Whitetail's using river's to travel ?

Kondor

Kondor

CGN Regular
Rating - 100%
109   0   0
Location
Barrie Area 705
After a few Google search's and Youtube I have come up with nothing, I have seen deer walking down a river on a game farm video that's what makes me believe what I am seeing. My current location I have camera's set up has a river bending around and touching essentially every field on the property. I have found MANY trails comming out / going to the water with deer prints, my question is are the deer walking down the river to travel ? both spots I currently have I am 30-60 yards from the river should I put a camera on the river & watch the river while hunting ? It's pretty thick bush and not many trails through the bush.

Thanks for reading & your input!
 
They are probably just crossing it. I have watched them skirt along the bank of the river, cross at a favourite spot, skirt the bank for a bit more, cross back over. The one area I hunt sounds similar. River winding through the property along fields, bush, and areas of long grass. The river is generally about 5-7 feet deep and most spots about 12 feet wide. The more heavily travelled crossing areas are usually in the sharper bends where it is a little narrower and a little shallower.
 
Deer have no fear of water, and will swim if the need is there without provocation. I've seen them swimming down the lake with no apparent reason, in the off season, and, watched them swim across the lake when pursued by hounds during the hunt.
They can swim quite fast BTW. Tried to pace a pair of them with a canoe once. They can really move.
We had a spot where the guys would go down the lake and line up across the ridge, and then we'd do a drive with, or without dogs towards them.
This one time, we were not using the dogs, and we were unsuccessful.
The guys were loading the boat, rifles in cases etc, when a deer jumps out of the lake, twenty feet from the boat. He'd been in the water the whole time behind some evergreens.
Ran up the ridge a ways, turned broadside, and walked into the bush. Everyone was unloaded and cased.
 
I was fishing in the martin river area quit a few years ago came around bend in channel doe standing in water 1/3 way up her chest feeding
 
Both deer and moose will use waterways as an effective escape mechanism from hounds or wolves. They are able to mask their scent trail by using the riverbed...
 
I've watched both deer & moose, in hunting season and out, crossing water and wading/feeding along lakeshores. Can't say I ever saw a deer using a river as a travel thoroughfare, but have seen them feeding along in the shallows and wading deep spots for several yards. I have seen moose swimming downstream on deeper rivers for quite a distance, crossing lakes and even a pair swimming down the center of a rather long lake of 5 or 6 miles. Neither are hesitant to swim a lake if that's where they want to go. They certainly hit the water if being pursued by dogs. The most memorable was a doe in summer, crossing about a half mile or more of Lake Mazinaw then scaling the almost sheer rock face of Bon Echo Rock like it was a mountain goat !
 
Very interesting to hear all the different encounters. I know deer will cross a river but thats not what I was seeing as the other side was NOT climbable even for a human, so meaning that had to walk down the river, and every 50yards or so theres a new path going into the bush or a field, so thats what made me assume they are using it to travel, as I put a camera on that spot and I've caught deer walking to the river and coming up from , now to put a camera ON the river
 
In BC rivers are the traditional travel routes through rough country, including mountain ranges. In southern BC there is a noted migration route of up to at least 200 miles, as deer gather up from heavy snowfall areas along the route and follow a small river south, with many of them crossing the border into the US for the winter, then back again in the spring.
 
I've seen both mule deer and wt swim to cross rivers .......depth didn't matter although they dislike walking on bare ice........pinch points on properties that have beaver dams are a good spot to set up an ambush.......Harold
 
Usually there is more vegetation along a creek or river...and more succulent...the vegetation provides browse and cover. BUT a loud or noisy creek will often mask sounds so deer cant use one of their key senses as well (hearing)....so do they use rivers/creeks as trails? Depends.
 
Several years ago I was hunting along the south nation river when I spotted a large buck dead center in the river, watched pass under a highway bridge and disappear around a bend.
 
I was duck hunting one morning on a small island on Lake Nipissing and watched whatcI believed was a dead head or some kind of debris drifting on the wind and waves from my south side. I first spotted it in the open water it had to be at least a mile distant and the nearest shoreline was 3 miles to the south running parallel to its approach. As it passed the island about 1/2 mile away I realized it was a deer. I pushed my boat off shore and went for a look. Sure enough here was a small whitetal buck swimming to shore to my east. Where I had spotted it first it's line of approach would have almost meant it came from the Manitou Islands 7 miles away!!! This was the first week of november, rifle deer season was open. I watched it get closer and closer to shore until it reached a depth it could walk and away it went soaking wet running into the brush. I have to say I was pretty amazed.
 
Last edited:
Short answer "Yes" in my experience's from what I have seen deer will use rivers and creeks to travel and mask there scent and trail, especially knowledgeable bucks. One sunny day years ago after a good snow my friend and I went and found the biggest deer track we could find crossing the road. I followed the track, my friend stayed 50 yds. behind to one side. That deer took us on quite a walk. Once it new we were following it walked up a creek for about 50 yds. then jumped out of the creek about 12-15ft. straight into the bush, took several more big leaps and then doubled back a ways, then turned and continued on it's original heading of north. It did that twice. Of course it took a lot of time for us fellas to figure it all out and find his trail, this deer had a distinctive split in one hoof so we could pick it out when at one point it had joined other deer. Followed that deer all day just for hellery and to learn. Never di get a glimpse of it, but I am sure it did of us. We shot that deer two days later on a drive north of where we broke off the pursuit. It was the same deer as it had the distinctive split hoof, it was a decent buck.

I followed a wounded doe one time in heavy snow she took me to a small point on a lake, I figured I had her at that point, she did a complete shore line tour of the point until she came back on her own tracks for a ways. Took me about 15 min to figure out and notice she wasn't making anymore tracks. The lake was froze about 10-15ft. out from shore. I noticed the last foot of ice in one spot was broken at the edge. I cranked the scope up on 8 and watched her swim the last little bit and climb a shore across the lake. The deer won the day, again.

There smart when it comes to evasive tactics and have many tricks in there repertoire. Big old does and bucks did not get that way from being careless and stupid.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom