Kill or roadkill?
 

Hi, can anyone here settle a debate? I'm not a deerhunter, but an angler, so I'm not sure about this.

Driving from Chicagoland to Lexington for the Breeder's Cup, Saturday 3 am in southern IN, a guy in a pickup zoomed past us with four hooves pointing straight up from just inside the tailgate. He had a couple large appliances or toolboxes in the truck, and there was a small space that apparently was just the perfect size for an upside-down dead deer.

I think it had to be road kill, as a recently shot deer wouldn't be stiff as a board yet and we'd passed several dead deer by the side of the highway. (Plus, nobody would pay all the money it takes to stuff a whole deer, only to jam it upside down in the back of a pickup full of heavy objects and drive it down the highway at 90 miles an hour in the middle of the night.)

My friends don't think anyone would pick up roadkill, but I've known people who said you can pick up a dead deer by the road and "use" it if it's not too old.

Who's right?

If I am, do you think his wife was happy or infuriated when the truck pulled into the driveway? Temps were above freezing...

RE: Kill or roadkill?
 

it is possible to pick up fresh road kill, liek if it is still warm. there are some legal issues, depending on the state.

but based on your story you cant say it ahd to be roadkill. it could have just as easily been harvested while hunting.
you say it was 3am? if that deer was shot during daylight hours, it would be "stiff as a board".

RE: Kill or roadkill?
 

Could have been a decoy.

RE: Kill or roadkill?
 

Definitely a real deer, not a decoy, unless they make decoys with real fur and position the legs so close together that the thing could never stand.

I don't know -- seems like a poacher would do more to hide the evidence and anybody out bowhunting for deer would have cleared some room in the truck for the expected kill.

Maybe given the low temp, he figured a deer killed on the road that day would technically be fresh enough to use for taxidermy?

I hope he wasn't planning to eat it, anyway!

RE: Kill or roadkill?
 

Last year I went into town to go to Wal-Mart and saw a pickup witha trailer loaded down with hunting stuff and the back of the pickup full of stuff as well as a couple of dead deer and they looked as stiff as you are describing. Why people would haul dead deer around that long is beyond me, but I have seen it.

RE: Kill or roadkill?
 

Well I have seen decoys w/ not real fur but some kinda materail. They look very real. So if the truck was going 90 mph or so lol then it is possible that it was a decoy.

RE: Kill or roadkill?
 

ya off the side of the road in washingtonone time when we where road hunting (it is legal in washington) and we jumped out of the truck i ran off the road and was looking at a buck a really big 2X2 its 3 point restiriction there has to have 3 points on one side and thought it looked weird it turned out to be a fish and game decoy they costa ton of money adn really move there head up and down, side to side, and twitch there tail

RE: Kill or roadkill?
 

There could be a thousand different situations one could make up for what you saw. I know a number of people that have taken road kill. If it was illegal I don't think he would be driving around with it exposed.

RE: Kill or roadkill?
 

On a trip to Columbus , Oh. for my youngest sister's high school graduation we saw a semi clip a nice buck , killing it instantly . As we passed the spot a pick up that was a few hundred yards behind us suddenly swerved to the side of the road , two guys got out and hoisted the deer into the bed and then took off . Yes , if the carcass is freshly killed and not too torn up the meat is perfectly safe to eat . In most states you're supposed to report it to the local sheriff's office so that the carcass can be recorded and a tempory transportation tag can be issued .

RE: Kill or roadkill?
 

Nothing wrong with fresh road kill. But if it was stiff as you said, either he shot it earlier on and hadn't got it home yet, or that person doesn't know proper roadkill etiquite.

RE: Kill or roadkill?
 

DON'T KNOW WHERE YA'LL ARE FROM, BUT HERE IN MICHIGAN YOU ONLY NEED TO STAND ON A FREEWAY OVERPASS THE WEEKEND AFTER FIREARMS SEASON OPENS AND WATCH THE DEER COME DOWN ON TOP OF CARS, BACK OF TRAILERS...YOU NAME IT. HECK, THE DEER GET SO STIFF UP HERE, SOMETIMES YOU CAN JUST WALK THEM OUT OF THE WOODS. see attachment below:

RE: Kill or roadkill?
 

Thats cool, but how'd you get it to walk with no guts?

RE: Kill or roadkill?
 

Some guys pick up road kill that they wouldn't eat themselves but gring all the meat and feed it to their dogs. But who knows if ................

it was a real deer.

a decoy.

legal kill.

road kill.

Why so intrested with this?

RE: Kill or roadkill?
 

Because it was a hilarious sight. We just couldn't agree on what somebody would be doing with a cold, dead deer he picked up by the side of the road in the middle of the night. It'd be one thing if it was a decoy or he'd shot it 12 hours previous or something, but it didn't look that way.

Maybe he has a pet hyena.

Another was hit right in front of us on the way back home, and we didn't count but there were many along the side of the highway. Seems like there's more than corn in Indiana.

Happy hunting.
;)

RE: Kill or roadkill?
 

Our doe that we shot bowseason this year was stiff, we hung it up overnight and it was just like you said, stiff!

RE: Kill or roadkill?
 

Could be using the deer for coyote and other predator bait...we pick up roadkill round here for coyote bait

RE: Kill or roadkill?
 

coyote bait baby!

RE: Kill or roadkill?
 

Some people in this world make me question their sanity.

RE: Kill or roadkill?
 

Justfishin - you mention the guy getting the deer mounted (whole). Why would you think he would be getting it mounted. Very few deer are mounted whole.

RE: Kill or roadkill?
 

nothing wrong with eat'n road kill. they have to be fresh for me to pick one up though, like hit within a half hour. the only way i have ever seen meat unfit to eat from being hit by a vehicle is when there is bone fragments buried densley throughout a section of meat. most of the time you can get all of the bone out.

RE: Kill or roadkill?
 

I'm having a hard time figuring out what road kill even has to do with the situation. It simply sounds like a hunter with a deer he'd shot. Why make it more complicated than it is?

RE: Kill or roadkill?
 

This is an old post, why would it get brought up again?

RE: Kill or roadkill?
 

HAHA... stick'em up!. awesome.

RE: Kill or roadkill?
 

That's funny as hell!!

RE: Kill or roadkill?
 

nice!!