Have you ever had a bad day while hunting?

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The following yarn was submitted to a Fishing site that I subscribe to. I thought it was funny enough to share on here!!!

"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!!"
 
My bad day story is real short. Last Saturday AM got ready to leave for bow hunt and discovered someone had walled into my garage and stolen my Summit Climber. I have other stands but this was my first, kept me safe in hundreds of hunts since the mid 1980s, and was my above ground perch for 30 plus deer harvests. It will be replaced but the sentimental was immeasurable. Everyone hunt hard, stay safe, and keep your equipment locked up !
 
Well the only bad day I've had was the third year I'd ever went hunting it was freezing rain and hail but nothing like post 5 sorry that happened to you pactodazor :(
 
Yup, opening morning deer season , was ideling down a fire lane , heading to my blind, when a stump I didn't see cought my transfer case and broke in in half.I did hunt that AM but had to get the truck home so I quit at noon. I found a used case in the want-Ads 100 miles away for 50 bucks, so with the case, gas, new fluid and a gasket I was back on the road for about 100 bucks. hdbiker
 
I was early one morning at a public hunting ground . My front passenger side tires fell on the ditch. I didnt have 4 wheel capability. I got stucked until another hunter came along and gave me a pull out. Im glad i got a rope at hand . If not , i wont be able to hunt the rest of the day.
Big lesson, dont underestimate depressions out in the country. You can get stuck ...
 
The only "bad day" I had was once I was out and saw nothing. No, not just no game, but nothing. No birds, i.e. no crows, nor buzzards, nor bluejays, and no geese flying. No sounds of birds. No chipmunks nor field mice. I also noticed on that day that a bunch of the trees looked dead or dying. It was like I was hunting in an area that had been "sanitized" or something weird. Like out of a movie and the doomed, lone hunter doesn't know the secret, underground, government lab, located nearby, has had something "escape". (I watch to much Sci Fi) Gave me the creeps.

When I go out, even if I see a deer waaay over yonder on another farm, or game like squirrels or a rabbit, or maybe even a fox, even when I'm not out for them, that's a good day. A flight of geese winging overhead to some destination..., that's a good day. Watching a couple of hawks work a farm field for a mouse or two..., that's a good day. Even if I don't see any deer, but other stuff is moving around..., that's a good day. I can always learn something. As for my first paragraph..., thinking about that day gives me the willies.

OH, and I've been back to that spot mentioned above, and that's never happened again. I figure that I had just hit a day when the critters were dormant or something. There were trees that were dying but they have been replaced by the forest, or they recovered. Don't know why a bunch looked bad that day...,

LD
 
6 years ago hunting in late December, cold for texas that day in the mid 20's, and I'm sitting in an open chair blind. The only heat is in my truck, and at the campfire, assuming someone is there to keep it stoked. No deer. No life of any kind, and I am COLD sitting in that chair tower. With darkness descending, the afternoon hunt is now coming to a close. Prior to leaving camp, I was asked by the only other hunter there that weekend, if I could help him with any deer he might kill. He's in his late 70's, not in the best of health and I readily agreed.

With my legs and feet nearly numb, I can barely feel the metal steps of the ladder as I descend. I misstep around 4' from the ground, and topple into a huge cactus patch. This is central texas, heart of the hill country, with cactus from hell. I am sporting more thorns than a porcupine. I can't sit in the truck like that for two reasons, first, sitting was impossible, and second, it would ruin the leather. Time to strip. Fortunately, getting naked pulled most of the thorns, except for the ones that managed to find access to the most private crevices. Did I mention it's cold?

I get in the truck, unable to feel my hands or feet, shaking violently, and sit there while it warms up. I drive the two miles back to camp, wearing only my boots and briefs, bleeding, and cold. There stands "Tom", the elderly hunter, anxiously waiting on me to exit the truck to cash in on the promise I made to help him with his deer. The man had not shot an animal the entire season, but he got one that afternoon. Awesome.

I step out, naked, and he asks me to help him with his doe. He did not ask why I was naked, only that he expected my help. I said I would like to change into some clothes, and he impatiently waited while I used half a roll of duct tape to pull the remaining thorns.

I changed jeans, put on a new shirt, but had NO COAT. The porcupine coat was not salvageable, and there was no way I was putting it back on. I found, loaded, strung up, gutted, cleaned and loaded that doe for that old man in roughly six minutes. He asked where he should take it, I said Cherokee was close. I then asked him if he wondered why I came to camp naked. He said he just figured I needed to have my privacy respected. He didn't renew his lease that year.
 
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