Man! Okay, so I work the night shift now, and we have just recently accumulated about 3 inches or so of snow. On the way back home, I will hit county road and the plow stops at the city line until the city is done, then they will do county. So me and the wife are cruising down the road, I'm doing speed limit(35). Stupid me took it out of 4wd when I shoulda left it in...

 

...and then 2 deer jump out in front of me! Alright, what to do? Do I keep going and hit one, or do I try and maneuver out of the way to avoid them? Ahh, I will rev the truck a little and scare them out of the way! HA! Yea, woulda worked in 4wd, not 2wd!

 

So it began, we do the sideways thing, and yea, literally going down the road sideways. I've done and been in alot of these sort of things so I remember the first thing to do it not panic. Okay, but now my precious moments are pre-occupied in telling myself not to panic! In this case, hitting the braked a little did help my situation. I turn the wheel a little to try and regain orientation and with all the momentum, I end up going sideways the other way!

 

Okay, well I'm slowing down a little now, except I turn and nothing happens. Alright, so this one is going to be outta my control... I just keep watching where I will end up and luckily my estimation was wrong. I've got a ditch on both sides and a driveway coming up with a data box sticking up. Wife is grabbing the OSH bracing trying not to scream her head off!

 

Friction finally wins and we end up almost in this persons driveway but not in the ditch!

 

Needless to say, it woke me back up! I guess I should just kept going and hit them. Although, the truck is not damaged, so maybe it worked out for the better!

 

I did leave skid marks in the snow in the shape of braided hair atleast. Can't say I'm not artistic!

Edited January 30, 201411 yr by hex0rz

The whistles came and went around here in the late 80's to mid 90's until everyone figured out they were a gimmick, do not see them anywhere but a few "marts" stores anymore. I used to see many vehicle / deer collisions even with them on the vehicles. I saw some news articles and insurance studies come out years ago saying they were useless as well.

I prefer my ranch hand bumpers, slow up center the dear and let them bounce off, I have nailed about 8 deer over the years with my ranch hands and the only thing I get is crap splattered on my rig and some hair in the front receiver a few times.

The key is to make sure and hit them dead center and never hit one with the corner, they will spin around at that point and take out a fender and door, ask me how I know.  That happened about 15 years ago before I started with the ranch hands.

 

If they are coming from the ditch and I know that I won't miss them I will intentionally swerve at them to get them dead center to make sure I don't spin them into my side. Its pretty bad that I have figured out how to hit them with my ranch hand since we have so dang many of them around here.

 

I have had suicidal deer jump out of the ditch and actually run into the side of my rigs 2 times over the years, got lucky and didn't have any damage other than some scratches and one little ding in the lower front panel of my box that popped out from the inside and left no creases, got really lucky there.

Edited February 1, 201411 yr by Wild and Free

 

Ha, now what to do about them pesky elk and moose! I've seen semi-trucks totaled from them!

I said deer. Even insurance companies say to hit the animal and not swerve no matter what due to the fact that you may loose control and cross the center line and injure or cause the death of another person OR go off the road and hit a tree, culvert, rocks, etc. An animal will almost always do less damage due to the fact it is mobile and will absorb some of the impact. It may total a semi, but how much worse is it roll a truck, spill the load, and possibly cause additional crashes just to keep from hitting a wild animal?

 

 

 

I know about the deer whistles and for the longest time have always been told they do not work. Besides, how many deer are really in FL?

 

We have more than plenty... The road I live down you are bound to see 3-5 a week easy.. There was one killed the other morning and if I wouldn't have been headed to teach a class I would have thrown it in the truck for my dogs...

I said deer. Even insurance companies say to hit the animal and not swerve no matter what due to the fact that you may loose control and cross the center line and injure or cause the death of another person OR go off the road and hit a tree, culvert, rocks, etc. An animal will almost always do less damage due to the fact it is mobile and will absorb some of the impact. It may total a semi, but how much worse is it roll a truck, spill the load, and possibly cause additional crashes just to keep from hitting a wild animal?

Yea, I know you said deer... But like I said, I wonder what once could do about the larger critters.

 

We have more than plenty... The road I live down you are bound to see 3-5 a week easy.. There was one killed the other morning and if I wouldn't have been headed to teach a class I would have thrown it in the truck for my dogs...

 

Teach? What do you teach, btw? Now, down there, what type of deer do you have? Cause I've seen deer in the south on TV shows and they look like large dogs.

I was at a primitive encampment...  historic house is now just off a main road.  A deer got hit, car got towed, Police called it in to DEM who assigned a volunteer to come pick it up.  We knew the guy who showed up & invited him into camp for venison stew.  The least we could do after wasting his trip...  venison was already cut up & in the pot!