You Never Know What You’ll Find in the Woods
If you spend enough time in the woods, you are bound to see some things that stick with you. Sometimes it is something incredible. Sometimes it is something that just reminds you how tough nature really is.
This is one of those stories.
Walking a Hack and Squirt Area
A while back, I was walking through a section of timber that had been "hack and squirted". If you are not familiar with that term, hack and squirt is a method used to kill unwanted trees or brush in a timber stand.
Instead of bringing heavy equipment into the woods, the trees are treated by hand. Small cuts are made in the tree and herbicide is applied. It allows land managers to thin out unwanted species without damaging the ground or the surrounding trees.
It is a very effective way to improve habitat and create bedding areas for deer. If you enjoy reading more stories and hunting insights like this, you can find them on the Houndstooth Blog.
I was walking through one of these treated areas just checking things out.
A Buck That Made the Area Home
While I was walking, I came across a buck laying on the ground. At first glance, it looked like he had simply bedded down in the area.
But something did not look right.
The deer was pinned to the ground by a tree that had fallen. At first I thought maybe coyotes had pulled him under the tree after he died. That seemed like the only thing that made sense.
But when I looked closer, that was not the case at all.
The tree had actually fallen on him while he was laying there.
A Tough Break in the Woods
I tried to move him just to see if he had been dragged under the tree somehow. There was no way. I could not even pull his rib cage anywhere close to under it.
That is when it hit me. This buck had likely bedded down beside that tree and it fell on him, pinning him to the ground.
I have seen some wild things in the woods over the years, but I had never seen a perfectly healthy deer die that way.
Mother Nature is tough. A deer goes through a lot just to make it to maturity. Predators, weather, hunting pressure, disease. There are a lot of things working against them every single year.
This buck had obviously made it through all of that.
It is a shame it ended the way it did for him. I know plenty of hunters who would have been proud to take a deer like that.
But that is the woods. Sometimes things happen that remind you just how unforgiving nature can be.
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