Sunday night driving home from fishing the Detroit lakes MN area at 11pm my wife yells out deer!!!!, 2 deer walked onto the hiway whille i was on cruise controll doing 65. The first deer walked onto the middle of the hiway, I was in the slow lane and the 2nd deer walked into the center of the slow lane.

I had to lock up the brakes and the old 2004 honda civic screeched all the while i was laying on the horn, first time ever i had to lock up the brakes to where i am laying a patch of rubber. I remember looking eyeball to eyeball with the deer as i came to a stop, he then did a 180 to walk back into the ditch.

   

I have hit one in my life.  It was a decent 8 point buck ON MY WAY to the deer stand during hunting season in the truck early one morning.  Sit there for days on end without so much as a visual and then smash one with a truck en route.

 

How's that for irony.

Brake check, "GOOD". 

@gim I hit a large buck doing 60 on my way home from deer hunting. $5500 damage to the truck, and that rascal jumped up and ran away. I was P'd that I didn't even get to eat him after he wrecked my truck. 😂

The one I hit definitely didn't survive.  Another car hit it shortly after I did and the thing was basically severed in half.  The sheriff asked both of us if we were interested in keeping it and the answers were an emphatic "no."

 

Wouldn't bother me if I never hit one again.

I live in a suburban community built right in the middle of the woods, so we have deer everywhere. Driving through the neighborhood you can spot them at any time of day. I’ve never hit one but even at 25mph I’ve had some close calls when they just dart across the road without warning. 

That buck probably died from the impact, just not right there. At work we have steel deer guards on our oil transports. I don't even brake for 'em in that thing. 40 tons at highway speed pops 'em like a grape. 

I had a deer hit my car last winter.  I didn't hit the deer, it ran into my window.  Dumb dumb animals.  

2 hours ago, T-Billy said:

At work we have steel deer guards on our oil transports. I don't even brake for 'em in that thing. 40 tons at highway speed pops 'em like a grape. 

Extremely vivid, thanks 😂

Glad you missed him. I've hit 1 and dented my front end and hood up and busted my radiator. I also have had one run into the side of my car and put a dent in it.

5 hours ago, T-Billy said:

At work we have steel deer guards on our oil transports. I don't even brake for 'em in that thing. 40 tons at highway speed pops 'em like a grape

Many moons ago when I did construction I was unloading a load of lumber from Canada. I mentioned to the trucker that I’ve seen cow catchers before but your’s takes the cake. He said, “that there is a moose molester.” 😂

In my part of the country it’s a definite problem.  My daughter went to a private school in the Blue Ridge mountains for high school and when she got old enough to drive I told her to NEVER swerve or brake for wildlife if above 45mph.  She drove my jeep wrangler and the chances of losing control or god forbid, a rollover were much increased.  Especially since she was traveling at dawn or dusk.  The amount of wildlife that jeep hit was impressive.  Just about every ground critter you can imagine including a bear.  She avoided her fair share as well but my shop wanted to make small outline decals of the animals and put them on the hood like the old fighter jets.  

We have them in our sub-division.  One morning, on my way to work, I saw some over in the grade school parking lot, and the stupid things ran toward me across the school yard, and up into the street.  I had to swerve and hit the brakes to avoid them. 

If you have the time to hit it, blowing the horn usually gets 'em moving.

I remember about 20 years ago some company was selling deer deterent devices which you stuck on your bumper, it was supposed to make a noise that scared the deer off the road.

2 hours ago, throttleplate said:

I remember about 20 years ago some company was selling deer deterent devices which you stuck on your bumper, it was supposed to make a noise that scared the deer off the road.

They're somewhat effective. My wife still uses them. IME the deer tend to stop and look at your vehicle. Less chance deer on the shoulder will bolt out in front of you, but doesn't help with deer that are already in the road, or on the run.

When guiding, I had about an hour drive to the lake and I always wanted to be launched and tied off to the dock when clients arrived so I was routinely traveling early pre dawn.  Saw lots of deer and only had 2 instances where I was in conflict.  Once one came from the shoulder and ran into the side of my truck bouncing off the boat.  The second was when I crested a hill and there was a herd right in the middle of the backroads highway. I swerved hard, missed them all and when I looked in my rear view mirror, my boat trailer was up on two wheels.  Luckily it didn’t pass center mass and continue over.  It fell back on its wheels.  We did have a deer bolt out of the shoulder coming back from St Clair one year and it went between the truck and boat, over the windshield and hit the motor cowling cracking it pretty good.  That was an insurance claim.  

Not deer related... but my son and I were coming back from a hike in the Flat Tops in CO several years ago. Doing about 40 on a forest road, it was dusk. About a dozen elk materialized at the forest edge and started to cross the road. My son slammed on the brakes in his Civic and we stopped about 5-10 feet from them. Elk are big!!!!!

Back in my EMS days, had one run into the ambulance while we were running lights and  sirens! Bailed off a hill and hit us right in the driver's rear wheel. Blood everywhere and hair stuck under the trim. I didn't even slow down ....

I hit a nice buck last fall doing 70. He kept on going but I’m sure he died later. 6300 worth of damage to my truck. Most of it was to the passenger side doors because he rolled down the side of the truck.

My wife, 2 daughters and myself have all hit deer on the mountain road leading to the house.......it sucks.

My cousin hit a big 8 pointer in his Chevy one evening. It was a low sedan (can’t remember the model, I think a citation). Deer slid up in the hood, all 4 legs broken, crashed through the windshield and snapped its neck. My cousin drove home with it still on the hood. 

Buddy was driving University owned K-Car to a conference in Wisconsin in the mid 1990's. He was behind a semi that smoked a large buck. Fell right in front of that car...nothing they could do but grab the wheel and hold on.

 

It was reportedly a "Dukes-of-Hazzard" type moment...I wasn't there, but everyone in the car swore they got all four tires off the ground(!)

 

Managed to save it...drove to the conference, then 8 hours back to Missouri. d**n tough little k-car.

 

I believe it got totaled out.

 

Good story though...

On 6/17/2025 at 8:46 AM, gim said:

I have hit one in my life.  It was a decent 8 point buck ON MY WAY to the deer stand during hunting season in the truck early one morning.  Sit there for days on end without so much as a visual and then smash one with a truck en route.

 

How's that for irony.

I had a big 8 pointer run into the side of my 1990 Ford Ranger, with a 4 pointer in the bed. Never saw it. Thought I ran over something. Lady in front of me was in an Explorer. She U-turned and I followed. When we stopped, I asked if something fell off her vehicle. She asked if I saw a huge 8 pointer. I found a long trail of deer snot running down the left side of the bed and my left tail light busted. He ran off. No blood so likely fine. 
 

Better than that. Wife leaves early Sunday morning for work. Two minutes later she calls and says she hit a deer. Get there and it looked like a small deer went right under the front of her Mazda CX-5 and came out the back and ran off. Found some hair and blood, and cracked fascia in front. Nothing serious, but she asked me to drive her to work and wanted the SUV checked out at the shop  on Monday. Park the SUV in the garage, open a claim with insurance company, and take my wife to work in my Mazda 6. Driving back home on northbound I-95, two exits away from home, I see a large doe run across 4 lanes of southbound 95, jumps the Jersey wall and keeps going. It looked like one of those old WWII movies where a sub fires a torpedo and the ship sails right into the torpedo and Boom! I was doing 70 and surrounded by vehicles and stopping would have caused a major wreck. It hit the left front and somersaulted in the air two lanes over. Whole front of my car was wrecked. Made it two miles home and called insurance company. They asked if I was inquiring about the earlier claim. No…this is another claim. Two deer collisions in two hours.