Pair of new-year's 8-points

[btroj]

Now if that was a lead, home cast car.........

I haven't hit a deer with a car. Yet. Came close to a turkey thru my windshield once.

Dude, how many have you hit with cars? At some point they are gonna come for you, those deer widows are a tough crowd.

[MT Gianni]

I have hit 4 in the last six years. I put around 40K a year on vehicles in the Rockies.

[pls1911]

Gearnasher's reference to the texas Law is correct.
However, Game Wardens have wide latitude to use judgement regarding enforcement of conservation laws.
These gents are an extension of the Dept of public Safety with all authority of DPS officers and more.
Having known several gentlemen who had that calling, I know each would consider measures to conserving the meat. Normally, the answer would be no, considering the time lapsed between kill and removal
However, with prompt arrival at a not yet dead critter... it just depends on the officer.
I've never known one who wasn't a first rate stand up guy once he's established you're on his side...
His extra eyes and ears, helping help everyone have a nice day. Encountered one a couple of years ago who was second generation...I knew his dad from field coffee years ago. Good men...good people.

[geargnasher]

If it hadn't been 1/4 mile inside the city limits, I would have called the DPS 800 number and pled my case to the responding officer. Truthfully, I might have been able to plead it anyway, but it was late, I had a deer in the trunk that needed to hang and drain more before it cooled off, and with a rifle in the back seat, ammo and knives everywhere, two pistols (one in the door pocket), and a registration sticker that expired the day before, so even though I was technically 100% legal (5-day grace on the sticker) I REALLY didn't feel like ******* around with the city cops, who are mostly young, facist punks that think they are the highest authority and last word. At least until a REAL LEO shows up. I had already seen two city police cars within minutes of hitting the deer, and they patrol this road regularly. County men and women are not much better, but there are a few good ones left. Troopers and Wardens are top notch in this area at least, but overall the headache of dealing with exhausted, grumpy officers who probably worked a double the day before and didn't get much sleep was more than I was up for.

BTW, I've hit 30 deer in my driving lifetime, killing 28 of them. Two of them I was able to get slowed down in time to just knock them over or clip them. All but one was in Texas, I had to drive straight through a mulie fawn on a twisty, two-lane stretch near Meeker, CO. since dodging with a 6K lb Suburban meant cliff or wall. This Buick is only the second vehicle I've owned that wasn't a truck/SUV with a full-replacement, steel front bumper/grille guard. Had a '66 Mustang for a couple years, you guessed it, nailed a huge doe with that one and after the insurance fixed it and I paid the difference to re-paint the whole thing it got sold right away.

Even Neil Peart, in all his tens of thousands of miles on a motorcycle all over the world, finally hit a deer while traveling just a few miles from my house. They have a death wish or something, it's nuts.

Gear

[btroj]

Was Neil on his way for dinner?

I am fortunate, never hit one. Gear, stop driving by those deer crossings, the deer are trained to cross there ya know. Well, at least the law abiding deer.

[rbstern]

Gear, congrats on the shot and surviving being the projectile for the second buck.

[TXGunNut]

They have a death wish or something, it's nuts.

Gear

Last one I hit supports that theory. I knew a guy whose dad had a grille guard made for his Buick Electra 225; grilles, condensers and radiators were getting expensive and hard to find in S Texas hill country. I sell lots of pickup front end replacements for collision repairs after deer collisions, cost effective in more ways than one.

[taco650]

If it hadn't been 1/4 mile inside the city limits, I would have called the DPS 800 number and pled my case to the responding officer. Truthfully, I might have been able to plead it anyway, but it was late, I had a deer in the trunk that needed to hang and drain more before it cooled off, and with a rifle in the back seat, ammo and knives everywhere, two pistols (one in the door pocket), and a registration sticker that expired the day before, so even though I was technically 100% legal (5-day grace on the sticker) I REALLY didn't feel like ******* around with the city cops, who are mostly young, facist punks that think they are the highest authority and last word. At least until a REAL LEO shows up. I had already seen two city police cars within minutes of hitting the deer, and they patrol this road regularly. County men and women are not much better, but there are a few good ones left. Troopers and Wardens are top notch in this area at least, but overall the headache of dealing with exhausted, grumpy officers who probably worked a double the day before and didn't get much sleep was more than I was up for.

BTW, I've hit 30 deer in my driving lifetime, killing 28 of them. Two of them I was able to get slowed down in time to just knock them over or clip them. All but one was in Texas, I had to drive straight through a mulie fawn on a twisty, two-lane stretch near Meeker, CO. since dodging with a 6K lb Suburban meant cliff or wall. This Buick is only the second vehicle I've owned that wasn't a truck/SUV with a full-replacement, steel front bumper/grille guard. Had a '66 Mustang for a couple years, you guessed it, nailed a huge doe with that one and after the insurance fixed it and I paid the difference to re-paint the whole thing it got sold right away.

Even Neil Peart, in all his tens of thousands of miles on a motorcycle all over the world, finally hit a deer while traveling just a few miles from my house. They have a death wish or something, it's nuts.

Gear

Go easy on us city cops OK? We probably have worked too much on too little sleep. However, I will admit the younger officers tend to nail everyone they can until they get some experience.

Sounds like you have too many deer if they keep getting hit, even in town.

[geargnasher]

That WAS easy! You'd have to know the crew of LEOs in town. The city police here (like most places I'll bet) are severely underpaid for what they have to do, so they have a very high turnover rate and high percentage of young, flunkie-type, arrogant, under-trained, under-educated, inexperienced officers fueled by a corrupt, power-hungry Chief. I avoid those guys when I can. The city sees fit to spend tens of millions on floodplain development for parks that will just get washed away in the next flood and "beautifying" our wannabe historical district, but can't throw the PD that protects it all enough budget to pay the decent officers (we've had plenty of good ones) enough to stay. Don't get me started on the Chief. I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir.

And yes, we have WAY too many deer. More particularly, too many people crowding in around here who don't hunt, but love to feed the "pretty little deer". We've had a bad drought for four years that finally sorta broke in 2013, the economy is in the dumps, so the deer population really suffered badly from people feeding less and there being far less native forage than normal. So what we have is too many sick, malnourished, dwarf deer who move around too much trying to stay fed (particularly groomed right-of-ways) and cross a lot of highways at night.

Sorry for the rant. I just miss this place when it was quaint, friendly, and hadn't been saturated with immigrants from the north east and far south. At least we enjoyed some grilled, bacon-wrapped backstrap medallions and some grilled yaller onions and nice spinach salad for supper, THAT makes me smile all over.

Gear

[btroj]

Ah yes, the deer feeders. We have them here. Our Game and Parks people finally got them to stop convinced them it wasn't good.

We have too many deer but I haven't hit one. Yet. I have seen my share on the road dead.

[CLAYPOOL]

Lots of cheap, small hand saws carried by the guys up here in Southern Illinois. Battery Powered Sawsall are very popular also. In just a few minutes you can either saw the head off, or cut the skull plate.

[cbrick]

Only one little "i" between "buck" and "Buick".

30 deer? With a car? Geez Gear, if I ever do get down there to visit I'll do the driving.

I've never hit one but that nearly ended just a few days ago in broad daylight. Was on the bypass that goes around town & in the left lane doing 60 in a 60 limit, road has a very wide grass covered center divider, no trees. Doe must have been crouched down in the center divider or it would been as visible as a neon sign, suddenly it sprang straight out into the road right in front of me. Deer was moving left to right & between brakes & a left swerve onto the shoulder I missed it by just a few feet.

30? Really? Doesn't Guinness keep records of such things?

Rick

[Sweetpea]

30's not so bad...

When I lived in Michigan, we had a family friend that delivered for UPS in our area.

IN ONE YEAR he nailed 17...

Brandon

[geargnasher]

I regret to announce that this thread has just received the first "one star" rating of the new year. Go US! The congratulations and condolences are much appreciated nonetheless. Carry on...

Gear

[44man]

Sorry to hear about the Buick Gear.
We have gotten a few road kills in Ohio and WV. Others hit them and I stopped to drag them off the road so traffic could keep going. The state police would come and after paperwork, they would ask the driver if he wanted the deer, never did so he asked us. We would take it. A paper was given us and the deer did not count against our hunting license.
What made the officer real happy was we told him we would take the deer down a side road, off the road to gut it.
Then we would shoot one each where we hunted and would split the road kill.