hexcellence

My wife and I had a nice Thanksgiving. We went to an old friend’s house and had dinner with her and her two sons. It was excellent food of course, and nice to get together with folks you’ve known practically your whole life.
At around 5:30pm we decided to leave to go home. It’s about an hour drive back to my place. We were in my new (to me) 2003 Jeep Grand Cherokee.

Now my Jeep is my new baby. I saved up and waited looking at hundreds of WJs before I selected this one. It has 70k miles, was one owner, and is like new never having seen an off road challenge. I have big plans for this baby. I had just the day before ordered a 4” long arm suspension kit and winch for it. I’m building my roof basket too. This is to be my prospecting expedition rig! I’ll post pics after I get the lift done.

Anyway, a few week ago my wife and I were at the local swap meet and I found a front push bar which had heavy steel throughout and had headlight protectors on it. Kind of a highway patrol meets 4x4 setup. It was only $150 and looked brand new so I bought it and got to work fabricating mounts for my jeep. It fit perfectly and looked like it was made for the jeep. I actually think it was.

So we are driving home being mindful for deer on the road because our friend’s house and mine are separated by some rural land areas. I made it fully through those areas and had just passed over Interstate 80 when I went over a hill and on the other side was a big (at least 5 point) buck standing in the middle of about 5 does. They were all right in the middle of the road. Just standing there like deer in the headlights which was exactly what they were. It all happened so fast I didn’t even have time to hit my brake. I caught that big buck square with the pushbar and hit the rump end of a doe at the same time with one of the headlight guards. I was doing 50 miles an hour with the cruise control on. I never even hit the brake till after impact.

I have been driving in the mountains all my adult life. I have had many near misses. I have seen many cars totaled and people killed and injured by hitting deer.

When we hit, it was hard and solid. This was not a glancing blow. The two vertical bars of the pushbar hit just inside of the buck’s legs at the shoulders. The last thing I saw of him was his head flying over slapping onto the hood with the antlers pointing right at my wife. Then he was gone. The racks were probably 2 ½’ across each with 5 or 6 points.

The buck was catapulted away from me by this massive steel pushbar. That buck was gone like a home run ball. It was unbelievable. I never even saw where it landed.

I think the doe was ok as it ran away with the other does.

My wife and I were pretty shaken as this impact was hard. Seemed like we hit a brick wall but no airbag deployment. It was strange. No steam coming from the smashed radiator. No buckled hood sticking up.


Once my heart slowed back down, I got out to survey the damage. I was already heartbroken over my jeep. Low and behold – there was nothing. The amazing thing is that the only damage to my jeep is the hood where the antlers hit and a crack in the grill. NOTHING but the hood and the crack. I could not believe how the pushbar folded up. ¼” plate steel twisted almost all the way around but amazingly still pretty much where it was supposed to be. This is a testament to my tendency to overbuild when I fabricate. Those mounts were kind of massive

I got back in the car and told my wife (who was crying) that we were the smartest people in the world. ( I don’t believe in luck).

• Bought and installed pushbar $150
• Insured jeep with liability only. No collision. YIKES Potential loss $6500 plus the several thousand in parts I just ordered.
• Hit the deer and destroyed the pushbar. Loss of $150
• Got home fine
• Jeep is fine – less pushbar which I removed the next day and hood which are in every junkyard.
• Called insurance company and added Comp and Collision at around $50/year uplift. lesson learned.

All in all, it was a good day for everyone except bucky. And no, I did not go after the meat nor go searching for the deer. I had no flashlight. No pistol with me. It was dark and raining. And anyway, I don’t really like venison.

hankthetank

glad you're ok. jeep 1 - deer 0