Always be prepared when approaching shot game.

Wow, son of a gun... In light of that I reckon I'll be going my .58 on the next hunt. Maybe I'll upgrade to something bigger. Shame.

While I'm sure these events happen, I hardly think they are "common" as stated in the article. Still everyone should approach downed game with caution. I always look for breathing and also, are the eyes open and unblinking. Then I touch the eye with a long branch. If there's no blink, it's dead.

Agreed. If it were super common then it wouldn't be "news". It is a good reminder of what is possible though.

Spikebuck said:

While I'm sure these events happen, I hardly think they are "common" as stated in the article. Still everyone should approach downed game with caution. I always look for breathing and also, are the eyes open and unblinking. Then I touch the eye with a long branch. If there's no blink, it's dead.

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Rifleman1776 said:

There is a saying among many olde time hunters that 'the most dangerous animal is a dead one'. Of course that means a animal that looks dead can still be presumably dangerous.

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Reminds me of Mark Twain’s nothing shoots as well as the unloaded gun. The boy that can’t hit the side of a barn can peg grand ma every time with an unloaded gun.
UN loaded guns and undead dear are just as dangerous.

I blame Walt Disney and the film Bambi for much of the misconceptions and the film should of been banned with in the first week of its release!

Reminds me of my Uncle Ned in VT. One deer season 30 years ago my Uncle shot a nice 8 point buck in the neck. He approached the downed deer and placed his rifle across the antlers to take a picture. When he stepped back to take the pic, the deer recovered from from the shock and took off with my Uncles rifle still in his antlers and the sling caught. Found the rifle two years later all rusted and dinged up. How long that deer carred that gun is unknown. The rifle was found about a half a mile from where the deer was shot. It has been a story told around our deer camp every year. If you could only see how sheepish my Uncle looked when he came back to camp without his gun. He is long gone now, but he used to cringe every time the story was told.

Buddy of mine once shot a very nice typical 4x4 mullie. We pulled his truck up beside it and proceeded to load it in the back. I jumped out to close the endgate while my buddy was still standing over the deer in the box. The moment that the endgate contacted that deers butt, he exploded and whipped upward with his head, raking his long antler tines all up the inseam of my friends wool pant leg straight to his crotch. The “dead” deer then stood, jumped over the side of the truck and started off. My friend retrieved his rifle and proceeded to shoot the buck again, thus forcing us to load this big guy once again! Oh, my buddy checked and much to his relief, that antler tine never touched skin anywhere up the full inseam, just opened it like a zipper, lol. We still laugh over that one.
Walk

My grandpa taught me to approach a fallen animal cautiously and touch it's eye ball with the end of your barrel. If the eye blinks pull the trigger. Worked for him and always worked for me.

I was taught the same trick. Walk up on backside away from legs and head. And touch the eye ball. Remember my grand father saying same thing. Not a thing alive likes the eye ball being touch. You will get a reaction. I remember being on a hunt and the tongue was out giant pool of blood and atleast 1.5 hr had passed. He touched the eye and the big girl jumped up. Immeadiately I heard 2 shots from his 1911.

Another old friend who shall not be named here was hunting up near Glacier Park in Montana. He shot an elk with his J&S Hawken .54 and walked up on the downed bull without reloading. It started to get up. He didn't have a pistol so without thinking he swung his rifle like a ball bat, holding it by the muzzle. He hit the elk in the back of the skull, breaking it's neck and the stock of his Hawken at the wrist. That rifle still wears the rawhide he repaired it with.
My father taught me to first prepare my rifle for another shot, then sit down and have a smoke or drink some coffee before walking up to dress out the game. Then he said to brush the animal's eyelashes with the muzzle of the rifle to decide if it's truly dead. A reloaded and cocked rifle. He said if it opened it's eyes or tried to stand when I did that, the rifle would probably go off again all by itself, or seem to.

When dad was a young man he and a buddy shot a deer in a shotgun zone. They thought the buck was dead, but were smart enough to have shells in the chambers. When his buddy walked up to it from behind to grab hold of it, the buck came to and started thrashing and howling while the two of them were a few feet away. Apparently it startled both of them and they panicked and emptied their mags into the deer without thinking about it. Never heard about how much meat they lost, but after hearing that story many years ago, I do not even pick up a downed squirrel without being absolutely sure it is dead.

GregLaRoche said:

A muzzle loader died after being attacked by a deer he shot. Take the time to reload and approach shot game with caution. Consider carrying a side arm.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/24/us/arkansas-deer-death-trnd/index.htmlX

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Always reload and carry a side arm, 44 cap and ball loaded to the gills. I have been made fun of for walking up behind the game and poking it in the butt two or three times. Adds meaning to double bump. Shame a good hunt ended in tragedy, be careful, be safe.

I hate to admit it but I once lost a fine buck because I was fumbling with a camera when I should have been "making sure" After knocking him down like he was hit by a Mack Truck I was getting the camera out of my pack with my rifle leaning on a bush when the "dead" deer jumped up and ran. . . Tracked his blood the 1/4 mile to the fence where he got into land I could not enter. Just considered it a punched tag & stopped hunting deer for the season......no way he lived with that blood trail. Gosh I don't know how long ago that was yet my ears are red writing about it I'm still so ashamed.

Tanglefoot said:

He shot an elk with his J&S Hawken .54 and walked up on the downed bull without reloading. It started to get up. He didn't have a pistol so without thinking he swung his rifle like a ball bat, holding it by the muzzle.

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I almost did this last year. Thought I'd gotten a good heart shot on a 2yo bull bison on my second round into him. Turns out that I'd only broken his front legs. As we approached, he went to jump up swinging towards me. Instinctively, I reared my rifle and went to swing the butt at him. A voice in my head said, "Mahkagari, you're holding a gun. How about you point it at him?" Fortunately, he didn't manage to get up and was expiring quickly from my first hit. I took out his neck/throat with another round to put him down quickly.

I always reload and wait and then approach from the back rifle ready . one time I shot a doe and thought it was dead and did not reload muzzleloader she started to get up but I at least had my western knife I jumped on her and slit her throat . might not have been all to smart but I got her . lesson learned. I hate losing venision.

I read of some African hunter who said " Shoot it until you're sure it's dead then shoot it twice more." I often use that quote when watching stupid slaaher movies with my family.

Not a deer or anything that could hurt me. I am put in mind of an opossum that we got when a friend and I were running a trap line. Got one of the biggest opossum I had ever seen. I clubbed it in the head and put it in my basket. Later I felt it moving, clubbed it again. We got back to the truck and went to a quick stop and got a cup of coffee. When we came out ‘possum had crawled past the outer animals in my basket and was crawling about in the back of the truck. Beat its head to mush.
Went back home to the skinning party for the morning and when we got to the ‘possum he was still alive. We shot it in the brain stem, tried to crush its chest and finally ended skinning it alive.
It’s brain had to be destroyed, and be beyond pain, but we just couldn’t kill it.
Life can be pretty tough.

I had to give a doe the Coup de Grace two years ago. It was very much alive when I walked up to it but it was not getting up. I must've spine shot it. I reloaded ten feet away from it. Then shot it in the heart with the second shot. Didnt even give a thought to being attacked. After seeing this I will think twice next time

tenngun said:

Not a deer or anything that could hurt me. I am put in mind of an opossum that we got when a friend and I were running a trap line. Got one of the biggest opossum I had ever seen. I clubbed it in the head and put it in my basket. Later I felt it moving, clubbed it again. We got back to the truck and went to a quick stop and got a cup of coffee. When we came out ‘possum had crawled past the outer animals in my basket and was crawling about in the back of the truck. Beat its head to mush.
Went back home to the skinning party for the morning and when we got to the ‘possum he was still alive. We shot it in the brain stem, tried to crush its chest and finally ended skinning it alive.
It’s brain had to be destroyed, and be beyond pain, but we just couldn’t kill it.
Life can be pretty tough.

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That reminds me of the time I trapped a mink. Tipped it into a sack from the live trap and gave its head a couple of knocks. Tipped it out the sack and reset the trap. All done went back to dead mink, mink gone. My dog finds it very much alive and hanging off dog. I grabs it's back legs and my 6" buck special slices open it chest exposing a beating heart and lungs!
Mink let's go of dog and with functioning exposed heart tries to fang me next, 6" buck decapitates the mink!
Talk about intense and bloody!!

No deer stories, but I saw a friend lose the end of his finger from a dead squirrel. It was our habit to let squirrels lie after they fell from the tree, in case there were more in the tree. After about a 30 minute wait, Paul walked over to pick up his squirrel. As soon as he touched it, it reached around and severed his trigger finger at the first joint. After he beat it into a bloody pulp, with the stock of his gun, we loaded him up and drove off to the ER to get his inger sewn back on. Keep yer powder dry.....…..robin