Killer Deer

[LBrown59]

<font color="blue">One three other occasions in one year I accounted for four deer without firing a shot. While you won't see this in the newspapers with the finding of <font color="red"> CWD </font> in WV in an area not far from PA, MD VA & <font color="brown"> Ohio </font> .I would avoid any contact with deer blood or parts following an accident unless your're wearing surgical gloves.
The deer that doesn't kill you when it takes out your vehicle may have a chance years later through exposure to <font color="red"> prion contamination </font>at the time of the accident. </font>
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What are you talking about here?
What is <font color="red"> CWD </font> ?
What is <font color="red"> prion contamination </font> ?

 

[beenthere]

I have had my share of deer hits, but I don't brake hard and I don't swerve to miss them. I brake, blow the horn, and keep on a straight path. Keeping the car going in a straight line is better than losing it in the ditch or rolling it over.

I have found over the years, that deer act and do strange things when in the headlights. Seems they turn to run, but then maybe dart back. I think it is because they see their shadow from the headlights and that frightens them so they don't want to run in that direction (which is straight away from the car that initially spooked them). So, I have made a habit to honk the horn in frequent short bursts and usually the deer will run away from that noise, even though they see the 'frightening' shadow (have thought about turning the headlights off too, but that doesn't make sense for driving /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif ). The horn trick doesn't work every time, but certainly has jump-started a lot of deer to turn and run out of my path. During rut, some bucks don't give a hoot about anything else, and nothing will change their course of direction. They are charged and ......... you know. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

(and I wear my seat belt, as the school board member should have been) /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[beenthere]

Daren
I'd encourage you to read more about CWD and not pass on such hype as 'avoiding the blood' of a suspected CWD deer. Simply not true.
CWD (Chronic Wasting Disease) has only been found in the cervids (deer, elk) and never yet found to be transferred to any other animal or human. We have it in Wisconsin, and it has been known to exist for many years out west. I'm of the mind that its been around for years and we are just discovering because we are looking for it. While I don't eat the venison of a deer that has tested positive to have CWD, I don't believe there is any harm to humans to eat that venison. Not recommended to eat the brains or the lymph nodes, and some of the organs. Certainly not a risk to catch it from the blood.
More info here
CWD info

 

[MikeD74T]

I agree with Beenthere, leaving the road by accident or intention to miss a deer is a bad situation. New Hampshire has a huge problem with moose. Deer tend to wreck the front of your car, moose seem to want to get into your car. Being tall like a horse they tend to get tipped over onto the hood/roof, often thru the windshield into the front seat.
They're mostly black & impossible to see in the rain, plus they tend to run in a straight line regardless of obstacles. Too many fatalities. Fish & Game makes big bucks from moose hunting & wants to keep the herd healthy. I remember when seeing a moose in northern NH was very infrequent & they killed no one. Now we have less deer, too many moose!

 

[PacersDad]

I have had better luck using the horn and flashing the lights while slowing. You can't swerve or lockup the brakes. I found this to work in the Adirondack Park of NY (when people were feeding the deer so you get a mad rush of deer running for dinner) and in coastal NC where deer and bear get "trapped" by roadside canals.

 

[Darren]

Wearing latex gloves is a common recommendation when cutting up a deer. While some things haven't been proven, they haven't been disproven either. CWD has been transmitted between deer and elk when both were kept in the same facility albeit at different times. The point is that there appears to be an indirect method of transmission rather than direct animal to animal contact. That's one of the reasons soil is being studied as a vector.

There also appears to be a genetic factor that affects an individual's susceptibility to CJD. There's much more info out there than that put out by the game folks in the various states.

The article in one of the hunting/fishing magazines a few years ago wasn't reassuring because it described the possible transmission of CWD between species. If it can cross like that, it opens up other possibilities.

http://www.fieldandstream.com/fieldstream/columnists/conservation/article/0,13199,356809,00.html

 

[BB_TX]

<font color="blue"> Do deer whistles work? </font>
Many of the cars and trucks in the area of TX where we hunt have them on the front bumpers. The land owner where we hunt has them on both his and his wifes vehicles. Both of them have hit deer in the past, but not since putting on the whistles. Coincidence? Don't know. But <font color="blue"> this guy </font> claims from a purely theoretical view that they would not work. We were there hunting last weekend and lost count of the number of deer laying on the side of the road.

 

[SkyPup]

I always wear latex gloves when dismembering deer due to the possible prion contamination, same with wild boar to prevent brucellosis orchitis. Brucella suis is super bad news in humans as are all the various serovars of leptosporosis from deer or swine. Brucella and Lepto are endemic in both deer and swine.

 

[Treed_in_TX]

I've nabbed 4 and my wife has hit two. I've had more near misses than I can count. In each case there was just nothing I could do. The first time was 4 deer nose to tail trotting out across the road at 5 in the morning. I whacked into number 3 and killed it. The others would just leap out in front of me from the wooded areas I was driving through. It's an expensive hobby. One time I was in a Volkswagon Fox at 5:20am and missed a 300lb pig by the length of it's tail. That one was scary. The swine's back was higher than the hood of the VW. If I had hit that.....

 

[billbill1]

In a rain storm, I got 2 deer with one Dodge Neon. Took out the windshield and the whole passengers side of the car. After getting the car fixed, the wife hit a buck and did almost the exact damage again. The extra permits and extended seasons in Kansas has lowered the population in the area where I live, I don't see nearly as many as 5 years ago. They're still around but not as visable. Now if they would do the same with the turkeys, there's tons of them.