Close Encounters With Deer ?

[marsh man]

Last night I was coming back home along a country road after taking my dog out , from out of nowhere a Fallow deer jumped through the hedge about 20 yds in front of me , I applied my brakes and thought it was a good job I wasn't 15 yards nearer , no sooner had I thought that then another one ran out from the same spot , how I missed him then god above know as I only missed it by inches , this must happen a lot and would be worse with anyone on two wheels rather than four .

This would have been a dear ole job ( excuse the pun ) if it had smashed my headlight and damaged the wing as I have to pay about £400 excess on my insurance  , so have YOU had a near miss , or the misfortune of hitting one ?       MM

[ditchman]

the brother of the person who owns a very old family buisness in norwich....was travelling back home one night on the Hainford road out of Norwich and hit a large red stag...the rear part of the stag went thro the windscreen and snapped and broke the back of the driver....he died instantly

Hainford road is well known for near misses

[Cornish lad]

Had a fallow Buck come out from a Bank on a tight bend and bounce of my estate car wing ,pushing it in 👎costing me new wing and the old ****** Rolled back down the steep bank and unable to get to it 

[mellors]

Not a deer. 

Driving home one night a few years ago felt a massive thump at the front of my pickup. Stopped to find a huge badger wedged between the front near side wheel and inner wing it took ages in the dark to get it out finally managed to do it with a hide pole, blood and guts everywhere. 

[marsh man]

1 hour ago, ditchman said:

the brother of the person who owns a very old family buisness in norwich....was travelling back home one night on the Hainford road out of Norwich and hit a large red stag...the rear part of the stag went thro the windscreen and snapped and broke the back of the driver....he died instantly

Hainford road is well known for near misses

The keeper ( who you know ) would often get a call from the police to put a deer down after being involved in a accident , so this must happen a lot , another question ,, how would I , or anyone else go down the car insurance route after coming into contact with a deer and resulting in a fair bit of damage  ?       MM

[Penelope]

Had fallow want to commit hari kari quite a few times, in and around the Epping Forest area and around my shoot near Chelmsford. Essex is alive with them.

 

[ph5172]

I have had a big stag jump over the front quarter of my bonnet outside Sandringham.  
 

I have seen a new motor with the screen caved in and 1 antler stuck into the glass. The bumper and bonnet were also decimated along with the roof join. 
the stag was hobbling around for a bit before coming to rest in a bush where it was dispatched. 
the vehicle had to be recovered. 
 

I should think that was an insurance jobby. 

[marsh man]

2 hours ago, Penelope said:

Had fallow want to commit hari kari quite a few times, in and around the Epping Forest area and around my shoot near Chelmsford. Essex is alive with them.

 

One of these days I can see where a shoot member get hit by a deer while walking or beating through the woods , we had a very near miss when three full size Red deer were spooked by gunfire when they were on the outside of the wood where the guns were standing , they came charging through and jumped over some Rhododendron bushes and missed an ole beater by a fraction of a inch , a few inches to one side and he would had been seriously injured , or even killed , with the amount of deer on the increase it is sure to happen if it ain't all ready happened . 

[London Best]

Back in the late sixties, I had dropped a girlfriend off at her home late at night and was driving home myself in a Mini-Cooper. Driving like a teenage idiot I took a sharp bend at a ridiculous speed and found myself in the middle of a herd of Fallow. They scattered in all directions and I missed the nearest one by about six inches. They would have made a proper mess of the old mini (and me) if I had hit one at that speed. 
Never taken that bend at more than forty since then.

Edited April 11 by London Best

[JohnfromUK]

One of my relatives did best part of £1k's damage to their (Skoda Octavia) car a few weeks ago, - roe deer.  Some years ago a friend did a great many £k's of damage to a much cherished Mercedes SL he had owned for around 30 years from new on a red deer in Scotland.  Expensive incidents.  We have a lot around here - surprisingly for most people as generally they stay 'out of sight', but do get on the roads at night.

Edited April 11 by JohnfromUK

[adzyvilla]

Many mornings on my way to work just after 5 I drive past a muntjac that stands on the verge just in front of a road sign on a tight left hand turn, waits for me to pass and then strolls across to the other side and disappears into the wood. Must have seen it 50 times or more in the last couple of years but it never ceases to amaze me that this particular deer appears to have acquired some road sense.

Deer are at plague proportions here in mid Norfolk and not a day goes by that I don't see fresh one knocked down. I've had plenty of near misses with everything from Chinese water deer right upto a whole herd of reds crossing the B1065 

Edited April 11 by adzyvilla

[old man]

Deer central close to me.

Regular call outs of the deer warden via 999 calls.

Finally noticed some mandatory 40mph speed limits instead of the advisory 40's.

Guess how many ignore the strategic warning signs......... twice as many than comply.

[marsh man]

1 hour ago, London Best said:

Back in the late sixties, I had dropped a girlfriend off at her home late at night and was driving home myself in a Mini-Cooper. Driving like a teenage idiot I took a sharp bend at a ridiculous speed and found myself in the middle of a herd of a Fallow. They scattered in all directions and I missed the nearest one by about six inches. They would have made a proper mess of the old mini (and me) if I had hit one at that speed. 
Never take that bend at more than forty since then.

It must had been in the very late 60s when I saw my first wild deer , I used to go Pigeon shooting before I went to work in those days , I had pulled up to a Pea field and it was to foggy to shoot Pigeons so I was sitting in my motor drinking my coffee and as time wore on the fog started to lift and 30 yds in front of me stood two magnificent full size Red deer , certainly worth getting up a little after 4 am even though I didn't shoot a Pigeon , just seeing those deer was a Red letter day , now it would be a Red letter day if you went a day in the countryside without seeing a specie of deer .   MM

[Minky]

A few months ago a friend and I journeyed up from Kent to Holts.  Now we see deer down in Kent but as we were going up the amount of carcases got more and more.  There were lots of deer just grazing along the side of the road  and they took  no notice of the traffic at all. Back down here the Mrs and I were coming back home from the daughters passing through a parcel of local forestry when pair of fallow heads poked through the trees at the side of the road.   Initially I thought that they were a couple of stray sheep.  Luckily they stayed put and we flashed passed. A few seconds later and I  could have had a  pair of deer heads mounted on the bonnet.

[Vince Green]

Some 40 years ago I used to drive through Ashridge forest in Hertfordshire at 11pm on my way home when I was on shift work.

In the winter it was not unusual to find ten or more deer just standing on the road and they only got out of your way reluctantly as you tried to drive through them. Looking at you as if to say "I was here first get lost"

In the winter the black road absorbed more heat from the winter sun and the deer could sense this.

Now down here in Cornwall we get Muntjac deer in our garden.  They dig up all the bulbs in winter (not good) and eat the fallen apples in summer which is great for me as i dont have to pick them up.

I like to see them, wouldn't want to harm them. My mate says why don't you shoot them but I prefer to watch them. Even if it means watching them dig up all my dafs 

Edited April 11 by Vince Green

[nobbyathome]

I was riding my motorcycle late at night last September as I was going through one of the roads in ashdown forest as I came round a corner a group of fallow deer run across the road I front of me to say I was close was an understatement I still don’t know how I didn’t hit one 

[Cornish lad]

Strange Vince ,muntjac have never been seen in my area of cornwall Red,fallow ,Roe quite common would love to see a muntjac 

[Penelope]

14 hours ago, marsh man said:

One of these days I can see where a shoot member get hit by a deer while walking or beating through the woods , we had a very near miss when three full size Red deer were spooked by gunfire when they were on the outside of the wood where the guns were standing , they came charging through and jumped over some Rhododendron bushes and missed an ole beater by a fraction of a inch , a few inches to one side and he would had been seriously injured , or even killed , with the amount of deer on the increase it is sure to happen if it ain't all ready happened . 

There's been many a time when I could have slapped a fallow on its backside when flushed from the wild bird seed cover. They love to couch in it.

2 hours ago, Cornish lad said:

Strange Vince ,muntjac have never been seen in my area of cornwall Red,fallow ,Roe quite common would love to see a muntjac 

Give it time, they'll get there.

[ditchman]

4 hours ago, Cornish lad said:

Strange Vince ,muntjac have never been seen in my area of cornwall Red,fallow ,Roe quite common would love to see a muntjac 

on the thetford road going down to the mildenhall rounderbout...there are always little family groups ofthem ....some of which are feeding right on the verge during the 8 occlock rush hour to work.......they dont even lift an eyebrow as you drive past ..

[gmm243]

I read somewhere that there are over 40,000 deer related rta's in the UK annually. Its seems an impossibly high number.

I work for a local authority and during rutting season we are lifting dead deer off the roads on an almost daily basis so possibly this number is accurate.

I was at a shoot last year which has a lot of fallow deer. One of the days I was there a beater got hit and tossed backwards by a doe that came charging out of a small piece of cover. He just happened to be in the way and was not injured though he was black all down one side a few days later.

[Mice!]

On 11/04/2024 at 15:17, marsh man said:

how would I , or anyone else go down the car insurance route after coming into contact with a deer and resulting in a fair bit of damage 

Everyone these days has a mobile phone,  take photos and a short video,  they would probably look at the area your in and not even question it.

This was last week,  a few were jumping over the wall heading back to the woods, it's a narrow windy road that I know well, but they can spring out from anywhere. 

[Penelope]

In the autumn of 2013 I saw 7 reds in a field next to the M25 on the northbound carriageway not far from Staines. This was around 4:15 in the afternoon.

[Miserableolgit]

Thetford and its surrounds is a deer hotspot and it follows that deer collisions with traffic are common. We are a bit further east and there are plenty of deer roaming about. Muntjac's are a nuisance, we have them regularly creeping about in the garden near the house as well as in our hedges and paddock.
As an aside, I gave up the shooting rights on Forestry Commission land over that way because of the numbers of deer and consequent vast amount of ticks everywhere. No amount of tick deterrent or snake oil would prevent the dogs getting covered in the damned things and it was no fun having to deal with them on the dogs, and occasionally me, after every outing on a daily basis. Tick numbers, paperwork, FC clear fell activities that I was not warned about beforehand, numbers of military bods creeping about and dog walkers meant we eventually called it a day.