Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Hit a deer, air bags?

I hit a large ten point buck while driving a 2013 Ford Explorer, doing 65. EVERY air bag deployed, the smoke from them filled the car, the hood came up, and I couldn't see a damn thing. Someway, I managed to keep it on the shoulder of the road, a 4 lane, and not get into other traffic. Took a long way to stop, partly because the deer was up under the car, and partly because I was stunned momentarily, and wasn't even applying the brakes. Vehicle was totaled out.

Crashed my 2018 Silverado last week head on into a sprinter van . White smoke and dash says " Deployed " bt bags didn't come out .

I may have been worse off if they had of deployed .

Had that happen in my 1998 Ford Exploder. Had the window halfway down because I smoked. Her head came in and I gave her a kiss. She laid on the side of the road a few minutes, got up and waddled away finally looking back and trotted off.. I’m left with a $1600 bill for door and front fender repairs.

The third and final deer I hit with my Justy commuter-scooter came up out of the median. I was in the inside lane doing 65. She hit low on the bumper and was thrown clear across the outer lane and over the guard rail. No visible damage to the already-battered Subaru, and the air bags didn’t pop.

The Justy soldiered on until the clutch went at about 279,000.

I hit a doe about three years ago driving on I79 out of Erie. 3:00 on a Saturday afternoon going about 60. No time to react, watched in the rearview as the deer spun in the air onto the left berm into the weeds (I was in the hammer lane).

Fugged the front bumper and grill up but didn't deploy the airbags thank god. Never slowed down and didn't check damage till we got to the next winery.

Got one at 55 in Montana in a 2003 F250. It was in November and probably born that spring. No airbags. Felt like hitting a pothole. Punted it to the left across the opposite lane about 10 feet onto the side of the road. No airbag deployment.

Deer will run into you.

You are correct, they are there to save a life and not necessarily prevent injuries.

Hunting buddy hit a deer at highway speed in a 3 day old Toyota Tacoma crew cab all tricked out. It blew every bag on it and scared the living chit out of him and his first time youth deer hunter. Funny thing, was the kid later that day got his first deer on his first deer hunt and got to ride along in a totaled brand new truck. Told my buddy that that kid will have a story to tell when his dad asks how his hunt went!

Insurance Co paid almost the purchase price less the buyers fees and threee days depreciation..... So the day cost my buddy a couple of grand.

On another note, I bought my daughter a 98' Toyota Camry three years ago when she was a senior in highschool. She left here one winter morning and called me 5 minutes later telling me she wrecked and could I come get her. We only live about a mile and a half from the school so she couldn't have been far.

There was about 2 inches of slush on the roads and she got sucked off the road on a turn and into a stone wall off the right side of the road. Being where it happened she couldn't have been going more than 35 or 40 and her airbags deployed (lost a lot of money on that car). Thankfully she was just scratched up a little. I didn't even look into repairing the airbags, I just took the car to a junkyard.

Employee of mine hit a doe with a Ford F-150 work truck of the 08 vintage. Doe came up over the hood, through the windshield and hit the rear window. It was off center so driver only took a hoof in the nose and suffered a broken nose. It could have killed him deader than a hammer as they say. He said when hunting season opened up, he was going to waste the first doe he saw....

You don’t even have to be the one to hit it. Plenty of “flying deer” incidents out there.

I had an elk run into me this past spring. My air bag did not deploy. Totaled the truck but no airbag.

Hit a buck in a Tahoe at 75 mph. No air bags deployed. Wife hit 2 at once in a Honda Accord, no air bags deployed then either.

I used to think there was a sensor on the front bumper and on the rear bumper... nope.

There is a box somewhere in your vehicle with contactors inside. When an impact occurs sufficient to jostle the contactors to the point of touching... the airbags deploy.

I'm sure most people know this but I did not... so I figured I would share.

I've hit two deer over the years that caused damage, had a few more bounce off with little effect and had dozens of close calls. After dark on the two that hammered the front of my truck. Never saw either deer coming, they just came out of nowhere and whap!

Haven't hit one yet with an airbag equipped truck, but they've tried? Four years ago was flying down a four lane at 65, son spotted a deer running along way off to our left and far ahead of us. Didn't think much of it, mid afternoon. Next thing, the SOB ran right across in front of me. Missed it by 20 feet. Hit the binders and almost got nailed in the ass by the car behind us.

But one of my rural cousin's daughters hit a small doe years ago, not far from my hunting camp, with around a mid 80s TBird. Air bags deployed on impact. Cost her more to replace the air bags, than it did for the front end damage.

Those whistles don't work. Years ago one of my elderly, old maid cousins wouldn't drive at night, for fear of hitting a deer. So her brothers put whistles on her front bumper. Some of us are camping on the rural, wooded lot we gather on from time to time and she's there, enjoying the family company. Asked her how's come she stayed after dark. She said the boys put deer whistles on the car.

Started to tell her they ain't worth a damn and the boys told me to STFU, unless I wanted to take her home?

This may be where the term "nasty old box" or "windbag" come from... but I am not sure.

Some folks wonder about those "Ranch Hand Bumpers" you see on some trucks.

Well, they do work. My Son in Law purchased a new '15 Ram 3500 Cummins 4x4. The first week, he had the bumper and 12,000 lb Warn winch installed.

About six months later we were in the Salmon River Canyon, coming home at dark thirty in November from a steelhead excursion when a doe and two fawns bounced off the front bumper. The doe went flying over the fence on the left like she had come off a snowplow. Both fawns bounced out and came to rest against the right fence.

I looked over that truck very carefully the next day and could not find a scratch. The bumper paid for itself right there.

And I thought only South Texas deer did that. Foreman did broadside a black horse (not being racist) one night in the ranch truck - airbags deployed, foreman banged up, truck totaled, and dead horse. Nobody around wanted to claim that horse.

And I thought only South Texas deer did that. Foreman did broadside a black horse (not being racist) one night in the ranch truck - airbags deployed, foreman banged up, truck totaled, and dead horse. Nobody around wanted to claim that horse.

A friend hit a black bear, in the dark.
Early morning headed to a Bass Tournament, kinda sleepy.
BANG! The air bags went off and damn near caused him to wreck.


He said the only thing that saved them was the straight 4 lane road.

Never saw the bear, hair on the front was the only way they knew what happened.