Light transport jet Captain reported striking a deer just after touchdown; at a non-towered airport during dawn VMC conditions. The Captain applied full braking but was unable to avoid the deer and sustained aircraft damage.

Narrative

Moments after landing on Runway XX in ZZZ; 2 deer were spotted running left to right approximately 10-50 ft. from the runway edge. Both pilots called them out; and evasive action in the form of full braking was attempted. I'd considered a go-around momentarily; but decided against this; as I deemed the risk of still striking the large animal; then bringing the aircraft back in the air with potentially serious damage was not worth it. The deer were approximately 800 ft. from the touchdown point when the aircraft struck the trailing deer with the nose/right fuselage/RH wing leading edge at approximately 60-80 kts. IAS. The leading deer made it across the runway without any incident. A call by the SIC (second in command) was made on the CTAF to notify any traffic in the area of the possibility of a runway hazard. Airport operations personnel were also notified immediately. Upon parking the airplane and executing a post flight inspection; there was damage found on the NLG (nose landing gear) RH gear door; standby IASP (Integrated Air Data and Stall Protection) probe; and RH wing inboard leading edge. The landing gear door had been fully detached at the hinge points and was later retrieved from the runway. The deer appeared to be a full grown white-tailed doe. Airport operations found the deer had crawled its way off of the right side of the runway on its own. Both pilots identified the wildlife entering the runway edge almost immediately after touchdown. Given the identification of the animals being present did not occur until almost immediately after touchdown; and the proximity and rate of closure to the animals; made it essentially impossible to avoid the strike with any reasonable or safe intervention. Both pilots called out the hazard. I informed the PM (pilot monitoring) that full braking was being applied and that a go-around would not be attempted. Airport operations later informed us that they usually do a runway inspection and clear out wildlife early in the morning. This had not yet been done prior to our arrival. On the part of the crew; a potentially viable mitigation strategy could be to call the operations of uncontrolled fields where the risk of wildlife being present is high; and ask that an inspection or clearing could be attempted prior to our arrival. Additionally; extra vigilance should be taken when going into these types of airports. This is a threat that could have been discussed in the cockpit during the approach briefing so that the heightened awareness required for this type of situation was informed and understood.