Heading home from work tonight, got real close to home and doing speed limit at 45. Crested a hill and deer on side of road. It looked to turn around and go back. I speed up instead of braking and it decided to run out in front instead! Nailed a doe in the rearward area. Hit her with drivers side bumper area. Took out valence, black trim on bumper and marker light. Driver side tire locked up and I skid to a stop. Put a flat spot on tire too. Ugh...

 

Got out to assess the damage. Deer, dead. But she's PREGNANT. baby kicking in the womb. Wife freaking out. So I do the unthinkable. Drug the deer to the shoulder, cut her open and pulled the fawn out. Umbilical cord was severed and was not in the placenta. 

 

Did CPR for probably 30 min. Working on getting fluid out of the lungs by sticking fingers in mouth and hanging by the hinds. Compressions were difficult. I really thought I felt a heart beat at some points. Did breathes and got fluid out of lungs but still no response. I wore myself out on that poor little thing and dunno if I could have done any better or more. 

 

Really sucks to have not been able to get it resuscitated. I keep wondering to myself if it would of even had a chance in the first place. 

 

If the cord was severed and not even in the placenta, it seems like the truck did a fatal hit to the fawn.

 

Needless to say, I never thought I was actually ever going to give a deer or fawn for that matter cpr. Not to mention the first time I've ever had to put any of my training into action would be a deer!

 

What a screwed night... guess this reinforces the need for a better bumper now. 

Holy Crap!!  That is a story and an half.  It sucks to see animals die unnecessarily.  If the fawn wasn't developed enough for birth, there wouldn't have been anything that you could have done.  I respect your willingness to try to help.

 

How about some pictures of the truck?

I've noticed more deer lately on the roads. Been going slower than the speed limit since I saw a couple in a small car try to avoid hitting a buck and doe and they ended on the side of the car in a deep roadside ditch. They were lucky.

 

Those deer will walk one way as if they are going off the road as you approach, a lot of them do, but the others suddenly turn and go right in front of you in a panic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6 minutes ago, JAG1 said:

 

 

Edited June 23, 20168 yr by JAG1

Be thankful it didn't end like this where the deer make a leap. Bumper is great for the road height stuff but if it leaps up your screwed.

 

A matter of fact I had to take a friend home last night at 9pm. He was looking at me why I travel so slow heading to Riggins, ID. I know where the deer hang out and where it common to bolt across the road.

Edited June 23, 20168 yr by Mopar1973Man

The main thing is that you and your family made it out unscathed. Commendable of you to go through the efforts you did, and if I were you I'd be able to sleep easy at night knowing yiu did everything you could.

 

Hope the truck has a speedy repair as well! 

Edited June 23, 20168 yr by notlimah

I think the fawn was developed enough to make it. The does are dropping fawns right now. Matter of fact, Tuesday, on the way to work a doe crossed the road and traffic was still stopped. Out comes the little one and you could tell it was it's first time crossing. Tip toeing across. Very cute to watch. 

 

On the way home, once I turn off the highway, it's all risky. Deer everywhere always. This one got me by surprise. I do worry some about getting them through the windshield, but what can you do...

 

The plan consists of a new bumper and a 55 inch curved led light on top of the cab to see further out when in the rural area. 

I just helped a guy load his Dodge truck up on a trailer today on my way home from McCall, ID... He hit a Elk and destroyed the nose of the truck. He had a grill guard but it didn't do very much for guarding the grill. The radiator was crushed into the fan. Fender on the driver side was crush pretty good to. You can see the tow hook actually entered the elk because there was plenty of bodily fluids on the hook. You need a pretty heavy duty bumper to prevent a deer or elk from doing damage.

Like how heavy duty?

I always wanted to ask..... do those deer whistles do any good? Someone said they scare the deer into jumping in front of you so they aren't much benefit.

http://www.deeranddeerhunting.com/articles/how-effective-are-deer-whistles

 

This should help. 

Final quote from the article posted above and has been tested and confirmed by most in my area in the mid to late 80's already, very old news, waste of money.

 

Conclusions
Given their research experience, the Georgia-based researchers concluded the following: “Considering the challenges of producing sound at appropriate intensities and distances from a moving vehicle, deer hearing capabilities, human safety concerns, and our observed lack of behavioral responses of deer to sound treatments, auditory deterrents do not appear to be appropriate for prevention of deer-vehicle collisions.”

Deer whistles are just another cool aid kinda like trusting hot air Hillary .

First bug that hits the deer whistle will plug it up and stop working.

pic of my deer deterent system.

I hit a deer about a year ago and my truck looked a lot like HexOrz. not a lot of damage,mostly plastic crap but still an inconvenience. that's when I decided to go with the Ranch Hand with winch mount. If it saves me from having to pay the insurance detectable, it pays for itself I know its not a cure all for everything but its a good feeling knowing you have something mounted on the front of your truck that says I want to protect it the best I can.

I hope I never have to try it out, especially on an elk or moose but if it does happen its better than having nothing thier at all.

a good set of led lights aimed at the shoulder is a good Idea since most of the time them critters like to come out and hit you on the blind side.

I like those kinds of bumpers for protection but in the same token I hate them too. Being I work on trucks all the time darn ranch hand bumpers like that are PITA.  You are now farther from the vehicle/engine can't reach anything. End up laying across the bumper and radiator support. They can be a killer on the body laying across this mess. The other thing I see is most that own grill guards or ranch hand bumpers tend to hit animal more often and the bumper is alway tweaked to the point that the hood/grill rubs as you open the hood and/or you fight to push the grill back carefully to now close the hood. So its more of the thought most have I've got a beefy bumper I can drive as fast as I want and bounce deer off now still I'm the one dealing with the tweaked bumpers and trying to get hoods open. Kind of like the guy yesterday he had a grill guard as well and was driving way too fast for the time knowing there is deer and elk out in the evening hours. The people that don't have then drive more cautious and to this day have not hit deer and if so were driving slow enough no to do damage. I've kind of want one but I know how heavy they are and they add a lot more weight to a front axle that is already in the 4,400 to 4,500 pound range already. Lot of things to consider....

Edited June 24, 20168 yr by Mopar1973Man

3 ranch hands on 3 different Dodge rams and have smoked countless deer at varying speed with zero tweaks to anything. On my end I love them for service work because I can sit on it with my feet between the grill and coolers and work on things over the front versus kneeling on the bumper and laying across the radiator.

Key is knowing if you can't avoid hitting a deer I make dam sure to center them up best I can so as to never if possible take one from the corner. I have been very lucky so far and nothing but fur hanging off them when I get home.

I was in a similar situation years ago. Hit a doe and when I got out to investigate there were two very underdeveloped fawns kicking around in the dirt. I made the decision to put them out of their misery. 

I have to agree with W&F on service work. even though it was a concern at first. Now I think it's more convenient, it's like having a cat walk on front or just an easy step into the engine bay if needed. But their is a lot of different styles out thier so all may not be as convenient

10 minutes ago, 01cummins4ever said:

I have to agree with W&F on service work. even though it was a concern at first. Now I think it's more convenient, it's like having a cat walk on front or just an easy step into the engine bay if needed. But their is a lot of different styles out thier so all may not be as convenient

I agree with that one too. I was talking full ranch hand only on my own rigs but yeah looking at some of the bull bar styles would be a total pain in the butt.

29 minutes ago, Wild and Free said:

I agree with that one too. I was talking full ranch hand only on my own rigs but yeah looking at some of the bull bar styles would be a total pain in the butt.

 

I work on all kinds of truck with different types bumpers and grill guards most without the little area like you talk about.

I know the bumper will be a false sense of security to a point. But it sure beats the oem bumper... I was concerned that hitting her head on would have been worse than a somewhat glancing blow. She slid just as far as I did down the road. There is a nice skid mark from my tire on the road now and passing it up last night from work was quite impressive to see how long it was. No wonder I have a flat spot on my tire now. When I locked up I thought she got wedged in my tire area, she may very have though as I had hair on the tire even. 

 

I'm not concerned much about the bumper and people working on it. The only cussing about it will be me, so I know I'll get one that will still allow me to do what I need to do. 

 

This is what I plan on getting installed on the truck for lighting: