Buck Revenge - October 2010

By : Jennifer Rook

When Ryan Harrison and his 16 year old daughter, Kadea, started out for an evening deer hunt during deer season in October 2009, neither one knew this hunt would leave an indelible mark, both figuratively and literally. Neither one could have known that this year the buck would fight back.
    The hunt started out like any other. Ryan took Kadea to some neighboring pastures and wooded areas hoping to get his daughter on a decent buck. The pair was hardly settled in when they jumped a nice one. Ryan let Kadea take him and she made quick work of her hunt. The buck was down in a matter of seconds and Ryan began the task of field dressing. As he worked, some movement caught his eye across the draw. Not one, but two bucks were sneaking their way through the trees. Ryan could tell one was pretty nice so he decided to follow them to see if he could get close enough for a shot with his muzzleloader.

    He followed for quite some distance before a shot opportunity presented itself, but when it did, Ryan let the lead fly and sent a ball into what he had hoped was the buck's lungs. When the smoke cleared Ryan saw that he had indeed hit the buck, but that the shot was a little further back than he had expected. He immediately began tracking the wounded buck following a good blood trail until daylight faded into dusk and it became too dark to track any more that night.
    As he picked up the track again early the next morning, Ryan saw something glinting in the first sunlight not far from where he had left off the night before. It was the buck's antlers! He had fallen in some thick sage brush and as Ryan approached, he soon realized the deer was still alive. When the buck stood up a few seconds later Ryan didn't hesitate to shoot and fired off a shot aimed squarely for the buck's vital organs. Ryan was sure he had made a solid, fatal hit but a split second later, the buck was up and charging. He rushed at Ryan from twenty feet away, taking him down full force, gouging his sharp antlers deep into Ryan's arm as he reached out to defend himself. The buck didn't stop there either. He kept fighting – raking his sharp points up and down Ryan's back, puncturing the skin in several places.     
    Instead of panicking however, Ryan kept his wits about him and put his rifle between himself and the deer, but as the buck continued the assault, the sling caught on the deer's antlers and suddenly the gun was out of Ryan's control. Thinking quickly however, he remembered he was carrying a sharp knife in his calf pocket. Reaching down and grabbing the large butcher knife Ryan went right for the buck's jugular and with a crude swipe across the throat the fight was over as quickly as it began. A few tense moments later, the buck finally sagged down with Ryan's muzzleloader wrapped up in its antlers.
    Ryan and his gun were both gouged up a bit, a little worse for the wear, but not hurt too badly. As he dressed the buck out, Ryan found that the first shot from the night before had indeed hit far back on the deer's body, taking out part of his genitals but that the bullet he had fired off just before the attack had taken out the buck's vitals, shattering ribs and leaving a large hole as it exited.
    Looking back on the incident, Ryan realizes it was a freak accident that doesn't happen often, but thinks that when he wounded the deer the night before and took out part of his "manhood" it angered the buck just enough that when he saw an opportunity for revenge, it didn't hesitate to go from prey to predator and turned the tables on Ryan in the blink of an eye. Others may argue differently, but that's Ryan's story and he's sticking to it!