so here is why i asked;
last week, having a day off, i decided to scout an area for yote tracks, i grabbed my bow, just in case since i still have my tag, and the tag soup is not my forte, and off i went. I walked this track in the woods, and after awhile a buck tracks fallow the same path, after a while my path turned west while buck's tracks went straight. It was close to an area where a fellow hunter scored a nice pointer on Thanksgivings so I decided to fallow the big buck tracks just for a bit and see which way he went. The tracks were fallowing along a farmers field that was posted No Hunting/Trespassing. no more then 30-40 m since i passed my turn, i've noticed another buck's track, cutting across my quarry. not making much of it i just stepped over them when i noticed a faint faint droplets of blood in the snow.
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it was actually less then what you see in the pic. since fallowing the tracks into farmers field was out, due to it being posted, i decided to go and see where did the deer got injured. not more then 5-10m down the track, into the trees, the blood splatter doubled. there was no human footprints in the snow, so i knew no one was tracking this guy. shame.
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i keep at it when i come to another trail in the woods, the blood splatter increased with each step. I looked to the right and i see a whole area trotted all over.
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here it is in black and white, little better to see the extend of disturbed snow
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my quary's tracks were heading from there, so i stepped right in the middle of it, thinking it was just a deers feeding on acorns that i came accross, just to find this
im not sure if the bucks would fight over resources, but the snow was fresh from a night before. few days later i found another area that would suggest bucks sparring but this time without one of combatants ending with a bloody nose.
the area in question is about 20 min drive from Barrie, Ontario.