*Why we shoot deer in the wild*

*(A letter from someone who wants to remain anonymous, who farms, writes well and actually tried this).*

*
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 slide off to 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 so help me God....*

*An Educated Farmer*

That's about as close to the truth as I've ever read!

I was spotlighting jack rabbits (years and years ago) and we accidentally ran a couple deer up to a fence and my cousin and I decided to jump out and grab one just for bragging rights.

Our buddy ran the light, Kay and I jumped out and went to tackle the deer and we both received 3-4 sharp raps on the top of our heads by the doe's hooves and it must have knocked some sense into us since we immediately backed off and got back in the truck.

I think I can still feel those knots on my head to this day! I call them "education" bumps!!!

Zeke

There was a tale of three ol boys a goin down a road out on the plains when they happened upon a bear.
They decided out in the open like that it would not be hard to get up on a bear and lasso it.
No mention of alcohol fueled thought processes involved was mentioned but I'm just guessing there might have been some involved.

Anyway they found it was fairly easy to rope a bear out of the back of a pickup.
Turning it loose was found to be another matter and a rope costs good money.

Of course I'VE never done anything stupid in this lifetime.

I was watching a hunter thru a spotting scope shoot a 4 pt buck.It goes down but head still up,he walks up and grabs the antlers to try & twist his neck.That deer stood up with him between the rack and took off running. This guy weighs 225 lbs and is carried 75 yds as deer stumbles and he falls off.Lays there several minutes ,gets up limps to his gun and shoots it. I'm the rural mail carrier and called the rancher who's land this happened on. It was his nephew.

Knew a Montana cowboy once who thought it would be fun to rope a badger. Kinda like roping that bear, only in a smaller package. Said he never tried that again. GW

Reminds me of my ex wifes kin.All Navy. Her uncle decided one day it was time to take on daddy.now "shorty" Wilson [grandpa] was a CPO that stood 4'8" tall + a real volverine.When the oldest son Mike tried to take the old man on,his later statement was "that room had 3 windows + 2 doors,+ I could'nt get out of any of them."Shorty joined the service in WW1 in the AEF then transfered to Navy afterwards,He was there at Bikini Atoll (could'nt wear a watch for the rest of his life due to the radiation) = too many actions to name. Several years ago when in the Smithsonion Museum I gravitated to the war area (of course) + noticed that there was a decoration called "The Order Of Odd Fellows",a 3 pendent gong that was only issued to those who had served in Wars 1+2+ Korea. Shorty served in all 3 + a bit in Nam before they retired him.I tryed to persuade his daughter (my ex mother in law) to persue the issue of getting him that decoration posthumously.Now she has passed + my ex could'nt care less.I care but he was not a blood relation of mine. However my sons would care + they are vets as well.Just seems a shame to let this fall through the4 crack. I still have all my fathers decorations framed under glass. Some care more than others.