First Buck of the season

Over the years we have spent a lot of time driving in Western Canada and also Northwestern Ontario. Late at night, my wife scans both sides of the road, while I do the driving. In some areas deer or the occasional moose (you don't want to collide with a Bull Moose) can be dangerous. So unpredictable...one second on the side of the road..the next moment running in front of your vehicle. Really impossible to avoid when they sprint across the road.

Late August of this year we were making a run to Alberta and I heard my wife say..'Pronghorn'...I looked to both sides of the road (Trans Canada Highway) looking for herds. My wife than said...'center of the road'...which had a green verge ...lots of grass and some wildflowers...there it was...we're 50 feet away from it and it was right on the edge of the road, next to my lane...I was able to slow down to about 30 mph and the head and horns of the Pronghorn was about a foot from the doors of my car. I could of reached out and touched him...which would of been...real dumb on my part. :D

Fortunately he was contently grazing some grass and didn't even look up. I have read that the Pronghorn is the second fastest land animal in the world...Cheetah being the fastest. Apparently the Pronghorn can accelerate incredibly quickly..so I think Lady Luck was smiling at me that evening. :B

You're a lucky man...could of been worse for you...personal injury, Glad you're ok.

I didn't take the deer the police called a guy a mile down the road to pick it up. They have a list if the driver does not want it. You must be there with in a half hour from the call.

The deer went under the truck and from how it felt broke all the bones in the middle of it.

Just happy I didn't get hurt and thanks for all the well wishes guys. The truck can be fixed or replaced people not so much. My dealer gave me a truck to drive and I have to say I was scanning both sides of the road driving to work tonight.

Don

Ah, that really sucks but I'm happy to hear that you weren't hurt.

I bought a new F-150 XLT in 1994 (my first brand new truck) and hit a deer on my first trip out with it; 2 of them jumped in front of me; I managed to miss the first one but the second one caught the driver's side mirror and went right into the side of the box causing about $2500 damage. The truck only had about 2,500 kms on it at the time.

This is the primary we have quality, heavy duty grill guards on everything we drive! Ram, 4-Runner, and class c. It will help minimize damage, with animals smaller than adult elk.

SidecarFlip wrote:
You might get 100 pounds of edible meat out of it. All the meat on the impact side is a bloody coagulated mess of jelly and no good. Everything on the non impact side is good to go. You might get the backstraps but I cannot see the other side. It is imperative to gut it right away and get the chest cavity cleaned out. I carry a skinning knife with e all the time and a pistol between the seat and the console for just such an emergency.

He won't get 100 lbs of edible meat out of it if half of it is no good.

As far as gutting it goes, look into some of the articles online about gutless field dressing. I grew up gutting deer but have seen the light - screw that noise. On a smaller deer you can carry the quarters out intact along with the backstraps, tenderloins and neck meat, or on a bigger deer you can bone out the quarters pretty quickly and pack it out in one trip. So much easier and cleaner.

Perrysburg Dodgeboy wrote:


He weighed in around 250#, the antlers got knocked off but the basses were over 1 1/2" across! About 10K+ in damages.

No damage to any of the coolers and the air bag sensors are above the bumper and on the inboard side of the headlamps. The sensor for the passenger side was broken off but since I was the only person in the truck the bags didn't deploy. Was on my way to work.

Same type of hit I had several years ago but it went under the truck and only damaged the bumper. I had a $1k deductible so I just purchased a nice steel offroad bumper rather than going the insurance route. I think the factory bumper and labor to fix was around $2k so for the same out of pocket I got a bumper that didn't care if a deer hit it.

You might get 100 pounds of edible meat out of it. All the meat on the impact side is a bloody coagulated mess of jelly and no good. Everything on the non impact side is good to go. You might get the backstraps but I cannot see the other side. It is imperative to gut it right away and get the chest cavity cleaned out. I carry a skinning knife with e all the time and a pistol between the seat and the console for just such an emergency.

IdaD wrote:

Ski Pro 3 wrote:
California won't allow road killed deer to be harvested. Their concern is that too many will use their 5000 pound Buick and deliberately harvest deer, so, no go.

I can't imagine very many people would intentionally crash their car into a deer to harvest the meat. Not only would it be pretty tough to do with any regularity, it doesn't make any sense from an economic standpoint. California is a beautiful state, a huge contributor to the economy and I enjoy vacationing there, but it can be awfully kooky.

Kalifornia is wacko anyway. Glad I don't live there.

SidecarFlip wrote:

Perrysburg Dodgeboy wrote:
Who needs a hunting license when you have a mighty RAM LOL

That will cost more than a hunting license and that is a wimpy deer too. Pretty wimpy bumper too.

You can the cops and get a humane kill tag? Usually they will put the animal ouyt of it's misery and give you a human kill tag so you can get what is left processed.

He weighed in around 250#, the antlers got knocked off but the basses were over 1 1/2" across! About 10K+ in damages.

No damage to any of the coolers and the air bag sensors are above the bumper and on the inboard side of the headlamps. The sensor for the passenger side was broken off but since I was the only person in the truck the bags didn't deploy. Was on my way to work.

Aw nuts, that's a bummer. Seeing your bumper damage does confirm one of my concerns about the location of the intercooler. I've always worried if I were to hit something hard enough if it would take out the intercooler. I guess you probably found out.

Sorry man.