sonocativo
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- Sep 25, 2012
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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 then let go. A deer bites you and shakes its
head --almost like a pit bull.
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.
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 then let go. A deer bites you and shakes its
head --almost like a pit bull.
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.