TXGunNut said
My story is about a suicidal deer. He was feeding alongside a two lane 55mph Farm-to-Market road early one morning. I saw him from nearly a mile away and I swear we made eye contact at least three times as I approached and slowed down. At the last possible moment he stepped out in front of my two year old Mercury (not a Winchester!) and I hit him going about 20mph. We made eye contact one more time as he slid across the road on his belly. I pulled over at the next wide spot, grabbed a (Winchester!) riot gun out of the trunk and went back to “put him out of his misery”. He was gone, my car needed over $2000 in repairs. 

 

Mike  

Did you HONK YOUR HORN!  Something I’ve seen countless times where I live and deer are plentiful & collisions are frequent, is cars slow down, maybe stop completely, but do nothing but wait for the deer to “make up its mind.”  Honking your horn–the minute you see it–will almost always snap it out of its “daydream,” & either make it cross the road or turn back–usually the latter.

Also, to avoid blinding them, I never turn on my lights until it becomes absolutely necessary.  And the $%&*@s who drive full time with their lights on, or with those blinding “blue” lights at night…  

Don’t try any of the above with a moose. Your car will be totaled and you might be dead. 

Clarence, your story about the Impala reminds me of a story when I was kid.  An an old boy driving a Pinto that hit a heifer out on the highway in front of our place.  Heard the crash and drove down out on the highway to see what happened.   Old heifer was laying on the ground with a broken leg, the Pinto wasnt looking that good either.  He didnt have a gun but I had a little Ruger 22 on me.  He commented that I couldnt possibly kill that heifer with that 22.  Walked up and put the muzzle behind the crown of her head and she dropped like a brick.  He kind of stood there in amazement.  Not sure whos heifer it was but was glad it wasnt one of ours, he was not too happy about the whole ordeal.  

Speaking of cows, when I was a kid my dad leased several places to run cattle.  I was with my dad one day to go and check on one of the places and an old cow had gotten down for some reason or another and we couldnt get her back up.  A lot of times if you get them back standing they have a fighting chance to make it.  We brought water and feed for her for a couple days but when they get down like that there usually isnt much more you can do.  He decided to put her down, shot her in the head about 5 times with his 45.  Cow went down.  We came back by about 3-4 days later to put out some cubes and check cattle and that old cow was still alive.  I guess she just got knocked out on the first go around.  A better placed shot ended it for her the second time.  Used to have her old skull with the collection of bullet holes through it till it rotted away many years later.   

As for whitetail deer, they are tough critters.  Last year I was with a buddy of mine on their ranch, we were shooting some bucks off the place and giving my son an opportunity to bag a deer or two.  We were driving the place and drove upon about a 4 yr old buck at 170 yards.  My son shot him with the 243 and he immediately dropped.  Could still see he was moving his head a bit so we waited a bit before driving down there.   We drove within 50 yards of that deer and he jumped up and ran into a strip of brush between  the sendero and the fence line.  My buddy and I got out and ran through the brush to the fence line to see that deer had already made it down the fence better than a 100 yards.  My buddy shot a couple times with his 94 carbine (32WS) as the deer ran the fence (missing), then the buck turned and jumped the fence.  Before he could get into the next stand of brush, and on the last cartridge, my buddy shot him in the shoulder and he dropped, now about 150 yards or better down the way.  We drove down to where he crossed the fence and sure enough he was laying there on the ground in the tall grass, but was still breathing.  I put my foot on his neck and then stuck him with my knife, rolling it around a couple times behind his shoulder, thought that was it.  We drug that buck under the fence and about 60 yards to the truck and found he was still barely gasping for air.  Stuck him again finally bringing it to an end.  Never experienced a deer shot twice through the shoulder and then stuck with a knife, twice, before expiring.  A true testament to how tough they are and how adrenaline can keep them going in a pinch. 

About 25 years ago, my buddy and I were sitting at the bar in a remote logging town after chasing deer all day. Friends came in saying they hit a bear (F350) so we all went out to see it in the truck bed. We got out in time to see the canopy lift off and get tossed on the hood as a very mad black bear (est 500 lbs) exited the bead, and real men ran back for the door.

Folks, just got to add to this!  When I was stationed in Germany, I got my hunting credentials and hunted the roe bucks in the summer (July being their breeding season).  I used my Winchester model 70 in caliber .270 Win, and was shooting factory Remington cartridges with 150 grain roundnose bullets.  I had shot a number of roe buck by the time this event happened.  One shot kills, basically dropping in their tracks, which is what the forest meisters want as they sell the meat.  A BIG roe buck will go about 20 to 22 kilos (say 45 lbs).  I was in a high stand and had instructions to shoot this small yearling as he was not a good candidate for allowing to grow to breed.  I saw him out in the alfalfa and promptly shot him right behind the front leg.  I could see blood and lung tissue spray out the other side, but the youngster, probably all of 35 lbs of him, looked around, took a few more bites of alfalfa, then lay down like he was going to take a nap.  He then rolled over dead.  When I went out to dress him, there was a tremendous amount of lung tissue sprayed all over the alfalfa.  Needless to say, I was and still remain amazed at the results of shooting that young fellow!  I have his trophy, his essentially buttons, mounted and in my reloading room to this day.  Don’t underestimate the stamina of wild life.  Tim

Way back in my youth a friend and I shot a black bear just inside the boundary to the local Rez. It wasn’t all the way expired yet, but we heaved it into the back of my high boy Ford and made a hasty exit. Headed south into Pudunk, Wa (not the real name) Bear crawls to the tailgate and pulls itself up. I tap the breaks, it falls back down. Pull up to the local gas pump where a buddy works. Bear is slowly (almost dead) making it’s move to the tailgate again. Buddy comes out of the station. “Hey, check out the bear we got in the back.” He walks around the pumps to the back of the truck just as the bear pulls itself up enough to stick it’s head over the tailgate. Hilarity ensued. Mutts (my buddy) likely shat himself. “It’s still alive!” as he runs away from a certain deadly mauling, Not. Yeah well that was it’s last gasp and it fell back to the bed of the truck, dead. Could not have planned it any better. Poor Mutts is probably scarred for life. 

BTW on the same Rez when I was a kid I helped an old Indian man capture a black bear cub. And here in Alaska I helped a friend rescue 3 cubs that were still in the den. Eyes not even opened yet. 1986 or 7. They were featured on the Today Show that year with a follow up one year later. Pretty cool helping him raise them for the first few months before they were sent off to California for a bear behavior study.

I have more bear stories, but will save some for later. Been around them all my life. The Rez where our family logged was crawling with them. Saw bears almost daily. Sometimes many sightings or interactions in a day. Fun times. Well, fun right up until it isn’t. Been charged a few times.

Henry Mero said
In good old Canada We are ampidextrious ( must check spelling),  and bi-lingual, going back and forth meters, yards, meters ,yards, eh! I have a friend with the first name of Miles, He was really confused when We went metric. American girls are really impressed when You tell them You’re 16 centimeters. By the way I’ve never had to shoot a deer, bear or moose, I have a lot of friends who are better shots than I am and beef and pork are still reasonable at the meat market.  

Is Canada’s most important trading, cultural, & mutual defense partner America or Europe & the Turd World?  Sadly, your Parliament didn’t consider the answer to that question.