I have picked up some that had a broken leg and neck and less meat damage than a gun shot deer
obviously we have all seen the red streak when one really gets clobbered at high speed.
I have picked up some in-between

my wife laid down the rules of road kill deer one morning on the way to church 20ish years ago when I said that one is sure fresh 4 inches of new snow and it didn't have any on it at all.

her rules are
40 or less degrees
see it hit, the car that hit it is still there .
it was somethin like that basically she didn't want questionable meat.

there might have been more but I ignored them or forgot them the last 20 years.
I also have bent these a few times. you know 50 and saw it hit is close enough to 40 if I quarter it up right away and get it in the cooler with a sack of ice.
or I dove this way 30 minutes ago and I am driving back and there is 3 inches of snow it is snowing and there is no snow on this deer it is still steaming.

I just call it established TOD time of death now.



used to be we had to call and wait for a deputy to tag them.
I waited a few times the person had already called for the accident report at some point you can't wait forever.
the first one I picked up I waited 40 minutes for a deputy. what a waster of officer time her was just on shift and had to drive 30 minutes to the location. which is a sad state of when you need help the police are 40 minutes away if you live in the house near there.

in 2015 that changed , I may had asked my state rep for that change 2 years prior he asked the DNR who said oh no we couldn't do that poachers would just call deer in car killed
funny how things change in 2 years when you can't find places that want to register deer because you made a big deal out of a business that didn't get paid to register deer closing early for staff , power , weather whatever it was.

2015 is also the year the they started call in registration for deer season. that may have even been 2014.
if they could trust you to call in for one you shot why not call in a car kill.

so how likely are you to pick up a road kill?
what change or info would make you more likely to pick one up?

When I hit them if I don't hit them to hard. If I see them hit, car still on side of road after they hit it, car gone but deer crippled and there, just drove by and it was not there but was on way back.

I lived in a very high deer population area and worked mid night
t shift for years . I have seen 34 deer just in my head lights on my way into work in a 5 mile stretch. So naturally working 7 days a week I would end up hitting one or 2 a year I didn't see.

Some I shot to put down and left due to time, others I waited on the sheriff or GW. Some hut hard that were left on below 20 night got the back strip cut out the next morning on the way home and the rest left. Even have picked one up and went on into work and de boned the hams and cut the back strip out in the parking lot on break.

I have waited over 2 hrs on a opossum cop to show up. Then he went barny fith on me. Sheriff deputies have always been pretty cool.

And no I didn't call anyone when I cut out the back straps of the one I left tell the next morning or the one I took to work with me after I hit it. Didn't have time to wait figured they can wright me up if they feel the need to I did nothing wrong.

I have seen them out in a field off the road with head up and broken legs flopping around and shot them to put them down and called in so the sheriff could contact anyone on their road kill list. But when I drove by after work the deer was still there. Guess no one wanted it or they didn't bother calling.

Wife saw one get hit last year and the person that hit it didn't want it so she got it and gave it to some of our non hunting friends and they proceeded it. It was the first time they processed a deer and they did it all themselves.

I've picked up a few over the years, I find they're usually busted up pretty good, if it's cold out and they're still warm it's all good...but in the future I'd just strip the backstraps out, only takes a minute and I don't have to dispose of a busted up, untagged deer.

around here info now moves on FB like it or not. so I had the idea to start a FB road kill page for the area. there is a lot of wasted deer.

the town FB info page has everything the local paper is going to have and more and before the funeral has already passed and your reading the funeral is on the 7th and it's already the 9th when the paper prints.

want to know why the power went out, it's on FB
the dollar general got shut down again by the fire chief for too any boxes in the isle it will be there.

also deals and garage sales.
I am not a much of a FB poster but I check it for local news that will never make a paper or tv not that I watch tv so I won't see it any way.

it will be interesting if people will post when they hit and don't want it .

when I know its fresh I will always pick it up

In the mid 80s, an elderly couple driving a VWBeatle hit a deer near my hometown. The deer came through the windshield and killed the husband who was driving. The car ran off the road and came to a stop. When the sherif arrived the wife did not know what happened. The dead deer was in the backseat. Blood was everywhere and her husband was dead in the drivers seat. She had no idea they had hit a deer.

it may help I am not that far from the DNR carcass dumpster so if I find out it is too busted up it can go to the carcass dumpster


I have gone to all gutless method on road kill
let the tenderloins go , the gut is often busted but as long as it is contained you can get most of the meat without getting any on it.

Free meat! Be friends with the deppities!