Forum | Why we shoot deer in the wild...

Well, you certainly won't forget spreaders more than once, will you? 

If my buck would have been wearing a PFD, my head would be on HIS wall!!! 

Now as to retreiving lures from a pike's mouth?  I learned a long time ago how to handle those dudes.  Although there was a fair amount of blood involved with those lessons too.  I have also discovered jaw spreaders for toothy critters…

Yeah, I've had a "close experience" with a deer myself. 

Years ago (when I was younger and foolisher), I went bowhunting.  Just before dark, a nice 8 point buck showed up and from his stance, begged me to shoot him.  So I did!  Unfortunately, my shot was a little high and a little too far back.

I got my friend Gil out of his treestand and we discussed the buck as we walked back to the truck as the snow fell from the sky.  Gil had seen the buck cross just out of range in front of him, and agreed with me that by the time we got to the truck, peeled out of our heavy clothes and had a cup of coffee, the buck would have laid down and died.  So that's what we did.

We picked up the trail of the "dead" buck in front of Gil's stand and followed it into a marsh where we found a bed with a huge amount of blood in it.  Following the blood trail, we continued to track the buck, confident in our ability to retrieve it. 

Four hours later, we were still on the trail of the buck.  We had to find the deer that night as the gun season was opening up on the following morning, which would bring approximately 600,000 hunters into Wisconsin's woods, and one of them would find and tag MY buck.  We couldn't let that happen, so rather than leaving it overnight, we pressed on.  Besides, it was still snowing and we'd lose the trail…

By now, it was past 9:00 at night, the snow was falling heavily, and we followed the deer into a swamp.  Breaking ice as we slogged through the knee deep water (with ankle high boots), we continued to dog the deer.

Finally we found the buck, lying on a deer trail, antlers tangled in the tall grass on both sides.  I had him!  Well, I thought I did as we walked up.  The buck picked up his head and swiveled it around to glare at us.  It's a good thing looks don't kill or we'd both have been struck down that night!

Gil told me that the deer couldn't possibly last much longer with the amount of blood he'd lost, so figured that if we just shut off the flashlights and let the buck calm down, he'd slip into unconsciousness and death.  So that's what we did.

I thought this particular patch of swamp looked familiar and the more I thought about it, I was sure of where we were, and it wasn't good.  We were less than 50 yards from the property line of a guy that HATED deer hunting and all deer hunters.  We knew from experience trailing other deer that he would not give permission to track onto his property, and if we were caught there, he'd prosecute for tresspassing.  The buck had to die right there!

Gil finally broke the silence when after about 20 minutes of frigid waiting said, "I think I'll go get your bow Steve" and I agreed that it would probably hasten the process.  So off Gil went.  As I stood there in the dark, water to my knees, snow piling up on my shoulders, I could hear the buck's wheezing breath and I could also hear him attempting to get up!  I flipped on the light and watched as the buck struggled to get his feet underneath him, but failing.  However, each time he tried, he came a little closer to success!  And I knew if he got up, he was capable of making the 50 yards onto posted property, the buck had to die right there…

I carried a small pocket knife for field dressing duties and I knew the blade wasn't long enough to reach the buck's heart, and I had already decided that he was going to be mounted and on my wall, so cutting his throat was out, and I thought that if I waiting too much longer, he was going to get up and run out of my life, so I had to do something.  But what?

Finally, it came to me.  I removed my daypack and set it on a clump of marsh grass, out of the water.  Creeping as silently as possible, I approached the buck, steeled my nerves and leapt!  Right onto the buck's back I sprang and quickly grabbed his antlers, forcing his head under water.

Well, that was quite possibly the dumbest thing I'd ever done!  I couldn't believe the sheer power that rippled through the buck as he fought back.  At the time I weighed about 190 pounds and was in great shape.  I was kneeling on his neck, right behind his head and forcing every ounce of weight in my body to hold his head under water.  And I was failing! 

The buck thrashed, lifting me high in the air as I desperately held onto him.  I squared my weight on him again, forcing his head down.  Again I was tossed about like I weighed nothing!  I don't know how long this went on, but it seemed like an eternity, although it was probably only about two or three minutes.

Finally, he started to weaken and I was able to control the buck.  Gradually his struggles lessened and when he was still for a couple minutes, with me holding on like a woodtick, I realized that it was over, I had my buck!

I raised from the water and was wringing out my soaked hooded sweatshirt when I heard a voice in the darkness ring out, "Is he dead yet??"  Gil came into the clearing and flipped on his flashlight, took one look at me and asked, "Oh no, you didn't?"

So if you ever come to Whitlock Tennessee, and you're in my Man Cave, you'll know the story of the mounted buck on the wall….. 

A friend sent me this in an email.  I thought it was just too darned good to not pass along..

I had this idea that I could rope a deer, put it in a stall, feed it up on corn for a couple of weeks, then kill it and eat it. The first step in this adventure was getting a deer. I figured that, since they congregate at my cattle feeder and do not seem to have much fear of me when we are there (a bold one will sometimes come right up and sniff at the bags of feed while I am in the back of the truck not 4 feet away), it should not be difficult to rope one, get up to it and toss a bag over its head (to calm it down) then hog tie it and transport it home.  

I filled the cattle feeder then hid down at the end with my rope. The cattle, having seen the roping thing before, stayed well back. They were not having any of it. After about   20 minutes , my deer showed up– 3 of them. I picked out a likely looking one, stepped out from the end of the feeder, and threw my rope. The deer just stood there and stared at me. I wrapped the rope around my waist and twisted the end so I would have a good hold.  

The deer still just stood and stared at me, but you could tell it was mildly concerned about the whole rope situation. I took a step towards it, it took a step away. I put a little tension on the rope .., and then received an education. The first thing that I learned is that, while a deer may just stand there looking at you funny while you rope it, they are spurred to action when you start pulling on that rope.  

That deer EXPLODED. The second thing I learned is that pound for pound, a deer is a LOT stronger than a cow or a colt. A cow or a colt in that weight range I could fight down with a rope and with some dignity. A deer– no chance.  

That thing ran and bucked and twisted and pulled. There was no controlling it and certainly no getting close to it. As it jerked me off my feet and started dragging me across the ground, it occurred to me that having a deer on a rope was not nearly as good an idea as I had originally imagined. The only upside is that they do not have as much stamina as many other animals.  

A brief 10 minutes later, it was tired and not nearly as quick to jerk me off my feet and drag me when I managed to get up. It took me a few minutes to realize this, since I was mostly blinded by the blood flowing out of the big gash in my head. At that point, I had lost my taste for corn-fed venison. I just wanted to get that devil creature off the end of that rope.  

I figured if I just let it go with the rope hanging around its neck, it would likely die slow and painfully somewhere. At the time, there was no love at all between me and that deer. At that moment, I hated the thing, and I would venture a guess that the feeling was mutual.  
Despite the gash in my head and the several large knots where I had cleverly arrested the deer's momentum by bracing my head against various large rocks as it dragged me across the ground, I could still think clearly enough to recognize that there was a small chance that I shared some tiny amount of responsibility for the situation we were in. I didn't want the deer to have to suffer a slow death, so I managed to get it lined back up in between my truck and the feeder – a little trap I had set before hand…kind of like a squeeze chute. I got it to back in there and I started moving up so I could get my rope back.  
   
Did you know that deer bite?  

They do! I never in a million years would have thought that a deer would bite somebody, so I was very surprised when … I reached up there to grab that rope and the deer grabbed hold of my wrist. Now, when a deer bites you, it is not like being bit by a horse where they just bite you and then let go. A deer bites you and shakes its head–almost like a pit bull. They bite HARD and it hurts.  

The proper thing to do when a deer bites you is probably to freeze and draw back slowly. I tried screaming and shaking instead. My method was ineffective.  

It seems like the deer was biting and shaking for several minutes, but it was likely only several seconds. I, being smarter than a deer (though you may be questioning that claim by now), tricked it. While I kept it busy tearing the tendons out of my right arm, I reached up with my left hand and pulled that rope loose.  

That was when I got my final lesson in deer behavior for the day.  

Deer will strike at you with their front feet. They rear right up on their back feet and strike right about   head and shoulder level , and their hooves are surprisingly sharp… I learned a long time ago that, when an animal –like a horse –strikes at you with their hooves and you can't get away easily, the best thing to do is try to make a loud noise and make an aggressive move towards the animal. This will usually cause them to back down a bit so you can escape.  

This was not a horse. This was a deer, so obviously, such trickery would not work. In the course of a millisecond, I devised a different strategy. I screamed like a woman and tried to turn and run. The reason I had always been told NOT to try to turn and run from a horse that paws at you is that there is a good chance that it will hit you in the back of the head. Deer may not be so different from horses after all, besides being twice as strong and 3 times as evil, because the second I turned to run, it hit me right in the back of the head and knocked me down.  

Now, when a deer paws at you and knocks you down, it does not immediately leave. I suspect it does not recognize that the danger has passed. What they do instead is paw your back and jump up and down on you while you are laying there crying like a little girl and covering your head.  

I finally managed to crawl under the truck and the deer went away. So now I know why when people go   deer hunting   they bring a rifle with a scope……

to sort of even the odds!!  

All these events are true.. An Educated Farmer 

 

I think I'll just continue to shoot them if it's all right with you guys… 

  

 

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