DEER HUNTERS.


(A letter from someone who wants to remain anonymous, who farms, writes well and actually tried this)


I had this idea that I could rope a deer, put it in a stall, feed it up on corn for a couple of weeks, then kill it and eat it. The first step in this adventure was getting a deer. I figured that, since they congregate at my cattle feeder and do not seem to have much fear of me when we are there (a bold one will sometimes come right up and sniff at the bags of feed while I am in the back of the truck not 4 feet away), it should not be difficult to rope one, get up to it and toss a bag over its head (to calm it down) then hog tie it and transport it home.


I filled the cattle feeder then hid down at the end with my rope. The cattle, having seen the roping thing before, stayed well back. They were not having any of it. After about 20 minutes, my deer showed up-- 3 of them. I picked out a likely looking one, stepped out from the end of the feeder, and threw my rope. The deer just stood there and stared at me. I wrapped the rope around my waist and twisted the end so I would have a good hold.


The deer still just stood and stared at me, but you could tell it was mildly concerned about the whole rope situation. I took a step towards it, it took a step away. I put a little tension on the rope, and then received an education. The first thing that I learned is that, while a deer may just stand there looking at you funny while you rope it, they are spurred to action when you start pulling on that rope. That deer EXPLODED. The second thing I learned is that pound for pound, a deer is a LOT stronger than a cow or a colt. A cow or a colt in that weight range I could fight down with a rope and with some dignity. A deer-- no Chance.

That thing ran and bucked and twisted and pulled. There was no controlling it and certainly no getting close to it. As it jerked me off my feet and started dragging me across the ground, it occurred to me that having a deer on a rope was not nearly as good an idea as I had originally imagined. The only upside is that they do not have as much stamina as many other animals.


A brief 10 minutes later, it was tired and not nearly as quick to jerk me off my feet and drag me when I managed to get up. It took me a few minutes to realize this, since I was mostly blinded by the blood flowing out of the big gash in my head. At that point, I had lost my taste for corn-fed venison. I just wanted to get that devil creature off the end of that rope.


I figured if I just let it go with the rope hanging around its neck, it would likely die slow and painfully somewhere. At the time, there was no love at all between me and that deer. At that moment, I hated the thing, and I would venture a guess that the feeling was mutual. Despite the gash in my head and the several large knots where I had cleverly arrested the deer's momentum by bracing my head against various large rocks as it dragged me across the ground, I could still think
clearly enough to recognize that there was a small chance that I shared some tiny amount of responsibility for the situation we were in. I didn't want the deer to have to suffer a slow death, so I managed to get it lined back up in between my truck and the feeder - a little trap I had set before hand...kind of like a squeeze chute. I got it to back in there and I started moving up so I could get my rope back.


Did you know that deer bite? They do! I never in a million years would have thought that a deer would bite somebody, so I was very surprised when ..... I reached up there to grab that rope and the deer grabbed hold of my wrist. Now, when a deer bites you, it is not like being bit by a horse where they just bite you and slide off to then let go. A deer bites you and shakes its head--almost like a big dog. They bite HARD and it hurts.

The proper thing to do when a deer bites you is probably to freeze and draw back slowly. I tried screaming and shaking instead. My method was ineffective.

It seems like the deer was biting and shaking for several minutes, but it was likely only several seconds. I, being smarter than a deer (though you may be questioning that claim by now), tricked it. While I kept it busy tearing the tendons out of my right arm, I reached up with my left hand and pulled that rope loose.

That was when I got my final lesson in deer behavior for the day.

Deer will strike at you with their front feet. They rear right up on their back feet and strike right about head and shoulder level, and their hooves are surprisingly sharp... I learned a long time ago that, when an animal -like a horse --strikes at you with their hooves and you can't get away easily, the best thing to do is try to make a loud noise and make an aggressive move towards the animal. This will usually cause them to back down a bit so you can escape.


This was not a horse. This was a deer, so obviously, such trickery would not work. In the course of a millisecond, I devised a different strategy. I screamed like a woman and tried to turn and run. The reason I had always been told NOT to try to turn and run from a horse that paws at you is that there is a good chance that it will hit you in the back of the head. Deer may not be so different from horses after all, besides being twice as strong and 3 times as evil, because the second
I turned to run, it hit me right in the back of the head and knocked me down.


Now, when a deer paws at you and knocks you down, it does not immediately leave. I suspect it does not recognize that the danger has passed. What they do instead is paw your back and jump up and down on you while you are laying there crying like a little girl and covering your head.


I finally managed to crawl under the truck and the deer went away. So now I know why when people go deer hunting they bring a rifle with a scope......to sort of even the odds!!

All these events are true so help me God...An Educated Farmer

Hilarious 😵 🤣 😂 🤣 😂

I have no doubt that is a true story.

A few days ago I had four does walk directly under my deer stand. Not near but directly under. Having speared and taken a few big game animals from the same type of overhead position I was in serious consideration of dropping the 14 feet, knife in hand on one and taking it.
Thought better of it and didn’t. Wish I’d read the above warning and saved myself even contemplating such foolishness

Osky

the knocks to his head must have started way before the above action. Had he been thinking clearly from the start, those deer coming to his feeder were corn fed, or at least grain fed.
the rifle with the scope was invented just for this situation!

Funny story, and I can believe it. I had a spike elk tangled up in a fence at my house about 20 yrs ago and I managed to cut it loose. I just got knocked down but my brothers dog who I had chased away several times got sucked in by elks front hooves and spit out the back as the elk jumped up and took off.

Well it’s only fitting that at least once in a while a deer gets to enact a little payback to the human critters that so seek to kill it and just make turds out of it.

Here's one awaiting a story...

My friend's dad tried something similar years ago. He was a rancher and was out riding one day when a nice 4-point muley (a ten point to you easterners) was paralleling him on his horse. He decided it would be a good idea to rope the thing since it was well within distance. As luck would have it, the lasso went right around the deer's antlers, he jerked the rope taught and quickly wrapped the other end around the saddle horn. That deer took off, hit the end of the rope, went airborne and landed flat on it's back! Unshaken, it immediately got up, spun around and with horns down, charged the horse & rider. The horse wasn't having ANY of that! It reared back and threw my buddies dad and took off at a gallop. In the mean time, the rope came loose from the saddle horn and the deer took off in the other direction. The ol' cowboy got the wind knocked out of him so it took him a few minutes to get back on his feet. Once he did, he found the rope some distance away. The deer was able to shake it off it's antlers as it bounded down the trail. The old man had a long walk back towards the ranch house with some bruised ribs and ego but was finally was able to catch his horse somewhere along the way.

Mule Deer 1 - Cowboy 0

I was in charge of a tailing impoundment at a gold mine 25 some odd years ago. We had a high game fence around it to keep the wildlife out. Every once in a while a muley would try and jump the thing and catch it's hind leg in between the top and second strands which would then twist 180* and hamstring the deer. I would go and get them out by cutting one of the wires to free the leg. I was pretty sporty back then but grabbing ahold of the back leg of a muley with one hand and trying to cut wire with the other is about the same as trying to hold onto the stinger of a jackhammer! Those things are strong! I have no doubt the OP's story could be true.

LOL. Good read.

Had a Rancher friend that used to try and rope feral hogs.
Finally got a loop around a big ole boar.
Jerked his best roping horse down and went after both of them. Said it was a damn good thing he only dallied the rope around the saddle horn and didn’t tie off instead.
He said he wouldn’t recommend anyone else try it. 🤠

I’ve let a few deer loose that were tangled up in our bobwire fence. Those front hooves are faster than a Pro Boxer and very sharp. 😬

Those two look like some real S TX Vaqueros !

In my younger years we roped and tied lots of hogs down along the coast and In that sorry rose hedge country between US59 and the bays. Hogs don’t have no neck nor horns so most catches was around the body. If your partner did his job and caught a hind leg you was good to go if not most of the time the hog no matter the size would run at the horse and try and get between its legs. That was back when you could sell a good size hog for half a days wages. Now they aren’t worth the bullet to kill them. Sure wish we could poison them.

I’ve heard some vaqueros roped a big buck pushes cows with a helicopter someplace down around Freer or Encinal and took it alive to the beer joint. I saw a picture of the buck tied in a truck bed years ago so I have no doubt it happened. I had a copy of the picture I’ll see if I can find it and post it up.
I do have a picture of my great grandpa who roped about a 6-7’ rattlesnake

Also heard some hands roped Nilgai down around raymondville
I’d be Leary of catching a Nilgai. I bet they’d kill a horse

They’d have to be some Thoroughbred Race Horses to catch a frickin Nilgai. Those suckers are FAST.

I believe they ran the hell outta them in that blow sand first

It reminds me of a story Patrick F. McManus wrote about trying to photograph some game and fish folks trying to trap and tag mountain goats.

I heard of a father and son duo in northwest (Harding Co) South Dakota who roped an antelope and spray painted it blue before letting it go. Supposedly the hunters found the animal quite interesting that fall.

Same guys supposedly caught a bobcat alive. They put it a suitcase and left the suitcase on the side of the road near a local Indian reservation then drove a distance away to watch. A car came along, and an occupant jumped out and picked up the suitcase. The car didn’t make far down the road before it stopped and all the occupants exited.

Can’t vouch for he veracity of those, just what I heard.

I tried to untangle a yearling doe that had a back leg hung in a fence.I grabbed her front legs to throw her over the fence and figured out quickly a 40 pound deer is stronger than a 265 pound man. I was lucky I wasn't hurt. I ended up cutting her throat and cleaning her. She tossed me around like a rag doll when I had a hold of those front legs.

They'll kill a horse/cow even without provocation.

After reading the deer roping storry I no longer claim to be from Oklahoma!

I caught one bare handed and took it home.

We kept it for a few days and then turned it back over to mama.............

None of this roping baited deer and jumping from trees knife in mouth crap!!!!

I thought your mama shot it when it kept getting in the corn.

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.