I decided to go to the St Joe Cafe for lunch yesterday
I didn't see a dead deer going up but saw what looked like a monster doe on my way back. I stopped and it was a monster buck that had lost its antlers. It looked fresh but I couldn't tell for sure, it was going onto rigor which means it may have been there a few hours.
About that time my brother-in-law came by, I stopped him to see if he had seen the deer on his way to the barn, he hadn't but did say there was a van pulled off at the honkytonk across the street with whole front end mashed in that had been there since early this morning.
We discussed it and decided the deer had been there too long, it was so huge I couldn't have loaded in my Honda anyway although I keep a tarp in my car just in case I need to haul home a road kill. All that meat going to waste, at least 100lbs worth.
I looked up the onset of rigor and it said 5 or 6 hours for the main trunk, this deer's front shoulders were in rigor, it had been in the sun too long.
I hate to miss out on a good roadkill, here we can pick them up and take them home, no questions asked, no need to contact the DNR. Over the years I have picked up 3, two of which I saw get hit, one near my house wasn't on the side of the road when went to town but was when I came back about 45 minutes later.
My last fresh roadkill, still steaming when I cut it up.