Whitetails never stop astounding me.

[kenhuntin]

I am now 50 years old and My whole life I have been fascinated by the Whitetail world.
 Like Herb Carniel once said "you see something new every time you go to the ballpark"  The same goes for watching the venison. If when you take a stand and you dispatch  a deer as fast as you can year after year without watching them do what they do You can really miss out on a lot of entertainment. Granted you may also not fill the larder but their body language will tell you when they are alarmed and ready to bolt or not.
  I have a story to share with you all that happened to me last night. A little background info first; I live in an area that about twenty whitetails frequent and Every summer they munch on the veggie garden and every fall gorge themselves on the apple trees in the yard. They come by pretty regularly and when I am doing some kind of chore and we happen upon each other I will talk to them in a calming voice as I walk away from them and the food source.  I will always say " Hello girls it's okay girls you can eat it's okay.There is a doe with a pair of fawns here this year that I have interacted with since they were born. All three of them. They know I am no threat to them and do not even look up sometimes while they are at the apples or the occasional corn I leave them. last night a buddy stopped by and said a deer was hit on the county road out back. He left and I chugged out back to see. It was dark and as I made my way out to the car with it's flashers on I heard rustling in the tree line. As I met the driver he told me He called the Police and thought the deer was done for because it laid motionless in the road for a couple minutes. But it got up and walked in circles for a bit and then went into the woods. Deer are  incredibly tough resilient animals. I walked down to the tree line where I heard the animal in the bush and when I got there the Police officer showed up and he came down with a flashlamp. I saw one of the fawns then just ten feet away behind the first tree. She was standing up and just looked fine other than her tongue was hanging out. He asked if I thought she would make it and I said she is distressed and could not tell if she had a broke jaw or what. I thought it was a tough call because they can survive a lot of hardship. Here is the cool part: I said using the same voice I talked to her all summer with  Hello girl, are you okay? She immediately came out from the trees and stood directly next to me between the two of us just as a fawn stands next to her mother. I knelt down and inspected her jaw and saw no damage. He spoke and said wow I have never been this close to a deer before. She then moved about five yards into the field and stopped. I again said hello girl are you okay? She came right back to my side He spoke again and she jumped right into a tree and got hung up. He said well she obviously is not right and asked if he should shoot it in the chest or the head. I replied right below the ear. I got a possession tag from him and she was very badly bruised on one side as well as a belly rupture that created a large hernia. The right decision although kinda sad was made. I am really not positive but I think that deer was looking for some kind of help and my voice was some comfort to a hurt little deer.
 Please feel free to add any special interactions you have had with deer in this here thread.

[The General]

Amazing story Ken  

[Dstark5625]

wow, that's an awesome experience you had.  Thanks for sharing.

[deadeye]

Thanks for the story.  A little sad but the car hit deer issue happens many times each day.  I can feel your pain in this one. 

[MTCOMMER]

That is an amazing story - VERY NEAT!  I would feed the deer in my backyard, it was in the metro, so they were already pretty timid.  I would be able to throw out corn or shake the bag, and if they were close - they would know I was out with food.  Sad about the little one, but I do agree you made the right decision.

[dakids]

One of the most amazing things I have ever seen was this buck had about a 2 inch hunk of bone shot out of its front leg. It barely made it through the winter and wolves, but it DID.
Before

After

[beeker]

well I guess it's good that when you cleaned it you found out there was internal damage that couldn't fix itself. going sepsis would be an awfully painful way to go.

one of my interactions that was fun..

when I first started bow hunting I was sitting off the north east side of carlos avery on a private farm.  walked out before light and took my stand. about 9:00.. my first deer of my life came walking out to the field.. with in 30 yards.. it was a small button buck..  I reached for my bow, and the little guy busted me. instead of taking off it hopped in circles and stopped under my stand.  looked at me.. and did the same thing like a little bucking bronco.. so I spoke to it "whats your deal?"... then he kinda pranced off.. I sat back down.. a few minutes latter.. he was back.. looked at me.. and started to eat.  he just wouldn't leave.  and I couldn't shoot him. eventually he went in some brush about 30 yards down the tree line and bedded down. gave himself a bath and took a nap.   

[stevejedlenski]

my dad watched a doe one time in the back yard protect a chipmunk from one of our cats. the cat would try and get to the chipmunk and the doe would step in front of it and stomp her hooves at the cat. eventually the cat got bored and left.

[kenhuntin]

Pretty cool stuff you guys added here. Thanks I get a kick out these stories. Sometimes deer can be so curious it leads to their demise right Beeker? They never do the same thing twice it seems. And stevejedlenski do you suppose that doe that run the cat off somehow had some idea that the chipmunk she was protecting was responsible for the acorn stash she was raiding???

[MNRealtree]

I have had a couple of cool interactions with a Doe that has been living on our land for about 4 years now. Im always looking for a buck while bowhunting so I have passed on her multiple times and she has busted me multiple times which leads me to believe that she doesnt see me as a threat anymore.

3 years ago I was working on tree stands in July. I had just finished fixing up a stand and was walking back to the trail when she jumped up in front of me and just stood there roughly 20 yards away. I watched her for a few minutes, and then started moving towards the trail. When I would take a few steps, she would take a few steps following me. We did this for quite awhile before she slowly turned and walked away.

Last year I was sitting on a small food plot when she walked in with her fawn. After watching her for some time, the wind switched and she caught a whiff of me. She looked right at me for some time, as did the fawn, and went right back to eating. She stayed there until dark eating, and periodically looking back at me while moving around the food plot, sometimes only 10 yards away.

And then this year I went up to the land at night to get some duck decoys out of the garage. When I pulled in I could see her standing in front of the garage door. She ran off into some tall grass, and I parked the truck. I got out of the truck and walked around towards the door when she walked back out of the grass and was walking towards me. She walked right up to me so I started talking to her trying to keep her from getting too close. I snapped a picture and watched her for a few minutes before she walked directly behind the truck and down the trail. Unfortunately the Picture didnt turn out too well in the dark.

[glenn57]

looks like my pictures in the fish contest1

[glenn57]

these are pretty cool stories. can say as I ever had any encounters with deer like that. they must be real scaared of me!!!!!!