Swimming Deer, ever see a Deer Swim?
 

Who has seen them do it and do they swim on a regular basis? I hunt an area that has alot of old mining pits, usually only about 80-100 feet wide. There are many tracks along the edges of these pits and although I have never seen one swim, I have heard others say they have seen them swim and have shot deer soaking wet close to pits, must have just swam the pit. Do you thinkdeer swim on a regular basis as part of their trail system?

RE: Swimming Deer, ever see a Deer Swim?
 

I hunt public land that is split by a rather large river. The deer go back and forth across the river on a regular basis. I have seen them swimming across it all the time.

RE: Swimming Deer, ever see a Deer Swim?
 

Every year, they are great swimmers. land along a river

RE: Swimming Deer, ever see a Deer Swim?
 

They are awesome swimmers!! I seen one swim across a pond a couple years ago. My buddy saw one in the middle of a lake while he was bass fishing. I don't think it's part of their normal routine, probably as a last resort when spooked.

RE: Swimming Deer, ever see a Deer Swim?
 

They swim across the Ohio River all the time.

RE: Swimming Deer, ever see a Deer Swim?
 

This whole 80 x 50 mile archipelago has been populated by deer that were originally introduced on a little offshore island. When several deer were seen to have established themselves on the main island (Kodiak) a few more were brought in (twelve total deer). Now they stretch from one end of the island chain to the other. They swim all over the place here.

RE: Swimming Deer, ever see a Deer Swim?
 

Do you think they are reluctant at all about swimming, I was really wondering if swimming small bodies of water could be part of their trail system, something they do nearly everyday, do you think water temperature has anything to do with it? Do they still swim with water temps in the mid 30's?

RE: Swimming Deer, ever see a Deer Swim?
 

I think they swim (when their area/terrain call for it) all the time. I know there's a law against harvesting deer in a certain depth of water.....so I'd say it was pretty common for them to be IN said water!

Jeff

RE: Swimming Deer, ever see a Deer Swim?
 

http://www.outdoorsweekly.com/trail.html

Look about halfway dow the page...... nive buck in the some
cold water!

RE: Swimming Deer, ever see a Deer Swim?
 

This one went for a swim,, right after it took a 30-30 round![:@]

RE: Swimming Deer, ever see a Deer Swim?
 

that musta been a pain gettin that deer out

RE: Swimming Deer, ever see a Deer Swim?
 

Here are some deer that I got a picture of swimming at a Nature Center here in MO. There were 4 of them that swam across this lake.

RE: Swimming Deer, ever see a Deer Swim?
 

These are some great pictures. I have never seen a deer swim before but i don't hunt near water or I should say water that they would need to swim across.

RE: Swimming Deer, ever see a Deer Swim?
 

My friends and I were on my boat at a small island in the middle of
the Ohio river along with several other boats.Someone noticed a
small buck(in velvet) in the middle of the river.Swam all the way
from West Virginia to Ohio,once on the river bank,he started
feeding like it was nothing.

RE: Swimming Deer, ever see a Deer Swim?
 

I've seen deer swim on several occasions! I even had one swim through my duck decoy spread once, that was a sight!!! I duck hunt, on a reservoir, that is about 3 miles long and half mile wide! I've seen a deer swim across that at least 10-15 different times! I even arrowed one right as it came out of the water!

RE: Swimming Deer, ever see a Deer Swim?
 

A few years back my brother and I were trout fishing in a lake at a nearby WMA and heard dogs barking on the ridge above us. A buck came running down off the ridge and without hesitation jumped into the lake and swam across the widest part which was about 100 yards. Needless to say the dogs lost his trail.......lol. It was 14 degrees that morning. I live by the Kanawha river and I've seen deer swim it several times.

RE: Swimming Deer, ever see a Deer Swim?
 

All I can say is deer are AMAZING creatures. It is amazing year after year we hunt them and they are still going strong. I believeamazing is the only word youcan use to describe them!

RE: Swimming Deer, ever see a Deer Swim?
 

swampthing....radical man!....Yes Ive seen emswim rivers to get to islands to avoid pressure...my boyz can swim too

RE: Swimming Deer, ever see a Deer Swim?
 

Yes deer do swim on a regular basis. One of my favorite places to hunt isa funnel were the deer cross a small river, there's a large field to one side, a small wood lot and then a bluff, they cross the river all the time in their daily routine. A deer's hair is hollow inside and serve's as a floatation device. they will float without even kicking,I worked on the Ohio and Mississippi river's as a deckhand years ago seen huge deer swimming the river all of the time, sometimes they would get tired and just float along with the current.

RE: Swimming Deer, ever see a Deer Swim?
 

I too have seen it, but not as part of their trail system, I jumped 2 does walkingonto a point, they had the choice of running towards me or hitting the water. Its illegal to shoot a swimmer up here so I had to take a long shot to the far bank, but it wasn't hard to take one of them as they exited the water because I had planty of time to set up with a good rest (gun hunt).

RE: Swimming Deer, ever see a Deer Swim?
 

they found a 9 point off of our coast one day two years ago like 8 miles out but it had just died from exhaustion

RE: Swimming Deer, ever see a Deer Swim?
 

It was back during the eighties around early November ,snow was just starting to fly a friend and who had turned me on to some great fishing and hunting were out of town about 60 miles to a area where we had hunted fished, we were both sharing a pint and other material, we were driving along that familiar fast deep moving river and i opened up "hey can those mulies smim across this?" his reply "You God dang right they can"..i said "are you sh*itt'n me?",,it was no more than about 300 feet further down that road along that river, sure enough i had saw where a good size doe jumped it that fast moving current and began it's swim straight across to the other side like that water wasn't even there. Now that was a trip.

RE: Swimming Deer, ever see a Deer Swim?
 

a neighbor of mine loves to fish lake Mille Lacs in Minnesota (absolutely huge lake) and his wife loves to deer hunt. well, on the opening of deer hunting this year he was fishing and she was hunting. He actually saw a doe heading out to sea (it would seem that way on that lake). he called his wife and said 'guess what I see'? She didn't see a deer all weekend. Who would have thought that a guy fishing mille lacs would see a deer! I guess the doe realized what she was doing and turned back to shore.

Seems to me they love to cross water when they are pressured. I gun hunt near a pond, I can't even count all the times deer have crossed that pond during gun season.

RE: Swimming Deer, ever see a Deer Swim?
 

That deer was actually shot on opener of this gun season. I guess he became quite a famous deer!

RE: Swimming Deer, ever see a Deer Swim?
 

We see 'em swimming here in Louisiana all the time. Especially if they're running from dogs. Some of the guys I used to work with would set up hunters around the perimeter of an island and let their deer dogs go at one end. Deer would hit the water like a labrador retriever.

RE: Swimming Deer, ever see a Deer Swim?
 

I've been fishing(trolling) out on Lake Superior and have seen a buck swiming to an Island. The Island was over a mile from shore and the buck was at least half way. Its amazing they can swim with those little hooves. An interesting side note - the deer on the island are now eating some of the native plants to extiniction. The Park Service has a speccial gun hunt to try to reduce the herd size. Canadian Yew is like candy to those deer.

RE: Swimming Deer, ever see a Deer Swim?
 

Yep i grew up on the Grand River here in Michigan and we used to seethem swimming almost every day. Walt

RE: Swimming Deer, ever see a Deer Swim?
 

My parents live on a lake and i have seen deer swim the lake on a number of occasions. Although they swim, and are very good at it, i think they will travel alittle farther out of their way to avoid swimming if they can. I think that swimming is definetly their last resort.

RE: Swimming Deer, ever see a Deer Swim?
 

On 11/10 I seen a huge 10 pointer run past me and jump into a creek, swim down stream and take off after a doe on the other side.

RE: Swimming Deer, ever see a Deer Swim?
 

They are good swimmers i think its because there hair makes them very buoyant . They have been seen swimming across the bay to an island that is a mile to a mile and a half away

RE: Swimming Deer, ever see a Deer Swim?
 

Yup seen them swim the Mississippi out to islands.