Projo Offbeat Blog

If you're hunting for deer in Rhode Island, you might be better off using a Ford F-150 or a Toyota Tundra than a shotgun or a bow and arrow.

Rhode Island drivers are almost as "successful" as hunters in bagging deer, according to figures from the state Department of Environmental Management.

Rhode Island hunters shot almost 2,300 deer this hunting season, while drivers killed nearly 1,000 deer in 2007, according to a story in The Journal and projo.com.

Drivers who strike and kill deer in the Ocean State are allowed to take home their roadkill, which makes me wonder if some hunters even bother getting out of their pickup trucks -- at least until it's time to throw their trophy in the back.

The state stats show that 488 deer were taken by shotgun and 323 by bow on mainland Rhode Island. The story doesn't say how many were taken by Honda Accords of Chevy Malibus.

In the past, drivers have come even closer to the hunters' tally, but the hunters are apparently getting better or luckier and maybe the drivers are too. The hunters took about 100 more deer this season than they did last season. And drivers killed about 200 fewer deer than usual.

Still, it's disconcerting to think that as a driver in the Ocean State, your chances of killing a deer might be as good as a hunter's.

And it must be discouraging for the hunter who returns home empty-handed after hours in the woods to find a neighbor complaining that a deer caused $5,000 in damage to the front end of his new car.

Comments

Beth Heaney said:

That neighbor complaining about the damage is my husband, Michael. He killed two this year with his white Ford van without even aiming! In fact, I suspect the deer was trying to kill HIM.

Link | January 4, 2008 12:30 PM
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Joseph Slabaugh said:

Hey, I just hit my 8th deer in my Ford Van, it was a 7 point buck, and the first with a rack, and also the 1st to cause any real damage to the van. I have a guy fixing it, but I figured I would upload a picture of me and the deer...

http://ixk.org/pics/122bb7c44839d07b6b30140692ae230f.jpg

Link | October 26, 2009 1:19 PM
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