Why Deer Hunters Use Guns

[silverhairdeere]

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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 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 nocontrolling 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 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 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 lie 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.

shd

[crabtruck]

Trying to make it seem like the most reasonable thing in the world
as he moved relentlessly closer to his doom. That's funny.