In the annals of “crazy, unbelievable deer stories,” this one ranks near the top. You may have seen video of a buck bouncing from the hood of a police car and even one recent post where a deer tried to enter a car. This wild adventure goes way beyond that as an 8-point buck breaks into a house, attacks the Christmas tree and causes total mayhem while a highschool student looks on. The local police believe that scent from a recently cut evergreen tree caused the buck to break through a glass door, enter the house, and follow the trail. Experienced deer hunters often use scent, yet never once has “estrous pine” been one of them. If deer followed the scent of pine trees, they’d not have to travel far, since evergreen are rather sedentary entities. A much more plausible explanation for the deer’s home invasion taps into its rutting and dominance tendencies. The buck probably saw its image reflect in the glass window and did what most rutting bucks do- attacked. That would explain why it broke the glass and entered the room.
Unlike most deer incident reports, this post goes into great detail about the dilemma. Can you imagine how crazy a bloodied whitetail deer would be in the confines of your home? Understandably, the animal felt trapped and was doing everything it could to escape. Imagine if you were that Walkersville teen and you knew a gun was in the house–would you have the nerve to shoot it? What about the collateral damage of firing a gun in the home? As you read through this chronicle, you’ll be impressed by the lengths this young man took to solve the problem and his determination to end it. As a non-hunter, this “in-living-room showdown with an eight-point buck” qualifies as a “first deer” story …and what a tale it is.
Ryan Manchester did not need camouflage or a tree stand to kill his first deer. He was shirtless and standing behind his living room couch, less than 10 feet away. On Dec. 5, an eight-point buck busted Manchester’s front door open and ransacked the Walkersville High School senior’s home. After calling 911 and feeling he had no other choice, Manchester shot the deer twice — once in the head and once in the shoulder — and killed it.
Manchester figures it all started when the buck wanted to mate with his family’s Christmas tree. His family dragged the tree through the front door, and thinks the scent of doe urine lured the deer to come in, the same way they brought in the tree.
