A group of men rescued a deer that was tangled in the antlers of a dead rival stuck in a river.

Reed Hueter, 24, was with a group of friends along the Yellowstone River in Montana, USA, on October 25 when they spotted the troubled animals.

Agonising footage shows the friends lasso the living whitetail buck to stop it thrashing through the water while Trey McDaniel, 29, grabbed a saw.

After quickly cutting through one side of the twisted antlers, the buck was able to pull free and went galloped away to the riverbank.

Reed said: “This was a breath-taking encounter. We’ve all been outdoorsman and conservationists for our whole lives and never seen anything like this.

“We found the deer entangled while headed to a tree stand. they were locked up from fighting and rutting.

“I figured the deer were at least locked up for two to three days considering the dead buck had been half eaten from birds.

“We used a saw to cut it free and it didn’t take much because the horns flexed and the living buck was able to be free.

“It took three minutes to lasso the bucks and be able to overpower the living deer until he submitted to us and gave us a chance to free him.”