A good reminder to be wary of a downed deer.

ALBION - Indiana Conservation Officers have closed the investigation of a hunter's death at Chain O'Lakes State Park after the Noble County Coroner's office ruled the death was due to a lacerated liver, possibly from an encounter the hunter had with a deer he shot.

Paul J. Smith, 62, of Fort Wayne, died Monday while participating in the deer reduction hunt at Chain O'Lakes.

According to Conservation Officer Erick Bolt of DNR Law Enforcement, Smith called his son shortly after 9 a.m. and left a voice message that he'd shot a buck. When Smith's son returned the called around 10:30 a.m., Smith told him that after descending from his treestand to field dress and tag the deer, he discovered the deer was still alive. Smith told his son he scuffled with the deer before killing it with a knife.

Cpl. Bolt said Smith called park officials by cell phone at about 12:30 p.m. to request help in transporting a deer to the reduction hunt check-in station.

A park employee who went to retrieve the deer found Smith unconscious and seated against a tree and relayed Smith's condition to park officials. Chain O'Lakes property manager Sam Boggs and Indiana Conservation Officer Darren Reed immediately responded. Reed was off duty but at the park as a participant in the deer reduction hunt.

Reed and Boggs attempted to revive Smith with a portable defibrillator but got no response. They initiated CPR until EMS first responders arrived and pronounced Smith dead at the scene.

The coroner's autopsy revealed lacerations on Smith's liver that were in line with internal bruising.

http://www.theoutdoorwire.com/story/1321432909g9hzbt3g9hn

Shoot 'em, and shoot 'em again.

A friend in MT shot an elk, thought it dead and stuck it in the throat with his Bowie to bleed. The critter jumped up and ran off with his knife sticking still out of his throat, they never found either.

I always put a .22 round in the head of a downed animal. One in the head and you know they are dead. Never had a problem with this routine in over 40 years of hunting.

Sounds like more than a scuffly my exbrother in law tried to kill a wounded buck with a knife and came within a hair of major problems,he neveer was a very bright guy.

Had a doe jump up under me when i went to cut her throat when i was about 20. Had 2 children after that so my plumbing survived, sure got a good laugh out of my 2 hunting partners though at my expense! Don't cut the throat no more, seemed something the old timers taught us. I find a long stick and give the eye a poke, if its alive it'll move then. Everyone take care out there.

Ditto. Let it lay for at least 15 or 20 and then poke that eyeball from behind.

Touch the eye and no movement...OK
Touch the eye and get movement...22 in the head.
Doing it this way for quite awhile.

I went around with a doe when I was 16 and after being lucky enought to get out of there with my life I take things a little easier now.

Just goes to show you things can go wrong even when you least expect it. I have slit deer's throats before when down but not dead.
kinda makes ya think though.
can't shoot em too dead, better off giving them the coup de grace

Absolutely nothing wrong with an insurance shot; Africa does it all the time.

I have discussed this in an earlier post but could not find it handily. Just a word of advice. In Colorado and Wyoming (and probably in other states) it is illegal to shoot a big game animal (even for a finisher) unless you use a legal hunting caliber. A .22 in these two states is not a legal hunting caliber for big game. Neither is a .38 Special. The point I am making is that if you wound an animal, and then dispatch it with an "illegal caliber,"
you would be better off in the eye of the law to just let it run off.

I had this actual conversation with a Game Warden, and I kid you not.

In one of the hunting scenes in my original uncut version of my Handgun Hunting Video...ER... OH...uh... let's just say that after this conversation, I EDITED IT OUT.

Not saying it is morally right or wrong, just passing on what the law says.

I guess that maybe I am an outlaw...because I have dispatched wounded big game with a .22 rather than let it suffer.

Nothing wrong with a double tap.

Back in 1983 a buddy of mine from college(a real true to life mountain man) and I drove from Ft Collins one weekend to Wyoming looking for summer jobs in the oil business. Winter had been really heavy and we came across a very large gathering of Elk and Mule deer that the Division of wildlife must have been feeding hay to. Jay wanted to walk out to them and take pictures of them. He approached within 50 yards of the herd and a large mule deer doe began slowly walking towards him. I was taking pictures of it walking towards him. When it got 5 yards away it ran at him stood on its hind legs and began striking at him with its front hooves. Jay was wearing a down jacket that got shredded and feathers flew everywhere. I think the feathers scared the doe and she ran off only to turn back towards Jay. He was able to make it back to my truck before she caught up with him. We both couldn't believe what just happened. Jay was lucky she only brusied his arm he held out in front of him and shredded his jacket.

they had a dumb urbanite woman attacked by a blacktail buck year before last. She was at a park and it was during rut and she tried to pet it, didn't work out well and she was attacked but sustained only minor injuries.

I did have a friend pull a boneheaded move when we were kids. As I've said before I lived a wild youth and had some wild friends. At one of my buddies houses the deer would come in every night to raid the garden. There was a large oak tree by where they came in so one night after too much Jack he insisted he could pull a Rambo. He climbed the tree with a large hunting knife so we all went back in a continued drinking and after while he came in covered in blood. We went out and sure enough he had jumped on the back of a doe and killed it with the knife. This guy was nuts to start with and last I heard he was doing hard time but he accomplished his goal. While not exactly legal we had a fresh venison bbq. I know from personal experience that he's lucky that the deer didn't turn things around on him. I in turn waited until morning and legally shot a doe with my bow out of the garden from the front porch. I definitely have a colorful past.

Lol, Rod your not the only one!! Isn't it amazing how you get a little smarter the older you get!

definitely!!!

Never was much of a throat cutter, a deer's hooves are more lethal than the horns, just shoot them again if you need to handloads are cheap.