How many deer charging stories have you guys heard or encountered?I have heard of a lot and was charged by a spike myself one time,got him to backway up with my 308 .A friend of mine who is really big fellow,had to take one out hand to hoof combat.it was a spike and he shot it 3 times with his 30-06 and it kept charging right into him.He won the deer lost but he was bruised up from head to toe.I laughed at him and told him thats why i hunt with a 375H&H...He needed a bigger gun
I know the 06 is big enough but haad to take that easy shot.I think every story i have heard was with a deer in the rut.Most if not all were really dangerous close calls.I got attacked by a dead KILLER BOSS GOBBLER one time that came back from the dead and tried to seek revenge on me but that is another story.....He lost twice that day....

I heard of one charge at the lodge years ago. A guy said he shot at a buck as it charged him. He was prone using a 8mm Mauser and he emptied his rifle at the deer and then rolled out of the way as it rushed by.

He was out of ammo so he got on top of the deers back and stabbed it over and over again with his knife. Keep in mind that a regular size guy might not be able to pull this off. Old Bill is at least 6'3" and quite lean and strong looking.

Animals in the rut can be challenging !Years ago in Colorado there was a moose on the road A woman drove up, was impatient so blew her horn .Bad move, the moose proceeded to demolish six cars , then walked into the woods !!

I was hunting with my Dad once when we had a whitetail buck charge. I was 18 at the time.

We were still-hunting together when a little spike buck jumped out from behind some antelope brush about 25 feet in front of us. He was running broadside and my Dad took a snap shot and put a bullet in his heart with a 30/30 Winchester. It kept running into a thicket of Douglas Fir and we lost sight of it. It happened so fast neither of us knew for sure if he even hit it. Then my Dad started second guessing himself and asked "You saw spike antlers too, didn't you?".

Anyway, we took about 10 steps and looked at the running tracks and there was a good blood trail. We followed it through the thicket of Douglas fir and into a small opening on the other side. Wouldn't you know it, there's the deer standing on the far side of it, about 60 feet away, facing us, with blood pouring out of both sides of his chest. Before we could even look at each other or raise our rifles, this little buck came at us full bore! Fortunately, it veered right into a small tree and fell over. We took about 5 quick steps over to it and Dad administered the coup-de-grace.

Only then did we look at each other with disbelief and simultaneously uttered "Holy sh*t!".

It turned out it was a perfect heart shot. I would guess that the total elapsed time from the first shot to the charge was about 1 minute.

It was an interesting experience I'll never forget. I am a little more cautious following up on anything now.

Cheers,
Canuck

A friend of mine shot a 6 pointer late close to dark and couldn't find it. Came back next morning found the deer. He propped his .06 against a tree and started field dressing.

He heard something and about 30 yds. away a small 7 pointer pawed the ground and dipped his horns and raked leaves on the ground. My friend started to make a move to his gun about 10 feet away and each time he moved the buck would charge at him but stop when he stopped.

End result he got to his rifle and shot the deer, but he said that it was like a cat and mouse game and that he really feared that buck was going to do him harm if his rifle had been any futher away from him or the deer had been any closer.

Does a pet buck count?

I had a 2 1/2 year old 7 pointer as a pet, His name was "fireball" I went in to feed him one day, (I do this every day, twice a day), any how, I went in to feed him. It was in November, the rut! Once I got over to his feed bucket he wouldn't let meback over to the door, he never acted this way before, kept charging me with his head down, I had to grab his antlers to keep from getting poked, well after dancing and sliding around the pen for a good 20 minutes, yelling for my wife, holding on to his antlers, I was weaking, bad! I can not belieive the strength of a whitetail! I manged to work us over near the gate, every time I tryed to push he would lunge at me with everthing he had! I was completely covered with mud and deer shit at this point, I worked the gate latch open with my shoulder and gave one good push on him, He lunged and I pushed his antlers to the side, he got hung up in the chain link long enough for me to get out and latch the gate behind me! I was never so tired and beat up in my life! After that, every time I walked outside he would slam the chain link with his antlers, I guess he wanted to finish the fight, In my opinion, he kicked my ass!!!!
By the way, my wife never did hear me yelling............

Widowmaker

That's a good one. I couldn't help but chuckle a little as I read your post, I know it wasn't funny at the time and you could have been seriously injured, or worse, but the way you described the event it would have been a sight to see.

I bet he didn't get fed for a day or two, and as always where's a woman when you need one. The deers name really fit him.

No deer charge, but I had a life and death fight with a turkey once. Short story is I wounded it and rather than shoot it again opted to "wring it's neck". That turkey went down hard dispite my 12 to 1 weight advantage! As I choked and attempted to twist it's neck it beat me about the head and shoulders with it's wings quite well. Eventually I prevailed but the issue was in doubt for a little while. I'm glad nobody was watching.

quote:

---

Originally posted by blackbearhunter:
How many deer charging stories have you guys heard or encountered?I have heard of a lot and was charged by a spike myself one time,got him to backway up with my 308 .A friend of mine who is really big fellow,had to take one out hand to hoof combat.it was a spike and he shot it 3 times with his 30-06 and it kept charging right into him.He won the deer lost but he was bruised up from head to toe.I laughed at him and told him thats why i hunt with a 375H&H...He needed a bigger gun
I know the 06 is big enough but haad to take that easy shot.I think every story i have heard was with a deer in the rut.Most if not all were really dangerous close calls.I got attacked by a dead KILLER BOSS GOBBLER one time that came back from the dead and tried to seek revenge on me but that is another story.....He lost twice that day....

---

One thing you don't want to do is go hand to hand with a wounded/pissed off whitetail buck, or doe for that matter. As a rifle hunter, the biggest advantage you hold is yardage and wounding ability because of the rifle. Don't give it up to soon, a whitetail buck in hand to hand mode has you beat, even if he will die from the wound you give him. I have seen a couple of nice rifles disappear while on the horns of a "dead" buck. Not mine, but some friend's.

A pet whitetail, used to humans, can be a real surprise to the unprepared. They can box like Tyson used to.

Yogi was right, it ain't over till its over!!

I was working my way up an old overgrown cat road one morning,stopping and looking. I was looking to my right and heard a big thump to my left that scared the be'jeezus out of me! There was a blacktail spike standing there in his bed,maybe 15-20 ft away. I expected him to turn and run but he started taking steps toward me,tossing his head,pawing the ground and grunting! I didn't want to shoot a spike,but I was starting to think I was gonna have to! After a minute or two with him still moving towards me slowly,I said"ya know if you don't get the **** outta here,I'm gonna shoot ya". Evidently this hadn't occurred to him,as he started moving off in the opposite direction,kind of reluctantly,looking back and snorting.It would have been kind of tough to explain to the warden,"really I shot this one in self defense,how about you take him and I'll go back and get a big one"?

Nor wester,I had deal like that with a BIG Black stallion wild horse one time on cumberland National wildlife refuge island muzzle loader only hunt about 20years ago.I walked up on him by accident in a thicket and that joker wanted to fight!!!
I was miles from anyone waaaaay down in a swamp by myself and didnt know what to do.I had my wits though and i cussed him for all he was worth and thru up my muzzle loader at him and told him i would blow him away if he didnt leave me alone.I really wasnt but he didnt know it! You know that joker understood every word i said and he didnt want to but turned around and left and kinda acted like i hurt his pride!!!I still laugh about that one!!!That old joker was smart!!!Shook me up for a second....

I've never had a deer fight me, but my nephew had a wounded elk after him a couple of years ago. He was unarmed, but his brother managed to finish the bull before it finished him.

On a more serious note, aside from my story by a local Paul Bunyon, a friend heard a hunter calling for help. He had been gored by a buck that he had shot with his rifle and then while very close to the buck he shot it in the head with a pocket pistol.

The buck somehow gored him in the thigh and cut his artery! My friend got him out of the woods with a tournaquet on to a hospital and he survived. They he went back and dressed out the deer and gave it to the man.

This happened near Burlington, VT in the 70's.

WELL, NOT so much as a charge, as being in the way of one moving at light speed down a very thick trail in the bottom of a little ravine. A nice little buck during dee season.

I could hear him coming and I turned drew my .357, fell backwards and shot UP at him as he cleared me going over me. He dropped about 40-50 yds down the trail.
Would have been interesting if I wasn't young and having good reflexes.

Last spring I had an intresting turkey experiance. I was driving down a back country road in the Texas hill country. A large gobbler jumped out of the brush at the side of the road. in front of my truck. I stopped because I did not want to hit him. He would not move from the front of my truck. I got out of the truck and tried to shoo him away. All he did was chase me around the truck gobbling the whole time. I got in the truck and he started pecking the shit out the door. I get out of the truck with a stratagy. I would catch his attention run to the back of the truck as fast as I could to get him back there and then run around to the door and jump in the truck and take off. Well that worked. If it did not I was going to wring his neck.

I was watching in the rear view mirror and a truck was driving up and the turkey did the same thing to him. Maybe he was not as lucky as with me.

I have had some stange things happen But this one ranked right up there.

Good Luck

Alan

Years agao I shot a big 8 point whitetail that was above me on a hillside. The buck was down and thrashing about. In my excitement and youthful exhuberance I ran up the hill. When I got about 10 feet below him the buck got up and came straight at me. I caught his antlers in each hand around my midsection. He pushed me 10 or 15 feet backwards down the hill until I was able to shove him aside and put another bullet in him. At the time my only fear was him getting away as he was the first big deer I ever shot. In retrospect I was lucky he didn't do any damage. I'm not really sure if he charged me intentionally or if he was just trying to escape and I was in his path. Either way it was my own fault for putting myself in that position.


Jeff

So many stories. All you really have to do to keep a deer from charging is take away his credit cards.

Back in the early 70's, a guy that was wrestling 185 in our local high school wrestling team was on his way home after practice.
He hit a 6 point buck with his dad's truck, so he decided to get out and stick the deer and load him up and take him home to butcher.
He got out his pocket knife and proceeded down into the bottom of the ditch to where the deer was laying, he was getting ready to cut his throat when the buck decided to wake up from being knock silly.
Quite a battle started taking place when the deer started charging him, he tried putting the deer in a head lock, but the deer bit him in the leg hard enough that he had to let go. He said later that's the worst thing he ever did. The deer just went crazy, flipping him all over the bottom of the ditch.
A long story made short...he spent the next 5 days in the hospital recovering from punctures and bites and everything else that deer decided to do with him.
That deer episode ended his senior year of wrestling.

This is not a big game animal for that matter it's not even a game animal it was a little ole Loone. This sucker was hit buy a car in front of my wife and I. After this ungrateful tweety flipped several times I thought it was dead was I ever misstaken. I pulled off the side of the rode walked up to see just what kind of bird it was at about 20 feet it hit me what it was. That no good for nothen sucker came too then came after me no joke it really came after me I was dressed in my safty gear you know a pair of shorts and a tank top and I have a 10 to 15 lb bird with a 6" speer for a beek come after me. And he knew how to use it... This son-of-a-gun chased me for about a quarter mile down the road to the beaver ponds trying to squer me anyplace he could. The worst that happened is he nicked my inner leg pretty close to the boys for a little rememberance of our incounter. I had 4 cars watching the show and the nerve of the womam telling me to leave the nice bird alone as I'm running as fast as I could to get away. I found out one thing that day I am no Steve Erwin...

Not a deer story. I had a friend in Corpus Cristi, Texas, that hit a fairly large javalina. My friend threw it into the back of his truck, and it then woke up. He could only find a claw hammer but with it in hand, he jumped into the back. When I saw him, he had just dropped it off for processing, hams and sausage. The back of the truck looked very bloody, and he said he would never do that again, cheaper to just buy it at the store! He was about 6'2", and very fit. His wounds did heal well, however.

Several years ago a deer lurched just as the trigger broke and my shot went too far back. A buddy and I trailed it to where it proceeded to walk halfway up a vertical cliff following a very narrow ledge about 120 feet above the base. My friend was on the ledge and I was below. Approaching a small bowl like depression my friend had the deer bolt to safety which just happened to be in his direction. Shooting from the hip he hit the animal in the ear then quickly backed up and tried to fend the deer off with his now empty muzzleloader. I just couldn't help yelling uphill at him to "Put the clip in and shot him again". he didn't think much of my advice.

Mule story-
While in High School we used to hunt quail around a friend of ours farm.
This day there was four of us in the group (Terry, Dad, My brother, and me) I had a 20 ga but the rest of the crew had 12's with high brass.
We were working a field edge with our best dog Chief and were almost on top of the covey usually found there.
(in the woods some distance)Clang, ring, clang, clang........what is that?.... I don't know....(louder)Clang, Clang....Sounds like a cow bell!.......Mr. Thomas doesn't own any cows......CLANG, RING, CLAng.....
About that time a very large and pissed off mule came charging out of the woods and made a beeline for our now on point dog. ( we found out later that the bell was put on the mule not as a locator but as a early warning device....he would lie in wait for dogs and the occasional person)

Chief!...run chief!,… STOP you damned mule....Chief run you idiot!

The mule bore down on the dog. The dog would look from the mule to us then back at the mule but never broke point (Usually if someone farted the dog would move off point, but not with 900lbs of mule coming at him full speed)

The mule must have thought the dog would run too because instead of slowing down enough to bite or stomp him it kept at full gallop. The dog laid flat and the mule ran over the top of him with out stepping on him. As the mule went by it let loose with both rear legs and would have field goaled the dog if they had made contact. The dog finally broke and ran with the mule snapping right behind him.......straight at us.

Now my family has been known to have short tempers and both my brother and I had lost ours. ...The next 15 minutes involved a lot of running around, cursing, yelping, braying and the never ceasing ringing of that awful bell.

The dog would run the mule by us, we would try to hit, kick, or throw large rocks at it to deter it from killing our dog. They would pass by with several blows of various types striking the mule but not slowing him down in the least. Then as they passed we would run to try to keep them in sight and to continue our harassment of the mule.
By this time we were about to lose our lunches and pass out, the dog was winded and slowing down and the mule looked like it was enjoying the whole affair.
Then the mule made a bad mistake, on one of its passes it took a swipe at Terry with its teeth as it went by. In unison all four of us stopped and opened fire on his ass (pun intended) with #9 bird shot- 4 hunters times three shells each = bloody rear end........end of chase.

We contacted Mr. Thomas about shooting his mule, he said we should have killed it, the mule recovered and learned from the experience.
From then on it would sit completely still in the brush, to keep the bell from ringing, until our dog was close then attack. He would then retreat immediately into the woods before we could fire (funny how the dog never learned to stay out of the field)......... over the years he really added to the ambiance of our hunts.
It was a sad day when Mr. Thomas informed us that the mule had bit then kicked him and that he had shot him (with an appropriate caliber)……I can still here that damned bell.

.44, for that story you deserve an award. I haven't laughed so hard in a long time.

I personally had a run in with a four pointer. My friend shot at the deer as it crossed a power line opening. He hit the buck and we soon picked up a blood trail. We followed it for several hundred yards when ahead of us I could see the buck " Dead as a doornail".......Ah Uh...

I ran over to the dead deer and picked it up by the antlers and said to my friend " here he is"...........All of a sudden he arose from the dead.... ..kicking and twisting while I had his horns, I tossed him to one side and my friend did the rest...........Ka Boom.