so about a month ago i had a rather icky mishap (or two) with my super duty. i'd been working for a guy about 70 miles from here processing calves. actually got a call that morning about another job a lot closer to me stripping cotton. anyhow, less than ten miles down the road that night freaking buck comes outta the ditch with NO room to stop. plowed his butt doing a solid 60, horse probably had no idea what the hell was going on. banged us up a bit, grille guard was on the grille, bumper bent, hood dinged good. front quarter panel dented good, but overall not bad.

took the cotton stripping job less than ten miles from home, but went back up the next tuesday for one last load of calves. insurance adjuster came out that afternoon to do the assessment, probably a good thing. less than a mile from turning onto the dirt road on the way home that night, maybe 4 miles or so from the house, i find myself RIGHT on top of multiple black angus cows in the damn road. hit a cow on the driver side and probably a 450 lb heifer calf on the passenger side. she wasn't driving home that night.

shop just got the front in a few days ago, and they're getting her put back together. ins man called, about 10,500 worth of damage between the two days. coughing up the extra hundred and fifty bucks for one of them ranch hand full bumper replacements.

on a good note - hunting this fall has been a success. shot a real small doe last week (don't have a lot of time to get out, so i just took her). wife shot her first deer, nice button buck, just south of the house. and somehow one of the stupid things found its way into one of the ponds and a coyote was literally in my yard this morning. he got a .308 slug through the gut.

trying to upload some pictures of red and see if i can get 'em posted...

see if i can borrow a couple links from the wife's photobucket...



the irony of the whole deal was someone said the last thing them cows probably saw was the "EAT BEEF" plate on the front end of my super duty.

 

You may need to just ride the horse and park the super duty before you kill both of you,if he's worth his salt he can dodge the deer and cattle. If you need more tools than the horse wants to carry,let him drive,he can't do any worse than his boss. That $150 to upgrade the front end is a good deal. I am curious about a couple things. In Tx you pay no deductable for damage caused by wildlife(drinking and running with wild women excluded). When domestic livestock,pets are involved,if the animal owner can be proved negilant in keeping them off roadway,animal owner is liable. It can get pretty murky trying to prove negilance so that is another subject. How is this handled in KS? Next question,if you are paying deductable,is it once for deer and again for the angus? Hope this didn't hinder your ability to work while truck is in shop.

 

well, i got a borrowed ranger. can't wait for my SD back. deer has become the number one reason my wife's rust bucket dodge is going to at least get comp on it. it's the only other rig we OWN at present, it needs it so if she manages to hit one.

run the loops on the cattle's owner deal. ins. company checked with the local cop shop about it. really the only way they could do anything about it is if the said stock (owner) has been proved to be negligent. i talked with THREE fellas the next morning, and the farmer who drove by that night who all said that his cattle had been out on that road all summer long. the catch is that it has to be documented by the sheriff's dept. so now whenever i see OUT cattle, i'm calling it in so if anyone else has the misfortune i did. i CAN, however, contact our attorney and see if there is anything we can do if we press a civil case. i don't want his house and home, but a bit more (like, at least enough to cover the deductibles and extra costs to get her all back in one piece) would be appropriate, in my opinion.

after this one, talking with a friend of mine, i plan to take his suggestion to heart and would recommend it to anyone else out there shopping for insurance. unless it's cost prohibitive (which was the case when i took out the policy in NY about a year ago), pay a few extra dollars to have a LOCAL AGENT. i've currently got progressive insurance, and while what they are doing seems acceptable, it perhaps could have been better for us in the end had i had a local agent.

they are charging me two deductibles, which for poor newlyweds is a pretty big ding in the pocket book. there was nothing those cows damaged that the deer DIDN'T damage. it would have been nice to only have one deductible, and had that been the case we might have been able to scrape up to get a few more things done while it's that torn apart. cheesy as it is i coughed up for a set of front shocks since it was all apart so i didn't have to screw with it. already had the rears and will do those when she comes home...

just did wish i'd have pulled the montezuma tool box out before it went in, heavy as it is. makes it tough to do a lot without it.

 

that and i may look into seeing how much it costs to get the rental compensation. i was stuck with my dad's hard as hell to start 86 f150 for a while. i didn't get it cos we're so close to where family lives and there's a bunch of undriven vehicles around like the two we had for a while.

 

Sounds like you and the bride are a hard working couple not waiting for a hand out but expect to be treated fair,rightful so. If you can discuss this with an attorney without spending more than you can afford,I strongly reccomend you do so. Most attorneys will talk to you and suggest the best course to go including small claims which is a fairly quick and painless procedure. I have already reccomended you take your attorney's advice,so what I am saying is only food for thought especialy since rules vary depending where one is at the time and most important,how all the details shake out. What the neigbors say about loose stock ususly carries far more weight than what the sheriff's office says since they are there every day and see firsthand. The sheriff's office can only attest to what they have seen resulting from complaints,which often is "not much"because they didn't keep good reccords. Your commitment to call anytime you see free roaming stock will certainly be good because it alerts the athorties so they may take action before they do damage. That said,if the sheriff's office or anyone else recives any number of calls,if they did not go witness what was reported,the information regarding the call(s) is worthless because it is hearsay. At the risk of appearing sinister,don't let the fact the insurance said they inquired on your behalf stop you investigating your options. Here is why. You will be asked by the insurance company to sighn over to them all your rights to take civil action regarding damages they reimbursed to you. If they feel they can recover what was paid to you,they go after the liable party(s). They can waive that pervision if you want to persue intangiable damage,lost/reduced income and such. *** DISCLAIMER***This is not legal advice and there is no charge. I am only telling you what I would tell my family. So we don't need to hear from anyone how I added to your troubles. Here's hoping you get this behind you quickly and get all the paying jobs you can handle. Hey,remember to lay on your horn next time you hit a critter. That's what the lady who ran a stop sign and hit me did.

 

open range cattle? kidnap a few of them tell him he gets them back when he pays for the damage. he'd prob try to turn you in for rustling. i'd say well i just brought em home to keep them safe. perhaps if his neighbors gave you a notarized statement saying the cattle had been running loose it might do the job in court

 

Im a city guy but hunt alot have lots of family that have cows and farms, LOTS of them farmer and rancher "folk" are stand up kinda people. Maybe you should go have a "I really believe you should help me out on the cow damage" chat and see what he says?

 

hm, it's an idea, but from what i hear, he's not the most upstanding farmer i've heard of before. and we are actually classified a "free range" state, i'm told...

 

The full Ranch Hand mighta helped with the deer- I hit 2 within a week, the spike which was the second one I hit was at about 50 mph- and all I got was a bent front license plate. I don't know how it would hold up to a couple of 400+ lb cows though. Probably better than the stock bumper for sure. Good luck with getting it all sorted out!

 

Quite interesting, free range. If you get to keep the cattle you hit that would be a plus..... It never hurts to have a talk with the farmer and see what he is really like. Read through this, Kansas Livestock

 

interesting link, maximum. thanks for that. i was told several times by both the ins co and county sheriff that ks is a free range state. if i were to head a bit further west on 160 hwy and start getting off on the county roads, there really IS free range. cross a cattle guard and it's just open range. got to watch for critters and such. not so bad during the day, but at night? ew, that sucked. didn't know that til we was drilling down there a couple years ago.

i attempted to contact my folks' attorney yesterday, hopefully he'll call me back today. see what he says, and i think that the farmer is supposed to live right there in nashville. might have to see if i can find him as well. wasn't really able to do a lot til this storm a few days ago b/c work took up all my time.

 

Did you at least get to keep the cow you struck?
A couple of hundred pounds of beef would cover those deductables...

 

heck, since the SD went down, didn't have anything else i could put the carcass in! wife's dodge pickup was in town in the shop for a few days after that as well...

 

I wouldn't second guess failing to take possesion of the road kill,most was probly bruised behound use,ask the local slaughter house. I read that link about Ks inclosure laws. Make that attorney aware in the event he is not already because haveing those so called "fence viewers"do thier thing asap could prove invaluable later. That is an interesting and informitive read max. I would venture many disputes and ill feelings could have been avoided if more folks had known what is contained in those regulations.

 

He only hit one side of the cow, so it would be a good thing if you carry charcoal with you for such an occasion.....Ummmm Steak Fence laws are strange as they differ from state to state, so it has made for an interesting read and subject. Can you get the Ranch Hand bumper with a rotisserie grill attachment?