Tracks & Trail

A friend of mine e-mailed me the following story. I thought you’d all like it!

For those of you who hunt deer, want to pet deer, or anything in between …this is too funny!

Names have been removed to protect the stupid.

This is an actual letter from someone who writes, and farms.

“I had the idea that I was going to rope a deer, put it in a stall, feed it up on com for a few of weeks, then kill it and eat it. The first step in this adventure was getting a deer. I fig ured that, since they ongregate at my cattle feeder and do not seem to have much fear of me when we are there (a bold one will sometimes come right up and sniff at the bags of feed while I am in the back of the truck not 4 feet away), it should not be difficult to rope one, get up to it and toss a bag over its head (to calm it down) then hog tie it and transport it home.

I filled the cattle feeder then hid down at the end with my rope. The cattle, having seen the roping thing before, stayed well back. They were not having any of it.

After about 20 minutes, my deer showed up — 3 of them. I picked out a likely looking one, stepped out from the end of the feeder, and threw my rope. The deer just stood there and stared at me.

I wrapped the rope around my waist and twisted the end so I would have a good hold. The deer still just stood and stared at me, but you could tell it was mildly concerned about the whole rope situation. I took a step towards it…it took a step away. I put a little tension on the rope and then received an education.

The first thing I learned is that, while a deer may just stand there and look at you funny while you rope it; they are spurred to action when you start pulling on that rope. That deer EXPLODED.

The second thing I learned is that pound for pound, a deer is a LOT stronger than a cow or a colt. A cow or a colt in that weight- range, I could fight down with a rope and with