Saw it and thought you hunters would enjoy it!

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. By this time I'm thinking, "Hey this
> > isn't so bad after all."
> >
> > 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 thingy. 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 up side 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, and the
> > pain from my broken arm. 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,
> > 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 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.

Thanks for sharin' that Red!