Arrowmaster

I hate that feeling as well...

little-d

Ican't even get close to a number of deer and other game animalsI have killed in my life and every year it happens.I know the olderI get the more it bothers me but inside of me is a hunter and death is part of the hunt.I try the best to makethe first shot lethal. And ifI know the shot was goodI wait till the dieing is over beforeI get close. But when the worst happensandI have to shoot againI make a shot right below the head into the neck center. If thedeer is going to be mounted or is moving around a heart shot. Just ask yourself if you were the one beingput down where and how would you want it.

Mike Hill

If your going to mount it shoot it as far back in the kill zone as possiable if your not going to mount it cut its throat. Plain and simple. It has to be done.

deerslayer270

to me cutting the throat would be tough..if i had 2 do it i would but a shot to the heart is just as easy....

timbercruiser

You grab the wrong one to cut its throat and you could be injured rather quickly. A .22 to the head is best to me.

uncballers45

wow ive had this happen to me 2 times so far even tho i am a young hunter. last year a buck was killed by my house and the neighbor called me to finish it off. well my i couldnt take my gun because the cabinet was locked and since my dad wasnt home i couldnt get the key. so i had to use a knife to the throat. it was terrible. the other time was i shot a doe high and paralyzed it in that situation my first reaction was to shoot it in the head although now that i think about it, it probably wasnt the best way to do it. certainly not a good feeling. very difficult to do as well.

elgallo114

Just a thought for ya. If you need to finish a deer and plan on eating it, it is best to cut it's throat. Yeah, it's messy and they tend to get twitchy, but it's best for the taste of the meat to bleed them quickly. It also makes the feild dressing of them easier since all the blood has been let already.

uncle matt

Getting near an animal that isn't dead - with a sharp instrument [knife/machete/whatever] in your hand - is not a very intelligent thing to do......unless you would also like to be injured. I shot my first deer, an 8pt buck with a 20 gauge single shot. I had shot at 5 deer that day, missed 4 and then, with my last slug tagged the buck. He wasn't expired when I came up on him. Boy was I excited. But he wasn't dead. Heck I was like 10 or 11 and thought, "Hey, cutting the throat seems to work on TV........" So I took the knife my Dad gave me and pulled it across it's throat. I don't think the knife was dull - but it wasn't exactly a surgeon's scapel either. It didn't do anything. So I thought to stab behind the throat and cut "from the inside out" - right? Well he didn't like that and really started thrashing. When he settled down a bit I made the wise decision that I uldn't let him have a say in the matter. I will simply put my foot on his antler and pin it to the ground as I had my way with his throat. So I stood on his rack, stabbed at the throat and found myself on my butt with my knife/hand under my leg. Could have stabbed myself.

So I sit there looking at this deer [and he's looking at me]. Later my Dad came and saez something like "Hey great deer." "Whoa he's not dead - stay away from him" [Really?] I told him what I tried to do and he laughed. Said, "This is how ya do it." POW - right at he neck/back of skull like Cardeer said.
Dead deer. "That's all ya gotta do," he said. I remember telling him, "But Dad, I ain't got no shells left, I missed 4 other deer."

Never forget his words............."We gotta work on your shot."

If there's one thing I really miss it's my Father and hunting with him - I miss ya Pop.

chr103yod

I've had this happen three times. Twice the deer was paralyzed from the neck down. I use a pretty long hunting knife so I just stuck it behind the shoulder like I would an arrow. They both died in a few seconds. The third one my son shot, it was his fist deer and he just barely caught the spine. That one I shot in the chest, I didn't want him to feel worse than he already did. I really hate when this happens but remember it is a lot more humane than they would die naturally. Starvation, getting ripped apart alive by a coyote or getting busted up by a car and slowly dying is way worse than quickly killing a downed animal.

kevin1

Same here .