Keep a .22LR in your car.

[SquirrelNuts]

I had a situation happen two nights ago. I had always considered it, but never though it would happen to me. I always stop/slow down for critters in/near the road, and have never hit anything besides bugs. I do not intend to kill an animal unless I am going to eat it. I was riding with a friend and his wife was driving. She is a *horrible* and *wild* driver.

We were on the road behind their house that goes through their neighborhood. She spotted a bunny on the side of the road, and did not even slow down. The rabbit darts into the road and she does not swerve, and just lightly taps her brakes. She saw it sitting there before she got to it. We feel a *bump* *bump* and she keeps on going. I yell at her to stop the car, but she does not stop for another 1/4 mile. Her husband and I walk back and check on the bunny. It is badly injured, with a stripe on it from where the tire removed its fur. The bare skin is showing. Its heart is still beating and it is bleeding slightly. I moved the rabbit off the road onto the grass. We go into my friend's house and grab a .22LR and a handfull of Colibri. I put one shot into its head, and two shots into the heart (one to the head, two to COM). We burried the rabbit near the road. (No-we did not eat it!!!!)

I started carrying my AR-7 in my truck after this. If we had not had a .22LR rifle, we would of had to stab the rabbit. I was not going to shoot him with a 9mm or a .25-both too loud and too powerful. The near silent Colibri did the trick.

-SquirrelNuts

 

[HABU]

I was riding with a friend and his wife was driving. She is a *horrible* and *wild* driver.

The rabbit darts into the road and she does not swerve

She sounds like a sensible driver to me. How many people swerve to miss a squirrel or some such and end up in the ditch with a damaged vehicle, injured or worse? I'll not soon be going into the ditch for Thumper because he doesnt have the sense to stay out from under my tires.

 

[MLH]

The last time

I tried (and did miss it) an animal I totaled a car and almost killed myself. I DON'T do that anymore. If they jump in front of the car they're history. Their momma should have taught them better. That said I will stop and put them out of their misery.

 

[SquirrelNuts]

This was at a low speed, on dry pavement in good conditions. I would not swerve at high speeds, but I do in a nighborhood.

-SquirrelNuts

 

[sctman800]

If I see a critter along the road I keep an eye on it and usually slow down a little in anticipation of a dumb move on it's part. Slam on the brakes, no way, sorry critter, but sometimes it just happens. Jim.

 

[dakotasin]

i never slam on the brakes, and i never swerve for an animal. i will turn slightly and/or brake a little to avoid hitting an animal... however, i don't worry about animals like rabbits, squirrels, etc.

i always have some sort of gun w/ me for putting animals down that need it. last time it was needed, a pickup passed me, and ran over a yearling deer. deer was seriously injured, and probably would've died anyway... just good practice, i think, to keep a firearm w/ ya.

 

[Doc]

quote

i never slam on the brakes, and i never swerve for an animal. i will turn slightly and/or brake a little to avoid hitting an animal... however, i don't worry about animals like rabbits, squirrels, etc.

Correct driving tactics. Be very careful not to program your defensive tactics so they put you in danger: the loss of small animals is unfortunate, but the loss of loved ones when a deer sized animal goes thru the windshield is tragedy.

 

[Standing Wolf]

I'll do my best to avoid hitting small animals if I can do so safely—and "safely" includes not startling other drivers.

Large animals? Well, let's just say I once hit a dear while driving a rental car in the middle of Indiana. It wasn't even a very big deer, but it made a very large repair bill.

 

[Logistar]

I learned a long time ago not to swerve to miss an animal. I used to ride a motorcycle and if you HAVE to hit something, hit it head on.

Animals are unpredictable. If you swerve, thry might dart in that direction anyway. Most people overdo it and loose control of their vehicle when they try and miss a small animal.

As much as I hate to kill a small cuddly creature, potentially hurting or killing people is much, much worse.

(Would you ever get in trouble for shooting a wounded animal after it tangled with a vehicle? )

Logistar

 

[HABU]

Some animals will wait on the shoulder in anticipation of an approaching vehicle, as evidenced by the squirrel in the Geico Insurance commercial. The squirrel runs out in front of an oncoming car and the car swerves. When the car goes out of frame all you hear is screeching tires and a crash as the perpetrating squirrel is joined by another squirrel and they are high fiving and hand jiving each other while chattering up a storm!

 

[Gordy Wesen]

In many states it is illegal to finish off struck animals.
The first deer I finished off was my last when I found this out.

 

[Logistar]

In many states it is illegal to finish off struck animals.

That's what I was afraid of. I suppose if it was a larger animal (deer, etc) I would call it in to the police and ask them if I should put it out of it's misery. If they say to go ahead I would probably be OK.

Logistar

 

[Wildalaska]

Ya hit a moose in the middle of nowhere and you darn well better have something to finish it off with (assuming the collision hasnt screwed you up too badly)...

When I first got up here I had to finish one off 30 miles outside the city of Anchorage because some tourist hit it and was unarmed. I remember the lady telling me to wait for the police to come, I told her that the moose would be dead and decayed before the cops got there. They showed up an hour later.

WildalwaysarmedAlaska

 

[Okiecruffler]

I don't carry a gun especially for putting down hit animals, but I always keep a speed strip of .357SWC in my glove box. Has come in handy on a couple of raccoons, and if push came to shove could be used for a SD reload.

 

[synoptic]

When the car goes out of frame all you hear is screeching tires and a crash as the perpetrating squirrel is joined by another squirrel and they are high fiving and hand jiving each other while chattering up a storm!

Those are California ground squirrels, or at least they act the same. When we lived in "middle" california the ground squirrels would do exactly that. You get to the point where you don't even think twice about running over a squirrel. I try to miss them now if safely possible, they just look too much like my little sugar gliders.

 

[Ikari]

Any animal I see, I watch it real carefully and plan what I'm gonna do if it decides to try to commit suicide via Ikari's van. I wouldn't bother swerving for anythings smaller than a rabbit. I had a dog dart in front of me once, I was going slow enough I just bumped him with the bumper, he walked away uninjured. The most casualties I've inflicted with vehicles (besides the untold millions of bugs) have been of the avian variety. Some birds just dont' judge closure rates very well, i guess, because about a dozen have hit my windshield or grille. Fortunately they have all been small birds. I don't want a seagull landing in my lap one of these days.

 

[Azrael256]

Ikari, speaking of birds, my grandfather caught a buzzard with the driver's side windshield of his motorhome at 70mph. We are still finding glass in the carpet. I had a less eventful experience with a dove once. I was rolling along at about 40 and a few of them were in the road. They all took off in the opposite direction except for one of them, who headed straight into my grill. I jumped out to make sure he hadn't penetrated it, and found the little **** sitting in the middle of the road shaking his head. He saw me and took off in an amusingly crooked path. I stood there and loudly presented serious questions as to his lineage until I realized that I was standing in the middle of the road swearing at a dove flying off into the sunset... And I thought he was the dumb one.

My only deadly experience in this arena was with a squirrel. He jumped out, and I had no time to react (I was only doing about 30, so I wouldn't have needed much time) so he took my bumper between the eyes. I didn't have anything handy to put him out of his suffering, so I had to rely on my pocketknife... cried all the way home, too. Hunting them doesn't bother me at all, but like that...

 

[USMCsilver]

If you were worried about the animal's suffering, why did you take the extra time to go to a house to get a .22.

Two other options were to snap its neck right there on the spot, or send a downward blow to the head with the heel of your shoe. That would have worked quite efficiently as well, and it would have been sudden.

 

[zahc]

^what he said

 

[Snowdog]

.22LR and a handfull of Colibri. I put one shot into its head, and two shots into the heart

Well, forget shooting it in the head with that stuff, it's extremely unlikely it penetrated the skull. Maybe it did some damage to the heart... maybe.

I have absolutely no use for Colibri .22LR. After a few sessions on various targets and 500 rounds of the junk, I moved up to Super Colibri, which is just more of the same.

If you need a .22LR to be quite, but still powerful to reliably do the job, .22 CB Shorts/Longs should be the minimum.

Sorry for your misfortune.

 

[bedlamite]

My experience has been similar to Ikari, my truck has only hit two animals, both were birds.

 

[Feanaro]

Sentiment: Swerving off the road to avoid that little squirrel.

Sentimentality: Hitting a person while avoiding said squirrel.

If it's small and it's close then too bad for the animal. I'll try to put it out of it's misery (that's what a pocket knife is for) but otherwise the little furry is outta luck. Now at a low speed with time to react that's another story.

 

[45R]

I was coming home from a shoot at the range one night with the girlfriend and while exiting the parking lot I had a green light. The conditions were dark and wet when I pulled out of the lot. I slowed down for blind spot to make my left turn. Suddenly my Honda was struck by a homo saphien species of mammal wearing a black sweatshirt with hood, decked out with a headset, black backpack and riding a bicycle struck the driver side fender of my car. This homo saphien landed on top of my hood and rolled back onto the black asphault taking a pretty hard bounce. (mind you I was probably driving 5-10mph exiting the parking lot).

I asked him if he was okay and he was a little shaken. Noted two things when I looked out of the drivers window. Somehow he had struck my car hard enough that his rear reflector landed in my lap. He was not wearing a helment or riding a light (Biking law in this sate). I took him to the side of parking lot that was safe, turned on the hazards and checked to see if he was okay. Blood was dripping from his hands, he was shaken and refused medical attention. Waited a few more minutes to make sure he was okay and asked him about medical attention again. He refused. My first thought was to put this miserable species of mammal out of his misery with the .22Cal I had in my car. But it was sure bet that the bullets would not penetrate this morons thick skull. [This thought never occured but it was included for humor ] He walked over to observe the damage that he did to my car. The fender was pushed in and some very minor cosmetic damage to the bumper. He asked me if everything was cool and I asked him if he needed medical attention. He replied with no. So we went our seperate ways. 9mm vs. 45ACP stopping power nawwwww, all you need is a Honda.

 

[pax]

My husband hit a deer one night as he was driving home from work in his truck. Messed up the bumper something ugly, but he was fine and hey, that's what insurance is for.

Twelve hours later, he did the same thing again -- this time while he was driving my van. Well, !##$@#%. He was still fine but the van was messed up pretty bad. But hey, that's what insurance is for.

pax

A wonderful bird is the pelican,
His bill will hold more than his belican.
He can take in his beak
Enough food for a week,
But I'm darned if I know how the helican.
-- Dixon Merritt "The Pelican"

 

[280PLUS]

i brake for animals,,,

and speed up for humans,,,