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Old 07-16-2017, 03:03 PM   #1
CrazyCain
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Oh "DEER" whistles

SO looking at that thread about keeping mice out of the trailer and the dryer sheets and all that, got me a wondering (again)......What do you all think about Deer Whistles.. I have always had them on my trucks and cars and have, jeez knock on wood, never came even close to hitting one and we see them all the time...I see alot of trucks with push bars on them too...They do actually look up or scoot off the side of the road when i come upon them.. hummmm




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Old 07-16-2017, 03:32 PM   #2
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I have never used them ..... I thought that they would be something else to clean the fur out of if I did hit a deer. I came close many times but knocking on your same piece of wood, have never hit one. I stopped once to let three deer leisurely walk across the road only to have the forth one run into the side of my truck. ( he must have been on his cell phone or something.)

In theory, I guess they should work, but if they can't hear my Cummins clattering down the road, what good would a whistle do. JM2¢, Hank
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Old 07-16-2017, 03:38 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hankpage View Post
In theory, I guess they should work, but if they can't hear my Cummins clattering down the road, what good would a whistle do. JM2¢, Hank
I'm right there with you, my IDI may only be a smigen quieter.
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Old 07-16-2017, 04:14 PM   #4
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I use them. I've hit deer before, but never when I had the whistles a vehicle. It may be luck, or they may actually work.
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Old 07-16-2017, 04:19 PM   #5
Ken / Claudia
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Some guys at OSP said they work great. I may be wrong but, understood the sound of the whistle scares them. Where in if they live near a roadway the vehicle traffic does not. This what I was taught for night time which was mostly my adult life working patrol. Flip off headlights hit horn, turn lights back on and they normally are gone. Note, best done on a straight part of the road.
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Old 07-16-2017, 06:17 PM   #6
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I have no idea if they work but I know they don't hurt; I have them on all my vehicles. For $5 a pair what do you have to lose? I've hit several deer; last one the repairs were almost $4k. I now have Ranch Hand grill guards on both my trucks and my Jeep. Of course that didn't help last year when a buck attacked and rammed into drivers side door of my truck (I was doing 55mph, he lost). He hit it hard enough to bend the heavy crash beam inside the door. Where I live, I can hardly drive anywhere without seeing deer.
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Old 07-16-2017, 07:05 PM   #7
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When I was younger I used to ride 24 hour ralleys on a motorcycle for charity. When you're ripping along trying to ride at least 1100 miles in 24 hours in order to accumulate enough points to win, you need all the luck you can muster. The most quiet motorcycles were the ones that hit deer. The CHP at the time used them. I never hit a deer on the bike with or without deer whistles, but I had a nice sounding four into one pipe. I did hit a deer once with a 12V Cummins pickup, so noise is is no guarantee.

Like a friend's Jewish grandma used to say about chicken soup for a cold, "It can't hoit."
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Old 07-16-2017, 07:36 PM   #8
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Deer will "shy away" from noises that they are not familiar with. I've sat in a deer stand and used a turkey call to mask my movements. They don't even look up. So, as long as only a few people have the deer alert whistles on their bumper they'll probably help prevent "collisions"... But, just as the deer become "oblivious" to cars and trucks on the highway, the more people who have the whistles mounted, the less attention the deer will pay to the "new noise" that now is on almost every car....
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Old 07-16-2017, 11:14 PM   #9
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I've hit deer, moose, caraboo.....etc. I've found that the young ones respond to the whistles but the mature don't. When the turbos first came out they worked great at getting them off the roads but now they're used to them.
One truck I had written off and the antlers came through the windshield inches from me while my 16 yr old daughter was sleeping across the seat with her head on my lap.
From that day on you can leave a full glass of wine on my counter while I drive down the back hwys and not a drop will spill.
Also the kids are buckled up as that really scared the **** out of me.
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Old 07-17-2017, 05:57 AM   #10
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Being a relatively serious biker I have done a little research on whether the whistles work or not. This site http://www.thevog.net/threads/deer-w...fred-rau.3439/ seems to have done more work than the average study. To save you the effort (it is a long report) I'll sum it up for you:
"In response to the anecdotal evidence, I offer that the following entries have been unanimously concluded the total ineffectiveness of air-powered ultrasonic Deer alerts:

The Georgia Game and Fish Department
The University of Wisconsin at Madison
The University of Michigan
The University of Georgia
The Ohio State Police
The Utah State Police
Washington State University
The University of Connecticut
The Acoustical Society of America
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
The California Department of Transportation
Texas A &M University"

"The Bottom Line

Okay, so we now know that air-powered deer whistles are, for all intents and purposes, completely useless. And we also know that at least to of the electronic-type animal alerts work, at least after a fashion.

However, I must point out that that though these units elicited a response from the deer tested, remember what our animal behavior experts warned us about the varying responses we might expect due to the animal’s age, sex, time of year, etc.

We can’t rule out the possibility that one of these units, if used in the presence of a buck during the mating season, might elicit the same kind of “flight,”rather than the desired “flight,” response. And I think we can all agree, as motorcyclists, that could be a very bad thing.

In the end, the best advice is that which we’ve heard for years: When in an area known to be frequented by deer, slow down, and be alert. Scan the roadsides carefully, and if possible, avoid riding through such areas and dawn or dusk, when the deer are much more likely to be out grazing. And if you do see a deer, or even just a flicker of movement somewhere in your peripheral vision, flash your lights and honk your horn. Even the people who make and sell the electronic alert systems admit that your vehicle horn is likely to be more effective than their deer alerts."

Now you know......
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Old 07-17-2017, 07:57 AM   #11
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I hit my second Bambi this year on the same road and within a couple miles of the last one 3-4 years ago and this being an interstate I'm on only about 3x every two years. I've talked to several folks that drive that I-88 between Schenectady and Binghamton for work regularly and state that their deer whistles have never helped and that they just expect to have an occasional encounter. And that Ford 6.7 - quieter then the V10 preceding it. Luckily, the damage in both cases was minimal with just a big dent in the real steel bumper on this truck as well as a $125 fog light. The bumper straightened 95% via strong application of a BFH. The deer - RIP, Bambis Now those turkeys I 'encountered' last weekend on I-87 - sigh
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Old 07-17-2017, 08:11 AM   #12
hankpage
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I guess the deer have become like most men ..... after a while you just seem to tune out the wife's voice, like selective hearing.
I know that I will pay dearly for this post, pun intended, Hank
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Old 07-17-2017, 10:43 AM   #13
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HAHAaaaa, well I'll tell ya what. When hunting , and see a possible shot. I whistle loud, the deer will stop look and ,,, ta da. it's mine. Now that's a good whistle..!!
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Old 07-17-2017, 03:24 PM   #14
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I actually got paid to test them once. It was easy just do the math of how far they say deer can hear them and how many feet per second your doing at 55 MPH.

SPLAT!!!!
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Old 07-17-2017, 04:06 PM   #15
CrazyCain
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Quote:
Originally Posted by notanlines View Post
Being a relatively serious biker I have done a little research on whether the whistles work or not. This site http://www.thevog.net/threads/deer-w...fred-rau.3439/ seems to have done more work than the average study. To save you the effort (it is a long report) I'll sum it up for you:
"In response to the anecdotal evidence, I offer that the following entries have been unanimously concluded the total ineffectiveness of air-powered ultrasonic Deer alerts:

The Georgia Game and Fish Department
The University of Wisconsin at Madison
The University of Michigan
The University of Georgia
The Ohio State Police
The Utah State Police
Washington State University
The University of Connecticut
The Acoustical Society of America
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
The California Department of Transportation
Texas A &M University"

"The Bottom Line

Okay, so we now know that air-powered deer whistles are, for all intents and purposes, completely useless. And we also know that at least to of the electronic-type animal alerts work, at least after a fashion.

However, I must point out that that though these units elicited a response from the deer tested, remember what our animal behavior experts warned us about the varying responses we might expect due to the animal’s age, sex, time of year, etc.

We can’t rule out the possibility that one of these units, if used in the presence of a buck during the mating season, might elicit the same kind of “flight,”rather than the desired “flight,” response. And I think we can all agree, as motorcyclists, that could be a very bad thing.

In the end, the best advice is that which we’ve heard for years: When in an area known to be frequented by deer, slow down, and be alert. Scan the roadsides carefully, and if possible, avoid riding through such areas and dawn or dusk, when the deer are much more likely to be out grazing. And if you do see a deer, or even just a flicker of movement somewhere in your peripheral vision, flash your lights and honk your horn. Even the people who make and sell the electronic alert systems admit that your vehicle horn is likely to be more effective than their deer alerts."

Now you know......
Even though i do swear by the deer alerts , i agree 100% with your last paragraph. If one crosses in front of me, I bess slow down to a crawl cause there just might be some more coming!!! Ride safe!!!!!!!!
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