this REALLY happened! how?

[squeeze2drop]

Ok guys so 2nd weekend of deer season my bro and I were huntin and a buddy of ours told us of a nice buck in area but we about a half a mile away in canyon so as we get in general area finally, we see nothing, my bro heads over top to head back to truck(he's on opposite side of canyon, walkin across wheat field) and I decide to stop at a nice lil point where I can see 3 ways, well I happen to get lucky and find this buck standing about quarter of way up about 450 yds away, I couldn't believe it, and I must say its very cool to find a nice buck and see him before he sees u, anyway I called my bro on radio and told him I found it, he was almost back to truck and had to walk back across field, took him a good 20 mins, so I just watched this buck literally not move an inch till my bro got directly above him. Then he got curious but never spoked, he was directly under a rock ledge, I gotta toot my horn n say I put my bro within 50 yds of him, my bro did an amazing job of keepin quiet in those rocks, anyway, he finally gets to a spot where he can get a shot, and keep in mind I'm watchin all this develop with my binocs 450 yds away, I'm ahead of them so if the buck runs ill get a shot, so anyway, my bro is starin at this buck with his binocs, and I walkie "dude if ur gonna shoot, then shoot cuz its not gonna get any easier!" Lol and at that moment I see my bro draw his rifle and the buck starts to trot off, and before I even hear my bros gun go off, I see the buck do 2 complete rolls in the rocks, I guess my brother was so close to the deer and I was so far, that the sound didn't have time to get to me? Lol anyway that was cool, ok so here's where u guys r gonna laugh and give it to us, my bro and I forgot our knives in truck, in my 15yrs, I've NEVER forgot my knife in truck, neither has he, but for whatever reason, that day we BOTH did, so anyway he radios to me that he's gonna walk to truck I say ok and ill go to the buck and stay with it, it took me a good 15 mins to get to it, so I get within 30 ft of it, and I see it breathin and his stomach is movin good, so I back off and radio "hey bring the pistol, he's breathin good" and I set my rifle down and back off a few feet(dumb) and my bro walkies back "what" and I repeat it again, and just as I finished, this buck pops up! I wish there was a camera to capture my face cuz I'm sure it looked like I'd seen a ghose, well by the time I got it together and grabbed my rifle, he was 120yds in trees and sagebrush, movin JUST fine, I took 3 shots but nothin, I got on the other side and my bro came with me and we tracked him for over a mile! NOTHIN!!!! All we found were 2 drops of blood, the size of a nickel about 100 yds from where I missed him, I've heard a couple theories about what happened, but I know YOU guys will prob give me the best answer, thanks for your time fellas

[Boss .300 winmag]

His mommy taught him how to play dead, or possum. It happened to my aunt, she even got the tag on it before it ran away. A guy shot later, she strolls up, he is in disbelief that it was tagged (lady if you can tag them on the run you can have it).

[wapiti hunter2]

 

[Hunterman]

What was wrong with shooting him with your rifle when you saw him breathing  Hell of a story though..

Hunterman(Tony)

[Michelle_Nelson]

You should have put another round in him using your rifle. 

[Bob33]

I've seen that happen quite often to animals hit near the spinal column.  They are stunned from the shock but nothing vital has been hit. 

[Hunter Dug]

If you had time to radio your brother to get the pistol you had time to put another round in him with your rifle. 

[squeeze2drop]

Hunterdug-ya I did, but at the time he was still on ground, I wasn't expecting him to pop up, just bad judgement on my part I guess. Well, a couple say that my bro shot him and hit his rack and he tumbled and the blood was from his nose? Cuz he was runnin fine, no probs

[ribka]

I've seen that happen quite often to animals hit near the spinal column.  They are stunned from the shock but nothing vital has been hit. 

X2 Have seen it a few times too.

[thomasmx]

This almost exact thing happened to me...I shot a buck uphill and when I hit it, it flipped all the way down almost to my feet. It has a  badly broken leg. I already had my .45 out. When I got to it, it was not breathing but the eyes were closed. I looked at my buddy behind me at let him know it was a nice 3x4 muley. Gun still drawn, I looked back at the buck and out of nowhere it opened its eyes and somehow with a bent in half leg it jumped straight up in the air! Like I said...i still had my pistol out and put one right in its head for the end of the hunt. Scared the living crap out of me but the difference was, I had a gun out and I did what needed to be done. I guess I should have shot it right away with the pistol but who knows.

coulda, shoulda, woulda.....just kill it! Good story guys!

[Nash]

He probably just hit a loose rock as he was trotting off, tripped down the hill, and banged his head.

[halflife65]

I shot a bull about 10 or 15 years ago at about 70 yards right in the boiler room.  It only ran 25 yards or so and fell over.  I thought it was dead but when I walked up to the elk it jumped straight up.  I ended up shooting it right at the base if the throat.  It was about 10 feet away and I remember distinctly that I was looking over the top of the scope and not through it.  Scared the crap out of me.

[bigpaw 77]

I have heard a lot of story's like this before, Its to bad you guys did not get him. I would have put another round in him to put him out of his misery. But I understand it was your brothers deer and you wanting him to put the deer out.

[DoubleJ]

The blacktail I'm after this year is 5 years old.  He is named "Zombie" around here.  The guys at the local bar have claimed to have shot him at least 4 times in the past few years.  They claim that they get to where he was shot and follow the blood trail only to have the blood trail end and find no deer on the other end.  He is a very recognizable deer with a large scar on his left side.  1morebuck saw him a couple of weeks ago.

[GlennGTR]

1) Shot placement is always job one. 2) How many hours did you spend trying to recover that deer? 3) It is illegal to use radios for the purpose of locating and harvesting deer. 4) Always aproach any downed game as if it still poses a risk to you or others.

[carpsniperg2]

I've seen that happen quite often to animals hit near the spinal column.  They are stunned from the shock but nothing vital has been hit.  

x2 we call it the mystery gap. under the spin above the vitals. a lot of time like said the shock will drop them and stun them. But only for a little bit.

[boonerboy]

hit him in the 0' zone....or Oh, NO zone.

[hughjorgan]

1) Shot placement is always job one. 2) How many hours did you spend trying to recover that deer? 3) It is illegal to use radios for the purpose of locating and harvesting deer. 4) Always aproach any downed game as if it still poses a risk to you or others.

Don't go making up your own regulations with number 3. It is perfectly legal in this state to use radios.

As far as the deer getting away, if there is any doubt the thing is still alive when you walk up on it, put another one in it.

[Kain]

I have heard stories like this before.  I think the ones I heard may have been tall tales though.  

One was a young man that shot his first buck, a little spike.  They get to it and it isnt quite dead so his old man tells him he is gonna have to slit its throat.  The kid step over the deers back grabs it by the nose and just as he start to slice the spike jerks its head back goring the kid in the leg, hitting an artery.  The deer runs off and the kid dies.

The other is about a guy who gets a deer and is about to gut it.  He grabs it by the back legs to roll it over on its back when the deer comes alive and stands up while the guys still has the deers back legs.  For some reason his pants fall down just as his hunting buddies pull up in the truck.  Imagine the picture: guys standing behind a deer and has it by the back legs, pants down around his ankles.  

[Kain]

1) Shot placement is always job one. 2) How many hours did you spend trying to recover that deer? 3) It is illegal to use radios for the purpose of locating and harvesting deer. 4) Always aproach any downed game as if it still poses a risk to you or others.

Don't go making up your own regulations with number 3. It is perfectly legal in this state to use radios.

As far as the deer getting away, if there is any doubt the thing is still alive when you walk up on it, put another one in it.

I dont see it anywhere in the regs either. 

[markts]

Radios illegal :dunno:hope not I have used them for years

[HuntingFanatic]

After reading the regs I guess I will have to stop putting radio collars on the deer.... lol

I swear I read that it was Illegal, but I cannot find where I read it......

[halflife65]

I think that it's illegal to use radios to guide another hunter or to coordinate to get game.  However, I think HAVING the radio is ok if you're just using it to communicate with others in your hunting party.

[carpsniperg2]

i am not sure of the law. i don't use radios to hunt. but i am sure it could maybe get twisted into party hunting, if telling people were telling others where the animals r at.

[PA BEN]

Shoot the dam deer in the neck. Now the coyotes have it.

[mtndew]

i am not sure of the law. i don't use radios to hunt. but i am sure it could maybe get twisted into party hunting, if telling people were telling others where the animals r at.

I know that at one time (within the past couple seasons) there used to be a section in the reg's that stated very clearly that you could not use a radio to assist in taking a animal. Just went thru the reg's and did not see it.  

[highhunter]

A good family friend of mine received 37 stitches when he grabbed his "dead" mule deer buck by the antlers. The buck jumped up, became briefly entangled in my friends jacket, and raked his chest with it's hooves. He was 77 years old at the time and the wife made him hang up his rifle! Hard to believe but its true!

[gasman]

It is illegal to user radio waves to track animal the have radio collars on them.

It is illegal to be hunters companion and hunt for a disabled hunter and use a radio for contact. The law used to be that you had to be in "ear shot" of teh disabled hunter, but people abused it by having radios and would hunt miles away for the disabled hunter and claim they were with in "ear shot". Now the rule has change that the disabled hunter can be no more the 1/4 mile away from his hunting partner, or some thing like that.

Radios can be used to to talk to each other in any other way, shape, or form.

[bullrider97]

Glad to see you are in one piece. Lucky man to not have been gored, kicked, or even killed. I always triple check before I latch on, let alone if I can still see it's breathing. Too bad it got away. 

[Fishnclifff]

Great story.

I would have put a round in its neck.
I am troubled by the using of the pistol to put the animal down.

If it is a legal pistol by reg definition ( 4in barrel and min 24 cal)  okay

but why not just shoot the dam thing and be done.

[carpsniperg2]

yeah i know i have read about the radio collars deal in the regs before. guys were using radio telemetry, tracking devices to locate bulls that had been collared. they busted a group in the Yakima rez i guess that was using them and had killed to like 3 big bulls.

[thomasmx]

1) Shot placement is always job one. 2) How many hours did you spend trying to recover that deer? 3) It is illegal to use radios for the purpose of locating and harvesting deer. 4) Always aproach any downed game as if it still poses a risk to you or others.

It is NOT illegal to use a radio in washington to hunt any animal. Yes some states use this law though.

[jagermiester]

I saw a bull elk get hit in the brisket and it put him down like a ton of bricks he layed there for five minutes and we started walking up the hill toward him whenwe were half way there he got up and ran off. Luckily for us there was snow and we tracked him the next mornig and got him.

[link]

I really don't know what to say. Wow.

[steen]

You could have hit him in the antler and just stunned him or grazed the spine as someone already said.  Brisket is another area where they get back up and run but not likely in this case cause you onlyfound 2 spots of blood.  Bummer!

[hawksfan75]

How would the tag situation work on this? Brother makes the original shot and puts it down. But if had shot it, squeeze2drop would be the one to put the fatal shot in it. Who has to tag the deer? What if the person watching the deer doesn't have a tag?

Hopefully I never have to experience this sort of situation. If I ever get that shot, I'm making sure it's a good one.

[steeleywhopper]

Keep shooting until they're dead!

[Wyoming08]

  2 words for you...DOUBLE TAP!!!  You didn't want to shoot it because it was your brothers buck, but when it jumped up you MISSED it 3 times... I'm stumped as to what to say.