Originally Posted by
popeandyoungchaser
That is a very tough situation to be in. Every hunter will eventually be faced with this scenario. The first deer that I shot with a muzzy left me with this scenario, or rather my shot left me with it. The doe presented a shot at a steep downhill angle and I did not account for it. I spined her her just behind the front shoulders, leaving her paralyzed from that point on. I was 13 and had never encountered this before. My Granddad was with me and told me that i had to finish what i started and had me reload. He told me to shoot her just like we did with the beef cattle (right in the back of the head).
The second and the last time that I was presented with this problem I was 17. I was in your exact situation this time. I left my gun at the top of the ravine, the deer had fallen into this steep ditch and was paralyzed from the neck down. I could find no way to get to her with my gun so I went down without it. Once to the bottom I realized my knife was in my pack that also held my gun. Not wanting to climb back up the ravine I decided that I would do without it.
NOTICE: I will never do this again, I got no satisfaction from it and it is not a fond memory.
I broke her neck after a time of trying to figure out how. It was not humane and it wasn't quick so I wont go into detail. I do not claim to be manly because of this, I claim to be stupid and learned from this mistake. It is what I consider my biggest failure as a hunter. It makes me sick to even think about. If I were to do it over, I would have sucked it up and went and got my knife.
I was going to wait awhile to see what others would have done, but since you posted this and Semi posted what he did, I'll go ahead and relate the rest of the story. And, I felt exactly as you did and do now, and I imagine that I will for some time to come. This has been haunting me since it happened. I am only glad that this lesson happened early in my hunting career, as I only started hunting two years ago.
Anyway, as I got down to the deer, I was perplexed by only seeing a neck shot and no wound on the body. The deer was breathing and blood was oozing out of his neck, with some slight movements out of his legs. I was agonizing over what to do, "Should I go down and get my knife to finish him? But that could take awhile to get down and back, and I don't want him to suffer any longer. Should I break his neck? No, I can't do that. I couldn't do that, I don't have it in me. I should probably suffocate him; that will be fastest. No, I don't want to do that. But it will be quickest. Getting the knife will take too long."
So I knelt down beside the deer, and it is my utmost displeasure to say that
this deer had a full understanding of why they fear humans. I grabbed his snout to hold his jaw closed, and put my hand over his nose. He began kicking all fours (not violently though...probably due to lack of strength, but I am not sure why the neck shot put him down since he obviously wasn't paralyzed), and the blood was really gushing from his neck. It seemed like it was taking forever for him to pass on (I thought it would be quick since he has lost so much blood anyway), and it seemed like he wasn't going to die quickly. So I grabbed him around the neck and broke it. He shuddered and that was the end.
I just sat there for awhile next to him, feeling sick and numb. Numb like I had just been smacked with a hand as large as my body. It was one of the worst feelings I had ever had.
If I had to go back to that moment again without knife and load, I don't know what I would have done, but it wouldn't have been that. I was wrong about how long it would have taken him to pass, and, regardless, he definitely died in fear. Leaving him to die would have been better than that, and I'm sure it wouldn't have taken much longer than 5 minutes. I think I would have crept quietly back down to my stuff, gotten another load and, if upon returning discovered another shot was needed, I would have put the muzzle right up to the back of the head or neck.
That will NEVER happen again. I'll always keep a spare knife clipped to my inside most pocket along with a spare load that never gets touched unless it's a last resort.