37fleetwood
Riding a '37 Fleetwood
obviously this is not bike related but I got this e-mail and thought it might be an important lesson for someone not aquainted with deer. I of course lived in deer country for a while some time ago and was warned by the locals upon my arrival that deer were not to be triffled with and let me assure you this could happen to you!!
Scott
Roping A Deer,
I had this idea that I was going to 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 slowly 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, so 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 bejesus 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 so that they can be somewhat equal to the
Prey...
Scott
Roping A Deer,
I had this idea that I was going to 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 slowly 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, so 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 bejesus 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 so that they can be somewhat equal to the
Prey...
