Discussion
If your travelling up in the Highlands, PLEASE look out for deer. They are the most stupid, flighty animals, make sheep look clever.
Had a one run into the side of my car last week, and understand that nearly everyone up here has had a similar experience at some time. They are big bu66ers and can do serious damage or even kill you.
They seem to come down to the roadside after dark and loiter, waiting to suprise you.
Had a one run into the side of my car last week, and understand that nearly everyone up here has had a similar experience at some time. They are big bu66ers and can do serious damage or even kill you.
They seem to come down to the roadside after dark and loiter, waiting to suprise you.
Agreed!
One launched itself in front of me one night last week - I just managed to get the anchors on, but it's rear 'hoof' connected with my headlight - which decided to bend some of the bodywork... £750 now to spend.
Tony - send me an e mail could you, I had a hard disc die and have lost your address. Ta
Steve
One launched itself in front of me one night last week - I just managed to get the anchors on, but it's rear 'hoof' connected with my headlight - which decided to bend some of the bodywork... £750 now to spend.
Tony - send me an e mail could you, I had a hard disc die and have lost your address. Ta
Steve
alicrozier said:
Also, kamikaze pheasants can sometimes be persuaded to move with a flash of the headlights.
A lot of people rearing pheasants in my neck of the woods, and near misses are common. Both my old man and I suffer from a heavy right foot and have noticed an increased frequency of near misses when we changed to silver cars from darker ones, I don't think the damn things see you against the clouds/sky when looking up from the road.
If they don't lift..pick them up, let them hang for a couple of days then lay them on their backs, stand with a foot on either wing and pull legs steadily, the pheasant will come apart, take a sharp knife & cut off the now exposed breasts. saves all that plucking & cleaning!
I'd like to second (or is it third? 
) the sentiment - my 7 was written off in a collision with a stag in May. 2am, dry, good visibility (given that it was night!), straight bit of road. I was doing 60, one second nothing, the next it materialised in front of me. Not a hope of avoiding it, I later saw the skid mark - on the road 
- was only 5 or 6 feet long before I hit it. The world went orange and I went spinning along the road.
Front offside corner demolished, bonnet dented and with an antler hole punched through it (directly in front of where I was sitting), windscreen shattered and frame pushed back, door disappeared, rear wing half torn off. I ended up in hospital with damaged ribs.
The car was written off but bought back and is now rebuilt and just awaiting its MOT.
So be careful out there!
) the sentiment - my 7 was written off in a collision with a stag in May. 2am, dry, good visibility (given that it was night!), straight bit of road. I was doing 60, one second nothing, the next it materialised in front of me. Not a hope of avoiding it, I later saw the skid mark - on the road - was only 5 or 6 feet long before I hit it. The world went orange and I went spinning along the road. Front offside corner demolished, bonnet dented and with an antler hole punched through it (directly in front of where I was sitting), windscreen shattered and frame pushed back, door disappeared, rear wing half torn off. I ended up in hospital with damaged ribs.
The car was written off but bought back and is now rebuilt and just awaiting its MOT.
So be careful out there!
The West Highland Free Press dated Friday 9th December said:
Pretty much everything that is in this thread. Including:
...Tony Hall from Duisdalemore was on his way back from Raigmore Hospital...The first-time father's vehicle suffered £600 worth of damage...Mr Hall said two of his friends also suffered from collisions with deer this year.
Steve Carter...was involved in a similar encounter, this time halfway between Sheildaig and Torridon at around 7pm on Saturday 26th November. Mr Carter said his car suffered £750 worth of damage....
....Rob Day, also from Sleat, was involved in a high speed collision near Sheil Bridge...hit an adult stag head-on...Mr Day said his car spun several times and ended up facing the way he had come."The police and ambulance were called out. I was very lucky."
Good that there is some publicity about the risks of deer hits. Not so good that stuff from PH is getting into the press with personal details included, and giving the impression that all three of you had spoken to WHFP. Unless of course you guys were asked first.
Never hit a deer, but had one interesting encounter in 1975...I can date it as I was on my trusty Norton Commando, that I only had in '75. Riding from Fort William to Mallaig at dead of night and cracking on suddenly to find the hooooge stag with a full set of antlers standing in the middle of the road. Stopped in time, but then there's me stationery on the bike, foot down, staring head-on to this stag maybe 20 feet away. One of life's surreal moments, Norton's rumbly tick-over, stag with full set of antlers staring at me the only thing lit up in the headlight, and both our breaths steaming in the night. More than enough time to be considering 'do these things charge?', and trying to work out that of he did, should I try to accelerate past or just leg it off the bike. But in the end he just wandered off. Bit of an anti-climax, but the only time I've come so close to such a big beasie in the wild.
Two deer strikes in the space of a year, well almost exactly a year apart to be honest.
One for myself in a BMW 320, headlight popped out, some NS wing and bonnet damage, the missus a year later in her Clio, this time OS wing and headlight damage, oh and two dead deer.
The one I hit wandered onto the road, I braked like buggery (I was making rapid progress at the time) it kept walking to the other side of the road and just when I thought I had missed it it turned back into my path - Stupid animal !
Both happened in Sept/Oct though so I hope I am safe for this year.
One for myself in a BMW 320, headlight popped out, some NS wing and bonnet damage, the missus a year later in her Clio, this time OS wing and headlight damage, oh and two dead deer.
The one I hit wandered onto the road, I braked like buggery (I was making rapid progress at the time) it kept walking to the other side of the road and just when I thought I had missed it it turned back into my path - Stupid animal !
Both happened in Sept/Oct though so I hope I am safe for this year.
ruddermode said:
Typical press article, they have to get something wrong - I don't live in Sleat! (I'm the third of the incidents in the article)
Interestingly, as time goes by the photos of the damage look less and less severe (but my mum did have a bit of a wobbly when she first saw them!)
Sounds like the police and ambulance were called out and you were very lucky. "The police and ambulance were called out. I was very lucky."
Woodwood and Bernstien eat your heart out.
grant.d said:
stag, I never realised what a mess they can make of the car. It was written off due to the bend in the chassis
Stags used to suffer head problems too.....!
(Showing my age again, 52 with a 5 year old sense of humour)
Since my own incident, I have had so many folk tell me their own tales of woe, including an aquaintence in Broadford, who cartwheeled over the fence and down a 40' drop near the Cluanie in November after a close encounter.
Speaking of heads, I can still see the head and face of the deer which bounced across my bonnet when I think about the event, even two months on.
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