thanks for all of your great input!
could not go back up yesterday or today..but am going up to see if he did indeed float up tommorrow am.
yes, the blood was bright red and we found some lung tissue at the hit sight...so i hope he will be there.
we could'nt see the bottom as its really deep (10-12 ft)...i hate the waste of meat and of a prime buck(8 points) but maybe i can at least claim the rack. guess we should have tried to drag the river with something...but that would have been hard to rig up and come up with at the time.
thanks again and i will keep you all posted on the results of this saga...

As far as I know all deer will float due to the fact that a deers' hair is hollow. It will work as a flotation device. Good luck with the deer.

They certainly can swim. Maybe he scooted over to the other side? Maybe look over there for a blood trail?

matt, he said there was no blood or tracks on the other side

i have heard that humans will float for a short period and then sink, then they will bloat because of the decay and micro organisms and whatnot, and they will float back up. So... both??

hi !
well , he was there. bloated up and floating about 200yds downstream.
one antler broken right off the other half craked off.
shot right through.just behind shoulder blade..so we think he did a header right off the cliff onto the rocks and bounced right into the river . dead.
too bad. he was my first buck too. but i feel better as the mystery is solved and my shot was bang on. under "normal" circumstances he would have gone 50 yards and died.
thansk for you help!
ps. right through both lungs so i imagine he sank very quickly.

They float. I hunt near a large river, and have had them die in the water on more than one occaison. They'll stay near the top of the water.

I live in Canada and the Deer hair this time of year the winter hair is like a staw hollow in the middle, for extra warmth for winter, and they float, no question

Hateto hear the rack wasn't salvagable, but good to know it was a good hit.

where I hunt there are two rivers running through,we have taken many , many deer that went into the water.9 out of 10 will sink just below the surface.if you look close it looks like a small brown bowl at the top of the water.most times if you don't get to it in a few min. then it will go down.shot through the lungs with a rifle or shot with a shot gun with buckshot, it will sink almost immediently. that 1 out 0f 10 will go down like a rock. I have saw this many times. we have even had a guy take his scuba gear and find them for us 10 to 15 yards from where they went into the water.
I guess it all depends on how the deer was hit.

happened locally here a few years back.. but it was a pond, so no running water or current.. took 24 hours but the buck surfaced.. btw it had 27in inside spread... monster