Ran over a deer last night...

[XJ Dreamin']

...with the wife's Grand Caravan. Fortunately, the deer was already dead :laugh3: . Still, that van has like 3" of ground clearance - I wasn't at all sure it wouldn't rip something out, or puncture a pan.

It was about 8:00pm. We were rolling about 50mph. I turned my head to yell at the boys to CUT IT OUT BACK THERE!. I turned my eyes back front and there's a fat ol' doe lying smack in the middle of my lane. Left or right? was my first thought, but there wasn't time. I didn't want a wheel to hit that thing. It would have ripped the hub assymbly right off. So, we rode over it. Turns out, a couple of skid plates rode the engine/transaxle right over the carcass. It bounced up and hit the gas tank but did no damage: just a smear with some hear stuck to it. It went under the rear axle with no problem. Thank God somebody else had got there before us. I don't know how they faired, but I appreciate them knocking it down for me. Of course, I had to tell the wife, "If we had been in the Jeep, we wouldn't have even noticed it." She just gave me that look :laugh3:

Sorry - no pics

[RTicUL8]

Pictures, did you say?


Here's you:http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/html/avatars/buckwheat-scared.jpg

Here's what you REALLY ran over:http://toadstool.se/photos/2003/.300x225/map/02/23-Cary,NC-Dead_Squirrel/07-Ends_with_a_squirrel_on_the_ground.JPG



.

[MyJeepXJ]

Or maybe this??

http://danielservice.com/myimages/FreeCat.jpg

[8Mud]

Here in Germany they recently outlawed metal grill guards, because they said they were a danger to pedestrians. They also closed some counties to hunting, because the animal rights people have a vision.
http://tinypic.com/fun96p.jpg

Is this stuff nuts, or is it just me?
If they made the people liable, who wrote and passed some of these questionable laws and ordnances, there would be fewer of them.

[RichP]

I had a buck run out in front of me couple months ago at 60+mph and I KNEW I was gonna hit him, trucks coming the other lane so I just gritted my teeth and lo and behold he tried to turn around and get back in the woods. Hooves have NO traction on asphault so down he went, ran over him with both passenger side wheels and got the jeep off the ground on the passengers side for what seemed like a mile but in reality was 100ft till it came back down. Guy behind me in the small chevy cavalier did not fair so well, guess my auburn kicked the deer up and dropped it on the %$###$$ tailgaters hood....I kept going and did the service call, server reboot, when I passed the spot where it happened 20 min later the tow truck driver was just dropping the flatbed back in the horizontal position and the driver of the chevy stared at me gave me really dirty looks as I drove by going back home. Grill, hood and windshield were trashed on his, no damage on mine. I know I was very lucky... I guess I also lost a potential future customer cause he was not writing down my phone number from my magnetic signs :D

[8Mud]

Almost every morning at 3 AM or so, I go out and do my patrol. Check the highway for dead or wounded animals. Pick up the daily, fulfilled deer tag forms and patrol a pretty good chunk of highway, woods and farms.
Some of it is luck, some is a sixth sense, knock on wood, I've never hit a Deer.
But I do two or three accident reports in a slow week. Just on one section of highway about 8 miles long.

[0313]

Here in Germany they recently outlawed metal grill guards, because they said they were a danger to pedestrians.


You would think the car that hits them would be the danger.


I could be wrong though.

[8Mud]

It was a crusade over here a few years back. A kid got hit and killed by a Mercedes Gelandewagon and the fathers lawyer argues he would have lived if it wasn't for the grill guard.
I remember them doing an interview with the father on TV (in front of his house at the accident scene) and watched half a dozen big trucks drive past his house, while they were filming.
If you notice, most of the imported (and some domestic) 4X's now have rubber padding on the grill guards or some actually have break away grill guards.
Personally I'd be happy with any grill guard, designed to flip a Deer over the roof, rather than through the windshield.
In the states you don't have much of a wild pig problem, here they get big enough to flip your car over. Kind of like hitting a short cow.
I hit one small pig, about 30-40 pounds, sounded like I ran over a big basket ball. All four wheels were off the ground for guit a ways. I'm thankful I'd done enough off roading to learn not to turn the wheel, while it's in the air.
The only damage it did was to smash my muffler and tear out a parking brake cable.

[XJ Dreamin']

Or maybe this??

http://danielservice.com/myimages/FreeCat.jpg

I've seen another version of this picture somewhere. Now, where was that? There's suposed to be a second sign with another free product :laugh3:

[8Mud]

Maybe it's the hillbilly in me, but I'm usually happy to see fresh road kill. If it isn't torn up to bad or stiff as a board, I butcher it and stick it in the freezer. :laugh3: Game animals that is, I found a Pheasant this morning that somebody had hit, it was still flopping around on the side of the road. Guess what diner is tomorrow. Wild Rice and Pheasant with Galleono marinade.

[XJ Dreamin']

Here in Germany they recently outlawed metal grill guards, because they said they were a danger to pedestrians. They also closed some counties to hunting, because the animal rights people have a vision.
http://tinypic.com/fun96p.jpg

Is this stuff nuts, or is it just me?
If they made the people liable, who wrote and passed some of these questionable laws and ordnances, there would be fewer of them.

'Roo Gaurd, is what my brother's in-laws call them. Practically a requirement around Perth, according to my Dad after they visited my brother, his family and in-laws- there, a few years back.

In the Boise mountains, at the pass on Hy 21 between Idaho City and Lowman, the mulies come to the road side at sunset to lick the gravel along the shoulder. They don't leave until after sun-up. If you cross the pass while they're around, you're rolling at no more than 35 mph. Honking at them had no effect. I had one doe bound up from the creek bed onto the road, skid right into my drivers door and bounce off back down into the creek. I don't know how she faired. One evening, as I was rolling down the north face, on the Lowman side, a little fawn jumped in front of me. Even at 35, a full sized Blazer rolling down hill is not easy to stop. I jabbed brake and the tires squeaked. I immediately released the brake 'cause the last thing I want to do is skid off the road at night at 5,500'. The fawn jumped out of the way, but the cool thing was - so did everybody else. Where all that horn blowing had no effect on them, a little tire squeak scattered the entire herd. Aha! I said. Horn = who gives a shait. Tire squeal = death. After that, a little jab of the brake always worked to clear the way.

I hit a coyote one morning, west of Crocket, with my Ram Charger. The only damage was that the coyote's head flattened the embossing out of my front license plate. It was mounted to the factory chrome bumper. The coyote did not survive.

edit: Yeesh. Sorry about the typos.

[XJ Dreamin']

Maybe it's the hillbilly in me, but I'm usually happy to see fresh road kill. If it isn't torn up to bad or stiff as a board, I butcher it and stick it in the freezer. :laugh3: Game animals that is, I found a Pheasant this morning that somebody had hit, it was still flopping around on the side of the road. Guess what diner is tomorrow. Wild Rice and Pheasant with Galleono marinade.

Whoa. Almost had a male ringnecked pheasant come through the windshield of a '66 volkswagon beetle once. He came out of a field of corn on my left. His tail feather hit my antenna mounted on the right A-column. A half-second difference and I would have been eating him for lunch :laugh3: :laugh3: :laugh3:

edit: I couldn't type XXXX pheasant, so I had to say "male." Too funny.

[XJ Dreamin']

Pictures, did you say?


Here's you:http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums/html/avatars/buckwheat-scared.jpg

If he's saying, "Oh Crap!" Then, yeah, that was me.

Here's what you REALLY ran over:http://toadstool.se/photos/2003/.300x225/map/02/23-Cary,NC-Dead_Squirrel/07-Ends_with_a_squirrel_on_the_ground.JPG

I don't know. It looked bigger at night...but given the clearance under that van, then yeah, we could've hit that.



.

[8Mud]

I always carry a few big firecrackers, stuck inside of a rolled piece of newspaper, filled with sand and tapped together. When I catch them feeding along side of the road they get a couple of headlight high beam flashes, a toot on the horn, then stung with one of my mini grenades.
Or I pull up next to them, with my hound hanging half out the window, barking his head off.
They start to herd up when it gets cold here, there are most always two or more together.
One thing I've learned, when one runs across the road a ways ahead, don't relax, because there is likely another coming right behind it.