They don't work. Plain and simple. Save your money and ride carefully.

 

You may not, or you may, hit deer.
But you sure as hell will attract dogs.....

 

Well. all of the Country Sheriff's Offices in my area of the State have put them on their patral cars and the numbers went way down on critter crashes. I'm sure it will not stop all of the encounters but if it drops the odds I'm all for using them.

 

Are the devices supposed to make the deer freeze in their tracks or make them run off? If its the later the problem is you can't control which direction they will go. Like others have said, its more common sense defensive riding than anything, but deer are like drivers who blow the red light on you, you never can predict when that will happen. I try to stay off the road at dusk, but if I'm caught in a rural area around that time I ride slower and with increased awareness.

I don't blame the damn deer, we killed off all of its predators and upset the balance of nature. In my area deer are more unpredictable because constant logging and clear cutting is going on. The two times I had encounters with deer was in broad daylight, not pucker moments, but a couple to a few seconds away from having a unscheduled meeting with Bambie.

 

Pretty funny...

 

Zoo, +1 on what agapsdiver said. I have seen the Hornet device work more than once while riding. IMHO, the main advantage with having an electronic device (NOT an "air-activated" one, I don't think they work) is that the deer will hear you coming from a good distance. This "heads up" can, not 100% of the time, but can....prevent a case of the deer being "spooked" by your ride and jumping out in front of you.
As many folks have posted on this subject, you still need to slow down and use common sense when you are in a high threat area.

 

Body shops are full of cars with them

 

They're useless. Well, not totally. They make a good forum conversation.

 

I drove a tow truck for 15 years and I can say with some expert knowledge that they DO NOT work. We always found it funny when we found these mounted on car vs. deer. Well, I guess it worked up until it didn't. Just as many have hinted, those things don't make up for common sense. FT

 

I thought I was suppossed to mount them to the deer. No?