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

Dead animals do not come back to life.

The ones that fall the fastest at the shot are the ones to watch. They lay around and never twitch a single muscle, nothing at all.

If they kick out for a bit at the shot they are dead.

No kick, fall stone dead, better keep an eye on him through the scope.

Fresh round in the chamber, crosshairs on the vitals. He moves and single bit, give him another one.

Have a Cousin that shot a real nice buck with his 12 ga.shotgun.

He walked over laid his gun down and was cutting the throat when he got real active.

That buck carried him for about 20 yards before going down and Rocky's plaid coat was tatters from the briars he went thru.

My Uncle had that thing hanging in his living room for years.

The coat or the deer lol

Hope your cousin wasn't still on his antlers.

I have to plead the 5th.

No, but I walked up on a sleeping deer, button buck.

Thought that someone had shot it and left it.

There I was standing over it deciding what to do, when it woke up. He was pretty groggy and had to shake off the sleep a few times before he trotted off. He never paid me much attention.

🤣🤣🤣... best mount ever!

I think folks missed the last part of my post where I stated animals with a large amount of life get another bullet or arrow.

It’s the down and clear eyed ones that get the knife.

Both my feet pin front and rear leg non knife hand pins the head.

Knife goes in scrambles about and then I back off and let them bleed out quick.

When I was guiding did that on a couple of caribou that were thrashing pretty good after being wounded by an archer and we weren’t allowed to shoot it because it would qualify for pope and young. That was a bit sporty but I was younger oh to be 40 something again.

Hey if it doesn’t work for y’all cool it works for me.

I've only used a knife to kill a wounded a buck once and I'll never do it again. Last year's buck was hit in the spine and wasn't going anywhere, but another 140 grain BT to the high neck seemed a way more humane way to bring things to an end.

Yep, and it got western fast.

A huge bodied Canadian 4x5 mule deer jumped up and attacked me when I grabbed an antler to position it for gutting. I had poked it in the eye, etc. I grabbed the other antler and fortunately its antlers were wide enough to pass on each side of my body with the top of its head butting me in the belly. With an antler base in each hand my arms worked like shock absorbing pistons, and I would step back as I cushioned each lunge.

Also fortunately, it was hit in its pelvis and so had no strength in its hind legs. That saved me from a full strength buck and probably saved me from significant injury. (My aim had been low at the back of its neck as it bounded away, and it had leaped up and caught the bullet in the back of its pelvis).

The buck backed me 40 feet across alpine meadow while I yelled to my 11 year old son to bring the rifle I’d leaned on a stunted tree. I told him not to shoot but to bring the rifle near. I twisted the buck’s neck and threw him down like a rodeo steer wrestler, then leaped away to grab the rifle and finish him.

My son has a wildly embellished version of this story but do not believe him.

Okanagon; that’s crazy that the “eye poke” did not work. Neurological shock from the hit to pelvis into the spinal chord??

My cousin - big body builder type- was called to an accident scene by a friend who hit a big buck. The buck was struggling and the friend was not a hunter and had no idea what to do.

My cousin grabbed it by the antlers and cranked it's neck all the way as far as he could and then snapped it.

Hard to believe but I have seen him do some crazy strength-related stuff.

I think for most of us who CAN'T bench press 400 pounds...a different approach is called for. Lol

I have no personal experience with this; however, I did witness the aftermath of it once.

I was about 17 years old at the time, one day after deer hunting, several of us were sitting around the table and someone mentioned where is Bill? Just as we were getting ready to go look for him, the door of the camp opens, and there stands Bill. His face and hands were covered in scratches and blood, his orange vest and his coat were just shredded. He went to the sink and washed his hands and grabbed a beer out of the fridge,

Then the question ..... what is the hell happened to you. He chuckled and said " Well, I made a huge mistake, I shot a good buck, and I was so excited that when I walked up on it, I didn't stop to make sure it was dead." He then stated that he walked up to it, set his gun down, grabbed ahold of the 12-point rack and the deer came too, and started getting up. He then said he tried to wrestle it back to the ground but then it took off and Bill just didn't let go. The deer ran nearly 500 yards dragging him through the woods, before it collapsed and expired.

We went out about 30 minutes later to get Bill's deer. It was a very impressive buck. Sadly, Bill is no longer with us now as cancer got him, but I will always remember the sight when that door opened at camp.

Friend of mine shot a nice buck several years ago and it dropped where it stood. When he climbed down from his ladder stand he just leaned his rifle against the ladder to go check out the buck.

When he got to the buck he picked up the head to get a better look and the buck came to and came up fighting. The buck got him with his antlers and proceeded to beat the snot out of him. Fortunately it was a cold day so my bud had on some extra clothes which were ripped in several places. He had some really bad, deep bruises on his torso and a couple of other bruises and abrasions on his arms and head. He looked like he came out on the short end of a bar fight. Lucky.

After he got his senses back my bud remembered hearing a shot on the adjacent property so even though none of the guys would own up to killing the buck, we were pretty sure they killed him “for good”.

I've seen a few that were mistakenly thought of as deceased when they really weren't. The most memorable for me was opening day 1995. Fortunately, I have all these old hunting memories printed out on paper. Some old timers years ago warned me that I should get that stuff on paper and don't trust your memory to retain all the details. Long story short: Opening morning, deep snow, on a big hillside with many level "benches" in what was then a shotgun/ handgun zone, (now rifle). I shoot a small buck at a paced off 50-60 yards with a smoothbore 12 ga. 870 slug gun with a 2.5x Leupold on top. He takes off over the edge of the bench going downhill. I walk over to the edge and see him lying motionless in the snow on the next flat ground beneath me, right at the edge of the next downhill slope. Go back to where I had been sitting, grab my gear and start down to my buck. He had to have been down almost 5 minutes by the time I did all that and walked down to him. As I got closer, I saw no sign of life or marks in the snow to indicate he may have thrashed around. No sign of breathing or anything else. Had the 870 in my right hand, loaded with safety on and as I got close, I was going to touch the muzzle to his eye to see if he were really dead. At a distance of about 2 feet this deer suddenly sprang to his feet like he was spring loaded. I was so startled that I had the safety off in a second and fired from the hip at point blank range. Whereupon he tumbled over the edge and slid downhill on the snow about 10 yards before piling into another tree and STILL tried to get up. Shot number 3 finished him off. That's when I noticed my fancy hip shot must have gone right over him cause it didn't hit him. That first shot at 50-60 yds. hit right behind the shoulder and exited. Still can't fathom how he could lay there motionless so long before I got to him. Learned my lesson that morning. I'm always REAL CAUTIOUS when approaching downed game.

All of mine have stayed dead. I've had a couple get up after several seconds and got a second round, but never up and run off after a length of time. Crazy to read some of the stories.

I had a hunting pal who was driving down I-85 in SC when he saw a deer get hit by a car and flop over dead on the road side in front of him. Not one to waste game meat, he pulled over and loaded her into his trunk. When he got home he opened the trunk lid and that deer sprung out and climbed all over him to get away.

There was a story about my grandfather that was very similar. I don't know if its true or not. My brother told me and he had a tendency to embellish. It occurred probably 70 years ago. My grandfather was a small man, probably 5'5" and 130 pounds. He shot a large buck and he put his rifle down to clean the deer and the deer jumped up, somehow hooked onto my grandfathers clothing, and dragged my grandfather for a ways. For all I know, my brother who loved to tell stories, heard the story and inserted my grandfather to make the story funnier.

I had an experience where I shot a buck and he went over backwards and went down an embankment. He was about 30 yds away looking straight at me, sitting on the ground against a tree, trying to figure out what I was. It was either take the shot or let him go. I took the shot figuring I would either miss or drop him in his tracks. After I fired, I ran over and he was laying down in a wash. As I sat there trying to calm down, he started to roll over and crawl to his feet. I shot him again and killed him. I went down to find the original wound and it turns out I had nicked him barely cutting the skin and he went over backwards and apparently knocked himself out. Had I sat there and given him some time before going over to him, he would have gotten up and walked away and I never would have seen him again.

I was taught to always be ready for a followup shot, as I approached a downed animal. I was also taught to approach from the animal's rear, and lightly poke its eye with my rifle muzzle, while paying attention for a reaction...again, being ready to shoot.

Of course, those lessons were driven home to me when I shot my first buck, back in '72. But that's way too much for my 2 finger tying skills to get into. If we ever share a fire, I'll tell you the whole story.