JACKSON — The deer hunter figured sneezing had blown his chance at a deer, but blowing his nose brought a big buck running.
Ron Manning of Hinds County said he’s hunted deer for 54 years and had never seen anything like what happened earlier this month — though he did once see a deer that tried to eat grape bubble gum and got gum all over itself, he told The Clarion-Ledger.
On Jan. 16, he said, he suffered a volley of nine sneezes in 10 minutes. He tried to muffle the noise in his elbow, but figured he had no chance of seeing a deer for an hour. So he went for the honk.
The next thing he knew, “a 17-inch, 8-point came roaring in,” Manning said. “He had his ears laid back, his eyes glazed over and the hair standing up on his back. Obviously, I said something to upset him because he came to fight. He wasn’t cautious. He came in running.”
“He was wide open, coming to me,” Manning said. “I shot him at 25 yards.”
Manning joked that instead of a grunt/wheeze call, this deer was fooled by a cough/sneeze.
“I wish I knew exactly what I did so I could duplicate it,” Manning said.
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