Deer,deer and more deer.

[Vince62]

Just wondering if many of you encounter many deer on your travels?Second time in 2 days I've had 2 deer jump out on the road in front of me.Stopped about 8 feet from them.Glad I,myself driving my 2011 Fiesta s as the ST is in storage.Seams to be more deer this year in Alberta south of Edmonton.

 

[Joe Schmoe]

We see them quite a bit, but we spend a lot of time in the mountains. Never had one jump in front of us and stop. Only one close call long ago. California deer must be less suicidal? There was one time we nearly hit an Elk in an MR2 Spyder in Arizona. That would have been ugly.

 

[Flaco]

See them all the time here in north Georgia. Running across the road and splattered on the road !

 

[dyn085]

 

[JasonHaven]

Yeah, I had one pop out at me and slam into my car less than a month into ownership. Stupid things. Had a few close calls on my last road trip too.

Wonder if those little deer whistles would do any good. Sigh.

 

[degnerd]

Wonder if those little deer whistles would do any good. Sigh.

...

 

[JasonHaven]

I've heard they're mostly placebo, but at this point I'm ready to try anything.

 

[RAAMaudio]

I live in deer country and just moved from a much higher populated area where I saw so many deer hit, some elk, nearly hit a moose one night, a few bear, etc.... I finally just stopped driving at night as much as possible.

There are some good electronic whistles that help but not fool proof by any means.

 

[JasonHaven]

C'mon RAAM, you can't tease us like that without a link!

 

[chevystepside73]

owned my fist for about 6 months i have had more than 20 close calls. i live and commute to work in a high populated area...

 

[degnerd]

Just missed a "small" 6 pointer on the way home from work. Gonna mount one of these. Maybe we can do a group buy.

 

[Vince62]

That a boy.should do the trick.

 

[C. love]

Deer in my parts are extremely common. There is no real key to avoiding them except for not driving during sun up or sundown or certain times of the night, pretty much like RAAM said. Deer activity seems to peak in the evening about an hour after sundown and will usually cease 2-4 hours after sundown then they start to move in the middle of the night albeit not much and then again when the sun is about to rise. So you have small windows here and there.

Amazingly with all the driving i do during those times I have only hit one deer and it was at like 7am in the summer and I was going about 5mph it looked at me and just ran into my truck, dumb thing. I have hit a Mtn lion doing about 80mph once it was like hitting a brick wall, if it were in my Fiesta the car would have been toast.

Deer whistles don't work. I think the theory was they emit a sound, liken to a dog whistle, and deer will respond to it. Usually deer are so desensitized to vehicle traffic they simply wont move until its too late for them and us.

 

[Sil3nt611]

The deer whistles don't work.

Luckily I now live in a more populated area so I don't have to dodge deer. I grew up in a rural country area. Had to drive to and from work and school 20 minutes through the country either way. Lots of open land for deer so we saw lots of deer standing near or in the road or on the other side of the fence just waiting to jump the fence and run right into your car... Deer have a deathwish when it comes to cars driving by them. They could stay still and they'd be just fine but instead they decide it would be safer to jump right out in front of this large fast moving heavy object. Needless to say, I had A LOT of very close calls and one hit.

Surprising that is was only one hit. The dude flanked me as I was making a curve and I didn't even notice a deer anywhere until I saw his head right in front of my windshield. He took out my driver's side front fender and my mirror. Probably some other minor damage, but that was my first car that I bought for $500 so it already was pretty ugly. Pulled a fender and mirror from the junkyard and rolled around in a blue car with a white fender until I sold the car to my brother.

I was driving home in the dark one night and a Ford Super Duty with a trailer was coming the other way. No other drivers around. A deer jumps out in front of the truck just as it comes up the the deer which happens to be about the same time I am coming up to passing the truck going the other way. We both smash the brakes so hard I can smell dying tires and the deer just barely slips right through the middle of our cars. Had the truck hit it, it would have bounced off my car no doubt. Had another time doing 60-65 down a 2 lane highway with cars coming the other direction and a suicidal deer did that same thing to me again. Luckily my only hit with a deer was in my crappy car. I learned to be hyper aware of my surroundings and probably got to be a better defensive driver because I was always looking out for deer.

My brother on the other hand didn't care. He had a '95 Thunderbird that he didn't care about at all and he did 10-20 over most of the time in the dark and just flew by the deer and he never hit one. Most people out in the country had large SUVs or trucks with a brush guard on the front and just smashed into the deer if they crossed their path.

 

[twolf]

Yeah, I just hit one November 15th. The little fucker did $6500+ worth of damage to my car, and it's been a month since I've driven it. Body shop still has it. I should have it back maybe Tuesday. Parts for these cars are slowwww to get.