headline should have read "Got a deer last night -- Actually she got me!"

The downside of living in Northern WI is there are hundreds of thousands of deer and it's gun season and they're running. Last night on the way from picking up my brother-in-law in Wausau we almost made it home when a good-sized doe came running across the road and smashed into the left front side of my 2003 Buick LeSabre, which I bought just 4 days ago and didn't have a scratch on it. Major damage resulted including a busted headlight, bumper, grille, dented hood, quarter panel and driver's side door, which now opens only partially. Radiator held (I think) as the car limped home 2 miles away without overheating.

This was the third deer in 15 years I've hit or hit me, including one head-on into a practically new Toyota Corolla that totaled the car. Good thing I had the seatbelt on. My bro-in-law and I count ourselves as sort of lucky, though, because had that whitettail been square in front it might have flown into the windshield and we'd be in the morgue right now. Or a second later, could have hit my driver's door square-on and caused me to lose control. It was very dark, as this occurred around 8:30 and fortunately no other traffic at the time of the accident. Had there been another vehicle nearby, it could have been much worse. Sheriff's deputy came out to view damage and told me there were dozens of deer-vehicle crashes in past few weeks.


Bottom line: Be careful out there! Deer are on the run!

MORNING UPDATE: Damage estimate is $4,800, which is close to totaling the car -- 70% of value. However, body shop guy says no mechanical damage, all cosmetic. See pics below, including one DEAD DOE. Saved a hunter a bullet.

That settles it. Buick isn't enough car for a deer, got to get a Suburban or big Cadillac.

Good luck dealing with the insurance company.

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S&WHF 366

OUCH!

Sorry to hear that...........

in the 20 years that dad drove 55 miles one way to work, he hit 9 deer and a bear. after my freshman year of college, i was college help where he worked and rode with him that summer. i would catch a few extra zzz's. one morning i woke up to a thump and saw the doe going over the roof, turned around in time to see her spinning in the middle of the road. we watched the guy behind us load her into his truck...i went back to sleep...lol.

my wife has hit 3 with only major damage from one. i have had 5 run into me...one required cosmetic repair...one totaled my vehicle...

i guess for us, it's not a question of if, but when...

I have hit two in my vehicles. The first was in the minivan, no damage to the van. I dont know what happened to the deer, I turned around as soon as I could and it was gone. The second was in the Taurus. Again, no damage to the car and the deer ran away. Please be careful. Im reminded of what Ron White said once " If we could slow the bullets down to 55mph........

buck... I was heading home with my wife on a country road about 10pm doing about 50. All I saw was a blur and I was just barely able to tap my breaks. Now I'm driving a big Toyota Landcruiser (thank goodness). He was big enough to see his head and rack above the car. Anyway long story short, did about $5,000 damage to my Lancruiser.

Knocked him all the way into a front yard. My wife drove down early the next morning and said he was huge. By the time I got there someone had already picked him up. Anywho, I'm glad I wasn't driving a small compact or that deer would have probably been through my windshield....

PS- I have a friend who has hit 6, yes 6.

Glad you are okay.... A word of advice, however. If you are going to hunt deer with a car, a Buick is not the best choice. It is only good for smaller game, such as raccoons or possums. For deer, you really need to step up to a mid-70's full-size Ford. For elk or black bear, you need at least a half-ton pickup. Grizzly or moose require a one-ton, preferably a dually. It's not just the vehicle choice, either. Hit placement is very important.

Wait til you git a bull moose in the front seat with you. Din't happen to me but I investigated it..

This past summer I was driving home on the interstate and the car in front of me hit a doe. It cartwheeled over the car and landed on the shoulder. The driver pulled over a 100 yards down the road to assess the damage. I pulled over to get some fresh venison. Walked over to the deer and notice it's eyes are closed. Hmmm.......it's not dead. I see no blood and no signs of obvious injury other than missing a whole lot of hair off its head. It started spasming and I figure it's bleeding out internally. Then the spasms stopped and it's just lying there breathing normally. Hmm......it's just knocked out? Meanwhile the driver who hit it (a woman) is watching me from down the road wondering what happened. It's raining, semi's are blasting past at 80MPH. I'm thinking this doe is going to wake up, run back on the highway and cause some serious injury to someone. Alright then......ok girl! wake up! on your feet! She opens her eyes and looks at me and goes back to la la land. Nope! this is no place to sleep! wake up! I grabbed her and shook her awake and then helped her stand up. Then I pointed her towards the woods and sent her on her, albeit wobbly, way. I can only imagine what these cars were thinking that were zipping past us. Then I drove down the road to checkout the driver. Naturally, she was shaken up. The only damge she had was a missing driver side mirror. So apparently, the deer clipped the mirror with her head and then flew over the car without anymore injury. The woman wanted to know what she should do about the dead deer. Dead deer? That deer is fine and just walked away! She couldn't believe it. So that was my unusual car/deer experience. My daughters now call me the "deer whisperer". They do think there is some sort of weird paradigm in that, had it been dead, I would have gutted it on the spot, but since it was alive I felt obligated to keep it that way.

When I was a kid my Uncle Ed hit a buck between Tomahawk and Hazelhurst.
Uncle Ed was driving an early 60s Sedan DeVille.
Totaled the Caddie, totaled the deer, put Unk in The Penny Hospital in Woodruff for a few days.
He ran into the steering wheel pretty hard!

I don't remember if cars didn't have seat belts back then, or folks just didn't use them.
You can bet that Uncle Ed wore one after that

Is the Penny Hospital still there?
I kinda remember Dr. Kate from when I had pneumonia sometime in the late 50s -
My mom still thinks that she was theeee greatest doctor EVER

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In dog years I'm dead.

A guy I worked with hit one on I-65 one morning coming to work. He was in a small car and the buck came through the windshield. It's antlers stuck through the passenger seat and the body was wedged between the seat and dash. He said they had to cut up the deer to get it out of the car.

Thats Probably True of the New Generation "Polymer" Buicks

The Older "Steel" Buicks would have done Better



(Sorry I Had to Say it)

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Compact 9mm Just my $0.02

The only deer I've ever kilt in my life I kilt with Mazdas. One with my '76 Cosmo (look that one up, it's a classic) in the late '80s. Just a little feller, but he messed the car up.
The other one was almost 20 years ago. I was just East of Bartlesville Oklahoma on a lonely county road. It was about 1:30 in the morning. I was driving a '92 Mazda Protege LX. It's kind of a sporty version, the same size as a Ford Escort. I had just slowed down from 100 MPH. Was probably still doing 90 MPH when a HUGE buck jumped out from the right hand side ditch. I braked, swerved and hit him square in mid jump. He hit the windshield at the top. Fortunately he hit more of the roof line than the windshield, or I'd be takin' the Dirt Nap now. Not a sign of the collision on the front of the car except a broken turn signal. He hit the roof line and drove it back about 4". I had glass particles in my eyes for a couple days, but was all right.
I was visiting a friend of mine who was a cop down there. I just filled out the accident report myself. For "Other Driver" I put "Buck Deer". For "Address" I put "Corn-Field".
Yeah, I should been kilt myself in that one. Guess my number wasn't up.
Jim

Would that have been in West Virginia

One snowy night in December of 1997, driving from Denver to Aspen, almost to Snowmass, an 18 wheeler a few cars up hit an Elk, and it disintegrated - parts were flying everywhere, it was all over the road, and he never stopped. It was as if the animal exploded on impact, and the road was gory and rough from the pieces of the carcass spread across two lanes. After returning to Denver the following week, just a few days before Christmas, I was washing off the car when I discovered a hoof with some gore and bone still attached, stuck in the grill, along with some other unidentifiable stuff.

I wondered how many shoppers had seen it as I drove around the Cherry Creek area the day before, remembering one very pissed off lady with a couple kids in tow that I assumed was angry because the nose of my car was nudged too close to a crosswalk at a busy stoplight by the mall; they all glared at me as they passed by, and she mouthed something that was most likely, "You sick ___".

It still makes me chuckle, as I imagine her kids asking, "Mommy... did that man hit one of Santa's reindeer?"

back when i sold cars the body shop was right next to my office. i couldn't believe the damage to some vehicle/deer collisions. back before safety glass i had a great uncle in arkansas hit a buck with his early 60s ford falcon. up over the hood, thru the windshield, gored him and kicked him breaking ribs and puncturing a lung. darn near died from it. lee

Wausaw you say .... I know the area .. Im from there give or take a few dozen miles.
I created a bullet after a more heart wrenching, but similar incident, in order to exact my vengeance upon that *$^# species.
picture if you will, an SVO mustang.
I virtually lived under that car for a month and a half implementing repairs and restoration.
It rolled out a pristine machine of power and beauty, came home from her maiden voyage bambi checked.
that species must be taught a lesson

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it just needs more voltage

I've never hit, or been hit by a DEER, but a few years ago I was going down a country road about 45 mph, and a HORSE ran into the side of my full-size van!

It got up, and kept running. Did several thousand dollars damage to the van.

Tom

I got my deer this year with my F-150. 5 grand in damages, grill headlight, bumper, hood, radiator. water pump and fan. The deer was turned to jelly on impact. I was doing a bit over the posted limit of 55, 12 over I do believe. About 20 years ago I was traveling between Gwinn MI. and Escanaba every day. I got 5 bucks a doe and in the early spring I got a pack of turkey's and a new pickup. In Michigan you don't need no stinking license to hunt with a truck. I consider the UP white tail deer to be suicidal with the onset of winter. The deer don't like the deep snow and sub zero cold so the suicide by car.

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Carpriver.

Every time I hear of someone hitting a deer I think of a friend's wife, Jenny.

Jenny had a habit of driving fast and one night, back in the 70's, she hit
a herd of deer in their Ford Torino station wagon. How she came out of
that deal without a scratch was something I still can't figure out. The car
wasn't so lucky.....it looked like it had been rolled, more than once.

One deer ended up in the front seat, lucky for Jenny it had called shotgun.

I'll never forget when she said, while telling us what
happened, "Deer were flying everywhere."

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Ogy

I got Farmers and they're pretty good. Put claim under "comprehensive" rather than "collision" as it was a no-fault accident. Also the dealer, who I have bought 5 cars from in the past 15 years, gave me a free loaner.

Hit one in 2008 with my Ford Expedition at 55 mph. Nobody hurt, but $12000 in damage.

Dr. Kate's still around. I think Howard Young/Ministry Health Care has taken over Penny's. That stretch between Tomahawk and Hazelhurst is mostly two-lane and filled with critters.

Why wouldn't you be wearing your seatbelt?

In 43 years as a LEO I've hit or been run over by over 20 deer. The ones that aren't torn up find their way to the freezer. I've always had a freezer full of deer from the ones I hit or somebody else hit and didn't want them. It was their car that was torn up so I always offered them the deer before I took it. Coming back from the Tulso show a few years ago I got tired and let Jr. drive the rest of the way home. He hit a deer in my personal Crown Vic...less than a mile from home. A few weeks ago he ran over another in my Silverado. It went in the freezer. He finally shot one legally last week. More of them are run over at night, especially during the rut.

A buck ran into me one night while I was driving my Mustang. I had the tops off (the Stang's, not mine) and he ran into my driver's side door. I was almost stopped, so it was low speed. Anyway, antlers got tangled up in my seat belt or something, because antlers and deer nose were touching my arm and he was wiggling to get free of something. The deer and I were both pretty freaked out and details are sketchy in my memory. Except the sound of his hooves on the road and antlers all over my car door and arm.

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Soli Deo Gloria

did ya break its legs with the tire iron and kick it to death for its infraction against the other American flag?
I have seen oh so many things that could make the Pope commit to war, but NOTHING made me as livid as that dumb $*@&#$ animal violating the machine I had just invested the blood from my knuckles into to make whole. I could still cuss for a week venting

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it just needs more voltage

There were times, especially on short trips, that I didn't buckle up. Mea culpa. It was a hard-learned lesson and have done so ever since. That applies to all passengers as well.

Was out in the woods last thursday for opening day of gun. My friends and I had called it a day and were riding around the 2 tracks to see how many of our fellow hunters were on the same land we were on. Out of nowhere this little doe, probably a yearling, came flyinf through the woods straight as us, myself in my Nissan Frontier and my two friends in a little kia ahead of me. The deer jumped out in front of me and up onto the trunk of my buddys kia after flailing about it took off back into the woods in the direction it came from. Was definitiely a what the hell just happened moment. He thought a tree branch fell on his car. I knew differently, and he had a cracked taillight and hoof scrape to prove it!

Oh this brings back the memories. I hit a doe coming home from work with my '73 Pinto wagon. I had almost gotten stopped when I hit her left hip. Bent the door & fender & I couldn't get the drivers door open. Had to crawl over the console & out the passenger door. Doe ran away unhurt. Not so with the Pinto. Insurance paid most of the cost. Later my oldest daughter married the body shop owner that fixed the Pinto. They just celebrated 31 years of marriage. I gave the Pinto to my girl & she drove over 150,000 miles before it quit.Don't know if there is a moral to this story but hitting a deer & not eating it really happens.

A friend of mine was tipsy, then hit a deer and thought it was dead, so put it in his car.

Deer woke up.

Hilarity ensued.

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Soli Deo Gloria

A local deputy a couple years ago hit a deer while on a signal 10 run, red/blue lights flashing and sirens blaring.

The collision occured in a straight streach of a local 4 lane highway early in the morning. He hit the deer head on, it flew up in the air over the light bar and crashed through the back window dead as a hammer.

It was a weird looking sight because the deers head was in the rear seat with the body streaching over the back of the seat and rear legs on the trunk lid.


That would had been one video I would have paid to see, but his commission was not video equipped.

The Penny Hospital is still there, well at least is was a year and a half ago. My Dad lives in the area we're discussing and I should be visiting him next month, he is more between Tomahawk and Rhinelander. I imagine we'll swing by the giant penny as I'm sure we'll swing up through Woodruff and Minocqua at least once.

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Non illegitimae carborundum

Sadly in Texas last year a car hit a deer and the deer then bounced off into the air and into the windshield of the oncoming car and killed the driver. Everyone stopped and a nurse was driving the car that the deer hit first. There was nothing anyone could do to save the drivers life.
My wife had a buck run in front of her car and she hit is right where the license plate sits. Deer goes over the car, jumps back up and blasts off again!! $5,000 later the car is outa the shop.

I almost got one, and still remember it. This was about 1960, and I was driving a 1956 VW, with 36 thundering HP. I was comming home late one night between Christmas and New Years. There was a long curve and then an uphill run of about three miles before my house, so I wanted all the speed I could get or I would be in 1st gear before I reached home. The curve was slippery with snow and ice. As my lights swept around the curve I saw a giant buck standing by the side of the road. He had been feeding in an old apple orchard. I was already committed to the curve, and was going fast enough that I couldn't maneuver much. VWs were squirrely at speed, particularly when it's slippery. He looked at me and I looked at him. I remember thinking: "Boy, it's up to you as I'm committed to the curve". Fortunately he saw that discretion was the better part of valor and slowly turned and walked over the wall to the fallen apples as I whizzed by. If he had tried to cross the road, I'd have had him in my lap at 60 MPH. It would have hurt, as you sit without much in front of you in a VW.

I was in the passenger side of a P.U in South Texas at about 09:00 P.M. one November night on a country highway. In front of us was another vehicle about two car lengths.

A very nice, large buck ran from the left side of the road. Missed and stopped as the first car passed and then chose to dash between us and the first auto. I know we missed his hind end with our right-front by less than a foot. The doe behind him was more patient, she just stood in the road and waited until both vehicles passed and traveled across.

I can still hear her telling the buck..."you dipstick..."

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Have guns...will shoot'em.

One thing my dad taught me, which turned out to be invariably true, is
that if you see a deer that's trying to get from one side the road to the other,
no matter if it turns back for a second, it will cross. It's just a matter of when.

He told me this decades ago and since that time, whenever the situation
comes up, I watch, even after I've passed the deer to see what it does.
His advice was spot on since, many times, even after I've seen them turn
back because I was coming, they do turn around and cross the road.

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Ogy

Corolla and a Le Sabre....? I'd choose vehicles the deer don't dislike so much. Can't blame them for stomping your choice of vehicles.....:-) Glad you are OK. The last deer/car incident I was involved in included a late 60's Dodge car. The deer didn't do so well. The headlight bulb(inside element) broke and the chrome trim popped loose. I pulled the hair out of the trim and popped it back into place. Took ten minutes to replace the headlight and it was done. Nothing like thick heavy steel in a car...... I actually had a near miss with a moose on my way to Soldotna, AK about six or seven years ago. It was dark around 10 pm and I was doing around 70mph just south of Summit Lake lodge. A 1200-1300lb cow moose stepped out of the ditch on the right and took up the lane I was in. I just started to swerve to the left and I remembered an old-timer from Alaska telling me to NEVER try to beat a moose across the road. In milliseconds this was going through my mind, I jerked the wheel right and missed her by about a foot. My lab, Hoss, had his front paws on the center console and was deafening my right ear with his apparent dislike for the moose. In a mile or so, I pulled over and took a comfort stop and got the heart back to normal. The next 90 miles were a very comfortable 55mph with the brights on. I was in a '92 Chevy Cavalier (very low car). The moose would have either caved in the roof or went over the car. Either way, I'm thankful for the advice from the old-timer.

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Go big or stay home

Hi:
Did you process a valid Hunting License?
If not did the deputy cite you for killing deer without a License ?
Jimmy

I heard a story on NPR about two deer who were standing beside a road discussing the recent demise of a third deer that had gotten hit on the road by a vehicle. The two deer were arguing over whether it was the vehicle's horn or the headlights that had killed their buddy.

I would have posted this photo when I posted the above but
never thought I would find it in the stacks of photo albums.

Here is a prime example of what my dad told me.

Our oldest son, Travis, & I were on our way back from a spring canoe
trip in Minnesota when we saw a deer come from the left side of the
road, start to cross, then stop right smack in the middle of the road.

Travis, who was about 12 at the time, grabbed the camera & I slowed
down, even though the deer was still down the road a ways.

When the deer made it to the center line, it turned, looked our way,
then headed back the way it had came. When it got almost off the
left-side shoulder Travis lowered the camera & I started to accelerate,
even though, in my mind, I was thinking what my dad had told me.

Then, like the deer was on a tightly wound spring, it spun
around and crossed the road, just like it had planned.

I hit the brakes and Travis swung the camera up. This all took just a couple of
seconds and when it was done, I turned to Travis and asked "Did you get that?"
he said, I don't know, I think so, I just clicked the camera on the way up.

I was probably going about 50 when the deer made it's move.

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Ogy

Aloha,

I loved reading all your deer stories.

While we do have Axis deer in Hawaii, I don't hear much about deer/car traffic crashes.

Years ago a horse got loose and was hit by a Honda. The news photos showed the Entire horse INside the Honda.

The Wife is From Minnesota, her and her friends have told me a lot about deer and what they can do.

Since my main vehicle is a motorcycle, I hope I never hit a deer.

A month or so ago, I had one run into the road and jump over the car that was maybe 100 feet in front of me.

Living in Minnesota as I do, and riding a lot in Wisconsin, I count myself lucky I have not yet hit a deer on my motorcycle. They are like rats around here, and should be subject to a bounty rather than a hunting season. None of my close friends has been killed by a deer, but several have been badly injured.

I did clip one with my school bus a couple of weeks ago. No damage to the bus; he left a little hair behind and ran into the woods.

On one of the roads on the way back to Atlanta from my cousin's farm, there is a spot where your headlights shine across a pasture before you go into a curve. I had been deer hunting at my cousin's and was on my way home. As I approached the area, in the beam of my lights I saw a doe coming across the pasture and doing a little geometry in my head, I concluded that the doe and I would intersect at a point in the roadway. I tapped my brakes so that she would get to that point before I did but the doe must have done the same calculations as me and she slowed down also. I had also moved over to the center of the road and, as I feared, we arrived at the same point at the same time. However, having moved over, she had room to whirl and run down the side of the road right beside my truck. I mean I was literally looking out the passenger side window at her for about five seconds before I slammed on brakes allowing her to pull ahead and cross the road. In all seriousness, if someone had been in the passenger seat, they could have reached out and grabbed her around the neck.

My wife hit one in Brunswick, GA but she had seen it coming, slammed on brakes and just bumped it with her Saturn. She said it skidded down the road into a ditch, jumped up and was showing the white flag. No damage to the front of the Saturn except for some hair needing to be washed off.


CW

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