My Truck: 1 , Deer: 0

[EBottema]

Well, It finally happened. I hit my first animal. It only took 5 years of driving...





Before my 2. 5 hour drive tonight with my buddy, I had a thought, what if I hit a cow (lots of these in the area). I decided in my mindless thought, just hit the thing. I really do think i have a sixth sense... .



It helps having a large bumper. In my case, a reunel with the light guards and dual front crossmembers and a m12000 winch planted in front.



Anyways, I was heading back up to the Kern River on a single lane highway, lots of nice curves and slight ditches on each side. I was coming down and on the other side of the road was a fair sized young buck. He was approx 200 feet in front of me and to my left. At about 100ft away, he (idiot) darted towards me. I was travelling about 55mph @ 200 ft away. I saw it before my eyes and knew if I tried to stop he would either be hit at lower speeds or i would end up getting my truck overturned in a ditch. Well, I sped up a little (now over 60mph) with the turbo singing and SMACK. Dead center over to the passenger side a bit. Right after the front bumper impact, it went under the truck and the deer went under the dana 80 pumpkin and lifted the rear up and then the rear slammed back down. It was very weird. I was really shaken up as I would rather have not killed a good buck, would have rather done in a coyote. I also had my . 45 in the car with some ammo just in case the deer was suffering. It would kill me to hit the thing and make it suffer. If it gets hit fine, but lets make it short and sweet. I go back and its antlers were about 6 inches tall covered in skin and he was prob about 1. 5-2 years old. I think the front bumper impacted the head since it was obviously broken because of how the antlers were pointed. Blood was visable from the mouth and i didnt see any movement or breathing. I was very pleased that it did not suffer...



I recommend everyone to get some kind of heavy duty bumper. Without, It would have cost atleast 500-1500 bucks to fix the truck. Zero damage to my old truck, except the hair stuck on my DSS, :-laf



May that deer rest in peace :{



~Erik

 

[Philip]

I know how you feel. I tenderized one of those road goats in Feb.



Glad your front bump stoodup to the strain.

 

[Cowboy Medic]

Try almost $6,000!!! That is how I wound up with my Ranchhand bumpers. I took out a deer and it wiped out the flimsy plastic thing they called a bumper, the intercooler, grill, ac condensor, radiator, front steering linkage, had to repair and repaint the hood, not to mention the cooler I had sitting on the passenger seat that flew forward and wiped out my glovebox.



That was about four years ago now. I have hit two more since and not a thing to repair just washed em up and once a small touchup with some black spraypaint.

 

[nps]

Drove for over 25 years without ever hitting a deer. Then one night along a Maryland secondary highway, out of the ditch comes an anti-hunting suicide terrorist deer - bang - right into the passenger door. So Bambi's dad became dinner and the truck went off to the shop for pass door repair.



6 weeks later, less than half a mile away, evidently the brother of Bambi's dad decided to extract revenge and launched himself AT THE SAME DOOR. Went back to the body shop and told the owner "Look - the dent came back - what happened?"



After the second hit I got deer horns. Do they work? Never hit another deer after, but never hit one in the 25 years before either. Go figure.

 

[rrausch]

A couple of years ago I was makin' time in the fast lane headed West on I-44 near Tulsa at 4:00 am, and came upon a big buck down in my lane. He had a good rack on him--at least 10 points. I had the stock headlights and didn't see him until I was right on top of him. I had no choice but to straddle him and if the poor guy wasn't dead before I went over him, he sure was after I dribbled him off the pavement with the underside of my truck. About 50 yards ahead an econo-box was pulled over with the front end totally smashed in and nobody around.



Since then I have gotten Sport Lights and a UTE Bullbar! Better safe than sorry.



I got the UTE as a result of another accident. A moron who didn't know traffic laws and who spoke Spanish made a highly illegal left turn across 4 lanes of traffic and I nailed him at 90 degrees only going about 3 mph. Now you'd THINK a manly truck like ours would be able to take a 3 mph hit against the side of a Ford Escort but NO... the impact did about $1,800 worth of damage to my truck! So the net cost to me for the UTE was about $500. After the good Senor and I exchanged info he got highly indignant that I wouldn't say the accident was my fault. But my Ins. co and his too said it was his fault.

 

[JHardwick]

Anyways, I was heading back up to the Kern River on a single lane highway, lots of nice curves and slight ditches on each side. I was coming down and on the other side of the road was a fair sized young buck.

Was it up or down?

He was approx 200 feet in front of me and to my left. At about 100ft away, he (idiot) darted towards me. I was travelling about 55mph @ 200 ft away. I saw it before my eyes and knew if I tried to stop he would either be hit at lower speeds or i would end up getting my truck overturned in a ditch. Well, I sped up a little (now over 60mph) with the turbo singing and SMACK.

Yeah, I always speed up when there are animals in the road

 

[EBottema]

Was it up or down?



Yeah, I always speed up when there are animals in the road

Up down, it really doesnt matter. I was driving... .



Why not speed up? It the animal was unlucky enough to get in the way... I then want the animal to be hit as hard as possible for two reasons. To pull it under the truck and two, I wanted to kill it instantly. Slowing down would cause a suffering deer. And that is not cool. Maybe if I was in your truck, I could have sped up more, so atleast the deer could have put the thing out of its misery Mr. Custom. :-laf