What is the weirdest thing you saw a deer do?

I was halfway to work one morning,,,

When the deer that was asleep in the bed of my pickup truck woke up.

That was kinda eerie at 45 mph.
 
In September '09 i was at my friends who lives on the bay. We went to the front yard and a deer was running across hw 98 at 5:00 on friday and jumped over his f-150 cab. The deer went into the bay and started swimming.We got in a 2 man kayak and followed it. When we got next to him (about 5 ft or so) we found out he was a very large 6 point. He went all the way across the bay which at that point was 1 mile across and never slowed down or got pulled away from the water current. It was a reminder to me that deer are very powerful animals and are very good swimmers.
 
I'm astonished at how stupid deer can be, particularly after reading all these stories.

Though I agree with Art that killing the smart ones is preferable, I think maybe we've done killed 99% of them already.

I've never seen an elk, bear, cougar, etc., do anything remotely as stupid as some of these deer stories.
 
My Boy Scout Troop went to Philmont Scout Ranch one summer (Cimmaron, NM- GORGEOUS country), when I was 14 or so.

We're sitting around, one AM, "enjoying" our breakfast cereal with re-hydrated milk, before we hit the trail. I glance over at my bud across from me & the biggest stinkin' Mulie buck I've ever seen is looking over his shoulder, staring quizzically into his canteen cup, like he's trying to figure out what dude was eating & could he have some.
 
One morning at o'dark-thirty I had one swim by my duck blind right into the decoys and keep on going trailing 4 decoys behind him. Nearest high ground was about 800 yards away and we never found those decoys.
 
I was halfway to work one morning,,,
When the deer that was asleep in the bed of my pickup truck woke up.
That was kinda eerie at 45 mph.
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Ha, I bet that was a shocker!

My uncle and I were clearing brush on his farm in the early morning one time when the pickup truck developed a flat tire. It had been raining and the ground was too soft for the jack so we walked back up over the hill to get some boards to put under the jack and back we went. I think we might have been gone 25 minutes.

So boards on the ground, jack the truck up, remove the tire and put on a spare, put the truck back on the ground...and discover a young deer (maybe a yearling) sound asleep on the front seat of the truck (We'd left the drivers side door open this entire time). I guess the 'lil guy just wanted a dry/warm spot to nap.

Uncle poked him with a stick and the lil guy woke up, calm as could be, and meandered out of the truck. It was an "awwww ain't that cute" moment until later when we realized the truck was now absolutely infested with fleas and ticks :mad:
 
When I was a kid my dog would go to the creek and sit in it with just his nose sticking out to get rid of fleas. May be the same thing?
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Maybe somewhat, but mostly she was just swimming the river. I thought at the time it would be fun to explain to my insurance agent that I hit a deer with my boat. :D

I just remembered another one that almost jumped in my boat once. It was during deer season, but I was fishing. Dogs were running up on the bank, but I never saw the deer until she was in the air about three feet in front of my trolling motor. She threw water on me when she landed, then swam the creek.
 
About eight years ago, this time of year, I got up and let my German Shepherd and Border Collie out with me. I had my boxers and a t-shirt on, and a cup of coffee. I was on my way down the driveway to get the paper.

The Shepherd jumped a doe in the bushes, she beat the heck out of him in my front yard. Even ran up to the poor Border Collie and kicked her in the head. The doe ran off, the Shepherd took off after her, and she came back and took him again in round two.

Meanwhile I'm yelling and swearing at the doe, woke my wife up, she opens the front door and distracts the doe. I actually had to stare that deer down before she'd leave the property, and then chase her off with an axe handle after I got the dogs in.

Both of the dogs were about ten years old at the time, would of been a different story if it had happenned a few years earlier. I called the game wardens and they said she'd most likely had a fawn somewhere on the property.
 
A buck wearing an orange hat! Hunting in Pa. as a youngster, the day was nearly over and a couple of us were back at camp standing by a fire when we saw a buck dash out of the woods about 75 yards away wearing an orange hat. We looked at each other and didn't even say a thing. About 5 minutes later my brother in law came out of the woods and told us all about it!

He had shot the buck and went up to it to gut it, took off his coat, leaned his gun against a tree, and threw his hat on the bucks head. Just as he approached the deer, it got up and ran off wearing his hat!
 
I was muzzle loader hunting with my brand new thompson center encore when late in the evening a large doe and a smaller one came out about 40 yards away. Around here muzzle loading season is either sex and i am a meat hunter so i shot the larger of the two. Both ran back into the brush and i waited maybe 15 seconds before i heard the tell tale crash and thrashing. As i started to get my reloading stuff out i heard the smaller one coming back my way. As i quickened my reloading pace the smaller one came out and proceeded to stomp its feet and blow/grunt as it walked directly at me it continued this agressive walk until at 10 yards i finished reloading and put a .50 caliber bullet through it's neck it dropped where it stood. I later discovered that the smaller one was a button buck and i am sure the doe was its mother. I have joked with my hunting buddys that he thought he was gonna avenge his mother but part of me wanders if that was truly what he had on his mind. Either way i had the tags for both and the daily limit here is two so i now had no worries other than the work that always follows the kill.
 
ok i live in maine, i have a camp outside of ellsworth, this story is the end to the wierdest day of my life. anyway my girlfriends car had got a flat and i went to go fix it, so i'm following her back to camp on bald mountain rd and it's dusk late november and she is flying down the road, i come around a corner and start going down this hill when i see her car at the top of the next hill, i get to the bottom and here is this deer laying in the road trying to get up. first thought "she hit a damn deer" so i stop my truck, get out and walk around this deer laying there (hoping it doesn't get ****** off and come after me) and walk up to her and she proceeds to tell me the deer got hit by the woman in front of her and a second one jumped over her car and broke off the antenna! so now we got this deer in between me and my truck still trying to get up. i walk back down to the truck and another guy pulls up behind me and we start discussing shooting this thing. so i get out my gun and another car full of young girls pulls up. now we got the whole "oh don't shoot it it might just be in shock" crap going on from all the women around. so me and this guy are trying to explain the fact that this deer has been hit by an suv and is going to slowly die where it is. then it gets up. great.... now this damn deer is standing in the road and about 6 more cars have pulled up and someone called a cop... now we have 4 men god knows how many women and all we want to do is get down this 1 lane road with a dumbass deer standing in it. so we start throwing snowballs at the deer trying to get it to move, well that doesnt work. i get in my truck and bump it 10 or so times with the bumper, it doesn't even look at me! so by now 2 hours have passed there is a traffic jam on a little country road of about 40 cars and trucks. then this deer walks over to my truck pisses next to the front driver's side tire, which splashes all over the tire, and trots off into the woods.

the next morning i get up to go to town and there are 2 deer standing next to my truck looking at me... they run off shortly thereafter...man i hate deer..
 
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I've seen them do a couple of weird and funny things while hunting. Once I ran into a whitetail spike and it scrunched up its face like it was sucking on a lemon and hissed at me spitting in my direction right before it bolted. I think it might have been one of those evil cult deer. Or maby it was french and didn't like americans. :D
Another time while hunting in a 3 point or better mule deer area I ran into a herd of deer about 100 yards out. None of them were shooters so I thought I would have some fun and see how close I could get to them. Out were I was hunting they probably didn't ever see many people but the one thing they were used to was free range cattle. When I came up on them they stood off in the distance on alert deciding weather to run or not, so I moo'ed at them, bent down and began ripping out hunks of grass and sticking them in my mouth while being carefull to avoid a lot of eye contact. I'd slowly walk a bit closer, moo and do the same thing. After a while they layed down and let me get about 10 feet away! The whole time I just kept on mooing calmly and chewing on the 2 foot long grass clumps that were hanging out of my mouth. lol my hunting buddies thought it was hilarious. :D
That same season we shot a 4x4 muley buck and were hauling it out when a doe walked right up to examine him, then layed down about 20 feet away and watched us drag him off. I assured her that he had had an "accident" and was okay and would be back after we took him to the hospital. My hunting partner was rolling. Hey I know I'm weird but we have a great time when we are hunting. :)
 
I've seen two seperate herds of deer walk into a lake, one right after the other. Nothing crazy as they were hydrating and cleaning, but never had seen them do that before.
 
One year I was squirrel hunting in the national forest near my home with my Brown Bess. It was the weekend before the opening of the muzzle loading deer season and I was combining the hunt with scouting. I saw movement far down an old logging road and watched as the unknown critter got closer and closer. I finally recognized it as a very young fawn. When it got to me, it just stopped and looked up at me he proceeded to graze right near me.
 
A guide I hunt with has some mule deer does and fawns that come when called. Around sundown at a feeder behind his house he often takes a coffee can partly full of corn, rattles it around and calls them in like cattle. If you sit very still it's quite a show. They seem to know him and often get within just a few feet. I've seen 8-10 come in, he tells me sometimes even more respond to his calls. They seem to come out of nowhere and usually start showing up within just a few minutes. One regular was a very nice young buck that finally got shy and quit dropping by.
 
Anybody who's spent any time at NRA's Whittington Center in Raton, NM has seen the deer and antelope that decorate this beautiful facility. You can always spot the newcomers when they experience their first deer/antelope "cease fire". These critters simply wander out on the range during firing and all firing stops until they move on. More than once a herd of mule deer has caused a ceasefire during a big match but it's part of the charm of the place.
 
I was given a real nice Silver Belly Stetson hat for Christmas when I was about 12. It was just like the one my grandfather called his "town hat", meaning it was an exceptionally fine grade of felt and unadorned with the ubiquitous sweat stains our hats normally sported. I was so proud of it that I decided to wear it hunting after Christmas Dinner, which is a noon meal of mammoth proportions. I took up position between a granite outcrop and a detached boulder, on the ground, within about 50 yards of several deer trails leading from a patch of oak trees to the only standing water for a couple of miles. The combined effects of a massive overdose of turkey legs, the warm afternoon sun and the peaceful sounds of a December afternoon in the Texas hill country soon got the better of me and I fell asleep with my rifle across my lap. My grandfather was somewhat of a joker and took a particular thrill in sneaking up behind me while I was hunting, so it was no real big surprize when my head jerked back destroying my nap. I brushed his hand away from my new hat and told him to stop it, I was hunting. Soon, another more forceful yank and my hat jumped off my head. I was sort of wedged in between the rocks and was only able to turn partially around to confront Mr. Smartypants when I saw that it was not my grandfather at all but a very large whitetail buck who now had my hat in his mouth and was devouring the brim of my new Stetson hat. He got a couple of good bites ripped out by the time I was able to get my feet under me and trotted off into the bushes with my hat. I eventually found the hat in some cedar brush much the worse for the wear and with two big chomps out of the back of the brim. I wore that hat until I got out of college. No one ever believed the story then either.
 
Many years ago my best friend and I were hunting in Henniker N.H. and there are many of the old glazier boulders in this hilly mountainous area. We jumped a buck and started tracking him in the inch deep fresh snow. As we were starting up a steep hill we saw him actually at the top STANDING on a bolder to get a better look at us!
When we got to the top it was confirmed, we split up 50 yards apart in the thick woods as I stayed on his track, the buck then hid behind another boulder for cover and backtracked to come up behind my friend and stood under a pine to watch him. I figured this out because I was on his track.

Then the buck crossed my friends track and headed back up the hill and once again got behind a boulder ahead on my friend to watch him. Then the buck headed for the thickest nastiest brush he could find. After an hour of playing these games we knew the only way it was going to end was when either the buck or us dropped from exhaustion, we figured he may have the advantage so we headed off to find a dumber deer.
 
I had a deer head butt me when I ran out of pellets to feed it so I slapper er real good to make er think twice. It calmed her down but she still followed me back to the van and tried to climb in the back with us!

All this at Royal Gorge in Canyon City.
 
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