4-Runner bashed a deer

Thursday evening, I hit a nice six pointer with my 4-Runner. Don't really know if I hit him or he committed deericide.

Was going about 30 on a gravel road and he came up out of the draw and I didn't see him until he was nearly in front of me. I got about 4-5 feet of hard braking, which probably made the deer hit square on the front instead of on the corner.

Bumper is bent in the middle and both sides of the frame rails, valance is thrashed, the lights in the bumper are busted, and the right fender is bent back a little at the bottom. Grill was fine, headlights are fine, corner lights are fine. Left headlight is out of adjustment, I figure because it is attached to the fender that moved back.

We have a farm/ranch and have bought enough parts that I have a wholesale account at a body parts store. I was thinking about just ordering a bumper, lights and valance and putting them on myself and when everything is apart, just pulling the fender back out. It doesn't have a hard crease in it.

Truck has less than 90K and is/was in excellent shape.

Anybody else had similar experience and any recommendations?

Thanks,

Kirk

Reply to
Kirk_
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As long as the inner fender and the radiator support are in decent shape it's an easy fix. Also, aftermarket fenders are cheap, so rather than waste my time on fixing one; I'd just replace.

Reply to
chuck

You are lucky. Could be lot worse.

Did you invite neighbors over for a deerbecue this weekend?

Reply to
DaViT

You are lucky. Could be lot worse.

Did you invite neighbors over for a deerbecue this weekend?

Reply to
DaViT

Don't invite me. IANA Hunter, but I seem to recall hearing that roadkill tastes lousy - bloodshot meat from all the trauma, and bitter from adrenaline and pain - they often suffer for a while.

If you're gonna eat an animal and want to be able to enjoy it, it needs to be put down quickly and (to be nice to the animal) humanely. That calls for a quick kill shot, not a slow bumper bashing.

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Reply to
Bruce L. Bergman

Bruce,

He didn't suffer. Was dead on impact. I stopped to check. He was a goner. I personally don't care much for venison and I am sure that roadkill would be worse. When you slaughter a steer, you have to properly bleed them out right away or the meat is bad.

Kirk

Reply to
Kirk_

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