The Road Kill Cafe is open for business!
 

My neighbor calls me yesterday and says there's a dead deer at the end of my driveway.
So I go down there and find the thing is still breathing.. Looks like her right front shoulder is caved in pretty good..

So I call up the local police and a deputy comes out and puts a round through her brain bucket for me and then issues a tag to make it all legal.

So we're sitting there chatting as we're both amazed at the size.. Definitely the alpha doe as she's the size of a six point buck. The deputy happens to be an avid hunter himself and after talking for about 20 minutes, I find out he doesn't do much this time of the year except run around putting down injured deer and issuing tags.
I asked him how many a day he does, he pauses for a second, and then I say "is it one or five or what?".. he's like, Oh No.. more like 20 to 25 per day... WTF??????

You know, if those deer would just cross next to the deer crossing signs like they're supposed to, we wouldn't have this problem! :happy0157:

He tells me that he has to carry two to three extra clips with him just so he has a reserve of ammo. LOL..

I had no idea...

Then he pulls out a photo of him and a giant 12 point buck with tines six to eight inches long... WoW!

Apparently we're putting those signs in the wrong places!!!:confused0024:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFCrJleggrI

I know a guy that quit hunting years ago, but gets his venison from road kills every year. He told me that he usually gets enough meat from 3 deer a year, I guess it depends how badly damaged the deer are.

Usually I come across one freshly killed near my house each year . Right as it gets dark . Most of time I'm going by with in minutes of it hit. Sometimes I see it get it.
20-25 is a crazy amount. There is not much time between tagging and going to the next one.
I thought you were going to say he was setting you to give you more deer or go hunting with you.
If becomes across that many he should see about donating the mea to a homeless shelter or folks in need

PA is notorious for deer/vehicle accidents. I heard on the local radio that its one of the worst states for it (though it WAS the radio and I didn't do any background research so who knows). I used to travel back and forth from PA to WV a lot and to keep myself occupied, I'd always count the deer carcasses on the road.

20 a day seems like a lot but come to think of it, I see a lot of dead deer on the road. Some I've hauled off to the side by myself since they were left for dead in the middle of the road and was a traffic hazard.

Just had one of those this summer.. The deer was smeared (best description I can come up with) for about 100 yards.. there wasn't much to pick up but some chunks of fur.. the road was literally red on the northbound side.

I think most people who call him want to have it processed for themselves.

I'd be more concerned with how long they've been dead..

When the temps are mild, you don't get but a couple hours before it spoils. Maybe an extra couple hours when its cold.

Murby, he always waits until the temps drop down around freezing which usually happens pretty early in the season around here.

He also gets most of them on an 18 mile stretch of 4 lane HWY that he and friends travel on pretty much a daily basis. He doesn't take just any deer, he knows if they're fresh kills or not.

He's retired from the county, but also manages our local liquor store. Local meaning 6 miles from my home, and further from his, we're a very rural community. So he has a lot of friends in the region that tell him about fresh kills on the two lane roads.

I should also add that he never guts the deer, or brings the whole animal home. He takes the back straps, and anything salvageable from the hind quarters.

When my $hithead neighbors talk against me hunting I remind them that there are WAY more deer killed by vehicles than hunters...if you look up the statistics it is absolutely mind blowing! I even hit one with my truck two years ago after sitting in the woods for three hours and not seeing a damn thing...go figure. I was running 70mph when he jumped in front of me and destroyed the deer so there was no meat!

Way back when I was working patrol and was training a rookie we responded to a car - deer collision in which the deer went through the windshield and killed the driver.
A few people were standing there watching the EMTs work the victim.
I told my trainee to break out his knife because I wanted the backstraps off that deer.
Yep, the captain got a call and I got my ass chewed.

I was just joking with the rookie !!!!!

I've never understood why people choose to drive so fast in areas where there are a high number of deer collisions.

I live in the middle of corn and bean fields on a dirt road. I drive slow until such time as I am on pavement that has wide open area's on both sides of the road and plenty of traffic. That's about two to four miles for me depending on the time of day.

In the past 5 years, I can count at least four instances where my caution has paid off.. Two of those instances where sure hits as I barely missed them at my usual slow speed. My wife has had even more close calls as she does a lot more driving than me.

What are these people thinking who drive so fast as to cause the animal to come right through the front window? Oh, it won't ever happen to me? I'm late for that all important party?

Its really tough to feel sympathetic when someone causes their own death due to ignorance.

As you are a police officer, I would imagine you have become somewhat desensitized to the stupidity of people.. Hence, the back straps joke..

I definitely agree that extra caution is called for in deer country, especially at night and at all times during the rut. That being said, sometimes stuff just happens. I bagged two mule deer last year with my pickup truck and I always drive with an eye for deer or elk crossing the road.
The wreck I posted about was a freak. A truck hit the deer and knocked it into the air. A car going the other direction hit the airborne deer and it went right through the windshield. Nobody was speeding or driving in a reckless manner. It was just plain old bad luck.

20-25 a day seems crazy

Sure does.

Wouldn't leave time for anything else.

Assume an 8 hour shift.
We'll go with the lower number of 20 deer on a shift just for benefit of the doubt.
That's one deer every 24 minutes and I'm not even figuring in a lunch break.

There's time on the scene to gather info and travel time to the next call to factor in.

No way.

Unless you calculate during peak rut when it may be a doe followed by a buck then you may have more instances of multiple deer being hit.

Dont think it has anything to do with speeding in a reckless regard. In NC on hwy 40 you find deer all over the roads this time of year (you also find the guys out picking them up to) and the speed limit is 65 or 70 dont know everyone goes 80. Same thing with hwy 24/17 most areas speed is 55 so everyone doing 60ish find quite a number of deer hit. Also wanted to add a deer going through the windshield is pretty easy thing to do depending on the vehicle and the hood but also on whether the deer is in mid leap or standing still. I know our local military base, bear season was closed after just two weeks last year. According to the LEO's our base quota was taking up by bears getting hit by cars and the increase in car incidences was due to the hour change so more drivers at sunset/ dark when the bears where more commonly crossing the road.

I must disagree. I did that job myself in country thick with deer.
Just can't buy it. I can remember days when I worked a couple car-deer collisions, maybe even 3 on a shift.
Someone is pulling your leg with that 20+ story.

I would agree

I take numbers from hunters and fisherman with a grain of salt and tend to accept the story is being exaggerated.

Edit: now that I went back and checked, he is from Michigan so will concur the story is just that an exaggeration.

I thought the number was high myself but can't argue it.

I can say this, when I called them to come out, he was here in 10 minutes.. I made a comment about him getting here so fast for a non-emergency call and he said he was 1/2 mile up the street for another deer..

ROFLMAO!!
I have no idea where that sarcasm comes from but I can certainly detect the meaning of it...

Funny..

Not sarcasm, honesty if you will believe it. Im from NC folks run dogs down here. Neighbor is a Sheriff deputy so hear some of his stories all the time. One thing he pointed out is once gun season opens up and they are allowed to run dogs, deer getting hit multiplies. He has said in a one mile stretch has seen 7 deer hit within 30 minutes from dogs running deer and in just one accident involved 3 deer and a dog the other dogs where safe but howling on the side of the hwy wanting to get out on the road. So is the number possible here sure but in a location where dogs arent being ran i think may stretch it for one man just a little.

I was heading out to go hunting one morning and watched a spike run at a truck,tripped trying to stop and the guys back tires ran over his head.I stopped and cheeked and he was dead so I took him home.I got back before it was even daylight and my wife asked what was wrong,I drug him out and told her "hey when you're good,you're good"LOL.

Many, many years ago I worked for the Colorado Highway Department doing highway maintenance. Our area was centered in Yampa and we went as far south as Dotsero, as far west as Kremmling and as for north as Steamboat Springs. We didn't go to the east because the Flattops Wilderness Area is just east of Yampa and there aren't any highways.

This area of CO is a major migration route in the winter for mulies and elk and a lot of them got hit by cars and trucks. Since we were on the road several times a day we knew how long a carcass had been there. We salvaged as many as we could that weren't torn up too bad. We would field dress them and call the game warden on the radio in the truck. Since it was a state radio, we could get the warden or the state patrol anytime we needed to. If we wanted to keep the animal for ourselves we would tell the warden and he would drop off a road kill certificate to our maintenance shed in Yampa. If we didn't want it or had all we could use we would stash the carcass in a snow bank and tell the warden where it was. He picked them up and the state gave to the poor folks in the area or those that were down on their luck. A lot of families were fed on roadkills in that area.

I've never understood the rationale of leaving good meat to rot on the side of the road. I'd be careful of just picking up any carcass but if it is fresh, the weather is cool or cold and it's not torn up too bad, why not? Even if only half of it is salvageable, that is still 30 lbs of burger at a minimum.

I saw ten deer and FOUR deer dogs dead last Monday. The VDOT guys were out there a few ours later picking them up. You can see the looks on the "out of towners" faces having no clue as to why these dogs are smeared down highway 58 like the deer a few feet away.

Tough way for a dog to make a living.
More dangerous than chasing bears.

Our Nephew hit a 7-Point Buck with his Moms Mini-Van a few weeks before Deer Season,I ended up driving down there to pick it up and drive to Town to our local County Sheriff's Dept. to get papers on it to have it processed......at least 2/3 of it was fine and didn't go to waste.On the way in I was driving very cautiously and had 3 more Deer run right out in front of me so I could see where a Law Enforcement Officer would be pretty busy during the Rut!

When I was in college in Central WI, I was getting a road kill almost every year. One my brother-in-law hit, one a roommate hit, and another a driver ahead of me hit. Road kills are fine to eat provided they are processed in time and not mangled too bad or guts spilled. The ones I got had almost no meat loss.

Deer up by us in N. WI are in such low numbers I can count the TOTAL number of road kills I have seen in our area all year on one hand. Good in that I don't have to dodge deer when I drive at night (at all) but not so great for hunting. And this fall I drove 2 nights a week from 9-10 PM and did not have to slow down for one deer.

I use to make weekly trips driving from Oklahoma to Mexico, moving a industrial plant down there. On one trip back I counted over 200 deer standing on the side of the road or eating in the bar ditches between the barbwire fence and the pavement. This was just outside of Uvalde, TX and all on 25 mile stretch of road. I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't them myself. This was around 5 or 6 am.