Roadkill

[WHSmithIV]

Well, on my way home early this morning there was a dead whitetail deer in the road. So, I stopped at least to move it off the highway and report it. It's sad. It's a young doe no more than 2 years old. Her body was still warm (and it's a cold morning - just above freezing). So, I picked her up and put her in the pickup. I noticed she has Idaho Fish and Game tags in her ears. So, I called our Sheriffs Dept. and notified them. They gave the the Fish & Game number to call. I have a permit from Fish & Game to salvage what I can from her. Most of her hide is OK, partial backstrap and both fore quarters. Not yet sure about the hind quarters.

I feel a little sad because I would never shoot such a young doe. Looks like she got hit pretty hard in her hind quarter then flipped over. Well, she is fresh and warm and free meat for what I can salvage from her. I have my knives out and I'll save what I can.

She must have been hit less than half an hour before I came along. No traffic on the road at all. Not even one vehicle passed by while I moved her from the raod into my pickup.

It's sad though. She could have made some fine bucks.

This skinning job is going to be a wee bit more difficult than normal...............

I'll let you all know what was salvageable.

[RobSWVA]

hey, when it comes to venison, take what you can. I kill my girlfriend during the winter months, stopping to kick deer to see how fresh they are, lol

[camomike]

While it is sad; especially when is a younger animal, free meat is free meat. That's one of the things I miss about living where I used to. We'd get a deer like that about ever year or two. At least it got grabbed by some one who's not going to let it go to waste.

[WHSmithIV]

Yep, and I have a permit from Idaho Fish and Game now to salvage the animal. If it was stone cold dead and no telling how recently it died I would have simply moved it to the side of the road and notifed the Sheriffs dept. where it was. It was still very warm though so had died within the previous 20 minutes or so. There is plenty of salvageable good venison. Whitetail deer is goooooood meat too.

Now, I gotta go out, move my horse and go take care of the nitty gritty of this unexpected windfall. All that Fish & Game is asking me to do is save their ear tags for them.

[GOST]

Used to work for a guy that had no kills for the complete season. On one of the last days of the season he was driving down his driveway coming to work and hit a buck. It minimal damage to his vehicle and was quite a bit of meat. To top it off he was only 15 min late to work.

[ddearmon2010]

it is the one reason I miss living up north.... easier to hunt deer than here in Florida

[WHSmithIV]

Well, not too bad for a fresh roadkill deer. the left front foreleg was a total loss. Some small parts of the two hind quarters were not salvageable and neither was the liver. The ribs, backstrap and over 90% of the hind quarters were fine as was the heart. Kitty cats are going to love that heart for cat food. Sadly, the hide was to torn up to be used for buckskin.

I'm not going to complain about free fresh white tail deer venison.