Over at grandviewoutdoors.com, Scott Brown reminds us that “A deer and a moving vehicle do not make good dance partners. Sometimes a collision simply results in a new bumper or scratched hood. But, often they end with injuries and sometimes fatalities.” For evidence, he provides the above video of a deer jumping – OK maybe falling off a highway overpass onto the windshield of a car below. The story has a happy ending. Yes, well, wikipedia tells us . . .

In 2000, of the 6.1 million lightweight motor vehicle collisions reported in the US, 1 million involved animal-vehicle collisions. Deer–vehicle collisions lead to about 200 human deaths and $1.1 billion in property damage every year. State and federal governments, insurance companies, and drivers spend an addition $3 billion in an effort to reduce and manage the increasing number of deer-vehicle collisions.

Two hundred deaths a year from automotive deer strikes and the antis worry about accidental firearms-related deaths amongst children? For contrast, the cheerfully-named childdeathreview.org reports that “In 2000, 174 children (0-18) in the United States died from unintentional firearm-related injuries. A number skewed by the teen thing (think: gang bangers) that’s dropped 89% since 1975.

Meanwhile, the Wiki hive mind reports that 20 to 30 million deer populate North America. The population – and the danger – is growing.

The most important but largely overlooked contributing factor to deer – vehicle collisions is the reduction of populations of top predators. One of the most significant effects of the large predators is the control of populations of large herbivores, such as white tailed deer. It has been estimated that deer populations in Eurasia and North America are six times lower in areas with wolf than in areas without wolf.

Since wolf and puma’s populations have been extirpated or reduced from most of the USA populations of deer have become superabundant. More than 100 lives and millions of dollars in property damage will be saved in the USA alone just by being more tolerant to these animals.

Wolf tolerance is all well and good (except where it isn’t). How about we simply encourage more Americans to shoot deer and harvest the meat?

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52 COMMENTS

    • Corn fed white-tail deer tastes almost the same as beef. The difference is so minor that many people would never realize it if they ate some without knowing it was venison.

      The keys to excellent venison are:
      (1) Cool the meat as quickly as possible and keep it cold until you cook it.
      (2) Trim off all the white stuff (tallow) — it tastes awful.
      (3) Do NOT overcook it.

      If deer have access to corn, alfalfa, and soybeans and you observe the three keys above, you will enjoy fantastic venison with no fat, cholesterol, or hormones.

  2. JUST IN: AP calls Brat winner over Cantor!!!! Thanks to my fellow central Virginians for helping to behead the snake-in-the-grass!!! WHOOOOO!!!!!! 😀

    • Can Brat hold the district for the GOP? Even if he can’t it’s worth it pour encourager les autres.

      • The district has been Republican since 1971 and seems pretty solid. This result sends a powerful message to all RINOs everywhere.

      • That’s real smart. Better to have more gun grabbing Democrats than a less than perfect Republican. Libertarians used to be pro immigration when it was Cubans, Russian Jews and Vietnamese Boat People.

        • Libertarians used to be pro-immigration, circa 1880, when there wasn’t a vast and promiscuously abundant welfare state sitting here waiting for every inbred, illiterate, criminal from abroad to sign up for life and vote Democrat for life.

          But…but…but….we’re a nation of immigrants! We *used* to be that. Now we’re a nation of welfare slobs and takers who vote themselves a living at wealth creators’ expense.

          The proof? Look at everyone’s supposed embrace of so-called “immigration reform”……right up to the moment someone wants to reduce visas to people from war torn, corruption-ridden hellholes, and increase visas to holders of STEM graduate degrees and investment capital. Then they don’t want to talk about immigration reform anymore. Mass importation of a constituency of a dependency class and cheap subsidized manual labor, or nothing. Curious, that.

    • Thread jack, but worth it. Cantor will likely win on write in, like Murkowski, in AK.
      Maybe this will stiffen Boehners spine on Benghazi, IRS, and F&F investigations. Doubt it but we can hope.

      Expect lots more agitprop hit pieces on Tea Party from the looser screws in the progtard media in next few days…

  3. KILL DA WABBIT! KILL DA WABBITT! KILL DA WABBITT!!! (with Ride of the Valkyries in the background)

    Sorry, inner Fudd coming out.

  4. I’ve been perilously close to hitting a deer many times. My ex-wife hit one and got hurt.(not badly). It would have been funny but my son was with her & was shaken up. No Bambi’s-just giant rats.

  5. Here in Illinois we are actually trying to increase the number of deer-vehicle collisions. The collision number is used to estimate the deer population. A recent population reduction effort seems to have been slightly too successful. Collisions are down and last year’s harvest was way down. We are now trying to increase deer numbers in many counties. Success will be measured by the subsequent increase in collisions.

    • More like GMO corn- and soybean-fed free-range venison. Doesn’t bother me though– they’re still running around and eating the grass like you said. Just had venison steaks last night!

  7. I do my part each year but the state makes it a real PITA. Short seasons, onerous rules, ridiculous out of state license fees, and even more deer show up in populated areas than ever.

  9. If only I had learned that damn venison stew recipe my old Scout Leader used to whip up… Never had any venison as good since that dammit. He ruined me. Uhhh
    Yes, deer need to be hunted. Or else we need to introduce more predators back into the environment if we have become to lazy and panzified to act like the top predator that we are. And i cant see the gen pop in this area wanting wolves running around their backyard, so it’s up to us to harvest the resource. For the children of course.

    • Try pricing farm-raised venison in a gourmet butcher shop. You’ll be going after one with only your bare hands.

  10. My beloved bride ran into a deer (or did the deer run into her?) while driving to work one morning early in north eastern Georgia. It totaled her car but she was fine. A few years later, another deer and another accident. Not nearly as bad that time. At the same time, many other drivers were hitting white tailed deer in north eastern Georgia and other parts of the state. Season for white tailed deer was greatly expanded and we took our limit, as did all our hunting buddies at that time.

  11. While in Maine I learned that 1. Moose are so tall your low beams shine under them, 2. The sudden appearance of a half ton of pot roast coming through the windshield can be deadly, and 3. the first thing all first responders will ask is “do you want the venison?” You can say yes, but the police will tell you to have it out of the road, front or back seat within 15 minutes or you lose it. Eventually somebody will ask if you’re injured.

    • 30+ years ago, I was visiting a body shop in Bangor, Maine. (A friend’s car was in there for minor repairs.) I saw a black station wagon there with the weirdest damage I have ever seen. All of the roof was pushed back about a foot, and there was a huge dent in the center of the roof line at the windshield. Every window was broken, and the top of every door frame was bent. However, the front of the car (bumper, grill, and hood) was completely undamaged. It was obvious that something had hit HARD high on the windshield, but no where else.

      My curiosity got the better of me, and I asked one of the workers there, “That’s the strangest damage I have ever seen. What happened to that car?” He said, “He was driving on a narrow back road, came around a corner, and saw a moose standing in the middle of the road. He basically tail-gated the moose. Knocked the legs out from under it, and its butt hit in the center of the windshield there.” I asked, “Was the driver hurt?” He replied, “No. Fortunately it hit right in the center of the windshield, not on the driver’s side. But he couldn’t open a single door; had to climb out the window.”

      The moral of the story – Don’t run into a moose. There’s a good chance that it could prove fatal for you too.

      • At night people don’t see them until they are in their laps. Pretty scary at 70+ on the turnpike!

  13. Last night Bambi took out an 18 wheeler on the highway (Vermont interstate 89). The driver hit the deer, swerved into the guardrail and bounced back to the other side of the road into the median. The cab then burst into flames. The driver got out without injuries but the highway was shut down for hours.

    Deer hunting is a deeply rooted tradition around here. I guess this was just an example of Bambi’s payback.

  14. We have huge deer population problem in our neighborhood and the HOA isn’t doing a damn thing about it. My sister hit one a few months ago.

  15. I prefer to hit deer with a .308. Even copper ammo is way less expensive than repairing my buddy’s F150. And because I care so much, I’ll be doing my part to reduce the deer population in southeastern WI this October / November. It the least I can do.

  16. Took two last year and guided my brother to his first. Can’t wait for this year! The wife loves the free range meat, and If I could stop buying hunting tools it might even be cost effective!

    • My venison is just $38 / pound after I factor in a few essentials such as deer rifles, cases, gun cleaning gear, locks, scopes, batteries, flashlights, knives, ammo, range time, gas, boots, wool socks, thermal gear, blaze orange, rope, gloves, hats, handwarmers, gutting gloves, slings, tree stands, tree stand harnesses, airfare, licenses, scent killer, coffee, meat processing fees, and a few snacks.

      Yep. Totally cost effective.

      • Well, if you’re fully outfitting yourself every year for every hunt, sure, there’s an issue. But when you’ve already got the rifle, knives, etc., and travel a few miles (Airfare? Really?) at most, the $20 deer tag makes a lot of sense. Even if you figure in the price of ammo, hell, throw in the cost of the whole box, you still get a decent return. Most hunters I’ve known wouldn’t spend $38 on hunting during the season.

        Even in the southeast, you’re probably getting decent meat at around $3 a pound. If they could somehow get their deer to stop smoking and drinking coffee early, who knows?

  17. Because of collisions with cars, WT deer are I think the most dangerous animals in the US. They over-browse the vegetation and destroy the habitat for themselves and other wildlife. All that free meat on the hoof is one of the most nutritious substances you can eat. Many Texas ranches have a cull permit so we can remove all the deer we want to preserve the habitat.

    My sister hit one with her Suburban. It went through the grill and damaged the truck’s innards. Since then we all put grill guards on our pickups and SUVs.

  18. And then there was that park in D.C/Maryland where the feds sent out the snipers to reduce an overabundant population, and some people took it upon themselves to do everything the could to disrupt the hunt.

    • That was Rock Creek Park. You’re right – every Bambi-lover showed up to screw things up. USF&WS sharpshooters had to cull the herd in the middle of the night when the idiots were fast asleep. The stoopit is strong here.

  19. I almost hit one once. It took several minutes to get my heart rate back to normal. (scared the ____ out of me!)
    I’m all for shooting a lot of them, to keep that from happening again.

  20. I’ve hit several, several have hit me. They take dollars out of my pocket with the damage to crops as well as fences. They are nothing but pests, and I put a bullet in one every time I (legally) get a chance.

  21. The most recent stats I saw was 1 in 85 for a deer strike in Pennsylvania. Flying deer? They happen. Car A hits deer, it goes airborne, takes out Car B. Out here it’s not a case of “if,” but rather “when.” If you don’t run into them, they run into you.

    • If they still use salt on the roads, it draws them. They’ll stand there and lick the road for the salt all night or until the next car or truck. Not sure about deer, but moose eyes don’t reflect headlights.

  22. be the predator. somewhere on the internet there is a hunter killing elk with a 10 mm handgun

  23. I’ve narrowly avoided a few collisions myself. I always wonder why deer tags are so limited when they are all over the place.

  24. I hit a mule deer once, when I was in college. I wasn’t hurt thankfully, but my car was pretty messed up.

    Around here you have to watch for deer and antelope. Driving aroind dusk and after dark isn’t much fun.

  25. It’s worse for me, since I ride a motorcycle. No car until I moved here from Misery, and even then I’m gonna have to start taking the bike to school more often so the old man can go somewhere if he wants to.

    Back in Missouri, our favorite back road was Highway 125 from Sparta down to US160 at Reuter and then 160 over to the Branson area. Very well-known sportbike road now. One of the more hardcore 125 adventures is a night ride. Now keep in mind that 125 between Bradleyville and Reuter is in the Mark Twain National Forest, with virtually no civilization…no driveways, no businesses, maybe 5 houses along the whole way, and lots and lots of trees. Critter central!

    So I decided I’d give the night ride a try. Solo. In October. Left Republic around midnight, in Ozark by 1, Sparta (where the good stuff starts) not long after. I was making good lines at a comfortable pace, no problems with visibility, just coming into Chadwick when a doe materialized out of nothing right at my 2:00. She could not have been 8 feet away and was running full tilt. Seized the front brake lever hard enough to dive the front end into the fender. It must have thrown her off because she somehow passed behind me.

    I went 45mph the rest of the way down to Bradleyville. Considered my chances of living if I continued south into the boonies and decided that between the possiblity of being found by the scavengers (and there are lots of them) instead of a passing motorist before sunrise and the rather chilly temps…I turned around.

    Now that I finally got an AR built out, I guess I can add a Laws folding adapter and tote it in my backpack. For Bambi’s children, of course.

    Tom

  26. My brother knew someone in high school who would run over deer on purpose, and then throw them in the back of his truck!

  27. We need to teach deer not to hit cars. We have a deer collision culture! We are all part of it!

    /sarc

  28. Knew a guy in high school that fell victim to a deer hitting his car. He was the stereotypical jock (popular, hot cheerleader girlfriend) when he hit a deer one night and it went through his windshield. Aftermath… paralyzed from the waist down and confined to a wheel chair for life. Ended up opening a liquor store and became an alcoholic. Sad.

  29. A few months back I had a doe head butt the front passenger fender on my 2003 Stratus R/T while I was all over the brakes and the horn slowin down from 80 tryin to miss her. Busted the headlight housing, put a big ass dent in the fender, & fed me, the bosslady, & the kids for a couple months. Also made me a bigger deer hunter than I was.

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