Deer Roping

jason

fear no beer
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I had this idea that I was going to rope a deer, put 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 four 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 -- three 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 recieved and 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 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 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 responisibility for the situation we were in, so I didn't want the deer to have to suffer a slow death. 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 back in there and 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 bits you, its not like being bit by a horse where they just bing you and then let go. A deer bits you and shakes its head -- almost like a pit bull. They bite hard and it hurts!

The proper thing to do when a deer bits 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 then a deer (though you may be questioning that claim by now), tricked it.

While I kept it busy tearing the bejuses 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 that, when an animal -- like a horse -- strikes at you with their hooves and you can't get away easly, 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 and 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 three 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 kocks 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 laing there craying 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 so they can be somewhat equal to their "pray."
 

HereToday

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I know about deer being able to rake you with their front hooves. My father, being born and raised in Brooklyn, thought all wild animals were friendly. He directed my big brother to go stand next to a deer and put his arm around it in a friendly fashion while my dad snapped a picture. The minute my brother's arm touched the deer, it rared up and raked his chest with it's front hooves. The hooves tore my brother's shirt off and he still has the hoof scars to this day.
As to your encounter with a deer, as you pointed out, a gun is needed to kill it, as it is impolite enough to fight you "to the death". Fancy that!
 

sarahlorrain

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LOL, I've read that somewhere before. Wild deer are not friendly. Tame wild deer can learn to eat from your hand, but shouldn't be trusted nevertheless.
 

HereToday

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Thinking about my poor brother and the deer, it reminds me of another animal that can strike quickly: the goat. My son, when he was still small, was bending his head low as he fed a little goat some meal at an animal park. Once his head was at the level of the goat, the animal must have perceived some unfriendly attention, and butted my son through the chain link fence. My son had a bloody nose and a bleeding lip. Since that time, I steer any child far away from goats!
 

dtinnan

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Wow! what a story! and they call hunters inhumane for killing them with a rifle. never understood feeding an animal till it trusted me so i could kill it and feast on its carcass. guess I'd never make it as a farmer.
 

HereToday

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LOL, I've read that somewhere before. Wild deer are not friendly. Tame wild deer can learn to eat from your hand, but shouldn't be trusted nevertheless.
My mother, who is getting "a bit on", if you get my meaning, won't trust any deer. She ways that they know when she is gone from home (even though the cars are always in the garage), and dig up and eat her tulip bulbs. She thinks it is a deer conspiracy, seemingly, dedicated to eating every tulip bulb on earth.
 
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