Roping a Deer

[PaducahMichael]

ROPING A DEER


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 LO T
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 wit h 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.

[tocsn40]

And now you know why they don't have deer Wranglers in rodeos LOL

[Ruger]

Loved the story.  Very Will Rogers-ish!

[zburkett]

Great Story!  Did you see the video that made the rounds a few years ago of the guy who doused himself in doe sent and got attacked by a horney  buck?  He also learned the hard way.   All them little critters will fight when they have too.

[Bigbird48]

Can I stop laughing now

[Scott Free]

That story deserves a much bigger audience than it will have here. 

[cbl51]

I hate to see what happens if you decide to go boar hunting!

It's just a pig, right?

[Bigbird48]

Yea just a Pig , I remember years ago I was helping my BIL load his Pig into the back of a Pickup for its trip to the Butcher. He was poking it along the chute with an 8' 2x4 and that pig turned ,grabbed that 2x4 and snapped in in half with one quick bite. It makes me think what could happen at those Fair events where the kids try to catch a greased Pig.

[WECSOG]

This is a funny story. I remember laughing 'til I cried the first time I read it, 10+ years ago. 

I'm 100% sure someone made this up at some point, because it is unlikely that anyone would rope a buck and live to tell the tale. I remember seeing a video of a guy who set up a video camera, lured a buck in close and then reached out and grabbed it. The search team found the camera later, a few feet away from his body.

[PaducahMichael]

Wescog, I don't know how long ago I first read that story or who originally wrote it, but I try to share it every year or  so. I still laugh till I nearly pee when I read it. One of my all time favorites!

[Warthog]

I saw a video once, I think it was a show called When Animals Attack! but I really can't remember now.  On the vid a guy went out to mess around with a deer he had lured in with a salt lick or may have been a feed station... the guy came out and was messing with the deer and go himself wrapped in something and wound up having the deer rear up on it's back legs and kick the poop outta him with it's front legs and he wasn't able to get away.  Eventually someone came and released him from the stuff wrapping him up and he went to the hospital with his face all busted up and some other injuries...

[LHB]

Back on the farm, when it came to working hogs, my dad always had a claw hammer in his back pocket when he went around hogs.  Which end he used on the hog depended on the hogs attitude, and the claw could change an old sows attitude fairly quickly.  When it came to trying to drive one, a 14 inch aluminum scoop shovel made a good way to try to keep one aimed in the right direction, because many times it was easier to back one into a stall with her nose in the scoop than it was to try to drive them in.  If you wanted them to go through a gate, don't open the gate wide, they won't go, but have a 12 inch crack, and you can't keep them from going there.

The old European boar hunting spears always had a crossbar, a foot or so behind the head, to keep a stuck boar from simply running up the spear toward the hunter to use those tusks.

[top dog]

A similar story is when a cowboy got an idea to rope a deer from his horse. BIG MISTAKE!!!
He and his horse got gored.

Yep,best way to Rope" a deer is with a rifle at some distance.

                                                                                          Top Dog

[autofull]

hah, superb. i witnessed the same thing by a milk farmer buddy back in 73. big guy, the deer won and he had to get stitches and rope burn treatment for his palms. i knew deer were tough but when he got the rope on the young button buck it looked like the tasmanian devel from bugs bunny. im surprised that people are not killed on a regular basis after what i saw. a deer wrangling competition is what i would pay to see, eee hhaaawwww. kevin.

[WECSOG]

One summer I was working on a motorcycle in my backyard, and a button buck wandered up to see what I was doing. He started hanging around so much that he was a nuisance, getting in my way and sticking his head under my elbow as I was working. Even tried to follow me in the house a couple times. He didn't even freak out when I put my hand on him to push him out of the way. He eventually stopped coming around. That was a really strange thing; very much out of character for deer. Especially around here where the woods are full of deer hunters during hunting season.

[LHB]

Had a man tell me once that while turkey hunting in the spring, he dozed off while sitting, leaning back against a tree, in full camo, and woke up to have a tom standing between his legs, looking at him.  Without thinking, he reached out and grabbed the bird by one leg, and all h-ll broke loose.  Said he got beat with both wings, while the bird cut him up with the spur on that free leg, and when he let go, he got it from both spurs, till the bird got tired and left.  Said he would never do it again.