Watch Ohio Hunters Free Buck From Rope Swing

Three Ohio hunters had a buck encounter they weren’t expecting when they stumbled upon a deer with its antlers caught in a rope swing.

They filmed their rescue efforts as the frantic deer swung high into the air, back and forth, as it tried to free itself from the rope, which was attached to a tree.

“There was a rope swing for the creek behind that and somehow it managed to get its head wrapped up in the rope,” 23-year-old Joshua Baldridge told Inside Edition.

Although the three men are hunters, Baldridge said he didn’t shoot the buck because, “I didn’t want to take advantage of the deer.”

The three hunters from Fresno came up with a strategy to free the deer.

Baldridge, who happens to be a wrestler, managed to grab the powerful animal and pull its hind quarters around the tree, putting the deer in a move called the “tight waist,” while one of the other hunters cut the rope to free it.

“He was kicking me and I think he was trying to bite me. I felt really helpless,” Baldridge says.

The footage, which was actually captured last February, but has just now gone viral, shows the freed deer scampering off into the woods.