Hunting Forum

Uncle Johnny,

I had a similar situation (but with different resutls unfortunately). I was on my way to my stand to go bowhunting one morning a few years ago. It was still dark. I drove over a hill and saw flashing lights at the bottom of the hill. A lady in a mini-van had hit a 6 point buck. It had smashed in the radiator of her van so that it was not drivable. She was parked on the shoulder, and the buck was sitting in the middle of the road, still alive. I checked out the situation, and the buck 's legs were pretty busted up. He was not able to stand... as hard as he tried. I let the lady use my cell phone to call her husband to come get her, while I took my Buck knife and put the deer out of its misery by slitting its throat and drug it out of the road. I hated doing that, but it was suffering and was not going to survive anyway. I figured I had better get it off of the road to keep someone else from hitting it.

did you call dnr? if so, regardless of the season being in or not, they typically issue you a salvage tag, could have at least had some tenderloin and fish out of the deal. glad everyone was ok though

Depends on state I know California does not and pretty sure I was told Idaho doesn't either. In Cali the logic was that you pulled it off the road and it was rcycled ba k into the enviroment via critters, Idaho I haven't discussed it with fish and game yet so don't know the logic but would guess the same (waste of meat my opinion), but in Iowa and Kansas, where I grew up, they had salvage tags.

don't think NY does

SC, load it up, take it home and process it. We don't even have to contact the Hwy. Patrol any longer, Insurance companies will just take your word and send an adjuster out if there is damage to the vehicle. What you do with the deer is your business.

In Iowa you can call either the DNR, the police, or the sheriff, and they will issue you a salvage tag for a car-hit deer. I considered doing just that on that morning and at least salvaging the backstraps. But I had seen a really big buck in the woods and I was itching to get to my stand with my bow. And, of course, I never saw him that day...

SCALVIN,
Yeah NY does issue salvage tags. I had a good buddy of mine hit one a couple of weeks ago and they tagged it so he could take it home. I helped cut it up and man was it gross. all we ended up getting out of it was 1 hind quarter. It was pretty much a full body hit and the insides were all busted up.

well, there's what I learned today! Thanks! I've never hit one with a vehicle but it sounds like if you're goin' bumper hunting it's best to go for a head 'shot' ;-)

I have come up on alot of deer hit buy cars and trucks on the road and ,I will not let the deer suffer or any other animal that is not right ,I was tought to not let any animal suffer if it is dieing slow just put it down nomatter what anybody else says about it,I even had a CHP officer tell he would keep everybody back if ,I would just shoot the animal and ,I told him noproblem and the fish a game told me the same so dont ever fell bad about having to do that ..I do know that some people dont like it but ,I allways tell them that it there dog was bitten by a snake and you didnt put the dog down you were an{1}******* because you as much as killed the dog with your own hands before it was bitten by the snake..

had the same kind of thing happen to me just this Fri. but with a duck that had been shot in the wing and leg here in Texas. me and my brother in law was just out driving and almost hit it. we stopped and caught it brought it home cleaned it up and called the game warden. but he never came and got it. so yesterday morning we took it to a pond close by. it is hurt and cant fly but other then that its fine and will survive. but it would have been hit and killed if we hadn't stopped. there were fences on both sides of the road. and it couldn't walk very well before we cared for it that night.

[sure are]

I hunt because I enjoy the hunt, not because I hate deer and want them to suffer. I'd try and help a deer off the road just like I would a dog, or a turtle.

I was in college once driving through south Alabama in the middle of the night to visit family for the holidays when a doe sprinted in front of my sedan. I nailed the brakes as hard as I could but still clipped her pretty hard on the back end. It slung her off into a field. I turned around and pointed my headlights out there and saw her sitting up but unable to stand. I wasn't a hunter at that time in my life, and it was 1:00 am in the middle of nowhere, so there wasn't much I could do, but I did have a concealed weapons license, so I took my pistol and walked out into the field toward her. She tried to stand but both back legs were broken. I put one round just below her ear and drug her into the open where the buzzards could at least have a meal. I felt bad about it but didn't know what else to do. The front end of my car was pretty banged up with the headlight dangling from it's socket, but still worked. I put it back in place and taped it in, and drove on.

Do what you can in the case of a deer, just be careful if you have to shoot one at night. DNR officers don't care what the circumstances are when they can make a case for shining or night hunting! BTW, run over every damn turtle and armadillo that you can.

Turtles are tough little suckers RT. A long time ago in my crazier years, I was out with a friend of mine. We had had a few beers and probably shouldn't have been on the road but.... We were in his 396 Chevelle on a rather out of the way blacktop road.

There was a turtle in the middle of the road and he decided to run over it... He did, both the front and back wheel. Turtle was fine. So he decides it may be fun to put the back tire on the turtle and launch. So I'm outta the car and get his back wheel on the turtle. I get out of the way an he dumps the clutch. All I heard was "Twaaaaaaaaaaangggggggg" I turned and looked and here the turtle is sticking in the grill of a Chevy that had been coming down the road and neither of us noticed. Well, he gave the lady his information, we pulled the turtle out of the grill, put it on the side of the road and that SOB was just fine. Probably wasn't funny, but at the time, we both pretty much lost it when we left. I can still hear that sound... ;-)

We used to try to spin them on the road, it was about 50/50 sometimes they would spin and other times well.... they would just get wider, probably depended on how early in the day it was and how many refreshments consumed
of coarse this took place in the bulletproof days of my youth, the older I got, I ain't gonna say I got smarter, but got a little more sensible lol.

I've never experienced anything like that with turtles. I did run over a 'gator once with a '66 Ford F100. I drug the brakes and could feel it bouncing under the bed of the truck as I slammed on the brakes and skidded to a stop. When I jumped out with the .22 rifle and plans for some fresh 'gator tail, I was astonished to find that the 'gator had completely disappeared and couldn't be found anywhere on or near the road! Total disappointment!!!!!!!!!!!!!!