Car vs. Deer

My wife and I had an interesting if not disturbing experience this last weekend. I had spent the majority of the day trailering horses, and picking up garbage in and around our pasture. My wife got back from riding, and we both decided to head down to Heather's for a beer and some food. Our arrival at Heather's was met with about 50,000 vehicles surrounding her establishment. A little too busy for us. We really wanted to just relax a little bit.

So we decided to head to Utica instead. I needed to stop in town, so we headed into Cambridge, and then west on PQ towards Utica. As we were driving down PQ, we were waved down by a young guy with his car on the shoulder. We stopped to see if he needed help. It turned out, that this guy had hit a deer. The deer was about 5 yards off the road, still alive, but not going anywhere. It was a yearling, and looked like it had been hit in the hind quarters by the car. The car suffered a lost headlight.

The driver of the vehicle was beside himself. He was so upset that the deer was in pain, and still alive. I've been fortunate enough to have never hit a deer before, so I wasn't the most helpful person to have pulled over, but suggested eventually that he call the police and have them deal with it. He called, and we stood out in the road a little bit to make sure the deer didn't get up and stumble into oncoming traffic.

Within about 30 seconds (in fact the guy was still on the phone with dispatch), a squad car pulled up to the scene (I was VERY impressed with the response time). The young man told the officer what had happened, and the officer drew his side arm to put the deer down.

The arrival of the squad car spooked the deer enough that it was now standing (balancing on three legs). The officer approached the deer, and from about ten feet away took a shot. Nothing. Deer just stood there. He repositioned his flashlight, and shot again. Nothing. Second miss. He then walked right up to the deer to shoot it in the head. He fired. The deer reared up, and then went back down to the ground. Certainly a hit. But still very much alive. The rearing of the deer caused the officer to back up to his original position--about 10 feet away. He fired again. Miss. He then walked up to the deer, and fired twice more. That did the trick.

We said goodbye, got in the truck and drove off. My wife said to me, "Don't these guys have to practice at the range?". Yea. Wow. Now granted, a 9mm pistol is not the best tool to put down a deer, but still. How can you miss a deer that is not moving from ten feet away?

Remind me not to go hunting with this guy. Should have got his name. :)