I Hit a Deer This Afternoon.

I keep going over the actual impact. I haven’t been in any sort of accident before, so when it materialized pretty much right on top of me, without any time to react, it was a pretty big shock. The damn thing must’ve been behind a tree and jumped out just as I was passing. I was driving a Ford F-150.

There’s a bit of blood on the front of the hood, I’m guessing where it hit first. There’s some panel damage along there and the passenger’s door. The passenger’s half of the windshield is splintered and torn through–half of the deer’s antlers were broken off and sticking in it when I stopped.

There’s fur embedded in all the broken glass. The inside of the cab–Jesus Christ–that’s a LOT of broken glass. It took out the passenger window and mirror, too.

Crazy stuff. And I’d just gotten back from finding an awesome apartment and flirting with a hot girl at the grocery store.

Hitting or narrowly missing deer or moose is a routine part of life where I live.

I will always remember getting t-boned in the driver side by another car though. You are right, the feeling of the impact is unforgettable, as is the sound of crunching metal and the split second where you know you are going to collide but you don’t know how bad it will be.

Did you say anything before you hit?

Did you atleast put the deer in the bed of the truck to butcher? They are good eatin and full of protien. :wink:

I’m from Newfoundland Canada and there is a large Moose population and they always migrate towards the highways in the summer time to get relief from the heat and the bugs in the forest. You should be thankful you just have deer down there. If you hit a moose at highway speed there is a good channce your not goning to walk away from it.

[quote]rich44 wrote:
Did you atleast put the deer in the bed of the truck to butcher? They are good eatin and full of protien. ;-)[/quote]

I was thinking the same thing. Car death is just as good as gun or bow death. Mmmmmm…Venison jerky…

[quote]Aeon Infinitus wrote:

There’s a bit of blood on the front of the hood, I’m guessing where it hit first. There’s some panel damage along there and the passenger’s door. The passenger’s half of the windshield is splintered and torn through–half of the deer’s antlers were broken off and sticking in it when I stopped.

There’s fur embedded in all the broken glass. The inside of the cab–Jesus Christ–that’s a LOT of broken glass. It took out the passenger window and mirror, too.

[/quote]

Damn man, you were lucky you were in an F-150 and not a car. We get lots of deer collisions in our area, and rarely do you see one go over the hood and hit the windshield like that.

In a smaller car, you’d have had the damn thing in the front seat with you and well, we’d have read about your untimely passing on Drudge I imagine.

My wife hit a doe 3 summers ago in her truck, $3500 in damage to the front. Size of the deer seems to have little to do with damage to your vehicle, seems to mainly be where the deer hits. A neighbor down the road hit one in a 3/4 ton Dodge Ram, hit dead ceneter on the grill. Deer was maybe 100 to 110 lbs, samll buck. Blew the grill, headlights, ruptured the radiator, accordianed the hood, which came up and smashed the windhshield. All told was over $5500 in damage. And she gave us the deer.

[quote]battlelust wrote:
rich44 wrote:
Did you atleast put the deer in the bed of the truck to butcher? They are good eatin and full of protien. :wink:

I was thinking the same thing. Car death is just as good as gun or bow death. Mmmmmm…Venison jerky…[/quote]

Now, I don’t want to make any remarks that may incriminate me and my Ozarks heritage, but I can attest that gun or bow death makes a HUGE difference. Something about getting whacked with a big slow hunk of metal makes something go funky in the carcass. Possibly bursting one of the many “stink bags”, to use functional anatomy.

Just a fair warning…

If it did that much damage it is probably soup inside.

The only salvagable parts are probably the hind quarters, neck roast and back straps.

Your lucky man. Sounds like it could have turned the other way and hit the driver side.

I was on a two lane road a few years ago. Deer jumped out and got nailed by a kid driving a ram pickup coming the other way. I swore he was going to swerve into my lane and hit me head om. We were each going about 55mph and I had a car so I was going to have a bad day. He held it together and drove thru it and did a nice controlled stop. I went to help him and the deer was all over the grill and hood, windshield was shattered.

Anyway the kid gets out. He’s 17 and says " I just got my liscense two weeks ago, my dad’s gonna kill me". I gave him my card and told him to have his dad call me and I would vouch for him, tell him, there was nothing he could do. His dad called me that night.

Glad you made it thru OK.

Good to hear you are OK. Ironically enough, my father hit a deer AND a tree this morning while backing out of our driveway. After wiping the tears away and catching my breath, I went to inspect the damage. He did a good 1000-1500 dollars worth, mostly from the tree…

Nope. But I said ‘FUCK’ when it hit and glass shards were going everywhere.

I wanted to, but couldn’t find it afterward. Somebody else said they saw a dead deer the next day. Damn, that would’ve filled the protein quota for a month AND made dealing with insurance worthwhile.

danreeves1973, makes me think twice about driving the little rental car they’re giving me, out here. I think it’s time to go deer hunting.

TheSicilian, how’s your father? Sounds like a pretty traumatic morning for you guys.

And I never saw a single moose when I was up in Canada. I’m going to have to head up there again and catch some of you to go hunting, or something.

[quote]hedo wrote:
Your lucky man. Sounds like it could have turned the other way and hit the driver side.

I was on a two lane road a few years ago. Deer jumped out and got nailed by a kid driving a ram pickup coming the other way. I swore he was going to swerve into my lane and hit me head om. We were each going about 55mph and I had a car so I was going to have a bad day. He held it together and drove thru it and did a nice controlled stop. I went to help him and the deer was all over the grill and hood, windshield was shattered.

Anyway the kid gets out. He’s 17 and says " I just got my liscense two weeks ago, my dad’s gonna kill me". I gave him my card and told him to have his dad call me and I would vouch for him, tell him, there was nothing he could do. His dad called me that night.

Glad you made it thru OK.[/quote]

I can’t imagine doing something like that right after getting licensed. This was bad enough. The kid was unhurt?


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[quote]JPBear wrote:
Hitting or narrowly missing deer or moose is a routine part of life where I live.

I will always remember getting t-boned in the driver side by another car though. You are right, the feeling of the impact is unforgettable, as is the sound of crunching metal and the split second where you know you are going to collide but you don’t know how bad it will be.
[/quote]

That’s not something I want to experience. At least I didn’t hear crunching metal with this one. Yeah, it really is just a split second when it’s all about to collide.

[quote]Aeon Infinitus wrote:
hedo wrote:
Your lucky man. Sounds like it could have turned the other way and hit the driver side.

I was on a two lane road a few years ago. Deer jumped out and got nailed by a kid driving a ram pickup coming the other way. I swore he was going to swerve into my lane and hit me head om. We were each going about 55mph and I had a car so I was going to have a bad day. He held it together and drove thru it and did a nice controlled stop. I went to help him and the deer was all over the grill and hood, windshield was shattered.

Anyway the kid gets out. He’s 17 and says " I just got my liscense two weeks ago, my dad’s gonna kill me". I gave him my card and told him to have his dad call me and I would vouch for him, tell him, there was nothing he could do. His dad called me that night.

I can’t imagine doing something like that right after getting licensed. This was bad enough. The kid was unhurt?[/quote]

Yeah he was fine. Big Dodge Ram pickup.

It was the fathers truck. I thought he was kidding me until I talked to him a little more.

I hit a doe about a year ago in a Jeep Wrangler (me not the deer). It must of been in mid jump because it came clear up onto the hood. The thing I remember most is how during the event it’s almost like slow motion but right after it’s over you say “damn… what just happened?”. Lessons learned: no such thing as a controled stop in a Jeep Wrangler at high speed and sometimes it’s best just to go ahead and throw soiled underwear away rather than washing over and over.

They have deer in California? j/k
Happens quite a bit here in Michigan. We’re back to being over populated…

So did you call the DNR and keep it or what? You can do that in Indiana. You kill it, you keep it. Cut er up and eat em. You: 1, Deer: 0. Ha.