Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Ever had a deer come back to life or refuse to die

Wasn't mine, but one of the few I can give my Dad a hard time about....

Was about 15 -20 years ago on a muzzleloader hunt. No inlines or scopes allowed at the time. He shoots a doe and sees a limb wiggling between him and the doe after the smoke clears and knows he's in trouble. He reloads, gets down, finds a little blood and starts to follow the little drops when he can find them. After about an hour of tracking her down the mountain, the drops of blood getting fewer and fainter, he finds her laying on her side and can see she's still breathing. He'd been on a black powder kick and had a black powder/cap/ball revolver that he'd been shooting. He'd carried it and was going to use it for the finisher. He sits the rifle down. When he unsnaps the keeper strap on the holster which makes a loud snap, the doe jumps up and runs off. He can find no more blood and she's gone.

He still gets pissed when I mention it....

Notorious for knocking a deer down, then getting back up. Notice that the first posted video link showed the deer hit near the spine, maybe above it.

I've had deer refuse to die. They died anyway.

Bill

Never involving a rifle. Was driving home from being afield with a friend one time. We had hunted for three days unsuccessfully in a mostly pouring, cold rain. About halfway back home, a small buck literally ran into the side of my buddy's F150.

He came off the bank and hit the left front wheel. Hair was stuck between the wheel and tire bead. We stopped, and backed up to the 'dead' deer, and promptly threw him into the bed of the pickup. A mile or more down the road, I catch movement in the bed of the truck and turn around to see the deer up on his front two legs, wobbling around. We stopped, and dropped the tailgate. The deer flopped out onto the road and then fell into the ditch, where my buddy finished him with a 45 in the head.

My friend died a few years back of cancer, but we always laughed about that terrible hunt that ended with a 'road-kill'.

Had a friend shoot a buck some years ago. He had just left his truck when the buck stepped out. At the shot the deer went down. He walked up and checked it out. Pulled out his tag and reached for his knife, only to realize he had left it in the truck. He said he doesn't know why he did it, but he tied his tag loosely on the base of the horns and went back to get his knife. Came back less than a minute later and the buck was gone. Never saw it or his tag again.

I was on an Alberta whitetail hunt and most of the hunters were finished for the evening. We heard a shot from the yard in back of the cabin, everybody goes outside and the outfitter had to shot the deer again in his yard. The dead deer had been in the back of a pickup for a half hour ride and came back to life when they were unloading him.

Many years ago, before you ever heard or saw a portable ladder stand, I built one out of a 12' piece of ladder. At the end of the day I was coming out of the woods with all of my stuff stacked on the ladder, dragging it like a stretcher. Right in the middle of the trail was a doe, stretched out like it was dead, not curled up like it was sleeping. My thought was some one hunting on the government land on the other side of the dirt road had shot a doe, buck only back then, and was afraid to come over onto private land to get it. I just dropped the ladder, making all kind of noise, pulled my knife out, and reached for her rear leg. At the last second I decided I better kick her and make sure she was dead. As my foot was in motion she jumped up, ran maybe 5 yards and turned and started blowing at me. She blew 3 or 4 times and turned and just trotted away. I couldn't see any blood on her, no blood on the ground where she was laying, and no blood where she was standing blowing at me. She must have been wore out tired and took a nap, Joe.

Years ago, probly 50, my dad and his buddie hit a big doe with his buddies almost new station wagon, backed up and put the dead doe in the back of the wagon, was going to take her back to the farm, and butcher her. 15 mins later she came back to life, so Larry was going to hit her with a big ball peen hammer, he hit her with a glanceing blow she kicked all the windows out tore out the head linner, and jumped out the back window and ran off, car was a mess!

Sounds like the scene from Tommy Boy

Yep. We had what refer to as "The Terminator" deer. Double lunged a three point mule deer with my trusty 7x57. Down he goes. We approach and he gets up and takes off down a dry wash. A running shoulder shot with the 7x57 bowls him over like a big rabbit.
A minute later while trying to work my way down to him, I saw him trying to get up. A neck shot with the 7x57 fixed that.
Another minute later Im still working my way down the wash and I see him lifting his head! I didn't have an angle for any kind of a shot so I yelled at my partner to shoot him. Another neck shot with his 30-06 and we were finally done.

Any one of the four shots were fatal.......go figure.

And to think you could have saved three shot,and all that trouble if you had a 270

In my 20's I hunted with a 300wm, and one opening day had a great buck come by on a trot at 40-45 yards. I shot him square double lung, and he looked at me. I cycled the bolt and put another behind the shoulder, he looked to the left and twitched his ears. I was freaking out as it was the first time a deer didn't just collapse when shot with that cannon. Cycled again and shot my last round in the mag back of lung/liver, the deer starts walking towards cover. WALKING! I dig a round out of my pocket and chamber it, putting that round in the shoulder, and finally he hit the ground. Any one of the 4 180 grain power points should have killed him, but the dang deer never acted hit until I hit bone.

Had a doe take a quartering away heart shot from less than 10 yards with the same 300wm, she ran for over 150 yards leaving a blood trail that looked like a solid red tire track the entire way. I was in a tree stand and the exit was so low it was practically bottom of the brisket. I knew I had to have hit where I was aiming, but was wondering what was going on when the doe just kept going and going and going.

Shot a nubbin buck once. Dropped at the shot on the field edge. Drove the suburban across the field to pick him up, about fifteen minutes after the shot. Field was freshly plowed and muddy. I figured load him up take him to a nice clean dry hayfield to gut him. So I grab a pair of legs dad grabs a pair of legs and flip him in the back of the suburban. Deer was limp as a dish rag eyes open whole deal. He was stone cold dead. Start driving out the field. Hear banging around behind us. Figure assorted crap is bouncing around as the field is rough. Well it gets worse so we stop. Look in the rearview to see bambi looking right at me. Son of a biotch. Deer proceeded to go nuts. Cut the headliner all to hell from kicking the ceiling kicked the door panels and window trim off the back doors. Then I had to do something to end the situation. Figured knife was smarter than a gun. Still undecided if that was the right call. Because the deer went pissed off and freaked out to pissed off freaked out and spraying bleed from it's neck. Fun times.

After gutting the deer I found the first not to be fatal. Hit between the lungs and spine. Minimal blood loss and all the wiring was still intact. Thinking temporary paralysis from shock to the spine.

In 1995 I hit a small buck at just under 50 yds. with a 12 ga. Foster style slug from my scoped 870, back in the smoothbore barrel days, whereupon he ran less than 100 yds and fell over at the edge of the flat spot on the big hillside I was on. He laid there motionless for the several minutes it took me to pick up my gear and calmly walk over to it. I walked up to it and saw absolutely no sign of life, didn't seem to be breathing or twitching or anything else. Was 2 ft. away and about to set the gun down when he suddenly sprang to his feet like he was spring loaded. The gun was loaded but in my right hand at my side. I was so startled that I fired at him from the hip and he went over the edge of the hill and slid downhill about 20 yards in the snow to where it leveled off again. This time he was really dead. Closer examination revealed that my fancy hip shooting had missed him completely. Don't know how he managed to jump up so fast but it must of just been his last gasp before expiring because my hip shot apparently went high and right over him. Learned my lesson well that snowy November morning and ever since then I approach every downed deer with the gun at the ready. Haven't had any more experiences like that one, just a couple where they were down but not out and a close range finishing shot was needed to end things quickly and humanely.

Have heard of guys walking up to deer that they thought were dead and getting kicked when attempting to gut them.

Had one I shot under my stand with a yearling. Nuisance type hunt on this property. The doe drops the yearling runs straight up a hill. Took me 2 hours to find her. Fist sized 45 cal XTP through both shoulders and she made it up a hill and 200 yards before flopping. Wouldn't have believed it possible. I think one of the shoulders stayed intacted because she didn't plow. Definitely dead but still can't figure out how she climbed the big hill.