# Wounded deer go to water?



## Lundy

I keep reading the threads of the deer that are hit and the hunters looking for some advice in finding them.

One of the most common responses I see here is " a wounded deer will go towards water"

When I was young I also used to believe that because that is what I was told growing up hunting. Now, I don't believe it and haven't for many many years.


What do you believe?


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## bobk

Funny that you would post this. I have been reading the replies and thinking the same thing.


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## Lewis

Not a believer in that theory either .In my experience a wounded deer seeks out thick cover rather than water.


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## turkeyt

May be fact or fiction but, there have been lots of wounded deer found in and around water. I found a buck i shot laying in a creek bed and know of others also. Where they try to go may depend alot on where the wound is on them. Just a thought: If you get sick and are running a fever what do you want on your forehead? How about a cool damp wash cloth. I agree they will seek brush and any cover to hide them but, i never overlook water, the bread of life.


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## Mad-Eye Moody

I've always heard this too, but have never found it to be information that pans out. I always look to water for wounded deer. But it has never helped me one way or another.

I would think that cold water might feel good on a wound, but that might lead to infection and deer have pretty good instincts....


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## Lundy

turkeyt said:


> May be fact or fiction but, there have been lots of wounded deer found in and around water. I found a buck i shot laying in a creek bed and know of others also. Where they try to go may depend alot on where the wound is on them. Just a thought: If you get sick and are running a fever what do you want on your forehead? How about a cool damp wash cloth. I agree they will seek brush and any cover to hide them but, i never overlook water, the bread of life.




Unless every deer that is shot immediately starts running towards water only to die in the first 50-100 yds going to water we have to assume that we are looking for a mortally wounded deer that will die slowly and that some these deer that are found are near water or this going to water theory could have never been developed.

I'm also guessing that ones that are never found must all go towards corn fields, or pine thickets, or ridge tops, or WalMarts, and everyone is looking by the water and missed them

The only common denominator I have ever really seen is that if hunting hilly terrain a hard hit deer will travel downhill. At the bottom of these hills is where you find creeks and ditches with water in them


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## Jigging Jim

I imagine that a Gut Shot Deer would feel Thirsty.


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## LilSiman/Medina

I feel that all sense in a deer goes away when it's wounded. They will run anywhere and sometimes it just happens to be water or thick stuff because that is mostly down hill which is easier for them to run.


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## sherman51

im a firm believer in deer heading to water, if it isnt hurt so bad it beds down and dies within a couple hundred yrds from where its shot. but i have just found to many deer in or close to water. and have found many trails going into the water and then not be able to find where they came out.

but now alot of this could just be the deer are going to low ground or thick cover that is close to water. but if i make a not so good hit and cant find the deer and there is a creek close by i wont give up untill i have checked it out good. of course the best thing is if you didnt spook the deer and it beds down and dies before getting lost in the first place. because most of the time you have to track a deer that far is because somebody spooked them.
sherman


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## Mushijobah

There are no hard and fast rules in most things in life. I think water occurs in low areas and injured deer tend to travel downhill. I've seen them run down hill and struggle to make it back up the other side...leaving them, yes, in the water.


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## buckeyebowman

Lewis said:


> Not a believer in that theory either .In my experience a wounded deer seeks out thick cover rather than water.


I think we may be on to something here! Yes, a shot deer heads for the thickest cover they know about in order to hide. Where do you find the thickest cover? Many times it's near water. Where do you find water? At the bottoms of valleys and hollows. It's been my experience that the vast majority of shot deer head down hill. Even ones that were originally heading uphill when shot. They might take a few bounds up hill, but they soon turn and head down. I think they do that because it's easier. I've seen lots of spooked deer go uphill. Had an old-timer tell me that's because they want to get above what's bothering them and get a better vantage point. But shot deer almost always will head down hill. If the thickest cover happens to be near water, you can see how the theory came to be.

Of course, if you're hunting flat land, all this is academic!


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## chopper

Just a thought. I have been a paramedic for 26 years with 12 years on a medical helicopter. I have had dozens and dozens of people with severe trauma begging for a drink and not even saying much about their injuries. This is due to hypovolemic shock, loss of blood. When your body senses this extreme loss of blood and low blood pressure, it trys to replenish the fluids. Just saying, if a deer is bleeding and does not go down, they too will go into shock. They will need water. I do think that they do go for water but not as soon as they are shot. It would take some time for shock to set in depending how much they are bleeding. If I loose a deer, I think about where the water is. There they are sometimes. Didn't want to get to serious about this, but I did.


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## buck.eyehunter

I have had 1 blood trail go across a very large creek you could not cross over your head. One went across cuyahoga river. Both deer headed straight for it.
Have found a few go towards water.
I have checked water a few times with no luck I think it depends on how far there is water, if water is a good distance they go to the thickest cover possible.
Had 2 go into a corn field, too

Im torn lundy 

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## rutnut245

I don't claim to be any kind of expert but I have been bow hunting for 43 years this year. Over all those years I have been involved in litteraly hundreds of deer recoveries. Obviously no one makes a perfect shot everytime and I've tracked my share of center punched deer. I've been hunting one farm for 30 yrs and we've found every gut shot deer either in the ponds or the creek that runs through the property. If not actually in the water, at least within 5 yards. When we know it's a marginal hit we back out without pushing the deer. We go back early the next day and check the water sources first and usually find the deer in the water before even looking for a blood trail.

A perfect example of this happened last Saturday when a friend, a very good deer hunter, called to tell me he had seen a large 10 pt standing in the middle of the river while he was on his way home from hunting in the a.m. He stopped and looked the deer over with binocs and said it was gut shot and was barely able to make his way into a cornfield on the other side.

While he went to get permission to look for the deer I called a fella I know that hunts where the deer most likely was shot. He told me yes he made a bad shot on a buck and they had jumped him up while tracking towards the river. He just started bow hunting 2 yrs ago and he is hooked, his first deer scored around 170". 

My friend that was tracking the deer in the corn called to tell me to inform the guy that shot the deer that he had to give up because he had lost the track after 150 yds. 20+ rows in but parallel to the river ending where a short fenceline jutted into the corn.

I advised the guy that shot the deer to wait till the morning and take a friend and walk the river bank towards each other with one guy starting where it went into the corn and the other starting well downstream from where the track was lost.

Well, the fella that shot the deer called me 2 hours later and told me he owed me one. He couldn't wait till morning. When I asked where he found the deer he said it was laying in the river in the same spot where my other friend had lost the track at the end of the fence row in the corn. The deer was still alive and had to be shot again but was recovered.

I KNOW they go to water, if they can make it. Now my buddy is a believer too. He thought it was pretty weird that he walked up right to the spot and there it was. I never left my house, I was just relaying messages. He thinks I'm psycic.


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## crappiedude

I've been bowhunting for 38 years and I have to say I haven't seen it. Just like the logic that says "they go to water because fever sets in". I would thin it would take a day or two before fever would set in. Most people woild lost the track and the deer before then.


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## ezbite

I've only really had to seriously track 3 deer in my life and none of them went to water and Water was around. Might be true, but not for me. I've found they find the thickest jaggers they can find and craw under that.


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## CHOPIQ

From my expierences GUT shot deer head to water. I read somewhere that if a person gets shot in the stomach they want water to cool the burning. I would assume the same would be for deer. Of course with me a great bowshooter I never gut shot a deer. LOL. Ok maybe a couple. Now on the other hand if they are shot elsewhere then look for the thickest nastiest growth you can find. Main thing is to give them time, don't try to track them to soon.


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## Wannabitawerm

My $.02. Deer will run opposite the side they are hit on. If they are moving left, when shot they will quarter away right and vice versa. If it is a less than ideal shot, gut shot, they will look for cover first and then head for water after. Cold water will also slow if not stop blood loss on a deer. They will lay I. The water of travel through it and it will constrict the wound. Seen it firsthand. Either way, do your best to make your shots count. When in doubt (about arrow placement) back it out. Come back the following day. I wait at least a half hour before climbing down, no matter how good the shot. 


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## Agitation Free

Pulled my doe out of a creek Thursday. Double lung shot she ran about 35 yds. Over the years I've learned to look in the creek and have found several deer that I've shot. That said, I'm not convinced that deer run for the water. I believe they run confused and look for the first trail that comes to mind and many trails cross creeks and streams. Then as shock sets in, they just fall wherever.


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## leupy

buckeyebowman said:


> I think we may be on to something here! Yes, a shot deer heads for the thickest cover they know about in order to hide. Where do you find the thickest cover? Many times it's near water. Where do you find water? At the bottoms of valleys and hollows. It's been my experience that the vast majority of shot deer head down hill. Even ones that were originally heading uphill when shot. They might take a few bounds up hill, but they soon turn and head down. I think they do that because it's easier. I've seen lots of spooked deer go uphill. Had an old-timer tell me that's because they want to get above what's bothering them and get a better vantage point. But shot deer almost always will head down hill. If the thickest cover happens to be near water, you can see how the theory came to be.
> 
> Of course, if you're hunting flat land, all this is academic!


I would have written this exactly


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## Fish-N-Fool

I've bowhunted OH since the 1989 season and been lucky enough to bow hunt in KY, TN IN and Michigan at one point or another. I've never noticed wounded deer heading for water. I've hunted near and around water sources both creeks and ponds and not once seen this happen. IMO a well hit deer is thinking only about bedding down...they almost always bed down within 100 yards if not disturbed in my experience even on poor or marginal hits.

I do think it makes sense in some scenarios - a wounded deer losses blood and is alarmed; typically they run hard to escape the danger....all things that would logically make them desire water. 

I also agree wounded animals don't like to go up hill...although every rule is meant to be broken and I shot a buck just back in 2008 in the valley that headed straight up a steep ridge. He was double lungged hard and only went 25 yards up before falling backwards and rolling 15 ft down the ridge back towards me. This is the ONLY time I've seen this...IMO he didn't know where he was going he was just trying to get out of the area.

I also have human experience with being shot...2nd hand. My grandfather was shot on 2 separate occasions during the Korean War. The first time he took a sniper bullet throogh the ceneter of his right hand while on patrol. It was from such a distance it slapped him to the ground and rolled him over. After spending time with the Swedish MASH he was back to the front and was invloved in a 3 day non-stop fire fight when China sent 10,000 troops to take Incheon hill. Serving as a forward observer for 30 MM mortar crews he was shot in the right shoulder and also took a piece of metal in the arm from enemy mortar fire the very first night the battle erupted. He told me several times he remembers it burning very badly and being very very thirsty. Now, he was in the heat of battle, scared out of his wits with no pause for anything...not even wounds. Perhaps that added to the thirtsy part, but either way he says he wanted water non-stop. They were able to air lift him in a basket on day 4 after the battle ceased (and the US had stopped the Chinese from taking the hill). Grandpa nearly lost his right arm not from the wound, but the infection. He did lose most of his hearing and suffered from pain in his hand and shoulder complications the rest of his life. He always gets somber and teary eyed while apologizing for the lives he was responsible for taking directly and indirectly, but he tells me he would do it again for this country in a heartbeat....God bless America and those great men!

Sorry to get off track, but it is in the forefront of mind with Veteran's Day and all.


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## rutnut245

When we find them IN the water by first checking the water sources without first following a blood trail, I'd have to think there's something to it. Did it many times.

I've also found three dead gut shot deer in the creek right behind my house. They were shot during gun season by the sportsmens club that leases the farm on the other side.


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## VitalShot

A gut shot deer will. Not always but a very high percentage. Dehydration. And a wounded deer will go where ever he wants. Up hill also. 


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## Junebug2320

Brother gut shot one... Jumped it laying in a creek... Next guy on ridge put it down


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## BuckeyeZac

The last two years, the bucks I have shot have ran straight up hill. I also agree that gut shot deer are likely to be found near water. I don't really think there is an exact science to this though. One guy says he's hunted for 30 years and never seen it happen and another says he has been hunting for 30 years and sees it happen most of the time.


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## sherman51

when a deer gets shot all the rules are out the door untill they get away from where they got shot.

i was hunting down at brookville lake a few yrs back. i have a lifetime license so i can fill my doe tags whenever i get a chance. i set up my stand right in the bottom of a draw with steep hills on both sides. a group of 7 deer came in on me and started to drink from a little stream of water that ran down the draw. i shot 2 of the deer. both of them ran up a steep bank and one of them went down about 40 or 50 yrds up the hill, the other one was hit high in the shoulders and she continued going up the steep hill for another 150 yrds or so and then went down. both of them could have went down the draw towards the lake or went back up the draw but they both just took off running the direction they was pointed when i shot. and that was up a steep bank and then a pretty steep hill.

all i can say is all the deer didnt get the rule book,LOL. but i still believe most wounded deer that goes very far or beds down and then gets jumped up will go to water. im not talking about deer that dies in the 1st 50 or 100 yrds. i dont know if they need water because they are wounded or if its just a survival instinct to throw off there scent from whatever hurt them. but then this is just my opinion.
sherman


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## Eriesteamer

I read some where that any animal will go to water as where else as there are no doctors for them in the wild. now to reason to mud pack woons and check bleeding. coarse to drink as blood lost and just pissing water is a must. sounds as good to me to say they will after the dear are sure it be safe. coarse lot else can be taken to where they go first but bet there last stop be water and coarse water will be cool to cold and check bleeding plus pain. try cool water on a burn and it take the burn out the burn faster then not. Till you can get a burn salve on it.


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## ducky152000

sherman51 said:


> when a deer gets shot all the rules are out the door untill they get away from where they got shot.
> 
> i was hunting down at brookville lake a few yrs back. i have a lifetime license so i can fill my doe tags whenever i get a chance. i set up my stand right in the bottom of a draw with steep hills on both sides. a group of 7 deer came in on me and started to drink from a little stream of water that ran down the draw. i shot 2 of the deer. both of them ran up a steep bank and one of them went down about 40 or 50 yrds up the hill, the other one was hit high in the shoulders and she continued going up the steep hill for another 150 yrds or so and then went down. both of them could have went down the draw towards the lake or went back up the draw but they both just took off running the direction they was pointed when i shot. and that was up a steep bank and then a pretty steep hill.
> 
> all i can say is all the deer didnt get the rule book,LOL. but i still believe most wounded deer that goes very far or beds down and then gets jumped up will go to water. im not talking about deer that dies in the 1st 50 or 100 yrds. i dont know if they need water because they are wounded or if its just a survival instinct to throw off there scent from whatever hurt them. but then this is just my opinion.
> sherman


if this lake is in Ohio your lucky a gamewarden did not see that go down. You must tag the first deer in before harvesting the second.


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## sherman51

ducky152000 said:


> if this lake is in Ohio your lucky a gamewarden did not see that go down. You must tag the first deer in before harvesting the second.


it was in indiana and as far as i know you can fill all your tags before checking them in. but i wasnt even positive i had hit the 1st deer when i shot the 2nd deer. both deer ran out of my sight. then i climded the steep bank and could see one deer. then while we was standing around talking about what happened 2 other guys came down the hill and asked if we had any more doe tags. that there was a big doe about 150 yrd farther up the hill. it was still alive but was down. and they didnt have any doe tags. so we just went to the deer and finshed it off. then i back tracked the blood trail to make sure it was the one i shot. so i wouldnt be tracking a dead deer,LOL. at that time you could take 4 does in franklin county. now that i dont hunt down there anymore i think you can take 8 does in franklin county.

now you do have to have doe permits before you can take them. but as i have a lifetime license i already have all my tags. all i have to do is make out a tag for each deer i kill. then i can check them in by phone or online or take them to a check station.

i just checked our bag limits here in indiana again just to make sure. it says you can take 1 anterless deer per anterless license as long as you dont go over that counties quota. so with my lifetime license i can kill 8 anterless deer at brookville lake in franklin county before having to check them in. then i have 24 hours to check them in.
sherman


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## KWaller

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## Bassbme

I'm not so sure about heading to water.... I will say that of the two gut shot deer that I have tracked ... both have been found near water. That being said, both deer were probably pushed too early, because we had found where they had bedded down, before being jumped and it wasn't close to water at the time. 

Kind of on the same lines. When I first started hunting I was told by very experienced hunters that a hard hit deer will almost always run away with it's tail down. I've found that to be true. What say you?


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## NorthSouthOhioFisherman

If water is in the area and a deer is hit in the right spot I think they do think about water, being thirsty, and loosing blood. Not every deer will head that way but I'm sure it can be a thought crossing their instinctive mind


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