My theory, based on anecdote, is that it’s easier to hit a deer in a vehicle where you aren’t familiar with the blind spots! I’ve hit two, never in my own vehicle… (work trucks, both times)
I’m in deer country, though. We’re so swarming with deer that kids get off school for the opening day of shotgun season.
I’ve hit 4 deer, 3 different times.
The second time I hit 2 at once: I was coming around a corner in the poring rain and there was a herd of deer walking across the road, nose to tail. I hit the brakes but it was too late: I hit one on the head with my left headlight and the one in front of it was hit by right headlight. Both deer went bouncing off into the road, but in different directions.
A car had been coming toward me and saw the whole thing. The driver stopped and asked if I was going to use the deer carcasses, because if not they would take them home to their dogs.
This was before cell phones. One headlight still worked so I bent it back until it was more or less pointed forward and limped the ~2 miles back home.
Stupid animals.
Hunting deer with shotguns? 
Sure.
They only started allowing rifle around here recently, and that was pretty controversial.
IME the shotgun shell is one large projectile (a slug) instead of actual shot. I’ve always heard them called “pumpkin balls”.
And you have 'buck’shot. Not sure if that’s named for hunting deer though…
Thanks. Hadn’t heard of that.
I hit a deer last Friday going 55 at night. It was suddenly just there and there was nothing to be done. Bumper dented and hanging off. Headlight glass broken. Hood and grill damage. Waiting now for estimate.
Yep! It’s apparently safer than hunting with a higher powered rifle because the projectile doesn’t go as far (if I understand it; I’m a rare non-hunter around here, though I do like target shooting).
That, AIUI, is why it was controversial here to allow rifles; though I don’t think the accident rate has gone up any. I suspect, however, that that might be because the number of hunters, in particular of out-of-area hunters, has gone down drastically since I moved here; so there are a lot fewer people coming out on weekends and Thanksgiving from the cities, with no apparent idea that there are humans and livestock living all around here, well supplied with beer [ETA the hunters, not the livestock, and only some of the local humans], and apparently under the impression that if you let off enough shots you’re bound to hit something.
We do have some local fools who “hunt” in similar fashion; but reducing the total number seems to me have made things overall safer, which may be more than making up for the additional risk presented by rifles as opposed to shotguns.
Hunting with slugs also requires you to get closer to the deer. Which requires more stalking skill. Or a better hide.
All of which tend to discourage the “Hunting’s just an excuse to get drunk in the woods and make loud BANG! noises.” crowd.
IME shotguns instead of rifles didn’t discourage the beer-and-BANG! crowd thirty or forty years ago. They bang pretty nicely, after all.
Bow season, now. That discourages them. I don’t worry at all about bow season; only the people who really pay attention to what they’re shooting at show up for that.
Two or three years ago I found a fawn, dead, with an arrow through its chest.
Somehow the stories about US-deer remind me of sheep in Scottland: their only aim in life seems to be to find a new way to die involving a car. Riding a motorcycle there felt dangerous!
I hope your comprehensive damage coverage does also cover moose licking your car as discussed in the neighboring thread, that is something sheep never attempted with my motorcycle.
In Germany, if you hit a deer or any other biggish animal (a rabbit will not count, a wild boar will) you have to inform the authorities: a forest guard will come and take the carcass. Even if you killed it and it damaged your car (or you damaged your car with it, depending on how you want to see it) it is still not yours to keep. Failing to call the forest guard might cost you your driving license (they call it Unfallflucht). Just in case you ever rent a car in Germany and drive through the woods.
AIUI in many US states you also have the same reporting requirement.
But having reported it and being met by a peace officer or game officer, they can issue some sort of receipt that proves you didn’t poach the animal. At which point you can keep the carcass if you want it.
And of course roadkill cuisine is quite a thing in the US too. Google further at your peril. 
I was not aware of this. A quick Google shows that is not the case in Oregon, so I guess I’m off the hook.
Nope. Collision covers collisions with other cars or fixed objects (trees, fences, poles, etc.). Animals are under comprehensive.
I think you’re supposed to report it in NY, at least if there’s significant damage to the car or to the deer.
You’re certainly supposed to report it if you want to keep the carcass as you’re supposed to get it tagged. You can also donate it, at least around here; there’s a whole network of small slaughterhouses and food pantries that will get the meat to people who need it.
The behavior of sheep on unfenced roads across open moorland is interesting. If they are on the road and a car approaches, they will usually run away from the car along the road, and dodge only at the last moment. This is an evolved strategy to evade predators. Obviously real predators are not constrained to roads, so the fact that the sheep stays on the road is incidental. What it’s doing is running directly away from the direction from which the perceived predator is approaching, and dodging sideways only at the last moment if the predator catches up. If the sheep were to run perpendicular to the direction of approach of the predator - i.e. turn off the road as soon as it sees the car - then the predator could turn diagonally to intercept it.
What I saw was rather like this: