pafret Loc: Northeast

Another post discussed the killing of a lion and digressed into game hunting in general and many Deer stories.

This is my Deer encounter story. Feel free to enter yours as well.

In the 1990's I worked in a city in another state, seventy-five miles from my home. I had a succession of older cars for work commute, which never lasted very long under the daily grind. I bought an extremely cheap new Nissan Sentra for my commute. I picked the car up about nine pm on a Thursday evening in Mid-November, the peak of the deer rutting season. I drove the car eight miles back to my home and picked up my wife to take her for a ride in the new wheels.

We were two miles south of my home and were passing a wooded copse next to an elementary school, at about thirty miles an hour. There was nothing on the road but me. I caught a glimpse out of my peripheral vision of something approaching my window. I turned my head slightly and in a brief flash I saw the triangular face of an animal. It smashed into the side of the car with such force it tore off the side view mirror, blew in the window, and deposited it in my lap. The sound was very loud and it sounded like whooooomp and screeching of metal. There was a secondary thump in less than seconds and the whole car rocked sideways. I brought the car back from the edge of the road where it had been driven by the force and stopped. I was looking in the rear view mirror and saw a Doe and a large Buck staggering off.

After I calmed my wife who experienced the worst panic attack of her life I got out of the car and checked out the damage. The front windshield was cracked, driver’s side wiper torn out of the metal and gone. Drivers door and rear door crumpled, center post caved in, front and rear quarter panels mangled. There was damage from the front to rear bumpers with deer fur adhering to the chrome trim strips. The rectangular profile of the car, seen from the front, had a large tilt to the left with wrinkles in the roof sheet metal.

I had been spitting glass out of my mouth and I tasted the metallic flavor of blood. When I got back into the car my wife had finally opened her eyes. She took one look at me and screamed because the glass shards had sliced my face so that I looked like the pincushion guy in horror films; each little spot the glass dice hit was bleeding.

My car was totaled so my encounter with those deer set what is probably a record of some sort. I had owned the car less than an hour and it had twelve miles on the odometer.

Neither of those Deer were killed on the spot so I couldn't even have Firestoned Deer to salvage.

Can you top this?

The Rebel

Will try to make a long story as short as possible...

My daughter and I raised my grandson due to her being divorced. He was 18 graduated from high school and time for him to get to know his dad. We lived almost a thousand miles from him so sending him back and forth was outta the question.

So off he went on the first long road trip of his life (Illinois to Texas). Sent him in my dad's van (which I bought when he passed away because I didn't want his personal license plate to be retired and if I bought it I could keep the plate) with the St. Christopher medal which dad had hung in there when he bought it . I used to travel a lot and when I did I mapped the route out ahead of time in my atlas and kept it beside me on the seat. So I mapped the route for him on an atlas to take with him. He was kind of excited but I think a little apprehensive. He left about 7 that night in order to hit all the big cities over night and avoid the traffic jams at rush hour. Gave me a hug and thanked me for everything and said he'd be okay. As he came across the bigger cities he needed to find the bypasses on my phone would ring and he'd ask me what he needed to watch for so he'd find the bypasses. Long night but I was glad he was calling because I knew that he was okay every time the phone would ring. At about 5 the next morning he called and said he was about 30 minutes from his dads so I could go to sleep cause he knew he could make it the last half hour without waking me again.

What he neglected to tell me was that he was calling his mom right after he hung up and telling her what was really happening. Shortly after that my phone rang and it was my daughter. She asked if I'd heard from him and told her he'd just called a little bit ago and she asked if he'd told me what happened. Was quite surprised since I thought the trip went well. When he called her he told her that the trip went well til then and all of a sudden the van stopped. He was having a fit cause he was so close to his dads and checking all the gauges/etc. When he looked up there was a deer right in front of the van and if it wouldn't have stopped he'd have hit it. He said as soon as the deer got across the road the van started running again and it was like it had never even happened.

Larry the Legend Loc: Not hiding in Milton

Back in 1997, my company moved operations from Ft. Lauderdale, FL to Lawrence, KS. I went with them. There was another line tech I met in Lawrence who used to go bow hunting on the first day of the deer season every year. He came into work one morning and told us this amazing story of how he had shot an arrow straight through a big 'mulie' buck from about 30 yards. The buck dropped almost immediately and he climbed down and went to claim his prize. Admiring the rack on this very fine specimen, he lifted it up and to his surprise, the deer stood up and started to charge him with that big rack of antlers. The only thing between him and those sharp points was his bow that he still had in his hands so it finished up jammed into the antlers as the deer ran off through the woods.

Fast-forward about two weeks and another of my workmates came in one morning with a very nice compound bow and laid it on the desk of our deer hunting friend who had lost his. He walks in, sees the bow, picks it up, looks at it, looks around him and asks out loud who had found it. It was the bow he had lost to the deer two weeks previously. Turns out that the deer had run out into the road and had been struck by his car on his way to work. It still had the bow stuck in it's antlers. We all had been somewhat skeptical of this wild bow hunting story until that moment. I, for one, never doubted his word again.

boatbob2

WhenI was a kid,in colorado,I was hunting with my buddies Game warden dad,I spotted the biggest muley I had ever seen (from about 150 yards) except this deer had his head way high,like he was looking at the sun,The warden told me shoot,But I didnt,looking through the scope,I found this deer had a brown,fringed jacket on,This idiotic hunter had killed the buck,and was carrying it on his back out of the woods. If I remember right,He was fined $100.00 for that stupid thing,That scope saved his life.

Larry the Legend Loc: Not hiding in Milton

By not firing, you proved yet again why it is imperative to always, always be absolutely sure of your target before firing. You did the right thing and that hunter is walking around today because of your good sense and disciplined responses.

I tip my hat to you.

pafret Loc: Northeast

This one is spooky. Your father must have really liked his van or that St Christopher medal was working overtime.

pafret Loc: Northeast

Another amazing story. I know these deer can survive a through and through because my son did it last year. He hit the deer and the bloody arrow ended up just behind where the deer was standing, on the ground. He shot it in our back yard and tracked the deer's blood trail for two hours until he lost it in the swamp near our property. Two weeks later a deer showed up to crop the grass and steal the duck food and it had the wounds on both sides. I posted pictures of this animal last year but I can't locate them. When my son comes home I will see if he has the photos.

pafret Loc: Northeast

Great save. Speaking of doing stupid stuff, when I was in basic training at Ft Dix in New Jersey I got guard duty for the first time. They issued me an M1 and a full clip of ammunition because I was going to guard one of the camp Magazines. These magazines were storage facilities of ammunition, bombs, bazooka rounds and ordinance of all kinds. There was a field with tornado fence all around and football stadium lighting everywhere, so much so that there were no shadows. All of the storage facilities were underground with only a grassy hump or small hillock showing. Many, many small hillocks. It took an hour to walk the perimeter; two guards set off walking, in opposite directions and met at the ends each half hour.

It was 2 am and the moon was full. One part of the path passed through a small swampy wooded area and as I was crossing this area I noted a small white animal, just off the path. I stopped to look and heard crackling sounds so I stepped toward the noise with my rifle held at roughly port arms. A doe deer stepped into the moonlit area. It moved to about ten feet away from me. It paused while I brought the rifle up to my shoulder and debated the likelihood the army would believe the doe looked like an intruder. I looked at the doe, the doe looked at me, neither of us moved until a small noise off to the right made her skittish and she moved away. A two-point buck stepped into the clearing just as the doe left and I could feel the squeeze starting.

Another sound and the buck evaporated; it was the distinctive metallic, schlack schlack of an M1 round being chambered. "Halt, who goes there?" I turned to see the other guard with his rifle shouldered and pointing at me. I had stood watching the deer so long that I missed the normal meet up time and he got nervous and was primed to shoot the first shadow that moved. I came close to needing clean shorts or a pine box.

GmanTerry

Wow, I love this story. I too have a story that I'm sure most folks find unbelievable. My proof isn't as cool as this. Thanks for sharing.

Semper Fi

teabag09

A tip of my hat also. Mike

teabag09

I had left hunting for the day and was driving home. Across a really large field I saw a doe coming across the field and knew she was running from dogs. I lost sight after a bit and all of a sudden she ran directly on to the road and leapt across the hood of my truck. At the time I had a small compact truck, a second's difference, she'd come thru the windshield. Can go on as I suppose can. Mike

boatbob2

At Redstone Arsenal Alabama,in 1972,It was bucks ONLY season,This staff sgt E-6,shot a little doe,then screwed a set of antlers on the does head,,when the dumbass took the deer to be checked by the MP s,the MP grabbed the horn and pulled it right out,I think that E-6,made E-5 pretty quick.

pafret Loc: Northeast

Here is the picture of my son's Bow shot through the Deer's body. It came back about a week later to graze in the same area.