Tough little buggers

[Shockwave]

I can't believe how tough deer are. Watched one get smoked on 43rd in Bismarck this morning. The speed limit is 45 there, so I am assuming the person was doing around 45 or 50. The thing flew in the air and across the ditch I don't know how many feet (cleared the entire ditch), landed on the railroad tracks, bounced a few times then slid along the tracks for a while. To my surprise the little bugger got up and took off running again. Not even a limp.

 

[Trip McNeely]

Kinda like taking a helmet on the thigh..... get up like it didnt hurt and keep on running. play out the game knowing full well your gunna hurt like a mother f’er the next day.

 

[eseamands]

I have first hand experience in something like this as well. Heading back to NDSU for school, I was driving down Highway 12 going about 70 and a doe jumped out of the ditch on my passenger side. Saw her just a half-second prior to the impending impact. She hit the front fender on the passenger side with a giant THUD and just cartwheeled end over end behind the car and into the ditch.

I stopped and got out and walked back to where she had fallen and by the time I was half way there she stood up and just hopped away, just like you said, not even a limp.

I always wonder what type of internal damage a deer takes with hits like this--- no telling if they'll make it long if their bleeding internally, but they sure don't seem to suffer much musculoskeletal damage.

 

[Weekender]

I was riding with my buddy in his pickup when he hit a moose. Totaled the pickup. The moose got up and walked away like nothing happened.

 

[Ponyroper]

I hit a deer pretty hard that was running down a gravel road and knocked it end over end. It sat on the shoulder of the road for a few minutes while I got out and went around the front of my van to check for damage. After sitting there for a few minutes looking around it got up and trotted down the ditch into a corn field and disappeared. I couldn't believe it was still alive much less able to move but it was. I mentioned it to my uncle later that fall that I hit a deer by his corn field but it got up and ran off. He said it didn't run far cause he found it a few rows in when he chopped the corn. Pretty sure most deer that get hit and then get up and run away probably die shortly afterward.