One of my hunting partners shot a small buck on a drive. We all saw it dropin its tracks. About 5 minutes later we got to it and we all stood there for 20 minutes catching our breaths and talking about the morning hunts. My freind who shot the deer said time for a gut pile and got out his knife. He bent down and grabbed the leg......the deer started kicking and kicked his knife hand stabbing my freind hard into his leg. The tip of the knife was stuck in his leg bone. Luckily after a bunch of stiches he was fine. He's very cautious to this day!

Good Luck!

I have learned to approach from the rear. Once there and having poked it in the haunch with a stick, i move around to the head and poke the eye, ...cautiously and with loaded gun handy. So far so good...
Don't know what I'd do if one jumped up and came at me..hopefully the right thing.
I sometimes have a pistol with me when I hunt and when that is the case it makes things a little easier since I have a free hand.

Yeah I approach them from the back and poke there eye. This is if the eye is open that is. If the eye is closed than you better back up and put another shot into it.

Quite a few years back in Jersey during the noon break an Ambulance pulls up to the woods area and they put this nut case in the ambulance. Seems he jumped from a tree limb onto a doe with a knife in an attempt to take the deer by stabbing it. The doe kicked his ass all to hell and back. Heard later he got several hundred stitches.

I walk up and at a few yards look him over real carefully then poke an eye. Had one that was sholder shot and he had a good size 8 point rack. I could see him squirming went in close and decided that slit the throat thing would be dangerous. so I backed off 25 yards proped up and ended the problem.

Wow u fella's have some stories for sure Has anyone read that story, i think its off whitetails.com.......where a guy in texas and his hunting partner are like a few hundred yards away, and in the morning one of the hunters shoot a nice buck and he dropped him in his tracks, and when the guy goes over to look at his trophy he lays his rifle in the deer's wrack, and then the buck jumps up and takes off with his rifle in his horns......several minutes later he see's his friend come out into the feild where his partner was and he was waiving his hands and walking towards the guy who is in disbeleif that this deer just stole his rifle........when his buddy gets to him he say's"thats it, i quit deer hunting for good, when deer start carryiing weapons, its time to call it quits!!!"

I shot a stag buck (buck with velvet and no testicals) a few years ago in the head with my 22-250. When deer hunting I always carry a pistol in my bag just in case. Well, for some reason I didn't bring my pistol with me when I went down to the deer I just shot. I guess I figured, head shot, no chance the deer is still alive.

I went down there and got about 10 feet from the deer. The deer picked his head up and looked at me and jumped up like he wasn't even hurt! Good thing he ran the other way because I didn't even have my knife out of my pocket!

Well, turns out I hit him a little lower than I thought. I learned an old lesson all over again that day. If that would have been a rutting buck, there's no telling what would have happened. From then on, no matter how sure I am of the shot, I always give the deer about 30 minutes and when I aproach the deer I always have a loaded gun ready.

I recovered the deer about an hour later after my heart settled back down I made sure he was dead!

When approaching any wild animal it is important to be cautious and respectful. It is also best to approach from the rear so if they do get up and flee your not in their way. The poke on the rump or eye is further safety measure but really if doing either a deer playing possum can hurt you in this proximity. What I always do is inspect the indicators for hit quality and possible placement(ie Blood trail, reaction or if they drop I keep a loaded rifle trained on them for several minutes from my original position looking for movement or lack there of). After the shot listen to them fleeing, in wooded areas you will often hear them crash, I have heard them cough their last breath, bears will often moan...all indicators. I never am in a big hurry to rush off after the shot, I take my landmarks for positioning of the trail and then collect my thoughts and stuff. Never assume I will not need my rifle or bow, so it is always reading if the event should arise. As I approach any game I will look for any sign of life, head moving, breathing..if they are alive the chest cavity will move. If I encounter an animal that is living I put a finishing shot into them at safe distance, basically when ever possible...I don't think walking up and stuffing in their face is the smartest move. If no sign of life I have never poked the rump but was taught look at the eye before handling, like mentioned if closed or any movement he/she is alive.

These things do happen. A guy at our place one time shot a buck at about ~80 yds or so with a 243 dropd him in his tracks. Well after a couple mins or so while they were waiting to go up to the deer , they see the buck get up like NOTHING happend and run off. Not one drop of blood we got about 10 men to search the enire area for hours...nothing. Dont always think they r dead just cause they drop after you shoot ; )

ON another note... hogs are dangerous too. We had a guy attacked on our place one time after he had shot the hog with a 270. He left his gun at the stand and when he went up to it he got charged and trampled him and tore him up pretty bad. He finally was able to get his gone and shoot him in the head. I think he got up over him somehow .. he was lucky

My cousin and I were out two years ago, he got a pretty decent weighted 8pt buck, we walked up he kicked it even, nothing...he drug it up against this bank and kind of sat it up on it's hind end to let the entrails fall out while he dressed it, he bent down and started to cut open the hide running down the sternum, dang thing "WOKE UP", he was standing between the buck's back legs and it beat the heck out of him trying to get away, I reacted quick enough and picked it up at about 15yrds with my revolver so it didn't get away, but he had to get a dozen stitches over his left eye where it kicked him in the face!!!!

I guess he should have checked to see if it were still breathing!

Sometimes, it's a good idea to poke them anyway, if you've never been kicked by a dead deer, give it more time, it's a nervous thing I guess, kicking them is supposed to get "all the juice out".

The only deer I ever helped recover that was alive when we found him was neck shot with a muzzleloader @
75 yds. Deer traveled about 400 yds. and laid down. We found the deer
with a tracking dog in a terrible cut-over thicket. Went to water, like many do. Only deer I've ever seen, alive or dead, with his eyes closed. When we approached, he grunted loudly, got up and went about 75-80 more yds. and laid or fell down again. We got to him and finished him off. Not a big fan of neck shots because of this experience. Or head shots. $.02