Can DEER REALLY CRAWL!!

CountryRoad

Senior Member
So my hunting buddy was out in the woods today, and he was telling me about this huge buck he saw. Now I believe him about the deer, but here is what I dont get. He told me he saw the buck come out of the woods cross the lane, walk into the field, (which has 2 foot high grass) got on his belly and crawl! I have a hard time believing this. Can a deer really lay down on his belly and crawl across a feild? I think he is full it. He said once the deer got to the other edge of the field he stood up and walked into the woods!
Is that really possible!?:huh:
 

Meriwether Mike

Senior Member
Could the buck have been crouched and walking in a drainage ditch? I have seen does do this.
 

Trizey

Senior Member
I don't know about your buddy, but I've seen a buck crawl behind a railroad berm. We stopped the truck and could hear him moving parallel with road behind the berm in the gravel.
 

BuckinFish

Senior Member
you would probably get along well with this girl at my work, she believes anything i say...if i were you id hunt 2 feet higher to be able to see through those 2 foot high grasses::ke:
 

Wetzel

Senior Member
I've read in books that this happens at times, but I'd have to see it for myself before I'd believe it.
 

WishIwuzhuntin

Senior Member
Never seen it

I've never seen it, but I have a number of friends who claimed to have witnessed it. I've also read about it, I think in a Charles Alsheimer book if I remember correctly.
 

Trizey

Senior Member
By the way...the buck that we saw do this was one of the largest bucks I've ever personally seen. Had to have been 5.5+ years old, really grey face.
 

cball917

Senior Member
i watched a does do this one one time on the back side of a downed tree. she was doing it because she winded me. the bad thing is that i was on the opposite side of the tree. so i watched the whole thing
 

BuckinFish

Senior Member
wow sorry maybe i was wrong...now i want to see it haha
 

huntnnut

GONetwork Member
Usually they will cross open fields in ditches or low lying areas and it may have just appeared to have been crawling, although I have known deer to crawl for quite aways after being hit.

I had a wall hanger walking straight to me one morning in the middle of some cut-over. At the time I would have had to have shot him head on in the brisket. While I was hoping that he would turn broadside he stepped down in a ditch that I wasn't even aware was there from the tree I was in and completely dissappeared on me. He walked that ditch all the way to the woods and escaped. Looking back on it, I believe he either seen me in the tree or either he just felt my presence as I was beginning to get a little buck fever while he was approaching me and knew it was time to get out of dodge.

It baffled the hound out of me as to how he just disappeared on me until I discovered the small ditch in the cut-over after getting down from the tree.
 

Adirondacker

Senior Member
Was riding in a car with a buddy once when a deer crawled under a quard rail and we clipped it with the front fender. We got out and looked for the deer. From the ground to the bottom of the guard rail was less distance than from my knee to the ground (just measured it @ 21 inches). I am sure that they can physically do it but I have never observed one behave as you described.

Also once spotted a doe in a heavily hunted area that was bedded in some thick stuff. I was less than 50 yds away when I first saw her and closed the distance to under 40 yds. I yelled to my bro inlaw who was on the other side that a I saw one and was going to push her to him to shoot. I thought my yelling would cause her to jump and run but as I approached closer she stretched her neck out and layed so she was flat to the ground. I was able to find an opening and shot her in the bed. Looked her over real good after because I started thinking her behavior might have meant she was sick. No problems found (other than the bullet hole). I just think she had adopted a tactic that had probably allowed her to evade other hunters in this very heavily hunted area in the past.

Very few stories about whitetail behavior surprise me any more.
 
I've seen them flatten out and crawl under a fence like rat. Have seen some pretty good bucks twist their heads so that their antlers wouldn't catch.

First time I saw it, I didn't believe it either. Deer was running full speed toward a barbed wire fence and I thought for sure he would go over. Ran up and scooted under without missing a beat. Obviously he had done it before.
 

Adirondacker

Senior Member
Anyone hear about that study in Mich or somewhere, this is years ago, where thy released a wild captured radio collared buck with orange streamers in its rack into a 1/4 mi x 1/4 mi (or something like that ) thickly wooded/brushed enclosure? They sent people in with radio tracker and supposdly they never got a look at that buck? I heard that one years ago. Any one hear it of is it a rural-legend? I'd like to send this one to Myth BUsters!

I always wondered how they caught him in the first place
 

CountryRoad

Senior Member
I think it happend

I think that deer did crawl my buddy said he was about 4.5 years old. the deer is just getting smart in his old age. thats my thought
 
They can crawl

My dad killed large buck about 10 years ago after he watched what he thought was a dog with large horns come in up a draw in some thick tyty bushes... He said he heard the deer shuffling and caught movement of horns moving through some knee high grass then he said the deer "unhinged" and just stood up to full height right in the middle of a grassy opening. Needless to say he was shocked but he now has that rack on his wall... He and I sure do believe that deer can crawl. He never knew why that deer did it though. Maybe the deer caught him moving and crawled until he thought he was safe but dad said if he hadn't seen him stand up he wouldn't have believed the could crawl.
 

HMwolfpup

Senior Member
about 6 or 7 years ago, I was at a Pennington hunt and watch two does come crawling out of some brush that was about 3 foot high surrounding a food plot. I saw brush moving, when the movement got to the edge of the brush, I saw a nose stick out from the edge about 3 or 4 inches off the ground. Right after the nose came out, I watched it stand up and then another came out right behind it doing the same thing.
 

Shotgun Shooter

Senior Member
Yes, bucks crawl. I have witnessed this happening several times.
This will happen if a buck is badly spooked and can't immediately figure out the best escape route. He'll crawl into the closest, thickest cover he can see.
 

letsgohuntin

Senior Member
I have heard of others sa that they have seen them crawl, but I have never seen it. I believe it though... other animals can crawl, why couldn't a deer??
 

Junebug

Senior Member
You betcha they can crawl!

When I was kid growing up in Mississippi we used to run deer dogs...mostly little beagles. They rarely pushed a deer too fast because of those little short legs, but generally kept them on the move. When they aren't pushed too hard it's amazing some of the things bucks'll do...like crawl. Even when you see it you don't really believe it!!
More than once I've watched bucks trying to slip out of a cutover or thicket and belly crawl across wide open broomstraw or along a shallow ditch. Especially an educated buck that knows where stands are located either from previous races or wind direction. He'll do whatever he can to avoid being seen.
 
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