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Made a mistake and paying for it!

Joined Jun 2010
12 Posts | 0+
Manito, IL.
I've had a bottle fed buck and a few does for the past 6 1/2 yrs. I should have known better, especially this time of the year. I was in the pen looking for the G2 that he broke off and turned my back on him. In a split second he was on top of me. Several good abrasions to my thighs and alot of bruises. I was able to climb a cedar tree and get out of his reach. Had to call a neighbor to distract him and run out of the pen. The buck has been going craze ever since.

Any suggestions on feeding him now? I hate putting feed on the ground since I'd waste more and end up feed more mice and birds. It seems like he wants to destroy anything I rig up to place feed in. He can't move the water since it's too heavy. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
 
Anything in the pen is being destroyed. The metal leanto that I kept his feed trough in now has holes in the metal sides. I hate to put him down.
 
You could always dart him now, saw off antlers (won't change his attitude, but slightly less dangerous) and sell next year after you got breeding out of the way this year. I had one that came at me with just knobs after I'd sawn him and he was aiming to kill for sure.
 
It is your job to protect yourself and neighbors from an animal like that. What if he gets out and hurts a child. Put him in the freezer now before it's too late. Best advice I can give you.
 
wow....i am so glad my little guy wont go into rut this year., our rut is later in the winter...hopefully by the next year, he will have gone off and claimed his own place in the woods...i wont hesitate to put him in the freezer if he does that aggression though.as much as i would hate it..........i am not gonna keep him penned once he is big enuf to handle himself..
 
It's your decision, but if it were me I would put him down. The risk of him hurting you, someone in your family, or god forbid get out and hurt someone else is far too great fopr me to take. Just remember this....he will not get any calmer and the worst attack I suffered was to a buck that had his antlers cut. He was great venison!
 
My neighbor had a tame one that went crazy like yours but he also started to **** the fawns from that year and ended up killing several does and this was still in early fall. He had to shoot it to keep it from killing everything. This was after one whole year of being mean to the man and deer as a two yr old....killing everything at three. Cut your loses and save yourself misery . With his rack sawed at 2 he changed to his hooves to attack... and would even bite if he put is hands near enough to the fence like a pit bull....insane mean. Jim
 
pepper spray him in the face everytime he is close enough, he should lear to keep his distance, this is what we do and it works pretty well for us..
 
Didn't think about pepper spray. I tried the cattle prod and it just pissed him off more. He seemed to have calmed down yesterday. I called the vet to have the rack cut off. He wants close to $300 to do the job. Tooooo high.
 
2 points about pepper spray- When you do have to spray a buck, other bucks in the pen might take advanatage of him and also make sure the cans not empty. I climbed an 8 foot fence in record time.
 
We have a 5 year old bottle fed that charges the fence at me daily.I tried pepper spray after I removed his antlers and it works fine.I just spray his nose about every three days.
 
I'm with Scott on this one. A tame buck is a major liability and at best a major inconvenience during the breeding season.
 
Something I don't understand... you folks are raising an animal you know could be dangerous, and then you're just saying, "OMG it's dangerous! Kill it! Kill it!" Um...duh? If you're not willing to deal with a hormonal white-tailed deer, then perhaps it's time to get out of the hobby/business...?



Now if it's intended to become food eventually, then I can agree...kill it and get it over with...but if it was intended to be kept as a "pet" and I use this term very loosely, especially with a whitetail buck in rut...IMO, you created this monster and now you are responsible for setting things up so that he can live out his life until he either dies, gets sold, or whatever you intend to do with him.



My general rule with our breeding pen... we're breeding one of our bottle fed bucks this year. I've never bred with him so I'm not sure what kind of attitude he has in rut...he may be calm or may be crazy, but regardless, while I already follow the rule, "Never turn your back on a buck during rut," with him I'm 10x more cautious...if he's coming toward me, I'm going right back through the door/gate. He's not at all scared of me...so when I go to feed, sometimes he'll walk right up...but now that he's in with the does and is going into rut, when he is seen heading my direction, I am seen heading right back into the barn...even if I gotta drop the bag of feed right where it lies. My life isn't worth losing over a $10 bag of feed.



Anyway...that's my opinion...good to hear you weren't hurt too badly!
 
i agree dd either erase it or move it no one should just get out of the business just because they made a mistake bottle feeding if your not making mistakes your not learning if your not learning somerhing new everyday month or year then maybe you should quit blackshire if you dont want to read this type of tread dont read the forums as your input and help just plain out sucks
 
wildobsessionwhitetails said:
i agree dd either erase it or move it no one should just get out of the business just because they made a mistake bottle feeding if your not making mistakes your not learning if your not learning somerhing new everyday month or year then maybe you should quit blackshire if you dont want to read this type of tread dont read the forums as your input and help just plain out sucks



Funny...I guess you should tell the people on the forums who pm me thanking me for the advice I gave them...and those who texted me after I offered them my cell number in case they needed more help when they weren't near a computer that my advice sucks, because they seem to have a different opinion on the matter.



Another thing, perhaps you should go back and re-read what I wrote because you TOTALLY misconstrued what I said.



I was DEFENDING the original poster in this thread asking for advice on feeding their deer and disagreeing with those who are sitting there saying, "Kill the deer because it's aggressive!" simply because it is doing what comes naturally to it...defending it's territory during breeding season.



The "maybe you should get out of the business" portion was NOT directed at the original poster for making a mistake...we all make mistakes and we pay for them, just as he did. Thankfully he was not seriously injured or killed. My mistakes have never resulted in any injuries to myself...but I have screwed up and cost the lives of some of our deer. It's a part of the business and we just have to learn from our mistakes so we don't make them again. That comment was directed to those who said, "Kill it...it's aggressive and dangerous!"



The first thing anyone should do when getting involved in something is read up on it...and the first thing you will read about deer, especially white-tails is the bucks can be extremely dangerous during rut. If you get into the business, that means you have chosen to deal with that risk. So in my opinion, it seems extremely hypocritical to get into the business and then kill every buck that is aggressive during rut. That's their natural behavior. Instead of kill them, you should do the smart thing...which is build up your enclosures so your bucks cannot escape, take proper safety precautions when entering the enclosures/feeding/watering, etc and let the deer's cycle run its course...unless of course, you intended to kill it in the near future anyway...then, do whatever you want. But if this guy plans on breeding it for the next 5 years, it's kind of a **** move to tell him his best option is to kill it now.



To put it simply: White-tailed bucks can often be aggressive during rut. If you can't handle an aggressive buck, you probably shouldn't be in the business of breeding white-tailed deer.



I wouldn't replicate any tricks performed by Evil Knievel without being willing to deal with the possibility of breaking my neck.



That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.
 
You are lucky not to have been hurt worse.

I built my feeders so that I can feed from outside the pen.

Simply angle the bottom, slot it for the fence, and leave 6 in. or so outside so you can dump the feed and it will slide through.

Too risky going in and out of the pens twice or more per day, aside from danderous deer there is a chance of not securing a gate, and it takes alot more time.

I wonder what would happen if you castrated him? I killed a big Mulie once, very large rack, and he had no nuts.

Good luck.
 

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