Who needs buck lure around here?!

[Bayrat]

Well it had to happen! After years of skillfully /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif avoiding all the deer that have tried to hitch a ride on the hood of my vehicle, one made it tonight on the way home from a long day at work. I was only 200' from my driveway after clocking up around 175 miles on the road and a huge buck lept from a hedgerow into the side of my door. Due to the darkness and haze, I never saw it until the antlers were a foot from my driver side window /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif.

The buck dented the fender, door and quarter panel of my company S10 4x4 and then managed to recover and run off as I exited the vehicle to give him a piece of my mind. Makes me sick /w3tcompact/icons/sad.gif, I have almost 90K on it and have avoided even a door ding. Not an easy task when it is in every seedy parking lot in the city all week.

I wonder what kind of close calls and/or hits the other members have had with these jumping pot roasts /w3tcompact/icons/hmm.gif? I need to go change my shorts now /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif, my hands are still shaking.

 

[DUMBDOG]

Always been lucky, never hit one yet. Quite a few close calls though.

How many points did the buck have? As if you had a chance to count them.

 

[patrickg]

So far I have only hit one. In northern Texas on the interstate at 3PM or so a deer was proceeding almost parallel to the road but slowly converging on it. I got slowed to about 55 and was changing lanes to the left to give it a wider berth when at the last possible second it did a left 90 degree turn and jumped right out in front of me. I was in a '84 ford with a camper on and had a fairly substantial brush guard. One of the 1/4 inch uprights hit it in the neck and spun it back onto the edge of the shoulder. Instant kill. This was NOT a cry for help or attention, it was a definite suicide.

Didn't disable the truck but the right turn signal light was flopping around a bit as it broke the plastic that passes for a grill and light surrounds. Imbedded hair into the trim. It was too light to stop and salvage any of the meat.

Patrick

 

[Ozarker]

I hit one once with a 5 ton Military Cargo Vehicle loaded with troops. I was running down a long hill trying to get momentum to make it up the other side when a fairly large buck jumped out in front of me. Trust me, there was no usable meat left. The brush guard killed him and two sets of dual wheels spread him out on the road.

 

[MikePA]

Hit one with our Geo Prizm. Hood, Fender, bumper, coupla thousand to repair.

A herd ran into the drivers side of my K1500, coupla thousand to repair.

Grazed an MGB my wife was driving. No damage.

One hopped onto the hood of my 1987 S10 4x4, when someone else was driving it. Hood, fender, windshield, coupla thousand dollars in damages.

No, I don't like deer, neither does my insurance company! /w3tcompact/icons/mad.gif

 

[EdKing]

I once had a doe jump in front of me while I was riding my motorcycle home from work one night. I must have hit it just right as the deer was killed, and I stayed upright on the bike. It busted my headlight and both front turn signals and twisted the forks out of alignment. The only injuries I sustained were a sore wrist, a bruised leg, and soiled shorts.

 

[Thomas]

Sorry to read about the bad event but at least your okay.

Insurance agent told me moose or a deer runs between $10 to $15 lbs when it comes to damage now a days.

Couple weekends ago 4 of us on our m/c were riding home in the dark early one morning on a newly tar road about 40mph,than all the sudden the second m/c brake lights came on and fingers were pointing in the other lane..MOOSE..a big bull moose..thank goodness he stood still.
The moose body color blend into the color of the new tar road,and as we pass one got a reality check.

Sad part is a woman couple days later hit and kill the moose w/her car,and last I knew she was still in the hospital recovering.

 

[db4700]

I have only hit one but it did a lot of damage and I was lucky that the car did not flip because it spun 360 degrees. I have had lots of close calls since. I have installed the little deer whistles on my cars but I am not sure if they work or not. I see lots of dead deer along the roads around here.

 

[looch]

I hit one with my Ford Ranger in '95. I was doing about 55 (90 km/h) and it jumped out about 15' in front of me. I locked up the wheels but I think by that time I had already hit it. The front of the late model Rangers is kind of round. The deer was hit with the "lower hemisphere" of the front end and was knocked downwards (thank you). I stopped the truck and backed up, looking for the deer (I have been known to partake in the recuperation of fresh road kill). Knowhere to be found. I got out of the truck and walked around back. There was a bunch of individual hairs stuck to the back of my tailgate (static). The deer had passed completely under the truck, got up and ran away. I checked the ditches and the scrub but I couldn't find him. I'm sure he must have perished somewhere in the nearby woods. It's amazing how far these things can go just on adrenaline. No damage to the truck.

 

[Bayrat]

It was a good sized rack but at 2100hrs just too dark and foggy to see. To be honest, I thought the whole thing was coming through the drivers side window /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif, I still don't know why it didn't. The mirror was smashed flat against the window and I saw the rack coming at me at the last moment, all I could invision is it stuck in my head. I have been watching that very same buck {I believe} most of the summer, thinking it would be a nice prize this fall. I hope it survives and doesn't go to waste in a field someplace /w3tcompact/icons/sad.gif.

I have had a number of close calls but this took the cake. I couldn't go to sleep last night, it's a good thing today was scheduled as vacation. I had one jump the cement barrier on a divided highway at dusk a year or so ago. He landed in my lane one car up. Lucky we both were able to quickly lock the brakes and change lanes or we would have had a nice pile-up. That would have been on the way home from work as well, I wonder if it's time to retire /w3tcompact/icons/hmm.gif. Oh I forgot, nothing much left in my portfolio anymore /w3tcompact/icons/mad.gif.