I've just ran over a pheasant :(

Oh, you can't help it. They are extraordinarily thick. It's why I dislike pheasant shoots - they're so damn stupid, hitting one isn't exactly a challenge.

Who are these people who think 50 on a country road is insane?

Do you live in the countryside?

One particularly horrible weekend we managed to kill about 7 of the bloody stupid things. Poor DD was traumatised for days.

We got the pressure washer out when we got home, but oh my God the mess. We ended up paying a car wash bloke double to clean the remainder off by hand.

NEVER turn your wheel or swerve for an animal. People get killed every day on the roads for doing this.

We live in hunting and shooting territory so I pass birds and animals on the road every day. I mutter to myself 'don't swerve, dont swerve' as I drive. Slightly crazy, but I value my life more than theirs!

I'd check your radiator in the morning. They can cause that sort of damage depending exactly which bit of the car hit it.

Spotty - my dad went on a shoot most weeks during the season - did I say that I HATE pheasant .

I looooove pheasant. my dads a gamekeeper

Lexie - the hand that feeds it ends up shooting it, they have to be pretty stupid! Some of them are really pretty though, I counted 6 different types this winter on the road to school.

I hate pheasant, my Dad made us eat it much too often when we were at home as it was "free" tight git. I spent my childhood worrying about biting into a piece of lead shot and wouldn't eat it now if you paid me.

Speed makes no difference to pheasants. You could approach at 10mph, check the road is clear, pull over to go around it and still it would find a way under your wheels.

I'd be upset too. But a) pheasants are very dim and b) shooting estates release more than 25 million of them into the wild each year (and the species is only here at all because it was brought over to be shot - it's native to Asia), so squashing one isn't an ecological disaster.

But if you spend your entire life on the same 50 odd miles of national speed limit country lanes you know where you need to slow down.

You can't drive around at 30mph worrying about whether a pheasant might decide to make an appearance.

NEVER EVER swerve to avoid an animal - I know someone who died doing this.

It's horrible to kill something though. I agree with others: the lesson is to drive more slowly. If you can't stop in time, then maybe you're going too fast to be safe.

Bettyboop why are you saying DP has never hit one, is it because you are not a driver by any chance? Country lanes round here are national speed limit so the OP was probably not going too fast at all.

Fifty on a country lame is fine if it's safe. I do it on parts, other parts i slow right down, depends on the road. I see deer all the time but the only time I've hit one was when it ran into my car on the main road of all places.

We have been known to hit more than one a day round here - they are incredibly stupid and when you live amongst them you don't worry so much - slamming on your brakes at 40 mph with a courier van behind you is much more dangerous than hitting a pheasant.

I ride horses and can't really see the comparison tbh (or tractors for that matter). Large slow moving animal, hopefully with something fluorescent or reflective being worn - vs - stupid bird that runs out of woodland/field at the side of the road.

Relax OP.

I would add to the general opinion that they are indeed daft birds.
I seem to remember that you can't legally collect something you have killed on the road but the car behind can??
At least it wasn't a deer.I had one of those jump out and it is terrifying.

Pheasants have had stupidity bred into them - theres no other reason for their incredible attempts to get killed.

BTW, etiquette is that you never pick up that which you have run over - the next person gets it.

Yep, they are idiots. I've had to stop many times because they just don't move. One lady was determined that her squashed mate was going to perk up in just a minute, and could possibly be encouraged to do so by pecking at his fresh entrails...I got out of the car to shoo her away, she went to the side of the road, then back again after I'd passed. Car behind me wasn't so thoughtful....

Well you should probably feel bad bout doing 50 on a narrow country lane, but not about the pheasant.

Ugh. I've not done it yet, but they seem to WANT to be run over the way they lurch pointy faced towards wheels.

Once I was driving down a lane and someone had hit one and it was still twitching so I went over it to finish it off

It made a satisfying crunch but I had to do it.

I wouldn't worry about it - there are loads of them.

YABU however not to pick it up and take it home for dinner, they are absolutely delicious if cooked right.
Pheasant shooting season finished a few weeks back and I've got about 30 of them in my freezer to see me through until October when I can go back out and get some more. They are brill in curry because the meat is so lean and has a nice flavour to it - rather than chicken which just takes on the taste of the sauce. They are also spectacular wrapped in streaky bacon and slow roasted!

I had a (non shooting)friend in the car with me once when I hit one. I saw it was injured but not dead so I pulled over and went back for it. She was so pleased that I was 'going to take it to a vet', until I wrung it's neck and had it for lunch on the following Sunday.

Leaving it in the road is a bit of a waste!

They were bred to be stupid so the upper class could shoot them

There are loads of country lanes here that are narrow and you can safely do 50.

I have a horse and I am sure I'm in no imminent danger from the op; I'm bigger than a pheasant for starters!

God, those birds are stupid. I live down a country lane and encounter them daily - I once hit the same one twice (no one behind me and a bit of time to slow down, so did, but the bloody thing ran TOWARDS me, I clipped it, it tried to fly off, but ended up colliding with my windscreen!). If you see a pheasant at the side of the road it will run out in front of you, it is one of the only things in life that is certain. Basically, don't feel bad.