Eventually, they ended up back near a group of mule deer they’d glassed earlier in the morning.
“There were just some mule deer does, a small 2-by-2, and then Mr. Corkscrew,” Jeff says. “I couldn’t tell what [his antlers looked like] at first and I just kept glassing him trying to get every angle I could.”
“I said ‘Hey, I know this is your hunt, and I want you to get your first deer, but this is a very unique buck,’” Jeff says. “And Zayden looked at me and said ‘Just shoot it, Dad. Just shoot it.’ So I took one shot and lunged him.”
The buck walked about 10 yards before laying back down. Jeff knew he was a legal buck, but still struggled to see exactly what the antlers looked like from a distance.
“I could see some pins and curls, but I couldn’t really tell what the other side looked like,” he says. “When we walked up to him, Zayden says ‘He looks like a corkscrew!’ So that’s what his name is.”
Jeff isn’t quite sure why the buck’s antlers look the way they do, although lungworm can cause corkscrew antlers in other deer species, such as red deer and whitetails. They pass through the respiratory and digestive systems of deer and other ungulates and don’t impact the health of the venison. Deer often don’t even exhibit symptoms.
The day carried on. Jeff harvested both does and tried to get Zayden set up on whitetail bucks multiple times before the deer would take off. But persistence paid off and Zayden eventually got to take his first shot on a 4×4 whitetail—with the same Remington Model 70 that his dad and older sister had taken their first big game animals with.
“Luck was on our side,” Jeff says. “The buck was standing out among some haybales. Zayden made a good shot, one shot to the chest, and dropped the buck.”
Jeff plans on getting European mounts of both skulls and donated some of the meat from the does to the Montana Veterans Meat Locker. His search for strange bucks will continue next season.
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“The people at the check station estimated that he was 5.5 years old,” Jeff says. “He looks quite healthy … but yeah, he is strange.”