Not sure if this is true or not but......

Names have been removed to protect the stupid!

An actual letter from someone who writes and farms.

I had this idea that I was going to 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 the 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, so I didn't want the deer to have it 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 bejesus 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 so that they can be somewhat equal to the Prey.

I know a guy that tried to bull dog a white tail doe from the back of a pick up, he was near Buffalo when he tried. All he remembers is waking up 3 days later in the hospital in buffalo missing more skin than he had left on him!!!

Oh man, that's funny! I just spit coffee all over my keyboard I laughed so hard!!

Back in the days of my stupid youth.....I ROPED a BADGER!!!!!! Quite exciting...for the horse....and ME!!!!!

quote:

Originally posted by ldkier:
Back in the days of my stupid youth.....I ROPED a BADGER!!!!!! Quite exciting...for the horse....and ME!!!!!

I'll bet the horse wasn't happy with you!!

Had an uncle who decided after about a case of Grain Belt to show us how to jump out of a tree onto a deer and cut it's throat with a knife.

We took him to the hospital after the demonstration. Good thing he had the case in him or we'd probably have had to take him to the morgue. He learned a little deer can kick big time.

quote:

Originally posted by miles58:
Had an uncle who decided after about a case of Grain Belt to show us how to jump out of a tree onto a deer and cut it's throat with a knife.

We took him to the hospital after the demonstration. Good thing he had the case in him or we'd probably have had to take him to the morgue. He learned a little deer can kick big time.

LOL!! This thread is going to keep bringing out some really great stories!!

quote:

LOL!! This thread is going to keep bringing out some really great stories!!

L. David Keith can attest that deer are strong.

Who knew a Fallow Deer could buck you off his back?

Good times.

I had an uncle that tried jumping onto a deer from a tree.
(Bourbon was involved)

Worked great, got the deer too.

That is if "worked great" ignores that he broke his leg in the process, mostly because the deer failed to properly cushion his fall.

His landing stunned it enough to cut it's throat before it regained it's senses, and he was half done gutting it before he realized that his leg was busted.

when my grandfather asked him how he felt his reply showed (belated) growing wisdom when he answered "stupid".

The better story however was about the deer one of my other's uncle "killed" by hitting it with his car, so he and his runnin buddy picked it up and tossed it in the trunk.

Unfortunatly for them it wasn't quite dead, making the situation much worse is my uncle's car was a convertible and they became aware that their belief in the deer's death had been exaggeraged when he felt it breathing on the back of his neck as it tried to finish climbing out of the trunk and into the back seat of his pontiac tempest convertible

as for the guy at in the top post? I'd have guessed Nebraska.



AD

A Air Force friend releated a story to me about his brother, they where elk hunting when he came upon a bull stuck in a fence, rather then shooting it and taging he said i'll get him out of the fence so he went on one side the elk on the other soon as he sprung the wire off the elks antlers the thing attacked him jumping over the fence and thrashing him like rag 10 puncture wounds 36 stiches and 3 broken ribs the bull decided to leave he ran towards where his brother was who shot him while gutting him out his brother staggared over the hill no gun in hand blood all over think his brother got an elk, as he got closer he ask him what the hell happened, he look down at the elk and said did you notice the blood on him he said no, well it's mine didn't you hear me screaming.

:Clap

I know the feeling. I once rescued a small whitetail doe from a net wire fence.

A friend of mine in Alaska called f&g about a moose in his garden.They said just leave it alone or turn sprinkler on it.He got tired of the moose eating his greens and called them back saying he would bring them the moose.It was about a half grown 450 pound calf.He threw a rope around it and threw the rope around a tree to hold it.It dragged him through a brush till he got a rope around a tree.He though he could tie its legs to hold is still bad mistake.It kicked him flat and knocked him out.He finally got it hog tied and wenched it into the back of the truck with a ramp.He took it to the fish and game off and said here your moose.He untied the rope and it almost tore the truck to pieces.They never tolds him a thing afterwards just looked at him funny.The moose didnt come back to his garden.I have had to run to the truvck from a few cow moose with babies.I always tell animal rigts fruitlopps that come up to pet the baby bears and baby moose that the mommas will love them for doing so.

Back in the mid 70's when I was a foolish teenager I worked on a ranch with an old Mexican Caballero named Eduardo. Eduardo was about three years younger than God when I was 17 so I imagine that he's gone by now but he was a hell of a hand.

When I worked with him he taught me a whole lot but one of the fun things was that he taught me how to rope wild pigs.

The problem with pigs are that they are tapered at all the extremities. Their hooves are smaller than their ankles and the heads are smaller than their necks so ropes just kind of slide off.

The trick is to use a rawhide riata instead of a nylon rope because the rawhide has a coarser finish and doesn't slide as easily. The first guy ropes the pig head-on with a big enough loop to fit over the head and let's the pig run through it with it's front legs and then pinches it hard through the loins to stop it.

The second guy then throws another head loop and snaps it shut when the pig gets one front leg through it.

You then let the horses stretch it out and get down and cut it's throat.

Eduardo also taught me how to load a cleaned and bloody pig carcass on to a three year old green broke hammerhead. I think that I still have scars from that lesson.

A guide from Wyoming once told me he and his brother would rope black bears. He being the header and his brother being the heeler.

When I asked him what the hell they did with it after it was roped he said "drop the ropes and ride like hell".

I don't know if I believe him or not, but considering all of the other crazy shit I witnessed him do its probably true.

I will vouch for the bear roping story. I know several people who have done it. One is a cowboy who used to ride for the Douglas Lake Ranch here in BC. He and his riding buddies would rope a black bear now and again, heading and heeling, and then one would get off his horse and tickle the fine hairs on the bottom of the bears paws. He said the bears would come unglued!
Great thread and stories
Good shooting (and roping)
Graham

Vaqueros, sort of a mexican cowboy, used to rope grizzly bears and take them alive to fight bulls in the arenas, back when such things were legal.

The only deer I was ever brave enough to rope had already had most of the fight taken out of it by a truck at 70 MPH. We wanted to keep the deer, but it wasn't dead yet, just had it's hind end paralysed. It went down a steep embankment after being hit, and we roped it to get it back up to the road before dispatching it with a hammer.

"Roping lions in the Grand Canyon" by Zane Grey
is a great read.
My buddy Rick shot a little Columbia black tail
in the Rogue river area and went up to it with
a knife to finish it off, when it suddenly
recovered, snapped to it's feet and attacked,
charging him as a goat would. Rick managed to
grab the horns, and a long struggle ensued,
until he managed to stab it to death. The
buck had about twenty knife holes in him,
and Rick had about the same number of antler
holes in him. In the process Rick had cut
himself pretty badly across the back of the
thumb which nearly cost him that appendage.
The horns grace Ricks family room, and he's
got some neat scars to talk about.

Another "dead" Columbia was loaded into a
brand-new Bronco and came alive and wanted OUT.
The insurance co. totaled the Bronco, and they
were right to do so. That deer destroyed it.

Those little Columbia black tails are Tough!

My cousin that I used to deer hunt with shot a whitetail buck with his 270Win and thought it was dead and his friend Dan and him loaded it into cousin's flatbed pick-up. Milo, my cousin, was up on the truck dragging it further forward so it wouldn't bounce out. He had it by the antlers when it woke up and he was holding it hollering at Dan "grab a hammer". Dan got a claw hammer out of the tool box and put it down but it was a rodeo until then. The bullet had only creased his back and evidently knocked it out for a while. I wasn't there to witness it but I have heard accounts of it from both of them.

Several years back my father and I had come back to the house after the opening day of deer season. We had one hanging in the barn and we were working on a vehicle in the driveway. We heard brakes lock up and looked up in time to see a pickup truck hit a decent buck. It's antlers were hung up in the wire cow fence and it was in rough shape.

Being that it was in the road, we couldn't shoot it, so we decided to finish it off with a knife. I held the hindquarters down and dad cut it's throat. Even with the antlers stuck in the fence and 250lbs (me) holding it down, it was a bit of a battle finishing it off. I can't imagine any situation that would make me think that taking on a healthy or slightly injured deer without a real weapon was a good idea.

Our neighbor took the deer. It was a decent 9 pointer. The guy in the truck kept apologizing to us like the deer had been our pet.

Apparently, my uncle tried to finish off a doe that he'd shot during archery season via the lasso it, tie it to a tree, cut it's throat method. If I remember the story correctly, he ended up sticking himself more than the deer and finally shot it again.

quote:

Originally posted by Luckyducker:
My cousin that I used to deer hunt with shot a whitetail buck with his 270Win and thought it was dead and his friend Dan and him loaded it into cousin's flatbed pick-up. Milo, my cousin, was up on the truck dragging it further forward so it wouldn't bounce out. He had it by the antlers when it woke up and he was holding it hollering at Dan "grab a hammer". Dan got a claw hammer out of the tool box and put it down but it was a rodeo until then. The bullet had only creased his back and evidently knocked it out for a while. I wasn't there to witness it but I have heard accounts of it from both of them.

We gut our deer after we kill them.Never had one come back to life!!!!

had a hunter in mexico rope a badger one time.when he came and got me he had a wooden orange crate over it with an adobe brick on top.
i walked up to the crate and looked at the badger and told him"you got the easy part done,let me know how the rest of it turns out"
fed the badger some rope and got the loop off the lifted the adobe and kicked the crate.badger grabbed the pant leg on the other foot and it turned into a 200 yard footrace before the badger let go.
funniest thing i ever saw the badger just clamped down and bounced off the guys lower leg as he ran and the guy screamed and ran faster ever time the badger touched him.

A friend of mine told me about one of his cousins who wounded a deer during muzzle loader season. I don't remember why, but he didn't reload his rifle. He tracked the deer and found it laying down, but alive. He decided he'd try to cut it's throat with his pocket knife. He said it was the worst mistake he ever made--the deer wasn't nearly as wounded as he thought. He said it nearly killed him. His hunting buddy finally shows up and dispatches the deer with his muzzle loader. I'd give anything to have a video of it.

I have seen so many people get kicked or bitten over the years by trying to cut a deer's throat, I won't even get close to one, ammo is cheap, blood and stitches are expensive.

As storytelling time goes, 25 yr. ago I witnessed a 'jock' attempt to bulldog a doe from a snowmobile. Unbelieveable. That deer tore the clothes off him, busted his face shield, and left him with serious wounds to the chest, back and face. She didn't run, but rather was the aggressor. There were about 10 of us there and we all just watched. Most of the damage was done with the front feet but she bit a few times as well. Took less that 1 min.Fellow still takes ribbing about this today. Mark

Its gotta be mostly BS....

When in High School, at the Black Gap Game Reserve, South of Marathon, Texas Parks and Wildlife hired us bigger kids to flank down the deer so they could tag them and do their study thing, We worked in teams of two and flanked the deer down, even the big bucks, and sometimes on the really big bucks it took three or four of us..so I don't seen any of this as factual to any great degree...They still do this btw...

The only time I ever got in trouble with a deer was once when I roped one and he got his horns in my horses flank and I got bucked off, another time with I tried to dog one off the pickup at about 30 miles an hour and missed, that one broke my wrist and skinned me up pretty bad...One of these days I'll tell you about roping an eagle, that was a wreck...