Deer down but def not dead!

Hilarious!

If I shot a deer and could see it on the ground without its head up, I would walk over to it too. But if it was still breathing, I would have been shooting quickly or slitting its throat...quickly.
 
The first deer I ever shot dropped immediately at the shot. My father was with me and sent me with the guns to the truck because I was shaking with adrenaline and cold while he went to drag the deer. After a few minutes I hear him yelling to bring the guns. I couldn't figure out why because this wasn't SOP for deer hunting. After a few minutes he comes to meet me to tell me my deer wasn't dead and that it ran down the hill to another farmer's land.
After getting permission from that farmer (he isn't the friendliest person but who can resist an 11 year old who just shot his first deer) we went to the creek where the deer went... Long story short, two more shots from my 243 win and a drag through an icy creek and I had my first deer.
Cleaning the deer showed that my first shot hit high in the neck shoulder junction without hitting the spinal cord. Dragging the deer must have revived it from the stun and allowed it to run almost a mile before we could finally put it down. Deer have extremely sharp hooves and tough sharp horns. Now my SOP is a poke in the eye and a cut of the throat ASAP.
 
WOW. I watched that about 10 times and it never got old. When the eye opens up you just know what is about to happen.
 
If the eyes are closed it is NOT dead. And if it is breathing is another dead (pun intended) giveaway. Do they not teach this stuff in Hunter's Ed class?
 
If the eyes are closed it is NOT dead. And if it is breathing is another dead (pun intended) giveaway. Do they not teach this stuff in Hunter's Ed class?

I think that is what they teach. Once you shoot, get right down. Walk up. Set your gun down. Use foot to prod animal to check for "aliveness". Jump back and pee pants.
 
I think that is what they teach. Once you shoot, get right down. Walk up. Set your gun down. Use foot to prod animal to check for "aliveness". Jump back and pee pants.

HaHa! That is funny! I have been fortunate to always walk up on a dead deer, no live ones there for me…yet. I did watch a hunting partner walk up on a "dead" deer, straddle it to slit the throat while I warned him about the deer's eyes being shut. Just as he grabbed the rack to lift the head, the deer stood up and picked him up on it's back and away they went! He lasted about 5 seconds until the deer went into the swamp where the hunting partner got a nice chilly bath in SWAMP water!
 
That is hilarious. I think it scared him. I wonder if he killed it.

A guy my brother worked with shot a 4 pt one time and when the gun cracked the deer jumped and ran straight into a tree and fell over. It was very cold and he was close to the camp so he threw it on the 4 wheeler and drove the couple minutes to camp thinking he'd have water and everything there to clean up after field dressing it. He fixed a cup of coffee and was warming up while watching out the camp window when a buck that looked just like his ran across the yard and into the woods. A few minutes later he walked outside to field dress his deer and it was gone. I suppose the deer had only knocked itself cold when it hit the tree.
 
Strange things happen like that. Thank God, its never happened to me but, a friend had one nearly rip his hand off when it came to when he was dragging it by one of its antlers.
 
The deer I shot this year was a through and through lung shot. Field dressing showed the ENTIRE chest cavity to be liquefied. BUT, when I walked up to the dear, the entry would was bubbling about once a minute. Even though the eyes were open, and it passed the "prod the eye with a stick" test, I still wasn't going to take a chance. I backed off about 20 yards and put a 168 gr. into its skull. No doubts, field dressing proceeded as planned.
 
Warning! This thread is more than 11 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.
Top