Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Roping a Deer

I think I have written this story here before.

It was back about the end of WW II, my Uncle and his cousin who lived on the ranch with the family were out riding for cows on a sage covered BLM butte behind the ranch house when they spied a yearling mule deer buck.

Being silly assed 14 year old ranch boys, they decided to rope it. And did so successfully, head and heels. Their well trained cow ponies held the ropes tight while the boys got down and castrated the little buck, and then ear marked and wattled it with the proper marks for the ranch.

The buck was fortunate that they did not have a branding iron in the packs, because I know damned well they would have built a fire.

Anyway, they released the deer, and kept an eye on it for about three years. They said it did grow a set of tiny little spike antlers. Finally it went into the freezer like deer were meant to be.

Think it was elk if goat i missed that one

in Jr Hi my bud and i were going thru a patch of knee hi buck brush when one jumped up not 10 feet away

he had a bale twine braided rope in hand and made a cast, catching everyone by surprise by looping a hind leg

he made a pretty good furrow thru that brush for a few yards before the loop came off

It was goats. It started with a hair raising helicopter ride up the mountain.

This deer story reminds me of a case quite a few years ago involving big buck contests. Some of the NV casinos were sponsoring the contests and the prizes were substantial, like pickup trucks, nice boats, etc. After a while someone noticed that time after time, 1 of a small group of ranchers was the winner. An investigation discovered that they'd go out when the snow was deep and rope big bucks, pen them in their barns, and feed them for 9 months on high mineral and protein feeds. Come hunting season, they'd butcher them and haul the huge antlers to town for the contests.

My Dad tied the chain on the front of a jonboat around a swimming grown does neck in a shallow river. He thought he would drown the deer to eat. The doe got her feet on the bottom and took him and the boat for a ride through a thorn thicket. The boat hit a tree and broke the deers neck. He said by the time he got the deer and boat drug back to the river it wasn't worth it.

Mississippi River levee and several others back in the 60's and 70's was open to ride on. Lots of soy bean fields and deer were everywhere. Couple of my cousins and I roped a doe on the levee one night. Roping a deer wasn't that hard because there were hundreds and hundreds of them. Getting the rope off the deer liked to have done all 3 of us in. You'd of thought we'd been a train wreck. Never again.

LOL. Bet that was quite a Rodeo ! 😬

Great thread!

Once, when we were kids, I roped my brother, then tackled and hog-tied him. I then called my lab over and he licked his face for about 20 minutes. Though he was laughing, he was none too happy.

I’ve roped a number of moose, caribou and whitetail deer— used my hounds to run them off islands and then ear tag them or put telemetry collars on them. You have to be very careful cause it is real easy to drown them. It was a joint study funded by a pulp and paper company the OMNR and Lakehead University.

Friend had no need for a rope one evening. We had hunted till dark then met up to ride ATVs back to camp. On the way there was a green field that bout always had deer in it after dark. So we killed the lights, pulled up to the field and flicked them on again. Several deer scattered with one confused 50 pounder headed straight toward the lights. Thought it was going to run right into my buddy’s Honda but it veered off about 2 feet. Buddy dove off his 3 wheeler and went shoulder to shoulder with that little deer. It was the greatest tumbleathon I ever saw. There was bootheels and deer hooves in the air, dirt and rye grass flying. The deer stomped him a little getting away and he come up off the ground giggling and stuttering like a drunk monkey. I laughed till I bout died. But that was back when both of us drank whiskey very well and he was healed of the damage in a couple hours.

Reminds me of that YouTube playing a 911 clip of a deer and a bambulance 😂

Those are some great stories guys. I had a good chuckle. I never had the urge to rope a deer but I have freed a couple from fences without much trouble however I never grabbed the deer, just the fence.

Elk hunting one year down in the Uintas of Utah I came across a mule deer doe tangled in a barbwire fence. I spoke very softly, moved slowly and deliberately and I swear that deer knew I was there to help her because she was as calm as could be. I made a couple untwists and she hopped out. She stood there and looked at me for several seconds before bounding off into the sage.

A buddy and I shot a whitetail buck down in a hole back in the late seventies. The deer was still alive when we hauled azz over the side of the hill. We took hunting knives only, no need for a rifle, we thought. Buddy jumped on his back with his knife in hand, and then the rodeo started. Wow, I was laughing my azz off. I thought that buck was going to kill him but he finally cut his throat. What a ride!

I have a huge 3x5’ Print of Charlie Russell’s where the cowboys are roping a grizzly. Helluva of a rodeo. He makes you feel like you’re right in the middle of it. MAGA

Just in case any of you guys get the urge to rope a deer in the future, tie a 6 foot piggin' string to the honda of the lariat first.

When you get tired of wrasslin' the deer, just pull the end of the piggin' string. The lasso will undo itself.