Video doesn’t tell the whole story of the irate buck

OKLAHOMA CITY, Ok. — The footage was compelling. A video landed in my in-box featuring two fellows trying to run off a giant buck. The video seemed to indicate one of the guys had killed a big buck and a second buck showed up wanting to fight. The video showed him charging the two as they wielded cameras in what appeared to be a staged incident.

However, as radio legend Paul Harvey used to quip, here’s the “rest of the story.”

A few days later, I received a longer video of the same incident which is posted at the top of this story. The professional grade video featured Chad Yousey and his camera man Joey King. Yousey is the owner of Bow Madness LLC in Oklahoma City.  The outfit is a couple of guys who enjoy shooting video of their hunts and developed a company to sell footage to larger corporations for promotional work. Yousey recently sold a nice piece of video to Realtree.

The day of the incident King shot a smaller buck they noticed on a small piece of property they recently leased within the Oklahoma City city limits. You can hear the traffic of Interstate 35 in the background of the video. As he searched for the buck he shot, King came upon the scene depicted in the opening of the video.  An older buck lies dead on the ground and a younger buck stood with its antlers ensnared with those of the dead buck.

“He was pretty much just dragging that dead buck around this cedar thicket we were hunting,” Yousey said. “We got all the camera gear set up and a lot of people thought it was staged, but we just had time to set it all up because he couldn’t go anywhere. That’s why it looked so good.”

Once their camera setup was established, Yousey straddled the dead buck and attempted to untangle the mass of antlers.  The video showed it was no easy feat.

“I thought he was a lot more worn out than what he was,” Yousey said. “I literally chipped a quarter inch off his G-2 when I was hammering on it with my fist.  It was in a jam, there wasn’t much give at all.”

Yousey brought along two hack saws thinking he might have to cut one of the dead deer’s antlers, but after several hard punches the surviving buck was free. However he didn’t leave.

Yousey and King attempt to run him off, but he stood his ground. At one point, Yousey took a phone call and explained his situation to the caller.  Turned out, it was his fiance inquiring why he was late for their lunch date.

“She thought I had made up the story,” he laughed. “That’s why I left that phone call in the video to prove I wasn’t making this up. She said when she watched the video she thought I was full of crap that day.”

The video ends with the buck charging at both men who narrowly escaped injury. But Yousey said where the YouTube video ends isn’t the actual end of the story.

“That internet video is just a teaser,” he said. “We actually have 22 more minutes of footage and we both ended up getting gored at the end of it.”

Yousey said they gutted the dead buck with the other one lurking less than 15 feet away. It still refused to leave.

“It was nerve wracking,” Yousey said. “I”m thinking what’s this sucker going to do next?”

They dragged the older deer to the truck and the surviving buck continued to follow, drawing ever nearer.   Yousey, grew increasingly concerned and finally had enough.  He unpacked his camera to continue documenting the story.

“I no more than hit ‘record’ and stomped my foot and yelled, ‘GO ON!’ real loud,” he said. “As soon as I stomped my foot, he bum rushed us again.”

Yousey and King turned to flee, but fell down. The buck nailed Yousey in the back of the leg leaving an eight inch bruise. King took an antler to the back, leaving a circular bruise. Fortunately, their injuries were minor.

“After that he took two big leaps and he went 40 or 50 yards away,” said Yousey. “Then he just kind of walked off as if to say, ‘Don’t come back down in this cedar thicket.’  It was totally wild.”

To complete the story, the hunters found the original buck they were seeking and tagged it. They reported the incident to the Oklahoma DNR and received a tag for the dead deer and both were butchered.  They’ll mount the claimed deer with quite a story to share and a video to back up the tale.







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