Cessna pilot reported a deer strike that resulted in an aborted takeoff and damage to the aircraft.

Narrative:

I was taking off in a cessna 172 at night at 50R. I was making three takeoffs and landings at night in order to be able to fly passengers at night. I flew once around the pattern; landed; and taxied back to the beginning of the runway. I looked down the runway; and it was clear. I started my normal takeoff roll and reached 50 kts. I was just about to rotate when a herd of five deer jumped onto the runway from the left side. The dear ran in front of the airplane; and the airplane struck one of the dear. There was no action I could have taken to avoid hitting the dear; as the plane was moving too fast to bring it to a full stop in time; and the herd was dispersed across the entire runway. I immediately aborted the takeoff by pulling the power to idle and applying full brakes. Control of the aircraft was never fully lost. I then proceeded to taxi back to the FBO and shut off the airplane. Upon examination; the right landing gear strut had struck the dear. The aluminum casing for the strut was damaged and morphed; although the interior structural component of the strut appeared undamaged. The brake also did not seem to be affected while taxiing. The deer was found dead on the runway. I contacted the nearest approach control and notified them of the incident. The presence of wildlife on the airstrip caused the problem. Moving forward; preventative measures should be taken at 50R to prevent wildlife form entering the field.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Cessna pilot reported a deer strike that resulted in an aborted takeoff and damage to the aircraft.

Narrative: I was taking off in a Cessna 172 at night at 50R. I was making three takeoffs and landings at night in order to be able to fly passengers at night. I flew once around the pattern; landed; and taxied back to the beginning of the runway. I looked down the runway; and it was clear. I started my normal takeoff roll and reached 50 kts. I was just about to rotate when a herd of five deer jumped onto the runway from the left side. The dear ran in front of the airplane; and the airplane struck one of the dear. There was no action I could have taken to avoid hitting the dear; as the plane was moving too fast to bring it to a full stop in time; and the herd was dispersed across the entire runway. I immediately aborted the takeoff by pulling the power to idle and applying full brakes. Control of the aircraft was never fully lost. I then proceeded to taxi back to the FBO and shut off the airplane. Upon examination; the right landing gear strut had struck the dear. The aluminum casing for the strut was damaged and morphed; although the interior structural component of the strut appeared undamaged. The brake also did not seem to be affected while taxiing. The deer was found dead on the runway. I contacted the nearest approach control and notified them of the incident. The presence of wildlife on the airstrip caused the problem. Moving forward; preventative measures should be taken at 50R to prevent wildlife form entering the field.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1693821
Time
Date	201910
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	50R.Airport
State Reference	TX
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Cessna Aircraft Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Takeoff
Flight Plan	None
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Single Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Private
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 2 Flight Crew Total 60 Flight Crew Type 60
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe Ground Event / Encounter Person / Animal / Bird