We bought a new car for my Wife Saturday and decided to take it out for a little shake down drive today. There's a lake about 90 miles south of here so we headed out for a short trip to sight see and have a little lunch and try to figure out all of the gadgets on the car.
Had a pretty good day and were headed back this afternoon. We just left the lake and were about a mile down the road when out of the ditch popped a good size doe! We were only going about 35 mph when I barely saw it in the corner of my eye. I slammed on the brakes (ABS works) and whacked the deer with the right front bumber. I looked in the mirror to make sure no one was right behind me and two smaller deer (yearlings I suspect) came out of the ditch behind me. The deer got the worst of it. She had broken a leg.
My Wife was freaked out but amazingly my adrenaline wasn't even flowing. It was over so fast that I didn't have time to do anything but react. We got out to look the car over and there was not a single dent in the car! There was deer hair stuck between the headlight housing and the hood but that was it. No blood, no dent, no broken headlight... nothing! I couldn't believe it. I suspect the bumper broke the deer's leg and she bounced off. We were lucky!!
There were some bikers a little way behind us and they stopped to help and a couple cars coming from the other direction stopped but everything was fine...except the deer. She was struggling in the opposite ditch and finally made it to a nearby hedgerow where she laid down, still within sight. She had to be put down but I couldn't get cell service to call the wildlife guys or the Sheriff. One of the locals who came by said he would take care of the deer. As he went for his rifle we got off the road and watched the deer to see where she might go. She stayed put until the guy got back. As he headed for the deer we headed down the road.
We have a small cabin near Flagstaff AZ. Every year there are serious accidents involving elk, sometimes even fatalities (human, too). AZ Game and Fish finds the problem serious enough that they have over $1 million in their budget to install elk-proof fence along Interstate 17 and build several elk underpasses under the freeway.
A very petite and feminine co-worker (Marie) hit a deer with her new Blazer. Our big, strong tough-guy boss (Steve) happened to be on vacation, deer hunting, that same week. We spoke to him late in the week and found out he that he was pissed because he didn't get any deer, so I played a trick on him.
You know the standard picture of the hunter holding his riflle and kneeling next to a dead buck in the woods? Well, I found one of those pictures on the web, photoshopped a picture of Marie's face onto the hunter and then pasted a picture of a Blazer in the background, like it was parked in the woods. I left it on Steve's desk with a note that said "Marie got a buck last week. How did YOU do?"
I use those deer whistles on the front bumper and haven't hit anything yet - don't know if they work, it may be that I'm just dumb enough to buy them. Anyone have ideas on deer repelling gizmos for cars?
We tried 'em on our ambulances. Didn't make a bit of difference in how the deer reacted. Best defense is you. Look for the green eyes and keep the scan far enough ahead to get some pedal into a stop.
Remember, there's usually a fawn or yearling in trail, so don't let up your vigilance or braking until you have two or three accounted for.
You ever notice how they always impact the most expensive place to repair? Took one in the side doors of an ambulance (almost caused a heart attack in partner, too) a few years back, and it was both doors and the pillar!
I was following some dimwit down a small county road in wisconsin one sunny summer day and lo and behold there was a deer standing alongside the road (a deer in Wisconsin?). The lady in front of me stopped, then honked her horn. The deer went right over her roof (leaving several dents in the process).
Moral of the story, don't stop if they aren't crossing the road.
not want to _stop_ but slow way down so that if the deer decides to Kamikaze it won't do too much damage.
And that goes for any animal of any significant size. Guy riding through Mexico backalong ended up in a wheelchair because he didn't slow down for a donkey.
Wife and I were driving the ALCAN back in the days when it was 1200 miles of dirt and spent the night at a place where there was a chewed-up Kenworth parked. Seems bull moose don't care much for tooting horns either.
Scaring the deer or moose makes them act irrationally. Also people, which is why you drive especially carefully in town with an emergency vehicle. The nimrod whose ears are full of rap and eyes anywhere but scanning the mirrors usually panics and tries to stop right in front of you when he catches the lights.
I live near the shores of Lake Ontario and we've got 3 buck in our neighborhood looking for the 3 doe that were hanging around a few weeks ago.
Here's how "residential deer" were dealt with in my area, at least up until 2003:
Stolen without permission from
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Deer Committee
New York Bowhunters, Inc. recognized the importance of forming an Urban Deer Committee (UDC) early on in the formation of the organization. The idea garnished in 1992 and began to pickup steam in
1993. Since inception, the Urban Deer Committee has been involved with local and state officials working hand in hand in areas where deer were plentiful but a firearms season was not allowed because of habitation by large numbers of people. Two such areas where NYB's UDC has had a huge impact are in the town of Irondequoit, a suburb of Rochester, NY (Monroe County) and Erwin, NY, a suburb of Corning, NY.
There had not been any hunting in Monroe County Parks for over 30 years, so when NYB Monroe County Rep. Don Plant took on the project there, he knew he was in for a long and turbulent ride. Through hard work, factual information, innovation and public relations Don was able to get a limited bowhunt started in the town in 1996. That first year there was only 8 qualifying bowhunters but they had an astonishing success rate of 50%, by harvesting 4 deer. The program has grown in hunter numbers and success ever since. In fact, the annual bait and shoot program which was utilized by the town of Irondequoit to keep the deer numbers down to a safe level has been totally replaced with NYB's bowhunting program. See hunter success information for 1996 through 2003 on the next page.
Irondequoit Bowhunting Program - A Huge Success by Donald E. Plant
In 1996, after over 30 years of no hunting, the town of Irondequoit, New York, a suburb of Rochester, New York approved a very limited bowhunting program. The town's deer population was exploding and the bait and shoot program which was implemented sometime earlier was becoming a very expensive management program. In this program, Sheriff Sharpshooters would shoot deer with high powered rifles in restricted areas of the town at night over piles of food left out for bait. This program although effective was very costly; therefore, a bowhunting program was adopted to determine it's effectiveness in urban areas. New York Bowhunters Inc. (NYB) Monroe County Representative Donald Plant was instrumental in working with the DEC (Department of Environmental Conservation), Irondequoit town officials and the local law enforcement in order to bring this program to fruition. After 8 years, the program has been greatly expanded and has been extremely successful.
Since it's inception, the bowhunting program has grown from 8 hunters who took 4 deer, to 48 hunters who took 79 deer in 2003. Additionally, the number of sites have grown from 4 to 46 during the same time period. The sites include both town and private land. The best part of this success story is that the bowhunting program has been so successful that it has replaced the bait and shoot management program and is the only management tool currently being used to cull the deer herd within the town. Furthermore and most importantly, it has been done safely. None of the scenarios which were presented by non-hunting organizations or town members in the early days of discussion about the introduction of the bowhunt within the town have ever come close to being remotely true.
The town's bowhunting program is in fact more restrictive than the current state law as it applies to bowhunting. The hunting is conducted Monday through Friday only, from sunrise to 11am. Furthermore, hunters are required to take an antlerless deer first before being allowed an opportunity at an antlered or buck deer. Because this program is designed to reduce the deer herd and manage its population within safe limits, it is of the utmost importance that antlerless deer are removed from the population. Therefore, hunters are encouraged to take as many antlerless deer as is legally possible. Currently, a hunter has a regular hunting license, plus a DMU permit (Deer Management Permit) for the 8C area (this permit allows a hunter to take more than 1 antlerless deer) and a DMAP permit (Deer Management Assistance Program) for two additional deer, as issued by the town. Some hunters have taken as many as 8 deer. The season starts October 15th and runs through the last day of the late season. There is only 1 break which is the first two days of gun season. Hunters also must pass a shooting proficiency test, have taken a deer with a bow and pay a $20 fee to participate in the hunt. The urban deer management program developed by NYB and local officials has been a huge success and if it can work in a major suburb of Rochester, New York it can work in other urban and metropolitan areas as well. Please see TABLE 1 for a breakdown of hunter results over the length of the Urban Deer Bowhunting Program in Irondequoit.
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