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Potential Bruiser Killed

I was driving home from the New Richmond area Saturday evening and saw a buck dead on the side of the road, the growth on him was way more than I've seen so far this year anywhere. If I would have been by myself or a little earlier in the day, I would have turned around to take a picture of it. His bases were about the size of a soda can and the mass carried up all of the about 7" with his G1's about slightly over half that size in circumference and about 3" long already. He was a big bodied deer with a huge head and his bases looked to be nearly touching. I don't know exactly where I was, but I was west of Cornell on 64. There is a gas station on 64 about 25 miles west of Cornell and if I remember right, I think it was a few miles west of there yet. I wish I would've had time to stop and take a picture of it at least.

What a shame. Someone has him on game camera from late last year and hopes to see him again this year.

What a waste - just plain bad news!

I drove from Eau Claire to River Falls, then from River Falls to Ashland on Saturday. I could not believe the number of fresh car kills. We also saw and avoided many as we traveled the evening north to Ashland. Even saw a nice bear just before Hayward. Encouraged by the number of deer seen north of Hayward.

I lost a nice one last year in July. Killed right in front of my stand I had seen him in a few times from the road. The guy who hit that deer hit two others as well after bar-time and wrecked his corvette, but it looks like they survived. The deer that was hit was a 9 pointer I passed as a smaller three year old the previous year. Crazy though, because I still had three deer sighted throughout the year that trumped that deer. I'm excited to see what made it through the winter. I'm going this year again without cameras.. It was a far more enjoyable hunting vacation anticipating what might be there versus what I know to be there due to cameras. I do believe by me not entering the woods and checking cameras as often, that I had far more sightings of deer while hunting.

The amount of dead deer I've seen in the past two weeks along Hwy 16 and East bound I-94 is incredible. At least a dozen. What a shame.

I sometimes think that mid May - mid June there are more deer killed on the roads than during the rut. I have seen more dead ones now than the last rut for sure.

FiveR's,

Is that gas station a log sided C-store at the Bloomer exit off of 64, the crossing of Hwy 40 and Hwy 64?

It sounds like the right place, there was a small hotel across the road from it call the twi-lite or something like that. The name of the hotel caught my attention more than the gas station did. Pretty sure the station was log sided though.

I followed 64 all the way to the Sand Creek turn off, several miles past that gas station. That's almost to the Red Cedar River. A few miles past the Auburn town hall if you remember that. No buck, somebody got him.

21 miles west of Cornell puts you about 53 and 64 intersection just north of Bloomer. From there you have quite away to go to get to a Gas station to the West.

About 2 miles (or less) east of the 64/53 intersection is the gas station, right on 64. Right across from the Twi-Light Motel. Known as the Bates Motel around here.

I did see a dandy right by the old wayside/rest stop a few times last year. Could be the same buck.

The buck was west of that gas station.....I couldn't tell you how many miles. He was laying right on the edge of the pavement of the east bound lane.

DT, IMO you see more now because nobody claims them vs. the cold weather more typical of the rut. But late May/early June certainly is the second biggest time for pickups, historically, by contractors (not all areas have 'em any more due to budget cuts). In some areas, county crews just drag 'em off into the ditch to rot (or get eaten by predators/scavengers).

It seems to me that I've seen more does crossing roads in spring over the last few years than before. This year seems even higher for me. My thought is that there are more predators around, so the does are dropping their fawns closer to the roads for a little extra protection from the predators. It kind of makes sense to me, there is a lot of scent thrown out by passing cars and trucks, from exhaust, cigarette smoke, people in general, burning oil in some vehicles, hot brake pads....all kinds of stink gets laid along the roads, all day, every day to help protect the fawns in their first few weeks before they really start to venture out.

FiveR's. That makes perfect sense. IMO, does that are going to drop fawns seek the security of out of the way oddball places for the same reason you find bucks in weird places. They hardly ever encounter life threatening danger there.

Drove from Hayward to the twin cities via 63 and 94. Then 52 to Rochester MN, then back north to Hayward through Nelson, Menomonie, Barron, Spooner. Saw road kill along that entire routes. Some fawns, some doe, some bucks. One spot looked like a doe and fawn. What we saw were just the ones that were up close to the road as grass is high enough to hide the ones down in the ditches.

Lots of traffic heading south on 63 from/through Hayward today. I imagine if that kind of traffic keeps up tonight there will be a lot more deer on the shoulders by tomorrow.

Seen a bunch of dead ones from Merrimac exit to about Caloma on 51 yesterday. Easy to tell where the deer population starts to wain.

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