Weirdest thing I've seen a deer do is....

[tlh2865]

I have only been hunting for 6 years, and I do not know whether this is a rare occurrence or not, but here it goes:
Usually where I hunt there will be 1 or 2 evenings a year that are pretty special. On theses evenings I will see usually every single deer on the 100 acre property in the same 10 acre field. It was on one of these nights that I saw around 11 different bucks. Now this was during the rut and everyone was pretty close together, so soon fights started to break out. These weren't just the usual sparring sessions though, these were knock-down drag-out brawls.
The crazy part was that at one time the bucks were fighting in groups of three, not in pairs. There were two, three way fights going on at the same time, and then two other bucks were off in another corner fight each other, while the rest were off with the does, and one buck left having taken a rather sever gash across his left eye.
Anybody else seen a three way buck fight?

 

[farmhunter]

I've been hunting 35 years - and I've seen some pretty cool stuff. One time when I was just starting hunting - I was at the farmhouse of my uncle, I wasn't even hunting yet - and I saw deer running across the lot - Flat out. Well they came to a three strand barb wire fence, and the 1st two cleared it - but the third one never knew it was there. The sound it made when it hit was indescribable - the deer in slow motion came to a complete stop - and that fence threw her backwards about 30 ft. probably about 6-8 feet in the air. Fence posts bowed to the ground and snapped right back up. There she laid in a heap. I watched her for 20 minutes about 100 yds away - and she never moved. So I walked up to see what was up - when I got about 20 yds away - she Jumped up and ran off - I thought for sure she was dead has all hell!

 

[farmhunter]

I have only been hunting for 6 years, and I do not know whether this is a rare occurrence or not, but here it goes:
Usually where I hunt there will be 1 or 2 evenings a year that are pretty special. On theses evenings I will see usually every single deer on the 100 acre property in the same 10 acre field. It was on one of these nights that I saw around 11 different bucks. Now this was during the rut and everyone was pretty close together, so soon fights started to break out. These weren't just the usual sparring sessions though, these were knock-down drag-out brawls.
The crazy part was that at one time the bucks were fighting in groups of three, not in pairs. There were two, three way fights going on at the same time, and then two other bucks were off in another corner fight each other, while the rest were off with the does, and one buck left having taken a rather sever gash across his left eye.
Anybody else seen a three way buck fight?

I've seen three way sparring plenty - sometimes it gets a little serious - but most times not. I have seen a bunch of bucks all at once a few times. One time there was a hot doe - and 6 bucks chasing her - it was sheer chaos and I only got one shot and missed - there was NO STOPPING those bucks for a shot! was quite the show!

 

[Jason Broom]

I once watched a herd of mule deer does chase a coyote around a big field and stomp the crap out of him. He'd get running for a bit and then they'd catch up and give it hell again. Pretty fun to watch as it happened.

Another time I was out bear hunting in eastern AZ and was using a varmint call to see if I could get one to come in. Well about 5 minutes into my calling a big ol' coues whitetail buck came running in to see what was causing the raucous. He stomped and blew trying to get me to move but I just stayed still and watched him. After a bit I stood up and he took off down a ravine.

I had a couple of very similar experiences. I was sitting in a brush pile on the edge of a clear cut during California's gun season opener. Two fawns came walking down the logging road, with a doe bringing up the rear. All of a sudden momma scoots forward and spins around to see a jack rabbit come hopping down the road behind her. As if that wasn't funny enough, the doe laid her ears back and proceeded to do her absolute best to stomp the fur off that rabbit. Ol' floppy ears zigged and zagged at all the right times, escaping any real harm, but it seemed to make the doe that much more furious. The jack disappeared into another brush pile (thankfully not the one I was in!) and the doe snorted at it for a couple minutes before taking off. Road rage amongst the critters, I guess?

During an early trip to Ft. Hunter Liggett with our bows, dad started blowing a fawn in distress call about 50 yards up the trail from me. Almost immediately we heard snorting and stomping down the ridge from us. Sure enough, that doe was fired up! She came FLYING up the trail, dang near running me over in the process. In one of my less graceful moments, I stuck my bow out in front of me to ward her off. Heck, she didn't even notice me, despite being just a couple feet away when she went by. I shook out my pant leg for a 2nd time that day...I had sat down on a "rock that rattled" just a couple hours earlier.

 

[Hoseman]

Early one morning on a hunt in Illinois, I was walking across a field in the dark to get to my stand when I heard a crazy but scary sound just where I was heading. It was a roaring sound that was obviously being made by some animal and the closer I went towards my stand the more it became apparent that the noise was coming right where I was heading. I stopped and listened and was a little concerned because it sounded like a sasquatch mating call and it was very loud. I thought to myself that there were no bears or wild boars in this part of the country so, whatever it was, could not pose any real danger (I hoped). Finally when I got within 50 yds of the stand which was in the far corner of the field and had a river just behind the field, I decided to nock an arrow just in case and started easing up there to see what was creating so much racket. It was a really loud GRRRRRRRRR noise and spooky as hell sounding. When I got about 25 yds away I decided to shine my light on whatever beast was making the gruesome noise and to my great surprise it was a huge buck. Two shepherd dogs had him pinned against the bank of the river and were jumping back and forth trying to nip at him. He was fighting them off with his horns and growling at them. As soon as my light hit the dogs they ran off but the buck just stood there. I walked up to within ten feet of the deer which was about a 145" 8 point and he didn't pay me or my light one bit of attention. He was panting heavily and looking in the direction of where the dogs ran off. He eventually just walked off after standing there for several minutes. It is amazing how loud that roar noise was as I could hear it easily 300 yards away. I was hoping he would walk back by my stand after daylight but I never saw him again.

 

[dogdoc]

I think many deer die from just sheer exhaustion when be chased by dogs.