For those who know, it is deer season

[hellohello]

I just heard a report on the news this morning saying that deer will be a'wanderin on the roads... then they showed some footage of accidents involving the four legged jaywalkers, and it makes me want to weld some re-bar to the frame of my car.. those things can take a hit and keep walkin... ive never encountered any deer, even tho i live near a park in PA

[okiepolkie]

Pesky little boogers.

My parents have totalled 2 different vehicles hitting deer in western Oklahoma. Besides the two totalled vehicles, I believe we have hit at least 10 deer over the last 10 years. They have a hard time getting insurance coverage for deer now.

[hellohello]

yeesh, maybe a cow catcher... :p

[mhardy6647]

Deer are nothin'... up in New England, we worry about moose. Besides being much bigger than deer, their eyes are apparently non-reflective.

We have a good friend was extremely seriously injured when his car hit a moose. The moose flipped up and landed on the roof of the car on the driver's side. The driver suffered broken vertebrae and had a long, slow recovery. His son in the passenger's seat, fortunately, was uninjured.

Two observations regarding moose come to mind:

1) Moose have been described as "like a cow on stilts"

2) Dave Barry noted that you never hear anyone say "smart as a moose".

[bobman1235]

I was doing my paper route as a kid and came across a moose standing in the middle of the road. It was the most enormous thing I could imagine. Granted I was 12 at the time, but still... it sticks in my mind to this day.

[brettw22]

I've hit a deer with a Camaro several years ago......

I was driving back home from Iowa last night and I can assure you by the 5 or so massive red streaks sliding across the highway that they are out there now....

[PolknPepsi]

...and I thought this was going to be a Bambi blasting thread..(hunting)...Run Bambi Run!

[Demiurge]

I'll kill one by way of Bow this year. :)

[Jstas]

There is a highway in NJ, Rt. 55, that I had the luxury of frequently travelling on 20+ miles a day about 4 days a week and usully at night. One particularly foggy night, I was following a tractor/trailer through the fog and cruising along at about 60 MPH. I saw the trailer brake lights come on and the back of the truck got real big real quick. So I nailed the brakes and darted to the side just in time to see a buck (8 points) in the headlights of the tractor/trailer. The truck hit the buck with such force that this mist of deer erupted from the front and half of the carcass came spinning off the side of the truck. I stopped behind the driver to see if he was ok. The head and half the neck were wedged in the grille, the ass and hind quarters were resting on the hood of the truck and the part of the body I saw flying off the side was the left front leg and half of the rib cage. The right front leg got caught in the wheel well. The driver said that he saw the deer walk into the road, hit the brakes and blew the horn. As soon as he hit the horn, the deer jumped to start running but it was too late. He had a full trailer so he figured he hit the deer at 50+ MPH even with the brakes.

Along the same lines, I was driving down I-95 in Maryland. I was pretty far behind another truck and traveling just south of the Chessapeake (sp?) House rest stop. An Audi A4 passed me and was just passing the truck that was probably a 1/4 mile infront of me. I see the brake lights of the truck come on and tire smoke abounds. The tralier started swerving and this dark mass comes flying over the driver's side fender and lands square in the windsheild of the Audi. The truck hit a deer, tried to avoid it but the Audi was right next to him and he had no where to go. Me and like 4 other people stopped and were waiting for the police. The guy had to get extricated from the car because the deer bent the steering wheel and pinned his legs. He had a broken femur and a bunch of scratches. He was shaken up from the experience, understandbly so but really freaking lucky. The speed limit was 55 and I was doing probably 5 MPH over and he blew by me like I was standing still. He had to be doing about 75 when that deer hit his windsheild.

Those are my brushes with deer. I haven't hit one yet myself but there is a first for everything.

[PolknPepsi]

A freezer full of venison sounds pretty good too. Yum...Yum...

[george daniel]

Killed an eight point buck with a 79' Blazer, nightime, never saw him,sure did tear up my truck though, in georgia the deer population has exploded over the last fifteen years or so, thanks to the DHR's management plan,, they are everywhere(sometimes unfortunately)

[bobman1235]

I rarely see dead deer up here, but I remember one time when I visited a friend in Wisconsin, driving from Minneapolis to Wisconsin we saw a freakin dear carcass on teh side of the road every few miles.

I think I'll be a lot more careful if I'm ever up in that part of the country.

[Dennis Gardner]

If the deer jumps, all bets are off.

*******Warning, graphic content!!!!!!********

Deer vs. SUV