So I'm watching "Sweet Jackie" last night on OLN and this guy shoots a nice buck with his bow. He track the now stiffer then a board buck down and sneeks up on it from behind and gives it the Jackie Bushman poke in the rump for good measure and I just got to wondering how many real people actually do this. I killed probably 35 deer in my life and to this day I've never had to poke one to see if it was dead or just playing 'possum.

Yup,
Carry it out to the logical conclusion.
He pokes "possum" deer in the butt w/ his bow (which does not have an arrow nocked and at the ready).
Deer jumps up and runs off.
Moron is frantically tryin to get an arrow off the rack an on the bow.
Imagine the look on his face.
Now THAT would be a TV huntin scene I would like to see!!!
R
Hank

if its right after i shot the deer with a gun, i usually just poke it out of habit. but after i've shot it more than few hours in the vitals, no chance of that boy getting up. Jackie Bushman..who knows why he does half the things he does

slayer

I saw that , the deer was stiff as a 2x4

I always walk up on the deer from behind.Its the only sensible way of doing this.Imagine shooting a nice buck,to have it jump up on you with his antlers pointing straight towards your chest.I will always give it a little kick in the rear end just for good measure.Unless I can see that his eyes are open,I will never take a chance on it.
About 3 years ago,my buddy shot a small buck with his 30-06. .Being very excited he ran up to it thinking it was dead.NOT.He shot it in the antler(buck fever)and knocked it out cold.Just as he approached it,the deer jumped up,ran,and knocked the gun from his hand,breaking the scope in the process.Imagine if it was him the deer hit instead.The deer was shot about 100 yards at the other end of the field by his dad.
True story

I've been known to tap the butt to make sure. I have seen deer lying flat the their side jump up right at your feet. It scares the crap out of you!!!

I can't say that I've done it recently, but I usually do it with turkeys, geese, rabbits and squirrels. Those are some deadly creatures. You ever been beat up by a goose? yikes.

I may be doing this differently than most, but I always walk up on any deer I've shot in a direction where I can see it's eyes. Not directly in front of it but so I can see if it's eyes are shut, if they're shut it's not dead of course. If they're open and the deer is alive it would be thrashing, not just laying there motionless looking around. So it the eyes are open and it's laying lifeless you know for sure it's expired. I think you can see by it's eyes if it's alive or not much sooner than kicking or pokeing it in the hind quarters. Just what I tend to do...

the one deer i killed i didn't have to worry about it getting up. i shot it with a rifle and dropped it. shot it in the neck at about 80 yards. it litterally fell dead in its tracks. but if i had shot the animal with a bow i would definately check it or watch it to see if it moves, with binoculars to see if its breathing and such.

Usually when I see my deer on the ground I run up to it and throw down a People's elbow on it and then a figure-four leg lock just to make sure he doesn't get away. Then once I make sure it's dead, I let go of my kung-fu death grip and congratulate myself on a job well-done. Then it's party time.

















PS - I don't really do that. I just walk up to it from the back and usually touch it's eye with the tip of my arrow, just to be sure. Being gorged by the antlers of a half-dead buck isn't my ideal way to depart from this world. Better safe than sorry.