Ever hit a deer?

[Gollum]

Don't worry, my Z is safe, and it was the car I was driving. Driving back from a friends house I was taking one of my favorite roads back (the only road, unless i wanna drive through 2 cities out of the way) and taking 30 MPH turns as 50-60, having some good fun blairing the new project 86 CD. Good times. And i was thinking "you know, this is a pretty woodsy stretch of road, I bet they get deer around here." Litterally 2 turns later there's a deer trying to cross the street. Lucky it was a SMART deer. It was crossing at an angle away from my car and was right in the middle of the street when my headlights came upon it, it turned left and started facing away from my car giving PLENTY of room to get by on the right of him. Antlers we about 2 feet from my car. Scary enough, but it was such a blast driving that road i was care free less than 10 seconds later.

 

So, anyone wanna share deer stories? Just so i don't feel so alone or anything?

 

Here's the google pics of where it happened.

 

Note: They're doing contruction on that road so it's about 80% of the width it is in the pic. They've got the whole south side sholder coned off. Not that it matters, just thought I'd add that piece of info.

 

I love posting thumbnails to be 56k friendly. Just click the image and you'll get a larger one.

 

PS. I don't know exacly how fast i was going, but i was in 4th at around 3500 RPM from the sound of the engine. Not quite sure where that puts me. I'll check tomarrow getting on the freeway. But I had my brights on and right before the turn I realised I'd have to downshift so I tuned my brights off as I downshifted because I knew I wouldn't be able to turn them off mid-turn if someone came up. Sounds like a slow process, but it was a fluid motion that was all done in the time it takes to make a quick downshift.

[80LS1T]

I have hit a ton of deer and I've only been driving for 7 years. I live in a very wooded area and dear probably out number people! LOL

 

I hit 3 with my first car. It was a 1986 Ford LTD with a 5.0L. I remember cruising to school one morning doing about 80mph on a back road with my best friend riding shotgun. Well a small doe decided that it was a good time to cross the road.....MAN O MAN you should have seen that deer go flying! I bet it was in the air for a good 50 yards! That car hit that deer like it was a rag doll! Only broke the chrome trim around the headlight on the passenger side and a bolt on the bumber. Costed me $20 to fix the headlights.

 

Another time I was test driving my gilfriends car after fixing the coolant fans. I came around a 90 degree corner and BAM a deer runs into the drivers door! That scared the crap out of me! I never saw it coming. It put a small crack in the headlight and a small dent in the door. I thought it was funny but the GF was kind mad. But she got over it real quick because she knew there was nothing that I could have done to avoid it. Plus her car was a POS. LOL

 

I have hit atleast a half a dozen deer with my truck. Only one has done any damage. This past November I was driving into work at 6:30am(it was still dark out) and I came around a small bend in the road and out pops a huge doe. Hit my drivers side headlight then went and smashed the lower bumper trim below the chrome part and went under both drivers side wheels. The worst part for the deer was that I used to have a "brush guard" on my truck and the mounts were still attached to the truck. The mounts where 90 degree bends and stuck straight out. Well the deer caught the one on the drivers side and it pretty much ripped the deer in half. It was pretty nasty!

 

Man I've hit about a dozen deer!

 

Thank god I have never hit one with my car......KNOCK ON WOOD!

 

 

Guy

[spdsk8r]

Several years ago, I had a Mazda 626 5door touring sedan. One morning I was on my way to work, on a back country road. This road had tall brush right up to the edge of the pavement. I was going about 55mph when all of a sudden a huge buck came out of the ditch and brush at a full run, nothing I could do. His front shoulder hit the front fender between the bumper and front tire. His hind quarters hit the passenger side window, showering me with glass. He hit my car so hard that it spun me sideways in the street. I started to get out to check on the deer when he jumped up and ran off, into the woods at a full run. My headlights illuminated his flight through the woods. The whole passenger side of my car was destroyed and the deer wasn't even hurt...

... Two weeks later, on my way to work, on this same road, I came over this rise in the road, only to see this same 10 point buck standing in the middle of the road, right at the same location where I hit him two weeks earlier. Standing there, taunting me.

[grumpyvette]

hitting a deer can be serious!

 

one of my friends had less than 200 miles on a new VW when he hit several deer and TOTALLED the car,one deer came thru the windshield on impact and destroyed the car, plus it didn,t help that he lost control with a deer in his lap and rolled the car, he got cut up and bruised but survived

[wheelman]

I hit a deer several years ago between Waitsburg and Prescott Washington. The country side is rolling wheat fields and is full of deer. I was heading home early from a hunting trip (didn't get my deer that year) due to health problems and came around a long sweeper with a cut bank on the right that was divided by several large gullies. As I rounded the curve and crested a small rise I saw about a dozen deer in the road. The speed limit is 65 and it's a newer 2 lane so I was moving pretty good but managed to slow down to about 35 and move to the center of the highway as it looked like the herd was splitting with some going up a gully and some into a field on the opposite side. Just as I was passing through the group 1 deer decides to make a break for it and join the group on the opposite side of the road. I caught it with the right corner of my truck bumper and drug it for about 25 yards, it then fell and went under the tires. Didn't do much damage to my truck, a testament to how tough the Ford Ranger is, but makes you feel sick. It's one thing to shoot one and get to take it home and eat it, but to run one over and have to leave it for the scavengers just plain sucks. I'm now much more careful while driving the roads around here, the herds have grown in size because of the over restrictive hunting regs and are a real hazard on the highways.

 

Wheelman

[Pop N Wood]

It's one thing to shoot one and get to take it home and eat it, but to run one over and have to leave it for the scavengers just plain sucks.

 

My uncle carries a hunting knife and plastic bags in his truck for just such a contingency. Whenever he comes across a fresh kill he takes the tenderloins. If the meat is warm there is no sense letting it go to waste.

 

A buddy of mine had a job that required him to commute 60 miles through the back roads of upstate New York. He said the deer were so numerous that he didn’t dare exceed about 30 mph. But he and about a half dozen other regulars had their commutes timed so they could get behind one guy with a 4 wd truck with attached snow plow. They would all fall behind this guy and do 60+ mph to and from work everyday.

[b__sosick]

the joke in my dad's side of the family, who live in hickville, NC, is that the women succesfully kill more deer than the men do on their hunting trips.

 

(the women are constantly hitting deer and the men are bad shots)

 

 

 

[240hoke]

I was riding down the interstate in Kentucky driving my brothers 2000 BMW 323ci. Middle of the day. I was hepling him move across the country so we were jsut crusing at about 75. I got in the fast lane to pass a tractor trailor truck. Right as I got to the front of the trailor a deer ran out in front of the truck, the truck tossed it out in front of me I slammed on the brakes but had no where to go being beside the truck ran over the thing cmpletely, took the fron bumper off pushed hte radiator into hte engine broke all the pully's off. Not fun. Had to get hte car towed 500 miles to Kansas and it took them almost amonth to fix it.....

 

-Austin

[auxilary]

To quote Ron White....

 

"My cousin was all yapping about how he nailed a buck at 300 yards with a bullet travelling 3000 fps. I told him I hit one with my van going 55mph. Very elusive creature! I bet if they slowed the bullet down to 55mph and put little headlights on it, the deer would actually jump out in front of it!"

[Guest 280kraZ]

I was coming through my neighborhood a couple of years ago, it was the middle of the night. You come down a big hill and theres a T in the road at the end of it. Well as I got down to the bottom of the hill i could see a big buck standing right where the T in the road was. I stopped at the stop sign at the bottom of the hill and my headlights must have blinded it. It came running at the car and ended up on the roof. I floored it and he fell off the back. It was kinda scary and exciting. Put a bunch of dents in the z and ruined the old louvers that were on the back. It was a big buck too, the biggest one i have ever seen (not that I have seen that many)

[wheelman]

My uncle carries a hunting knife and plastic bags in his truck for just such a contingency. Whenever he comes across a fresh kill he takes the tenderloins. If the meat is warm there is no sense letting it go to waste.

 

I've often thought about doing this same thing, but in WA state it's illegal and the road I was on has quite a bit of traffic. I was returning from a hunting trip so had the 30-06, good sharp knife and my 9mm to dispatch it with but it was just not a option. Also, have you ever seen bruised meat from a collision like we're discussing? The deer I hit was a real mess after the truck got done with it, not very appetizing.

 

Wheelman

[Here comes trouble]

hit a black bear in Canada....hit a deer near Trail, Oregon....hit an elk near Glendale, Oregon....hit a deranged pedestrian in Springfield, Oregon.. The bear did the least damage. ... the elk and pedestrian about equal damage ... The deer shot crap out both ends on impact taking out grille and AC condenser.. never hit a couger though but 2 have been hit within a 5 mile radius of my home... Still have nightmares about the pedestrian who had a prior history of jumping in front of cars......Kind of weird and distressing about feeling a fellow's body with your feet rolling over and over underneath the floorboards ! Girlfriend in therapy for 6 months... Oh forgot about the bald eagle chasing a duck in Klamath Falls.. took out the side mirror on the pick-up and ended the chase....

[Gollum]

The bald eagle chasing the duck reminds me of a friend who randomly had a seagul play chicken with him. Literally flew in a straight line right into the windshield in a 200ft dash for suicide.... Windsheild was fine, making it a roll over laughable story later that day.

[Guest ON3GO]

hit a black bear in Canada....hit a deer near Trail, Oregon....hit an elk near Glendale, Oregon....hit a deranged pedestrian in Springfield, Oregon.. The bear did the least damage. ... the elk and pedestrian about equal damage ... The deer shot crap out both ends on impact taking out grille and AC condenser.. never hit a couger though but 2 have been hit within a 5 mile radius of my home... Still have nightmares about the pedestrian who had a prior history of jumping in front of cars......Kind of weird and distressing about feeling a fellow's body with your feet rolling over and over underneath the floorboards ! Girlfriend in therapy for 6 months... Oh forgot about the bald eagle chasing a duck in Klamath Falls.. took out the side mirror on the pick-up and ended the chase....

HOLY SH!T!!! hahaha

 

mike

[Pop N Wood]

I've often thought about doing this same thing' date=' but in WA state it's illegal and the road I was on has quite a bit of traffic. I was returning from a hunting trip so had the 30-06, good sharp knife and my 9mm to dispatch it with but it was just not a option. Also, have you ever seen bruised meat from a collision like we're discussing? The deer I hit was a real mess after the truck got done with it, not very appetizing.

 

Wheelman[/quote']

 

Maryland actually has a "road kill hotline". The state police will put your name on a list. When they find a fresh kill in your area they call the next person on the list and you have to go get the kill. My wife's cousin was on it for a time.

 

Seems a little over the edge to me.

[Gollum]

That actually makes sence. Since many states like california have people who's sole purpose is to clean up roadkill. If you could get the people that want to do it to do it, then you save tons of money.

 

But it still sounds a little too far into the deep end for me.

[wheelman]

WA state's reasoning for the law against picking up roadkill is that it would encourage those folks who would pick it up to go "hunting with thier cars" so-to-speak if it were legal.

Not sure this really makes sense but I know I would never pick up road kill unless I was the one who did the killing and could dress it out right then.

 

I witnessed a couple "rocket scientists" in Sacramento one day trying to get a deer that had survived an encounter with a car into the back of their truck. I can't remember the name of the street (either Sunset or Hazel) but it's the one that goes down the hill to Lake Natomas. It's a very busy 4 lane street with not much shoulder and these guys had stopped during heavy traffic to get this deer. Fortunately no-one got hurt, as far as I know, but they caused a lot of congestion because of where they stopped and what they were doing. Just another reason to make collecting roadkill illegal.

 

Wheelman