Dodge-1 Deer-0

[rrausch]

About 4:00 a. m. Thursday I was coming down I-44 near Tulsa . I was in the fast lane, doing about 70, had my headlights on dim due to on-coming big rigs. I couldn't see any tail-lights ahead of me. Just then my headlights showed a deer down in my lane and a car pulled over on the shoulder with the lights off. I just managed to straddle the deer. The front suspension got him first, then passed him off to the trans x-member which sort of dribbled him into the gas tank and then passed him off to the rear end. It sounded like a war going off under my truck!



As I passed the other car, it appeared his ball-joint had been broken, and the entire front end was trashed! The only damage to my truck was to the left running board, which got pulled down at a bad angle due to the support strut being bent wildly.



I don't know if the deer was dead when I hit him or not, but if he wasn't dead, the Dana sent him to antler heaven real quick! There is a lot of blood and hair on the bottom of my truck as I write this. (I hate it when that happens!)

 

[TPCDrafting]

Did you have your roadkill license handy??? After going under the diesel there probably wasn't much left anyway. Glad you and your truck are ok.

 

[rrausch]

Oh I thought about stopping and sawing off a few steaks, I really did!

But it was just more than my poor little mind could handle at 4 in the morning.



Going through Flagstaff the next morning I saw 2 well-racked elk in the Median strip calmly grazing as cars whipped by! Hope traffic got around them OK.

 

[HoleshotHolset]

I hear ya on the roadkill.....



On our way to Muncie... . almost everyone drove over a large quantity of 'road jerky' (thank Straight6Jeff for that phrase... )... . we had about 5 pounds of it stuck to various places on the trucks once we stopped in WV... .



Matt

 

[JFitzgerald]

Glad you and truck are OK. I live in "deer heaven" so I have to watch constantly. I'm a mile from an IN state wildlife area in one direction and 3 miles from an IL hunting area in another direction. So far, I haven't hit any deer, but I did have one hit me several years ago! He came charging out of the woods as I drove by and hit me in the door, then he went under the rear tire. Had a lifted truck then, which was good since he probably would have come thru my window otherwise.



Had a close call a couple months back when I was coming home on a country road. Just crested a hill and there were two deer standing in the road in shock. There was no time to stop the truck and 30 ft trailer with two Jeeps. The only choice was to steer right between them and I somehow missed them both. A friend was following in another vehicle and he said he couldn't believe I missed them and that they just stood there. Deer are funny - sometimes they run, sometimes they don't.

 

[jwdeeming]

A lot of people laugh at my big old Ranchhand replacement bumper, but it's good insurance. My uncle hit a deer with his CTD at 70mph while towing a trailer back to Okla. $6000 in damage. The way those delicate coolers are stacked up front, it's easy to see how it oculd get expensive in a hurry.



And as for road jerky, there is now actually a legal way to take the dead critter home here in Colorado. Just call the State Patrol or DOW and they'll get you the required paperwork. But it's NOT legal to put down an injured animal. So I guess if you're gonna hit one, hit it good...

 

[HoleshotHolset]

What if you run if over twice?



Would I be charged with vehicular deericide? Because if I run it over once and it's still kickin'... it would be attempted murder... .



Matt