Offseason favorite Roadkill

[OverlordBear]

I don’t know about you guys but I am more successful with roadkill than I am with hunting. In my hunting career I have probably got one pound of roadkill for ever one pound of game meat that I hunted. I am wondering if any other Hunttalkers part take? The only reason my family has eaten moose was thanks to roadkill. I also perfected my home butchery skills on roadkill a couple of years before I killed my first elk. I think roadkill is the ultimate learning tool for adult onset hunter.

For instance I have 50 pounds of mule deer in two weeks thanks 3 roadkill deer I found on my commute.

I would say you have to find it fresh and it has to be less than a day old to be worth the effort. IE the eyes on the animal are still glassy and not dried out and the hide is still loose on the carcass. I wish cars didn’t hit them but I figure might as well put the meat to good use.

 

[rjthehunter]

I've hit a deer and cleaned it. I've seen deer be hit by a car then I pulled over to help, but if they want the deer I help them load it up. If not I ask if I can take it if they don't want it. I've never just stopped at a dead animal though to check if it was fresh. If I drove the same route everyday there's no reason a guy couldn't grab animals though knowing how fresh they are.

 

[Sask hunter]

I pick up roadkill all the time but I use it for coyote bait.

 

[kansasdad]

I wouldn’t hesitate to obtain a salvage tag (required in Kansas) if I had the misfortune to hit a deer. I suppose the same thing if I witnessed the incident, but I would apply what my family knows I call it: the Pa Ingalls rule. Because I live in 2020 and have access to modern amenities like electricity and refrigeration, I reserve the right to not eat some stuff that Pa Ingalls might have eaten while living in a Little House on the Prairie

 

[OverlordBear]

I wouldn’t hesitate to obtain a salvage tag (required in Kansas) if I had the misfortune to hit a deer. I suppose the same thing if I witnessed the incident, but I would apply what my family knows I call it: the Pa Ingalls rule. Because I live in 2020 and have access to modern amenities like electricity and refrigeration, I reserve the right to not eat some stuff that Pa Ingalls might have eaten while living in a Little House on the Prairie

Little house on the prairie was the very first chapter book I read in first grade I loved hearing about pa ingalls going out and getting meat from everywhere in the woods. And I dreamed off living off the land like the ingalls.

 

[LuketheDog]

I keep threatening my wife that I'm going bring some roadkill home, but I'm waiting to see someone make the perfect hit before I do-a bumper right to head and leave the rest untouched. At the rate my kids are starting to go through game meat I'll need to either hunt as much as Newberg or find a new source to keep the freezer full!

 

[JDH]

I will do it if I see it get hit or know it's fresh. I've been averaging one a year for the last few years. I hit a whitetail one year and just a very small amount was bruised. Also picked up a rabbit once. I figured it was fresh since it was snowing and the rabbit wasn't covered. I stopped to pick it up and it was still warm.

 

[gburk]

thank you for bringing this topic out into the open

I've often questioned the stigma attached to using roadkill, which I feel is a bit unwarranted.. i've never actually picked up something with the intention of cutting it up but have certainly been open to the possibility. The timing just hasn't been right (late for a meeting, dressed in Sunday best, have the wife with me, etc etc). It all depends on the nature of the impact I guess, and whether you can tell how long it's been there.
Cheaper than hunting! Unless you're the one that hit it.

 

[brushcreek]

my uncle found a fresh bald eagle roadkill in Florida 5-6 years ago. hated to see it go to waste so he put it in the back his SUV and showed it to people after church. then called the game warden - they sent someone out who thanked him for not letting it go to waste but also it's illegal to even touch one

 

[Bob-WY]

My son has a friend that is a state trooper, they have a call list of people who want to be called when a fresh road kill happens

 

[OverlordBear]

I go through a mental check list to see if roadkill is viable.

1. Did I just notice this in the morning or night and did it occur on a route I have already traveled?

2. Has the butt/eyes been eaten out by scavengers?

3. What color is the blood around or on the animal?

4. Is the eye on the animal still glassy and moist or is it dried and clouded over?

5. Is the hide loose on most of the body?

6. After cutting the animal open, is there any green tinge on the fat or connective tissue around the muscle which is a sure sign of spoilage.

7. How much of the meat is viable due to the usual rupture of the gut cavity and occasionally bone shrapnel from the impact of the vehicle?

If you can answer or figure out the answers to these questions you are probably good to go on getting a percentage of this great organic meat. Backstraps are almost always preserved and intact pieces of meat on roadkill. I keep a small kill kit in all of my cars for this reason. Just need some bags, gloves and a knife and if you use the gutless method then you are good to go. I want to take some of the stigma off this subject By bringing it up and encourage everyone to enjoy this untapped resource.

 

[bushman13]

The Muley bucks in my neck of the woods are straight up suicidal. They do this thing where they pop out in front of your truck and bound straight away down the road. Almost like a race or a dare. The elk just slowly walk on the side and across the roads, similar to South America. Thank God the elk are slow walkers (in town), I would hate to hit one.

 

[gburk]

my uncle found a fresh bald eagle roadkill in Florida 5-6 years ago. hated to see it go to waste so he put it in the back his SUV and showed it to people after church. then called the game warden - they sent someone out who thanked him for not letting it go to waste but also it's illegal to even touch one

so.. how'd it taste, kinda fishy right?

 

[LuketheDog]

My son has a friend that is a state trooper, they have a call list of people who want to be called when a fresh road kill happens

I think I heard they do that in Alaska with road-killed moose too.

 

[brushcreek]

so.. how'd it taste, kinda fishy right?

they sent it to an Indian tribe out in Arizona. You'd have to ask them lol

 

[Big Sky Guy]

I hit a deer on Thursday. It was a whitetail fawn. As frustrated as I was that I was now going to have to pay $500 for an insurance claim, I did walk back and found it dead right where I hit it. Since it was small and I was still close to my house and my truck was driveable I tossed it in the back and went home to quarter it out. I’ve used dozens of roadkill deer in Ohio as coyote bait but this was going to be a first. I figured I’d make bratwursts. After boning all the meat I only ended up with a measly 16 lbs. I didn’t take the loins since the guts ruptured from the impact or any neck meat since I was in a hurry to get back on the road to work.

Fast forward to yesterday and I was on the way to get the cheese to use in my bratwurst and I see a nice antelope buck on the side of the road. I drive the road everyday and it wasn’t there Friday around 6pm when I came through. So I grabbed it and went to the sausage store and got a packet of andouille seasoning to try andouille antelope. Got the whitetail made up into cheddar bratwurst yesterday and will get the antelope processed this week.

The guts seem to “explode” so this has been great for practicing the gutless method, although I’d rather have the guts in tact as the part of this method I struggle with the most is removing the loins and I haven’t had a chance to do that with these. Also the antelope had the guts ruptured so bad that they were up inside of what I presume was the impact side of the tissue that surrounds the back strap so I only got one back strap from the antelope.

 

[OverlordBear]

Good work this is the start of a whole new season. I joke with my wife that sept thru nov is hunting season and the rest of the year is roadkill season

 

[Addicting]

I passed 8 year and half old bucks that had been hit this morning. I even had to drag one out of the road. Our rut is in full swing and it’s only going to get worse over the next week.

 

[gburk]

I think you're on to something... you get to pass a lot of em, tags are cheap, and the blood tracks are always short. What's not to like?

 

[LuketheDog]

I have to admit I had a perfect chance on Thursday for fresh roadkill venison and didn't take it. My buddy dropped me off at my house at 9pm after we worked a full week of guiding an elk hunt, and 2 minutes later called me to say there were fresh backstraps available just down the road-he'd wiped out a doe with his 4Runner. I was just so dang tired I couldn't motivate myself to drive down there and pick her up after putting the kids to bed though.

This guy got hit on the highway near me recently too, sad end for a cool old man...