I hit a deer on Saturday

[airboss]

Only deer whistle known to work, first time, every time

 

[MT home]

Congrats on surviving the deer strike. Part of my motovation for getting an FJR was to get modern brakes with ABS.

I have a theory on avoiding deer strikes. A given is, slow down at dusk, this is when they are most active. If you see a doe, slow way down, there are more with her most times. Bucks usually travel alone, are much more cautious than does. usually turn back and run. I just thought I'd pass my observations along.

A few years ago a I saw a motorcycle publication (probably a BMW magazine) publishing an analysis based on reseach from Swedish deer vs. auto collisions. The data showed variable times when the incidence rate when up and down. The author was able to correlate the change in the time to sunrise and sunset times for the areas in the studies. His conclusion was that the hour after sunset and the hour before dawn where the times when the highest incidence of collisons occurred. That seems to fit with my own observations.

I always assume if I only see one near the road, I'm not seeing the others that are somwhere nearby. That holds true even here in city limits. At this moment, there is only one of the damn creatures in my back yard, but there were three bedded down in the yard this morning when I ate breakfast. I live four blocks from downtown, too. Not uncommon to see 6 or 8 walking around together, either, and stopping traffic in the middle of the day. (Just part of living in the mountains out west, and paying the 50% Montana scenery tax, but I wouldn't trade it for having to live in an urban area again.)

I keep up hope that there will be a suitable farkle to wire up to an extra kill switch that will do the job . . . .

 

[Harald]

Only deer whistle known to work, first time, every time

Not to get all technical, but those FMJ (full metal jacket) bullets might not work so great unless you put them in exactly the right place. I personally prefer a good soft point or hollow point bullet that will expand on impact and cause rapid death, even if the shot wasn't perfectly placed. B)

 

[art miller]

Conga rats for doing exactly the right thing. Using your brakes. When I first read the part where you said you thought you could get around it, I thought, "Roh roh, Shaggy. This one's going to come out bad."

I earned my deer icon this past September. It was 4:30PM (DST) so it wasn't even near dark yet. In my case I was riding on a narrow country road at ~ 40 mph when the rat jumped out of the woods directly in front of me. No chance to brake much before contact. The bike will stay up if you let it. Mine did. Unfortunately my front plastic didn't fare as well as yours and all had to be replaced (insurance) to the tune of $1800.

As was just said, only thing you can do is slow down in Deer country, especially in the dusk and dawn hours.

That and have your insurance paid up. :glare:

I've never hit a deer but have had many run out in front of me. Several years ago I put deer whistles on my bikes. Whether or not they work is debateable. Prior to the whistles I noticed deer tend to enter the roadway and if they see oncoming objects they stop or hesitate. It seems they quickly move on since installing the whistles. If you are riding where there are antelope, be very careful. They tend to leap onto the road. If one of them leaps onto your bike it will be a bad ending. Try the whistles. They are only about $5.00.

 

[Karmak]

Glad you walked away! Whenever possible, I do not ride after dark around here (Upstate NY), they are as thick as squirrels. It is true they are more active after dark, eves and mornings, but I've seen them everywhere at all times. Once as I was just leaving my house (in a small town) with my wife on the back, a buck ran smack up to the main road as I went by, but turned at the last second. The traffic upstate isn't bad, so the danger I fear most are the rats.

>I've read some research that can't prove whether deer whistles work or not.

>I've tried to do my part in the past with muzzle loaders, bow, etc. Nothing worked as efficiently as my Contender in .35 Remington, but obviously, I didn't dent the population.

 

[fjrchooser]

Standing in line at Quality Farm and Fleet one day, I spot a little display box of self adhesive deer whistles near the cash register. Hmmm. Purchase three and two go on the PT Cruiser as soon as I hit the parking lot, the third was for the FJR if the first two didn't fall off on the way home.

Next day I beaned my first deer ever with the Cruiser. $1800 damage including a direct hit to one of the whistles. I tore the remaining one off the car while surveying damage. <_< Just sayin....

 

[Checkswrecks]

One of the police dpeartments tried deer whistles on some cars and not on others.

In the end, the deer-hit count was the same for both groups of cars.

 

[karstenp]

I have hit a total of 4 deer. Each car had deer whistles installed. The last collision was this past October with about $10,000 worth of damage. When I picked up the car after repairs, they were thorough enough on the repairs to replace the deer whistles with new ones! During the vehicle inspection at pickup, I stood back looking at the deer whistles and started shaking my head...... when the shop owner asked me what was wrong I replied..... " You have the deer whistles installed backwards...... Don't you know that installing the whistles backwards attracts the deer? "........ He stood there and shook his head and muttered something about talking to the person who installed the things.... doh! :lol2:

That said, I still install them on my cars and bike..... who knows... I may have hit 5 deer without the whistles! My biggest fear riding the bike is hitting a forest rat. I can anticipate and respond to bad drivers, weather, roads etc..... but a deer running out in front of you is just so random and can happen anytime, anywhere.

 

[Reldeed]

Standing in line at Quality Farm and Fleet one day, I spot a little display box of self adhesive deer whistles near the cash register. Hmmm. Purchase three and two go on the PT Cruiser as soon as I hit the parking lot, the third was for the FJR if the first two didn't fall off on the way home.
Next day I beaned my first deer ever with the Cruiser. $1800 damage including a direct hit to one of the whistles. I tore the remaining one off the car while surveying damage. <_< Just sayin....

Sorry to laugh at your trouble here... but... this made me chuckle a bit! :rofl:

 

[rogdeb]

Yo Reldeed,

Excellent outcome Sir :yahoo: -- you DID buy a lottery ticket ?

 

[DocDanDC]

You are one lucky dude! Here's to the dancin' :drinks:

 

[NoCage]

I haven't been on this forum in a while, but you are one lucky dude. Warchild, Dcarver, myself and, I'm sure others can attest, forest rats are solid, and keeping the bike up after a strike is good skill/luck/karma. My bike wasn't as bad as Dcarver's, but it was still $5,700 worth of damage.