Page 16 - Safari Trails December 2017

Why We Shoot Deer in the deer
Wild
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 cat-
tle feeder and do not seem to
have much fear of me when we
are there (a bold one will some-
times 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
thing ran and bucked and twisted
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 twist-
ed 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 edu-
cation.
The first thing that I learned is
that, while a deer may just stand
there looking at
you funny while I just wanted to get
you rope it, they that devil creature
are spurred to
action when you off the end of that
start pulling on
that rope. That rope.
deer EXPLOD-
ED.
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
and pulled. There was no con-
trolling 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 painful-
ly somewhere. At the time,
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