On the way to bird hunting this morning a beautiful 10 point buck dashed out across and struck a semitrailer at a full out run. He fell got up and shook his head then ran off on 3 legs (front broken and swinging) as fast as he ran with four back into the woods. Damndest thing he must have been hunted on private land he plowed into the semi like it wasn’t here. The truck was rolling to a stop at the intersection and was hardly moving. Hate to see a buck lost like that but if it was a car or school bus instead of the truck someone would have gotten hurt.

Driving in the pinch dark across sw Montana last night. Meet a semi pulled over with brights on. Driver walking around checking out his rig. I silently, or maybe not so silently, cussed him for leaving his brights on.

Drove a couple miles down the road and see a doe in the road struggling to get up. Legs aren't working. Lots of blood running across the lane. I stop and back up and do my part. Get her off the road to save any more vehicles any damage.

Before I married, I drove a semi pulling a flatbed for a couple of years. Headed to Pine Bluff, Ar. one morning and deer came running out of the woods. I thought it was going to hit the cab, but it didnt. It jumped between the cab and the load. Load hit the deer and it exploded, threw meat and guts all over the exhaust stack. Talk about a mess. It was week or more before that smell completely left.

They're pretty tough, he might make it. A few years back, the neighbor got one that was 'hobbling' on 3 legs, the RF knee was just a big knot and the lower leg wasn't there so he really dipped when he walked. No fresh blood or anything and all 'healed' and scabbed. We figure it got hit by a car sometime in the fall but was getting around OK. I think the neighbor said he tossed some of the lower shoulder meat but the rest was OK.

Dale

Cars get a lot of deer here during the rut.

Was driving in Wisconsin late one night. I was several hundred yards behind another truck. I saw a deer run out in front of him. I could see it in his head lights. Nothing he could do but pucker up. It was a mess. I have been lucky so far. I had a doe run on to the road a good distance in front of me one night. I started slowing down. From 65 to maybe 30. She couldn't make up her mind which way she wanted to go. I clipped her butt end and sent her skidding down in to the grass. She looked like Bambi in that scene where he is sliding on the ice. Not sure I did her too much damage. I am sure she had less hair on her belly afterwards. She got up wasn't limping or any thing. I got a cracked front bumper and a lot of swear words out.
M8X57

Hit a four point on a runway after touching down on a touch and go one night. It ran into the plane below the battery box and gored a hole through the thin skin, flipped inside the left main gear, and hit a VHF radio antenna. The crew chief painted a small silhouette of a fork horn in flat black where it hit the plane and stenciled "Road Kill" above the buck.

I was talking with a trucker in a restaurant once about hitting deer figuring that those big rigs were near indestructible and he said quite the contrary. If a deer gets hit and up inside that front wheel well, it will take out the steering or suspension system and put the rig out of commission. I've only ever hit one once and I was on the brakes so hard that it broke a motor mount and only cracked the front licence plate bracket. The deer got up and ran away. Cars kill about 20,000 deer here a year.