What to do about hitting a deer but its not dead

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handgunfan101

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I was riding home from work with a friend (we take turns driving he drives a week i drive the other week) and out of nowhere BAMMMM! I mean to tell you it was quick as a blink a good size buck jumps out of the ditch into the front of his car. The deer swung around 180 and we ran over the back legs (they both were broken)

He called the police and to find that unless there was an injury they will not come out. He then called his insurance company and they said yeah thats how they do it now you have to have a cop come to your house or wherever its being towed to give you a report.

HERE IS THE ISSUE: we both carry the deer is in the road but im not getting anyway near it as its thrashing around. Its obviously going to die at some point so what to do?

Should he shoot the deer and drag it out of the road? We cant leave it in the middle of the road its a hazard to others at this point.

What he did was call the police back and they said no do not discharge your weapon but they would not come out to either kill it or move it.

So anyway i know what he did but not going to expand on it what is the proper way to handle this?
 
I would do what your friend probably did. No need for an animal to suffer needlessly.

Oh and whan I'm deer hunting I always carry a good sized handgun along. Never know when it might come in handy. You know, those darned beer cans that are always coming after you. ;)
 
yeah, there isnt much you can do honestly. Its a shame that it had to suffer for as long as it did (thanks cutbacks in our local police budget, ughh i know its not their fault they have rules to follow) but a family that was in need may or may not of gotten an early Christmas gift :rolleyes: Im sure they thought the right thing was done.
 
Should he shoot the deer and drag it out of the road?
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Besides the issues with legality, shooting at point blank range using concrete or asphalt as a backstop is a serious safety hazard.
 
Besides the issues with legality, shooting at point blank range using concrete or asphalt as a backstop is a serious safety hazard.
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The legality is the only issue here as there are plenty of angles at which the deer could be dispatched without the bullet hitting asphalt or concrete.
 
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I talked to my buddy a few minutes ago and his father in law is a DNR officer and he said it was more of a hazard to leave the deer in the road. He has seen cases in the past where the animal (in general) was left in the road and another vehicle came along did not see it in time causing an accident that directly caused serious and at times life threatening injuries". This lead to the originator of the hazard (the person leaving the animal in the road) negligent by not removing the animal causing the accident after the fact.

He said he would have come out and remove the animal after euthanizing it from the road. He has the authority to do so and as far as i know he did ;)
 
The legality is the only issue here as there are plenty of angles at which the deer could be dispatched without the bullet hitting asphalt or concrete.
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I'm not saying it couldn't be done, but shooting an animal that's lying on a roadway surface without hitting the roadway surface isn't super-simple. I certainly don't see how one could find "plenty of angles". Are you talking about lying down on the road and trying to shoot the deer so that the bullet goes roughly parallel to the road surface?
 
Are you talking about lying down on the road and trying to shoot the deer so that the bullet goes roughly parallel to the road surface?
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It is not necessary to lie down in order to make a safe shot. I live on a hwy and deer/car collisions happen in front of our property with some of the deer having to be put down. It is not difficult to make an angle shot that will not exit, especially using a typical ccw with hp bullets.
 
That's actually pretty useful information. So since you have a rough idea of the penetration capability of the particular gun/ammo combo you're using, you just pick an entry angle that will be lethal and also create a wound track that's unlikely to result in an exit.

In your experience, is that fairly reliable? I would think that anytime you get a failure to expand properly, the penetration could be a lot deeper than normal.
 
According to the bunny cops, shooting the crippled deer violates at least two wildlife codes in Missouri-shooting on/from a public road and shooting a deer out of season(unless it really is deer season and you have a tag).
According to my ideals and morals, it is putting an injured animal out of it's misery and preventing further accidents/injuries to humans.
Most places I drive there would not be a law against just discharging a firearm. Look both ways, determine a bullet path which will not endanger others/property, and do the job.
Considering the amount of driving I used to do in a high deer population area, I encountered this situation numerous times. Sometimes a guy just has to do what he feels is right and deal with the consequences if caught.
 
my buddy called to wish my family a happy thanksgiving. He also said that he had to go up to the cop shop to get the report for his insurance claim. They asked what happened to the deer.

He said that the back legs were broken badly and it was thrashing around. The cop said to him did you have to put him down. My buddy who is a pretty honest guy said "YES SIR I HAD TO, I WAS AFFRAID IT WOULD CAUSE SOMEONE TO GET HURT IF I LEFT HIM IN THE ROAD".

The cop responded and I quote "GOOD TO HEAR SOME PEOPLE STILL HAVE A SENSE OF HUMANITY"! My buddy asked if he was in trouble for doing it and the officer who was also the chief of police said no you did it in a humane way and removed the animal from the road so no one would get hurt. Plus a little bird told me that the ____ family (a family that just lost about everything they had in a fire plus the father cant work because he was injured in the ordeal) finally caught a break.

He got his report and the cop said you left it in the ditch right and winked my buddy said yeah thats where it was when i left. Nice to see the cops allowing the right thing to happen even if it was iffy.
 
In your experience, is that fairly reliable? I would think that anytime you get a failure to expand properly, the penetration could be a lot deeper than normal.
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In my experience, if the ccw bullet encounters neckbone, backbone, or shoulder bone (none of which are hard to hit from up close)...it does not exit. I have seen the neckbone completely stop a bullet.

EDIT: I would not think that this would include calibers like .41mag, .44mag,.45lc, .357mag, 10MM and the like. Also, care has been taken to have angle with one of the larger bones being encountered near entry with as much body as possible behind it. And lastly, the point that you make is valid..these are bullets and anything could happen so this has always been a last resort to prevent a deer from suffering.
 
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You have to adapt to the situation, as best you can, based on the local laws. However, the deer should always be your #1 priority.

Bullet in the brain.
Slit the throat.
Sever the spine.

The worst case scenario might even require some 'brutality'. One of my brothers found himself without anything resembling a weapon (no knives, tire irons, nothing...), after hitting a fawn Deer. He had to find a big rock on the side of the road, to put the fawn out of its misery.:eek:
 
handgunfan101, I would say you and your friend did the best things you could have. I would have probably done the same in that situation. Even though I am in law enforcement, I am not allowed to shoot a deer thats laying on an asphalt or concrete road. Generally, though we have a lot of deer get hit, they usually get off into the ditch at least, if not just a few feet into the woods. If its on dirt then its a 1oz slug from the shotgun to the heart. We usually are not allowed to remove a deer from the road either, unless its an extreme emergency, which comes back to "whose job is it type thing" though it may be done instead of directing traffic, waiting til DOT shows up at 2am. Unfortunatly in these situations its sometimes better to ask forgiveness then to ask permission.

If I get there and its obvious its deer vs car and someone shot the deer before I get there, Im good to go, do the report and send you on your merry way. Just keep in mind that most of the time, law enforcement cant "give permission" for a person to shoot it.

Keep in mind I am only stating my experience and not giving any legal advice.

It sounds like some people also got some free meat out of the deal as well. Good job there too. Again, unfortunatly I cant let someone that hit/killed a deer with a car take it home due all the liability, or thats what I have been told by the town. Sometimes they do tend to disappear before I can ride back through, and while I hope someone gets food out of it, if asked I usually reply with, "those crazy aliens and their UFO's are taking everything nowadays!" :)
 
It's not your faults that the deer ran into the road.

You guys did not write the law against shooting it.

What's done is done...the deer was going to suffer and die no matter what.

Best option for everyone; cut its throat to speed the "end" of it's suffering. No need to break the law assisting an animal who's the walking dead already, while you remain behind to suffer the consequences.
 
i feel as the my buddy did do the right thing and everything turned out alright for everyone except his car:) but all in all i think if were to happen again then i would do the same thing.
 
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