you could possibly see it draining,” he says. “I don’t know for certain if that contributed to the antler development or not.”

On Saturday, November 18, rifle season opened in his area. “I went and sat in a floor dug-out blind at a pasture the buck had been utilizing for water,” says Wiesenburger. “I acquired chilly and moved over to one in all my everlasting buildings, clicked the heater on, and a pair minutes later, he confirmed up. He got here in to about 100 yards, then it was throughout. I used to be shaking like a leaf.”

Wiesenburger says the buck fell in such a means that it’s paddle-like antler was sticking up within the air; the opposite usually developed antler fell towards the bottom. Wiesenburger says it’s hands-down essentially the most distinctive deer he’s ever hunted.

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“It was surreal figuring out the hunt was over,” he says. “I’m 52 years previous and have numerous trophy bucks for our space, however strolling as much as this factor, I noticed it was my true trophy. I’ve by no means seen something prefer it.”