Attack deer

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yankytrash

New member
Watched a very odd thing at my feeders today...

I had the day off, so I decided to be my own woods-camera and watch my feeders. All three are pretty close together at the bottom of a gully near a creek, so I sat down in a hole uphill from the feeders, laid out my pack, got my binoculars ready, and covered myself in camonetting. Long day, lemme tell ya - finally got to read Mein Kampf from cover to cover, just to find out the guy, indeed, WAS a total idiot. But I digress....

At about 2pm, I heard some russling below, so I grabbed my binoculars and started scanning the feeders. Watched a small buck making his way straight to the closest feeder, looked like a 4-point through the shaky binoculars. As he approached, the feeder looked like it moved. There was a huge woodchuck sitting on the feeder eating the corn.

The woodchuck freezes, and so does the buck. The woodchuck thinks he's slick, like the buck can't see him. Damn, and me without my AR-7, beautiful shot at the woodchuck. Urghhhh...

Well, as I'm mentally kicking myself in the ass for not bringing a plinker, the buck lunges toward the feeder. He drops his head and scoops up the woodchuck in his antlers. The woodchuck is holding onto the feeder for dear life with both front feet. Unconcerned with the woodchuck's tenacity, the buck twists and swings it's head to the left, sending the woodchuck flying downstream.

Pretty neat, if you ask me. A woodchuck that climes trees and a buck that attacks woodchucks. Looks like I'm messin with some badass game this year. Better watch my six out there.... :D


Deer were not hurt during the taping of this story. Can't say the same for the woodchuck...
 
I have a year-round clock feeder, set up to scatter hen scratch for the quail, doves and rabbits.

A rabbit's eyes are on the side of its head, right? Can't see straight ahead very well, okay?

So: Rabbit hops toward grainl. Runs over quail. Quail falls on butt. Rabbit is unconcerned. Big mistake. The quail does a half-circle run, makes a Banzai! attack amidships and administers a pretty good peck to the ribs.

This resulted in a two-foot instantaneous levitation. :D

Shame there's no way you can ever get a video of something like this.

Art
 
Very cool story yankytrash but,
Damn, and me without my AR-7, beautiful shot at the woodchuck. Urghhhh
Click to expand...
I can see you trying to explain it now...
No, Mr. Game Warden I was going to shoot the groundhog at the feeder not the buck deer out of season. Whatta ya mean you didn't see the groundhog. The one that the buck attacked in the feeder. You didn't see that. What are those handcuffs for ... :D :D
 
I was working the gun section at Dick's one summer and this guy, a regular customer, came in and was laughing his head off. Him and a few of his buddies just went groundhog hunting. There was one chuck at about 350 yards and one a little uphill at about 375 yards. The guy sets up his rifle, gets his elevation, and fires. The shot goes slightly to the right and nips the chuck in the rear! The chuck jumps in the air, turns around, and then bolts up the hill toward the other groundhog. The chuck jumps on the other one and attacks it for a minute until he felt that justice was served!
 
I am always amazed by folks, especially hunters, who come to find out bucks can be aggressive animals. That rack they have on the top of their head is not for show! It is a dueling weapon and if he can't use his rack, he will raise up and deliver some pretty nasty blows with his front hooves. At the right time of year, bucks are territorial and can be very aggressive.

No Suzy, there is no Santa Claus and deer are not pacifists even if they are cute.

As for the groundhog, no doubt that they are chiefly ground dwellers. Even so, as members of the squirrel family (Sciuridae) in the rodent (Rodentia) order of mammals, it should be no surprise they can climb trees. In fact, their western cousins of the same genus are often known for their excellent rock climbing skills and climbing is part of their natural ability even if they don't do it as a primary activity.
 
I had a Cardigan Corgi when I was a kid, a type of cattle "heeling" dog. Anyway, I was always trying to train her for hunting, but mostly it never worked out. She was so quick, she'd get on a rabbits tail and "herd" them right to you, but she was so close you couldn't shoot.
One summer day me and a friend were just sort of fooling around with bows, trying to sneak along field edges to nail groundhogs. We couldn't get anywhere near them until I finally beckoned to the dog (who I had made stay behind us) and just sort of gestured to her to "bring us a groundhog". Groundhogs are pretty stubborn and she couldn't heel them, but she was fast enough and smart enough to get in between them and their holes and harrass them until they'd panick and climb a tree. We killed an awful lot of groundhogs that way, and there are probably still arrows stuck in tree limbs all over Southern Michigan.

Yep, groundhogs can climb trees very well!
 
Doublenaught, *POOF* you have a body that's 300lb too large for your bones, and your legs and arms are 18" shorter.

Now, go climb a tree. I'll give ya $20 if you make it.;)
 
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