“No more reindeer games…”

The second day of firearm season began just like any other for Randy Goodman, 47.  He headed to his tree stand northwest of Sedalia Nov. 16 and called his son, who was hunting near by to wish him good luck.

As daylight broke, a doe crossed his path and then two more.  “All of the sudden something came up beside them,” Goodman said.  With his Remington .270 rifle in hand, he shot a nice buck broadside. The buck’s front legs collapsed as it ran toward a fence and flipped over to the other side.  A second shot at about 30 yards away to the back of the neck put the buck down for good, or so Goodman thought.

A few minutes later Goodman went to check out his trophy. As he grabbed one horn he said, “Wow. What a big deer.”  As the nine-point, 240-pound buck lay lifeless the unexpected happened.  The buck stood up and knocked Goodman on his butt, attacking him with his antlers.  “It was 15 seconds of hell,” Goodman said.

Goodman thought the deer was trying to go through him as he fought it off the best he could. A few seconds later, the deer was off and running.  “I felt his front legs go over my face,” Goodman said.  The buck ran 30 yards and fell down again and Goodman was worried the deer wasn’t done yet.

“If he was going to come back I would be in trouble because I was in too much pain,” Goodman said.  Goodman walked back to his tree stand and grabbed his gun, finally putting the buck down with two more shots to the neck.

“My face felt warm so I took off my glove and I noticed I was bleeding,” Goodman said.  His jacket was soaked in blood and he was becoming dizzy. He called his son and brother for help.  “I knew something was wrong,” Goodman said.

He was far back in the woods and knew he would be hard to find, so he jumped back into his truck and drove to the road.  “I was afraid I was going to bleed to death,” Goodman said.

In the emergency room, Goodman received seven staples in the left side of his scalp and suffered a light concussion. His right arm and chest were bruised.

Goodman has been hunting since 1979 and said this freak accident taught him one thing.  “I learned a valuable lesson, if you don’t think they’re dead, you might want to shoot them again,” Goodman said.

The bully buck has already been processed and his antlers will soon decorate Goodman’s wall.

Copyright © 2008, The Sedalia Democrat, Sedalia, Mo.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

this is a picture of a buck, but not the buck