One confused hunter!

[bowtine]

I was hunting 2nd season this last Saturday morning and had an odd situation come to me. I had just started pushing a small piece of ground for the guys in my group. I came to a fence and began to cross it when all or a sudden a damb coal black doe comes running by me!! Honest to god! It was soon followed by two smaller brown deer with spots still on them (which I assumed where her fawns). I have doe tags but I wasn't sure on the laws on shooting a deer like this so I bit my finger and let them go. I was hysterical for the rest of the day about this. Was ready to call the DNR and have them tell me if I could shoot a deer like this or not! I called the land owner to tell them about it and ask if they had ever seen anything like this before. They laughed great big for a minute when they heard how excited I was. Then they told me that they were European Deer that they had bought last summer as pets. They had gotten out of there pin a week before and they couldn't catch them. My heart sank when they told me this cuz I really thought I had something. Anyway, the funny part of it is that I had talked to them the night before season opened and they failed to mention that they had pet deer running around where I was going to be deer hunting. Sure glad I didn't shoot one!

Just thought you guys might find some humor in the story

 

[G6]

My brother used to live closer to Albia and someone over there had some of those black deer. I guess they can be tough to even shoot.

 

[Stump Shooter]

Only if you had shot it and took it up to the landowners house to show them..LOL!! To see the look on their faces would have been priceless. By the way, did they tell you the deer's names?

 

[Skully]

My uncle had a pure white Sika deer move into his pasture with his cows. It stayed for about two years before moving on. Nobody ever claimed it or knew where it could have come from???

 

[bowman]

Several years ago I had a Fallow Deer walk by me at 10 yards when I was bow hunting. When I first saw the antlers coming I thougt that it was a big nontypical, then I saw the ear tag and spots. I called the local warden who lived on the property next door. He told me that it had got out of another neighbors pin, even though they would not claim it.

I was advised that it was legal to shoot because my tag said "deer" and not "whitetail deer." He further said that usually the owners won't claim them because they are liable for damages such as vehicle collisions, just like owners of livestock.

I never saw the deer again.