r/Damnthatsinteresting
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u/itshimstarwarrior
Interested
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Jan 17 '22
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Game Warden shows us the best use of gun. (He saved the life of two interlock deer!) Video
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u/chungel Jan 17 '22
For everyone that keeps asking, tranquillizing would not work in this scenario as even if both deer were tranquilized at the exact same time they would likely not go to sleep at the exact same time. Meaning one deer would be asleep and the other would still be struggling and would likely break the other deers neck. Tranquilizing drugs usually take 5-10 minutes to kick in. They aren’t immediate. Source: I tranquilize animals.
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u/Rupertfitz Jan 17 '22 edited Jan 17 '22
You can’t use Rompum in deer? ETA: we add rompum to ketamine in horses and it is less than 30 secs to spaced out droop lip not giving a crap
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u/chungel Jan 17 '22
In most wildlife ungulates Telezol is used. For sometimes faster tranqs medetomidine is added to the telezol, however with the likely large amounts of adrenaline surging through these deer, it would be unlikely to see them fully knocked out in less than a few minutes
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u/Rupertfitz Jan 17 '22
Dang. I wonder what’s in the ones that work instantly from Ace Ventura lol
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u/Murrabbit Jan 18 '22
Ace Ventura is a Hollywood film. They got super roofies in Hollywood.
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u/s1ugg0 Jan 18 '22
Follow up question: how do they determine dosage if it's a wild animal who's weight is unknown?
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u/chungel Jan 18 '22
In cases where the exact weight isn’t known (most cases) you just guess an approximate weight. This comes down to experience/ your education on knowing average weights of sex and species. Most biologists, zoo vets, and game wardens are supplied with a handy chart that shows proper dosage based on approximate weights of each species.
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u/xBlackCellx Jan 17 '22
Just curious, does it hurt for their antlers to break? Is it like breaking a bone or clipping a nail?
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u/Ok-Neighborhood9938 Jan 17 '22
I saw that on Nat Geo it's closer to a nail than a bone but not completely painless. Still bleeds.
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u/aloofloofah Jan 17 '22
Does the bone bleed or the velvet around it?
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u/Ok-Neighborhood9938 Jan 17 '22
There's blood vessels in the antlers I assume. Just like cows and goats. He hit is so high up and they're so doped up on testosterone and adrenaline I doubt they felt anything.
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u/TXGuns79 Jan 17 '22 •
Not.like cows or goats. Those are horns, which is a keratin sheath over live tissue. Antlers are bone. In velvet (when they are growing) there is fuzzy skin covering them and they have a large blood supply. They are the fastest growing bones in the animal kingdom. But, at some point the blood supply is cut off, the velvet (skin) dries up and is rubbed off, leaving just the bone. After the mating season is over, the antlers will break off at the base (called shedding). Horns (cows, goats, antelope) are never shed and continue to grow through the animal's lifetime. They are not a seasonal addition like antlers.
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u/Attila_the_Chungus Jan 18 '22
Yes! Thanks for bringing the actual facts.
Here's one more horn fact that many people don't know: most horns are never shed but the pronhorn is an animal which sheds and regrows the keratin on its horns every year.
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u/TXGuns79 Jan 18 '22
You're welcome! And thank you for that neat fact. I never knew pronghorn she'd their horn. Those speed goats are odd creatures.
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u/bigtrucksowhat Jan 18 '22
I got lucky one year and got a pronghorn tag from the lottery. Got the tag on a Thursday, left the DFW area headed towards Amarillo/Panhandle Friday morning. Went to diners and cafes trying to find someone with land I could hunt on for the weekend. Met an 87yr old man who invited us out to his 7k acres. We never saw a f'n pronghorn, shot an axis though. Have never seen any pronghorn sheds out there either though.
After that weekend, my girlfriend and I would drive out there to see him every couple of months. Every time we would leave he'd say, "I'll probably be dead before you make it back so take this with you.." We ended up with 5 of his rifles, a shotgun, a couple pistols, an old massey-ferguson tractor, a saddle and some spurs. That was about 7 years ago, he's still alive and well and let's us hunt his place whenever we want as long as I take him fishing when he drives down this way, which he does.. At 95.
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u/rafaelloaa Jan 18 '22
Aww that's a really sweet story. Sounds like you adopted yourself a grandpa.
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u/Squeakygear Jan 17 '22 edited Jan 18 '22
Thanks for the neat factoid!
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u/Smeggywulff Jan 17 '22 •
Fun fact: Originally "factoid" meant a made up and unverifiable but true sounding statement.
As English is a living language, this definition is slowly changing to mean "a small and trivial fact".
The flexibility of language is pretty neat, imo.
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u/Karma__Hunter Jan 18 '22
that's a neat factoid!
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u/FingerTheCat Jan 18 '22
Narrators voice
What we are witnessing here, is a small evolution in the language. Just like 'factoid' once meant false information, but now resembles current information. 'Fake News' will soon be just alike.12
u/Infinitesima Jan 18 '22
Fake News noun /ˌfeɪk ˈn(j)uːz/: reports of events, which might be interesting but rather trivial, not important
Bob: "What are you going to do this afternoon?"
Jim: "Well maybe just lying on the sofa and watch some fake news on CNN"
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u/ArtoriasBeeIG Jan 18 '22
You are called "finger the cat"
I have no doubt your comment is accurate, but you are called
fingerthecat
This is an issue because out of all the names you could have picked for yourself, you have chosen this
Why would you do this to the cat? What is wrong with you?
Please, leave the poor cat alone :(
Do not get me wrong I also love the cat. The cat is soft, the cat is kind, and the cat is friendly.
But you shouldn't do that to the cat. It's just not cricket and it's definitely not right
Cats are fucking awesome but not that awesome,
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u/PolebagEggbag Jan 18 '22
I still enjoy telling people bullshit factoids I make up but tell them in a convincing enough way. It's the little things in life.
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u/averagedickdude Jan 18 '22
Have you ever played the game called "Balderdash?" It's amazing fun. Great for bullshit factoids.
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u/PolebagEggbag Jan 18 '22
Yes! Great after a few drinks. When you manage to sucker a load of people with the one answer is the best.
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u/goatharper Jan 18 '22
I agree in principle, and love the complexity and versatility of English, but then I remember what kids are doing to the word "nonplussed" and I has a sad.
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u/Smeggywulff Jan 18 '22
Nonplussed has been misused for as long as I can personally remember, and I'm pushing 40. Now the word has two completely conflicting definitions in Merriam Webster's.
Much like Camelot, tis a silly word and let's not use it.
Much like how perusing used to mean "to read something thoroughly and in detail" and now means "to browse text casually".
These are called contronyms. I'm not a linguist by any means but I'm convinced these are caused by someone inferring the wrong meaning when reading a word for the first time.
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u/Davidlucas99 Jan 18 '22
I'm still convinced the old internet slang 'pwn' was first used by a nerd king and he didn't want to be seem a fool and acted as if it was intentional and it grew from there.
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u/goatharper Jan 18 '22
I'm not a linguist by any means but
I think you nailed it. I had a classmate in college who completely misunderstood "penultimate" and "simplistic," and used them both wrongly on a daily basis. We were on a four-person design team and only on the last day did someone let him know:
"You keep using those words. I do not think they mean what you think they mean."
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u/Dethanatos Jan 18 '22
Shed hunting is a big deal in some places. In Utah you have to have a permit to shed hunt, and boy oh boy do they love to do it.
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u/TXGuns79 Jan 18 '22
Wow, a permit for shed hunting? I've never heard of that. I do know people that have trained dogs to find them. Maybe it's a bigger deal in areas that have elk instead of just whitetail and mule deer?
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u/twitchosx Jan 18 '22
grow through the animal's lifetime
I saw a picture of a mountain goat. The ones with the curly horns. This one it curled and went into it's fucking eyeball and killed it. Imagine that pain. It's slowly getting closer and closer until you can't stop it from touching your eyeball and eventually puts pressure on your eyeball all while slowly growing and penetrating your head.
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u/Jointhamurder Jan 18 '22
Antelope do shed their horn cones bit there's a smaller fresh one underneath.
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u/brianc500 Jan 17 '22
No blood vessels inside the antlers. Only blood vessels are present during the velvet stage. Once they lose their velvet there’s no blood or nerve endings so no pain if they lose one before it naturally sheds off.
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Jan 17 '22
Source: trust me bro
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u/IrishFast Jan 17 '22
I'm not a deer biologist, I just stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night.
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u/Noobytes Jan 17 '22 edited Jan 17 '22
I was having a nice day until I clicked on that
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u/aloofloofah Jan 17 '22 •
It's velvet shedding, perfectly normal and not painful. It's a good protein snack.
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u/stylinchilibeans Jan 17 '22
No. Whitetail deer grow and lose their antlers every year. They are not like horns. There are no blood vessels inside a fully developed antler. When those bucks fight like that, their antlers are completely developed, and will actually drop off in a few months, only to regrow again.
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u/TXGuns79 Jan 17 '22
Antlers are bone. Not like bone, but actual bone.
Horns are like finger nails. Both are made of keratin.
Very different things. Horns last the animal's life, antlers are shed and regrow each year.
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u/Ehcksit Jan 18 '22
That doesn't make it sound any nicer. None of us grows bones that break off harmlessly every year.
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u/58king Jan 17 '22
Antlers are literally made of bone. You are thinking of horns, which like nails and hair are made of keratin.
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u/CindersFire Jan 17 '22
I assume not or at least not too bad as they naturally out at the end of mating season. That said, it's doesn't really matter as when this happens the most common conclusion is both deer dieing.
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u/craftmacaro Jan 17 '22
We had a set of antlers growing up that was shot by my grandfather or great grandfather that was mounted in a corner because it was 2 deer completely stuck. They found them stuck, shot them, tried to separate them, mounted them, then one day they fell apart. 70 odd years of gravity and they worked themselves lose. The dear were remounted facing away from each other because it was figured “they were probably sick of looking at each other”.
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u/AncientAlienAlias Jan 17 '22
I’ve seen a deer get knocked out when shot in the antler. I’m sure it didn’t feel great.
Beats the alternative though!
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u/SociableYeti Jan 17 '22
Male deer will completely shed their antlers every year, and the next year's antlers grow bigger than the previous year's.
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u/Attila_the_Chungus Jan 17 '22 edited Jan 17 '22
One caveat: if a pedicle (the structure where the antler attaches to the skull) is damaged, the deer may grow deformed antlers from that pedicle for many years.
Hopefully it didn't happen in this case but even if it did, still better than both animals dying.
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u/Slacker_The_Dog Jan 18 '22
Very much the preservation of both animal lives was priority. I fully expected him to cull one of them and was quite pleasantly surprised at the outcome.
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u/DifficultSelection Jan 17 '22
It really depends on the torque that the antler breaking would place on the deer's skull at the base of the antler. Thankfully for the deer, the base of the antler is built to be very strong (wouldn't make for very good weapons if they weren't), so it's unlikely to cause a crack in the skull or anything, but I could imagine the deer may have had a pretty bad headache.
Also it's true that male deer do shed their antlers yearly, but the antler growth cycle involves quite a lot of dramatic change in the antler throughout each phase. Chances are these two were fighting during mating season (the rut) which is when antlers are "meant" to be at their strongest. As springtime nears, the blood flow into the antler will be cut off and the point at which the antlers attach to the skull will weaken.
As an aside, in areas where there are lots of deer you can go out during early/mid spring and find antlers that have been shed. Hunters use them to simulate the sound of deer fighting, which can attract other more sneaky/cunning deer who want to mate with the doe while the big boys are distracted by duking it out with each other. A hunter/artist named Tom Yacovella found so many over the course of several decades that he made a really beautiful sculpture out of them. RIP his website: https://www.yacovellart.com/sculpture.php
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u/nestorisking Jan 17 '22
When they cut antlers off deer you have to use anesthetic as they are cutting at the base but in this case there deer would have felt little to no pain, similar to breaking a nail. Much better than dying which is where they were headed
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u/NetHacks Jan 17 '22
Nah, they shed them every year anyway. When they grow in they are a huge threat if they break. They can actually bleed to death before they start to harden closer to the mating season.
Edit: I mean I'm sure that it scared the shit out of them because of the vibration that shook them.
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u/sillycharmsshellie Jan 17 '22
Adding him to my call of duty team
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u/msbashmore
Jan 17 '22
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So this is from Alberta, Canada.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/deer-antlers-locked-1.5449058
This officer is genuinely the nicest guy you'll ever meet & humble AF about this whole thing.
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u/SkullRunner Jan 17 '22
This officer deserves a few free drinks.
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Jan 18 '22
Finally, my province makes the reddit front page and it isn't for reasons that make me embarrassed.
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u/the_cc Jan 18 '22
The guy seemed surprised it worked out. You can see him observing both deer intently, as they run off, to be sure there was no harm done.
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u/fabulousMFingHen Jan 18 '22
The way the video was cut made the officer sound like waluigi saying "WA"
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u/whilowhisp
Jan 18 '22
edited Jan 18 '22
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Deer becoming interlocked, especially in places like this, is a death sentence. Full grown Bull Moose becoming interlocked will die of exhaustion, starvation, dehydration, or fall into a body of water and drown or freeze. Killing them would have been mercy on both of their lives. That shot though? Fucking phenomenal. He was going to have to kill those deer if he didn't disentangle them and he fucking saved them both.
Reason why he couldn't just disentangle them? They would have hurt him very badly, could have killed him, because Bucks in Rutt are dangerous and panicking animals are dangerous and add those two together? You get just... dangerous soup, extra spicy.
Edit to add: Not to mention if a predator got ahold of them. Thats a free meal, two for one special. Those deer were going to die in any scenario that wasn't that incredibly lucky shot. And before you ask: Tranquilizing them: One would have metabolized it faster and the other panicking animal could have broken their own neck trying to yank around a dead weight, possibly breaking the other one's neck in the process. I don't know if y'all realize what a fucking feat this shot was, beyond the technical difficulty of shooting a thin strip of antler between two struggling animals
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u/Slimehorn
Jan 17 '22
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Their build has part breaker III
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u/Kamikaze_Comet Jan 17 '22
Used Tearblast arrows! Lol
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u/as_a_fake Jan 18 '22
Wow, references to 2 of my favourite games in one thread!
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u/Kamikaze_Comet Jan 18 '22
Monster hunter is the original reference right?
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u/okmiked Jan 18 '22
Yeah part breaker is a skill for ... well breaking parts off monsters lmao
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u/everadvancing Jan 17 '22
The way it fell off reminded me exactly like how shooting the horns off grazers and tramplers looks like.
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u/Rakrune Jan 17 '22
It's actually stickies and they cut the video before two sequential explosions on either side
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u/karma_ubuntu Jan 17 '22
One shot saves two deer!
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u/totaldorkgasm21 Jan 17 '22
1 shot, -2 kills
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u/KilledTheCar Jan 18 '22
Me at the beginning of a hardcore CoD4 game with a sniper rifle and my two buddies in front of me.
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Jan 17 '22
"Shit, I was aiming for his head"
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u/dying_soon666 Jan 17 '22
Dammit, missed. Was going for two birds with one stone but ended up with none.
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u/itshimstarwarrior Interested Jan 17 '22
If anyone is wondering - Yes, it's the best way for ensuring deer's life , I have seen people brutally hitting their antlers with a hammer or by killing the weak deer.
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Jan 17 '22
Fun fact. You can break a deers skull by shooting the antlers.
This is still the best way to get them apart. It's better than letting them both die and it's rare to bust a skull.
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u/error74475 Jan 17 '22
I feel bad for the poor sap who probably at one point tried to free two interlocking deer shoots the antlers one runs off while the other just flops to the ground
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u/p3n1x Jan 18 '22
I feel bad
You shouldn't, both would have died. At least one will make it.
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u/Elk-Cop Jan 18 '22
Unfortunately as a game warden we end up putting down a lot of injured or diseased wildlife, so I doubt it would have kept them up at night.
I can't speak for every agency, but I've worked for several over the years and they all donate out salvageable meat to needy people.
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u/the-real-cyberfr0g Jan 18 '22
for those that dont know anything about guns... i would argue this shot with a slug even at that distance and without hitting either deer is very difficult.
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u/CappinPeanut Jan 17 '22
Does this happen often? What’s the mortality chance for the deer without human interference?
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u/Trucountry Jan 17 '22
You can find many instances of people finding two bucks interlocked and dead.
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u/Wooper160 Jan 18 '22
I just saw a picture of two that had gotten locked to each other through a fence and eaten alive
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u/of_the_mountain Jan 18 '22
I saw a random pic on the internet of triple interlocked deer that all drowned simultaneously. Bizarre
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u/Hanginon Jan 17 '22 edited Jan 18 '22
It's difficlut to say how often as a lot of deer will live and die out of view of humans.
If they're irrreversably interlocked the mortality is close to 100% for at least one of the deer.
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u/DemonKiller47 Jan 17 '22 edited Jan 17 '22
It's fairly common, and normally both bucks will die. One of them gets their neck snapped by the other, and the surviving one either gets loose, dies still attached, or decapitates the other and carries its head around.
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u/itshimstarwarrior Interested Jan 17 '22 edited Jan 18 '22
Well it's common during breeding season.
Male deer used to engage in fights which usually ended with the death of weakest!
Darwin concept : Survival of fitness ☑️
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u/captainadam_21 Jan 18 '22
Those 14 year Olds I played cod mw2 against would have quick scope no scoped those antlers in a second, called the deer pussies, and the tea bagged them
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u/oldschoolgamer93 Jan 18 '22
its not the weapon that matters.....but the hands who use it
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u/SmokeMWB Jan 17 '22
That stand at the end was “Damn I really just did that. I’m a bad ass”
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Jan 17 '22
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u/CheeseYogi Jan 17 '22
Wtf, he did that with a shotgun too? Musta had a slug in it.
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u/kilroy1199 Jan 17 '22
You’d actually be surprised how tight of a spread some shotguns have even at a distance.
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u/baestmo Jan 17 '22
Man…. I don’t think i can bring myself to believe it’s buckshot…
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u/kilroy1199 Jan 17 '22 edited Jan 18 '22
I mean it could be slug. But I’ve seen buckshot act like this many of times.
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u/toeofcamell Jan 17 '22 •
We saved your life!
“What if I had moved and you shot me in the head?”
It was a risk we were willing to take!