weird deer encounters...

mid eighties I was hunting in a river swamp, big trees and pretty open. I had a doe appear and come within 40 er so yards of me. I eased my 25/06 up and fired as the crosshairs held on her neck. BOOM! I could see easily for 75 yards past her. At the shot she disappeared. POOF! Gone. Pretty sure she hit the dirt right there. I saw NO deer run off, would of been easy to see one. Light recoil from the 25. I slowly walked up to see her. NO DEER, nothing, nada. I have no idea where she went or haw she got there. I looked for an hour, still baffles me what happened.

mid nineties I was hunting near leeds on a power line, out of a tripod. Had a rock solid rest over a sandbag. Due to the terrain I could see any deer come out of the woods for maybe 20 yards, then out of sight for 20 yards, then in the open again. A doe came out, looking back. I eased the gun into position. A good buck appeared, then stopped broadside at 250 yards in light sage grass. LEFT side to me. I held steady on his LEFT shoulder and touched off the 7mmRM. He disappeared. The doe ran to my left , then slowly walked back, staring at one spot. I knew the buck was down by her behavior. I went to get help and a Gator to retrieve the buck. We got him loaded and I looked at the left side to see where I hit him. NO HOLE! WTH? Rolled him over and there is a hole in his right shoulder, but it looked like an entrance hole to me. Rolled him again and felt a lump under the skin on his LEFT side..the bullet hadn't exited, was just under the skin. The deer was clearly shot right side to left side...BUT I shot him left side to right side....damniffIknow.

How much alcohol was involved?

Shot a doe 3 times once at 50 yards. Thought I missed the first 2 shots because she just stood there looking at me never flinched anything. 3 shot she dropped. Had to go home get a canoe to go across the creek and get here. Get over there to load her up and she was hit all 3 times exactly where I was aiming. Damn if I know

I was hunting one afternoon at a club in Dallas county. I was looking down a dirt road with a green field at the end of it approximately 80 yards away. A doe stepped out between me and the green field, so I lifted my gun and fired. Knocked her down, but she got back up and stumbled into the woods. If you keep walking there is another dirt road that runs parallel to the first dirt road she stepped out into, I knew that she would not walk far before her path would take her across the second dirt road, so I hustle down to the next turn and look down the road(because if I didn't see her come out in the second road, I had a pretty good idea that she would be dead somewhere in the woods between the two roads that run parallel to each other) Sure enough, she stumbles out in the road, limping pretty bad. I shouldered my rifle and fired again, she buckled at the knees and hit the ground a second time, however she got back up and ran off again. I never found the first drop of blood.

Doe skint back probly 150yrds runnin right to left like the devils on her heels in a wide open cow pasture...daddy throws up his bar and leads her like a dove....first shot is a miss...second shot she flips in the air like she hit a land mine and cartwheels a good 15 yards before she comes to a stop...she kicks a couple times and then shes done..we walk over..bullet went in through the shoulder on her left side..exited..about 4in to the right of the entry..on her left side...best we could figure is the bullet deflected while she was flyin through the air and her body flipped around the bullet an it came out the way it went in ...it was weird.

It was 1999, or maybe it was 2000 in Russell County along Uchee Creek. Bow season opened on Friday and I couldn't be there. Arrived in camp after dark on Friday and one of the guys tells me about the buck he stuck on the southernmost greenfield of our property. Our property was about 2 miles long and maybe a mile at the widest.

That Sat. morning I settled into my stand at a creek crossing about a 1/4 mile north of where the guy lost his buck the day before. Another guy went to almost the northern extreme of the property. I watched a group of does walk by me about 7:30 or thereabouts and then nothing until around 9:30. A six pointer crossed the creek and walked towards me. As he was coming up the high creek bank right towards me I noticed that he looked like he had a car antenna sticking right straight up out of his rump that would "wag" back and forth as he walked. It didn't appear to be bothering him too much and as he came into bow range he passed behind enough underbrush for me to draw. By now I could tell that the antenna was actually an arrow. As I came to full draw, he reappeared from behind the vegetation. My aluminum arrow fell off of my TM Hunter rest and clanged loudly as it fell across my climber and down the tree trunk. The little Buck jumped and ran underneath my tree to a spot that was still in range but on the other side of the tree. To this day I'm still not sure how I was able to grab another arrow, nock it, turn around, and draw without the whole tree shaking all of it's leaves off and the deer changing counties. But I did. And I took the shot and the buck ran off once more. I watched as my fletching ran off with the deer, and his antenna.

I gave it about 30 minutes and couldn't stand it any more. I climbed down and found good pink frothy blood at the spot he had been standing, but not much of it. 35 yards and I was on my hands and knees looking for the next speck. At that time I wasn't a very experienced tracker, but one of the guys in camp that weekend was excellent at it. I decided to go get some help. So I headed back to my four wheeler and there lay my deer, literally 2 feet from the back rack. I loaded it up and headed back to camp grinning ear to ear with my first bow killed deer, and it was a buck. Albeit a small buck. It didn't matter to me though. You couldn't have wiped the grin off my face with dog schitt.

I had him about half skinned and his antenna removed when my buddy that went North that morning backed up to the skinning shed with another buck on his truck. Once out of the truck and he saw my deer, a very perplexed look came over his face. He swore that the deer I was skinning looked exactly like the buck that he had shot earlier that morning. I told him about the antenna and showed him the wound on his rump. Then I grabbed the arrow and it matched the ones in his quiver. Sometime during this, the other guy that had hunted the Southernmost area the day before walked by his truck and asked him where he had found "His" deer.

So what we figured out happened was that the deer from the day before had traveled at least 2 miles and died in the same trail the the antenna deer had ran off on that Sat. morning. The antena deer had to have stepped across the dead deer and then circled way back to the south where I was waiting. My buddy that installed the antenna found a buck laying in the trail that the one he shot had ran off on, so he thought it was the same deer he had shot. He loaded it up and headed back to camp with it. When they started skinning that deer they found a broadhead and a short piece of an arrow that matched the arrows of the guy from the previous day.

Strange, but true.

Last year my son and I walked into a field to climb in a shooting house. To get into this house we had to walk through thick mud that created loud sucking sounds as we cranked through it. Maybe 30 yards of this. Well come into a field and there’s a mature buck 40 yards away licking a branch. I could tell he was massive body but not big enough rack to meet club rules. We freeze and watch him watching us for maybe 5 minutes. At that point we figure well I guess we have to run him off to get into the house, so we just walked in plain view directly across the field making all sorts of racket through the mud. Dang deer stands and watches us. Opened up shooting house windows, got gear set etc, still standing watching us.

I put scope on him and he’s a giant 3 point. Dude stands there for 5 more minutes watching us look at him through the window. He finally walks off.

This was on the day I figure a peak rut, so I guess he’s out of his mind. Strange thing to walk clear across a field with a mature buck just watching you.

Several years back, I was hunting the early muzzleloader season in TN. I was in a stand in a big white oak in the corner of a field with woods to my back & a wooded ridge to my left, with a big field out front and to my right.

Shortly after daylight I see a nice buck walking along the edge of the wooded ridge to my left, heading towards me. I figure I will let him get as close as possible before shooting. About 175 yards out, he decides to make right turn and enter wooded ridge. I stop him just as he turns broadside and take a shot, but I could tell that he wasn’t hit, as he bounded out of sight into the woods.

I begin the process of reloading my CVA Optima Pro as I replay the shot in my mind. I drop in 150 grains of pyrodex pellets, place the bullet and sabot in the muzzle. About the time I finish pushing the bullet in with the bullet starter, I hear a stick break and look down to see the same buck I missed staring up at me from about 10 yards away.

As we lock eyes, he turns and starts walking casually away from me. At this point, I know I have less than 10 seconds to take another shot before he is too far in the woods. So I break my barrel open and stick a primer on, close the barrel, and quickly shoulder the rifle. As I find him in the crosshairs, I settle just behind his shoulder as he quarters away.

I wish I knew the right words to describe the sound that my rifle made as I squeezed the trigger. Instead of a thunderous boom, I hear something that sounds more like a large cork gun firing, and watch the buck walk away none the worse for wear.

Obviously, I was a little confused as to how this deer had escaped such a chip shot, and why did my rifle sound constipated? After replaying the events leading up to the shot, it occurred to me that I had never seated the bullet with the ramrod. So basically when I pulled the trigger, I had 3 unrestrained pyrodex pellets and a bullet seated about 2 inches from the muzzle. Upon realizing the error of my ways, I just had to laugh and be thankful that my barrel didn’t rupture.

Sent 5 arrows at a doe once before 6th killed her if that counts..not sure what happened on all those shots but it ended with her staring up at me at 15yrds with a shot in her chest..she was 100lb too...ive never got a second chance with bow but I got plenty then I was young..prob 16 or 17

I was hunting a big 12 point on some public ground late season. Deer were on a heavy feed pattern after It snowed and on Day 3 of hunting that spot I finally put an arrow into him

I tracked him in the snow, blood on both sides for about 150 yards until the blood trail just hit a wall. It went from cups to specks in the span of a yard. I gave up the hunt and cams back the next morning at daylight. Well with the snow I was able to get back on the blood trail. I followed that thing for 5 hours and about 2 miles before the blood just started showing up in the hoof print.

As I followed that bloody hoof print in the snow I got to thinking..”man that’s a small track for a buck”.........”man, the buck I shot HAD to have a bigger hoof print than that”.


I still remember stopping in my tracks after figuring it out....somebody else had shot a deer and I got off on a SECOND blood trail in the snow. I doubled back and sure enough my buck had made a directional change right where he crossed the track of the other deer. It’s like they met at T intersection and both made a turn. I just kept walking straight onto the new deer’s line of travel! I ended up finding it at 1:00 pm after 220 lbs of whitetail had been reduced to bone by the local coyotes.

The other twist was that my shot had not killed the buck quickly; I got to follow the track and watch it play out from beds, to chase, to final show down with the coyotes. Gruesome.

I rarely tell this story because it does sound unbelievable. Early 90's before most of us even fooled with trail cameras. I was hunting our farm and knew from the track this was a HUGE/OLD buck for Baldwin County. I had killed a lot of deer by this time in my life mainly dog running, but quite a few still hunting. I had already figured out that those older deer did not come into our farm fields until dark. It was early December and I decided to set up close to a mile from the fields, close to a swamp in hopes of catching him coming from his bedding area. 30 minutes before dark I see a doe and a bruiser 10 point trailing her. It's December, what the heck! I mean he has his nose stuck to her rear. I get the shakes as bad as I ever had before or since. He is not over 70 yards and I try and steady for the shot. I flubbed it and the doe takes off and the buck does not flinch. I had already noticed the buck was plumb grey faced, large and sway backed. I can't believe what I'm seeing. I start to wonder if I've killed him and he's being held up by brush. I climb down and ease up to him. He still does not move. I then notice that the doe's tail is in his mouth. The buck had gotten so old he had gone blind and the doe was leading him around. Remember, I was close to a mile from our fields where I could get a truck to load him. I, being very resourceful even then, eased up and grabbed her tail and led him back to the edge of the field where I could get the truck to him and dispatched him. Extremely weird.

Ha Ha! you got me. I was sucked in till the last sentence!

I had a similar experience, but with my cell phone. Some buddies and I were hunting public land in Kentucky. Me and a buddy chose similar areas so we decided to walk in together then split off at the last minute to our spots just a couple hundred yards away. I was periodically checking my phone to make sure I was on the correct course. When I made it to the top of my tree I went to grab my phone to see what time it was and it was gone. I knew there was no chance of finding it. It was on silent and I wasn’t walking down a road or trail. Just took a heading through thick woods. As it turns out my hunting partner shot a buck that afternoon and we let him lay over night and went to track the next morning. About 100 yards in to the track I look down and there lays my phone right in the middle of the blood trail. There is blood splattered on it and everything! Never found his buck but I was happy!

Mid 80's muzzle loader hunt in TN. I am hunting a long logging road. A big meaty doe is in the middle of the road. I get the shot off the smoke clears and she is still standing in the road. I reload and shoot again success doe down. I climb down get to the deer. Two deer.

Do What???

Shot a big 8pt that was running a doe. Shot it thru one shoulder and it came out the brisket. No vitals were hit. It swam the coosa river, which is about 200 yards wide where my club joins it. When we went to the other side to retrieve it, it was still alive and had 2 broke front legs. It tried to get away, but all it could do was to push with its back legs and just plow with the brisket into the ground. I still wonder how the hell that deer swam the river without the use of his front legs. Must of looked like a model A plug going thru the water.

My best buck traveled 4-500 yards with 2 busted up front legs.. know clue how he managed that..i was certain I was gonna find him 30-40 yards ahead every 30-40 yards cuz blood was strong for 1st couple hundred yards

not really weird -- but it was different -- i shot a doe once that had what i called a "Hollywood Ending" ... i blasted her with my rifle, and she stood STRAIGHT UP on both of her back legs, splayed her front legs out side to side, and then slowly tipped over dead onto her back!!!!

came across my cousin's deer that he shot the front legs off at the knee and thought this must be like getting a shot on a kangaroo. took 4-5 jumps before I got a good ear hole shot.

no shooting, but REALLY weird experience. I was riding in my truck with another fella( read: witness), LOL. I spotted a young 2-3 year old buck rubbing his antlers on a sapling, maybe 50 yards away. I wanted to get a pic so I stopped and got out, he kept rubbing so I quietly slipped closer. He saw me the whole way but kept rubbing. At maybe 10 yards he was getting nervous but kept rubbing his antlers. He'd rub, then look at me as if to dare me to get closer. Ha, at five yards I decided I NEEDED to touch him, damn the consequences!!! At four steps I had a tree between us to hold onto. He turned to leave and caught his antlers in a vine. I guess he thought I did it because he spun towards me, and in a flash I grabbed his right antler...just for a second...because he slapped the hell out of my hand with his left antler and lunged forward, just missing me. He ran maybe 50 yards, stopped and looked back, and went on.

The fella with me was laughing his ass off, said I was crazy. Maybe but I TOUCHED a live wild deer with my (now hurting) hand. Prolly wouldn't try that again but it seemed like the thing to do at the time.

I poked a doe in the ribs with a shotgun barrel maybe 40 years ago as I hid in a cedar tree on a deer drive on Nebo Mountain in Sumpter Co, thought that was cool at the time.

Bow hunting years ago. Had a doe walk right under me. When I shot, I heard the hit, then saw the arrow. The arrow goes straight up pass me and then falls to the ground close to where I shot. I sat there a few minutes thinking about what just happened. I still don't know. The arrow was covered in red blood and a little bent. How it made the 180 ,I have no clue. We followed blood until she went into wet swamp and didn't recover her.

7 or 8 years ago I was laying in bed one evening and my mother in law called from a winding road close to my house. She said a deer had been hit but wasn’t dead and she wanted me to come do something. I reluctantly headed that way and when I got there there were 3 cars and 3 women present. All with their headlights shining on a doe sitting on the centerline of the roadway. Head up, looking around and legs tucked under her just like she would plop down in the woods. I asked what they wanted me to do and they had no idea. While they debated a logical path forward I eased over to give her a look. No visible wounds so I reached over and pulled her ear. She slowly got up, walked across the road, jumped over some guardrail and walked up a hill into the woods. My work was done and I went home and went to sleep.

Not me but a couple cousins were walking around shaking vines skwerl hunting when they jumped a cow horn right beside them in a tree top. Said he made it a few yards running 200 mph before his horn hung a vine that turned him into a tree and killed it graveyard dead with a broke neck right in front of them.

Walked down an old log road and had a doe blow at me from thick stuff by the road. Out popped a tiny spotted fawn which ran right at me and stopped 5 yrds away. After what seemed like forever mom blew again and the fawn ran right past me within touch distance and ran up the hill. Was awesome.

A month ago I drove through a neighborhood and saw something laying in a guys driveway legs stretched out like a dog. Finally realized it was a deer and it looked dead. I even called a friend and told them a dead deer was laying in a driveway by a guys truck
Then this week, Monday I think I went back through the same neighborhood and across the street from where the deer laying in the driveway was. I see this maybe she is just a neighborhood pet??

Ben, we have a wild doe that eats cat food from the bowl, drinks water from bird bath, knocks all the bird seed out of the bird feeders, etc. We live in a subdivision.

Better than this poor guy getting killed by a deer.

https://www.kspr.com/content/news/H...INfgML3dmxkodFMIwMVsI07nL-47ffXbjaCwoAI8

1998 I think. I was doing a little late summer scouting with my wife in tow along the edge of a swamp on a club I had just joined along the Lee/Russell county line. I had bought a fawn bleat/distress call at the deer hunters expo in Birmingham a month or two earlier. I stopped and blew the call just like the video had shown and told my wife to be still and listen. About 20-30 seconds later, a big doe came running from more than a hundred yds. with a full head of steam. My wife jumped behind me when she heard the commotion and the doe ran past me at about 4 or 5 steps away. She stopped about 35 yds. away and started looking around anxiously before she launched right straight at us. The wife practically crawled under me as I started to yell and wave the deer off. The excited doe turned almost at my feet and kicked up dirt and leaf debris all over us then continued on out of sight. She came so close on that pass that I could have reached out with my elbow and hit her as she passed. It would have probably broke my arm and/or injured the doe though. I'm not a little guy and I'm surely not a wuss, but a deer running 35 mph straight at me would be like hitting Hershel Walker or Bo Jackson without pads on. I couldn't imagine if it had ran over my wife. I threw that call in the garbage back at camp. Things can surely get dangerous quickly if you're not thinking about what your doing in the deer woods.

I was sitting over a clearcut that a public road passed through, two does and a yearling standing in the road about 200yards from me. A truck is approaching and the first doe and yearling take off running , the second doe calmly walks out of the road about 10 yards, lays flat down and stretches her neck out flat on the ground. Once the truck passed she got up and did Mach 10 in the direction of the other two, it was not her first time doing that.