The Time I was Gonna Kill a Deer with a Knife!

I was on a doe reduction state park sponsored hunt. $5 a doe. Kill as many as you could. We certainly did. Like 3-4 a day for a few days. I donated a lot to the food pantries. I just love shooting critters, so sue me. Anyway, this was all spot & stalk hunting. So, I was stalking one day and came across a sleeping doe. I froze from 5-7yds out. I was thinking, what? So, my eclectic mind starts thinking. Man, wouldn't that be a story to tell for the rest of my life if I killed a deer with a knife. (Still kinda wished I'd tried) So, I was running scenarios. Looking at those hooves, and imagining what it would do when I spider monkeyed on top of it. Here are the scenarios I imagined:

I jump on the deer and go to drive the killing stab and it squirrels around and I stab myself in the leg/femoral artery and die.
I jump on the deer and before I can deliver the knife stab, it rolls out and kicks me in the face with those hooves.
I jump on the deer, it takes me for a ride through the woods and I just have that story.

Well, I just couldn't take that risk and I blasted it dead with my Ithaca deer slayer.

That is all, carry on.
Was this before you were allergic to deer dandruff? That should have been an interesting twist with you riding the deer with the face mask and gloves!
 
My brother tried to finish off a doe who was pretty weak. Winter neck fur was very tough and he barely poked through her hide and she went bezerk and he turned and ran away. We had to shoot her again.

Hooves are scary man. Growing up with cattle and horses..... When a hoof is coming at your face your life flashes before your eyes.
 
That would be a spectacle! Yeah, way before I developed the allergic reaction to dander. I was able to skin and fully process deer up till 2012 without problems. Then I began suffering the next few years before I figured it out.
 
I was on a doe reduction state park sponsored hunt. $5 a doe. Kill as many as you could. We certainly did. Like 3-4 a day for a few days. I donated a lot to the food pantries. I just love shooting critters, so sue me. Anyway, this was all spot & stalk hunting. So, I was stalking one day and came across a sleeping doe. I froze from 5-7yds out. I was thinking, what? So, my eclectic mind starts thinking. Man, wouldn't that be a story to tell for the rest of my life if I killed a deer with a knife. (Still kinda wished I'd tried) So, I was running scenarios. Looking at those hooves, and imagining what it would do when I spider monkeyed on top of it. Here are the scenarios I imagined:

I jump on the deer and go to drive the killing stab and it squirrels around and I stab myself in the leg/femoral artery and die.
I jump on the deer and before I can deliver the knife stab, it rolls out and kicks me in the face with those hooves.
I jump on the deer, it takes me for a ride through the woods and I just have that story.

Well, I just couldn't take that risk and I blasted it dead with my Ithaca deer slayer.

That is all, carry on.
What, you haven't killed a deer with a knife??? I thought everyone had...
In all seriousness, the only deer I've ever killed with a knife that wasn't shot by me was a highway deer (hit by someone else) with two broken legs. I simply put her out of her misery that day on my way out ice fishing with a throwing knife through the throat to open the jugular.
I did also knock one out with a left hook that was wounded and refused to lay still for a finishing shot.
 
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Ok, well they are all out of order, but you can see what happened. This was a handful of years ago, and I never was able to verify when stick season ended in my state, so.....


All I can tell you is that it wasn't planned, and I kept taking pics as I got closer, thinking that they would run away any second. I was just trying to see how close I could get. I picked the club up off of the ground when she was sniffing my boot. One whack and it was instant death. I probably would have been a decent Neanderthal. This story is more entertaining when everyone is drunk.
I did that to a rabbit with a rock once- pegged that sucker in the back of the head with building roof rock... the only cooking appliance was a microwave as we were handling a flood situation at a radio station and had to row in. I do not recommend the cooking appliance choice at all...
 
My brother and I got one with an axe once. We were cutting firewood with a buzz saw, the kind that mounts on a tractor. Just the thing you send a couple kids out to do. Noisy and dangerous as heck. We had this Australian Shepherd and he was pitching a fit in between these mountains of wood/ logs. We went to investigate and walked right up behind this little basket 6 point who was head down holding off the barking dog. My brother axed him right behind the head. 1. Not sure it was ethical. 2. Pretty sure it counted as hunting with a dog (not legal here) 3. Dad didn't believe us when we told the story and whipped both of us for doing it anyway. He recounted that story a lot over the years but always credited the masterful skills of his favorite dog and the kids only played a tiny role.
 
Buddy tried that once trailing a wounded deer at night. She looked about dead so he snuck in and as he moved in she reared up hit him in the diaphragm and knocked his wind out. He's rolling on the ground we're just laughing until we realize we still have to keep trailing this deer. We did find it again and this time he was quicker than the deer.
 
Good
I was on a doe reduction state park sponsored hunt. $5 a doe. Kill as many as you could. We certainly did. Like 3-4 a day for a few days. I donated a lot to the food pantries. I just love shooting critters, so sue me. Anyway, this was all spot & stalk hunting. So, I was stalking one day and came across a sleeping doe. I froze from 5-7yds out. I was thinking, what? So, my eclectic mind starts thinking. Man, wouldn't that be a story to tell for the rest of my life if I killed a deer with a knife. (Still kinda wished I'd tried) So, I was running scenarios. Looking at those hooves, and imagining what it would do when I spider monkeyed on top of it. Here are the scenarios I imagined:

I jump on the deer and go to drive the killing stab and it squirrels around and I stab myself in the leg/femoral artery and die.
I jump on the deer and before I can deliver the knife stab, it rolls out and kicks me in the face with those hooves.
I jump on the deer, it takes me for a ride through the woods and I just have that story.

Well, I just couldn't take that risk and I blasted it dead with my Ithaca deer slayer.

That is all, carry on.
We get dozens of calls of deer struck and still alive on the highways, many are alive, they are fast and can hurt you severely, especially bucks in rut, they can kill you. A doe stomped a citizen severely when they picked up her fawn who was hiding in their shrubbery, the fawn let out a distress call and the doe came out of nowhere and attacked them furiously, both went to the hospital with abrasions, punctures and contusions. We had a large buck entangled in net strung across a yard for kickball, the buck attacked two of us furiously before I took him down with a shot from my 45 , one shot Hornady critical duty, 220 grain + P Flexlock. Deer can hurt you real bad.
 
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