Posted on 10/07/2010 5:17:22 AM PDT by marktwain
Washington State has had in recent memory three fairly high-profile hunting-related fatalities in which the victims were all non-hunters, and were killed by people who thought they were shooting at game.
In two of those cases, the hunters thought they were shooting at black bears and in the third case, the hunter believed he fired at an elk. This column discussed the most recent of those incidents here, and mentioned the use of fluorescent hunter orange by non-hunters during the hunting season.
We also contacted Wayne East, executive director of the Colorado-based International Hunter Education Association (IHEA). Currently, about 40 states mandate the use of hunter orange, and it is taught rigorously in hunter education courses how important it is to visually confirm your target. One cannot simply shoot at a movement. That’s neither responsible nor safe. In three known cases here in the Evergreen State, it’s been fatal.
Over the weekend, I spoke with a pal about these incidents, and one might wonder if hunter orange, or the lack of it, might have played a part in these tragedies. Before anybody blows a gasket, just consider the possibility, however unlikely (and even foolish), that the shooters in these incidents including a 14-year-old kid, might have subconsciously presumed that the image they saw – the target – could not have been a person because he/she wasn’t wearing orange. Sounds stupid, right?
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
IIRC, nobody wearing blaze orange has ever been shot.
one idiot assumed cars with ABS would stop better and wanted to blame people he would possibly rear end even though it was he that liked to practice tailgating
Even that can be dangerous. I was unable to find the total numbers on the internet, but it appears a substantial numbers of deer hunting deaths are hunters who fall from their stands.
Just before hunting season while milking the cows on my uncle's farm, we would paint the word "Cow" on each one before they left the milk house.
They were Holsteins and thus black and white but we did lose a couple over the years to idiots or just plain nasty people.
>>back when ABS first came out, I worked with a guy who thought people who bought cars with ABS should have to pay HIGHER insurance rates to pay for accidents where people who tailgated them and then rear ended them (because the ABS driver were able to stop so well). so in his mind, the ABS owning/rear ended drivers, were the cause of the accident.<<
Why did you include comments about cars in a thread about hunting safety? I am totally lost as to what you are referring to.
Frustrated fools who didn’t see any game need to kill something. After all they did buy a ‘hunting license’.
saying blaze orange causes hunting accidents is tantamount to saying that good brakes cause rear ending accidents to the cars with the good brakes....
sorry if it was a bit obtuse....maybe I need to switch my brand of coffee....I was a bit unfocused when I wrote it.
Rule Four: Be sure of your target and what is beyond it.
Makes sense to me -- but I was one of those guys who wore a seat belt when you had to buy and install your own...
>Also, I refuse to hunt big game (including deer) with a shotgun. It’s just ridiculous, cruel, and irresponsible, even if it is “safer” according to government.
What about slug/sabot shotgun rounds?
Thanks for the explanation.
for 30 years the county I hunted in was shotgun/pistol/muzzleloader only. it has recently become a rifle county and I now use my Marlin 336 .35 Remington... or a 7mm Mauser sporter.
those deer, I took with a shotgun were mostly with foster slugs, a few with sabots all in all around 22 deer. this is brush country and I have never seen a shot over 100yds.
when hit in the chest, shoulder or even hind quarters with a 12 gauge slug, the deer go DOWN...mostly right away....the foster slug although slow makes a nice 70+ caliber hole in a deer. there is less hydrostatic damage to the meat than lets say a 30-06 so there is less waste.
you are not hunting undergunned with a 12 gauge shotgun with slugs, just keep it under 100 yds with foster slugs and under 200yds with sabots. I would not think twice about shooting a black bear a moose or an elk with one at 75 yds or less....and it is known that fishing/hunting guides in Alaska carry short barreled pump shotguns with sabot slugs as backup in brown/grizzly country as at close range this thing is a sledgehammer...
I can believe it. I had a real yo-yo about to shoot my Weimaraner once because “he thought he saw a deer go into that bush” and was gonna take a “sound shot”. Even AFTER I yelled “DONT SHOOT THE DOG” at him a couple times. It took a shot into the air (actually into a tree) with my shotgun to get him to stop. They REALLY need to separate the deer and upland bird seasons here. Either that, or the next Weim I get will have to wear an orange vest, or Level IV body armor.
I’ve been pinned down by fire while hunting deer, also. I wasn’t sure of that was another “hunter” or a dope grower, though.
thank you...
Say WA? Evergreen State ping One day during elk hunting I had a herd of elk come out of a thicket and run by me. All at once the morons a canyon over opened up and I had bullets whizzing by me. I hit the ground and ate dirt until the elk were gone. I moved to hunting with a bow and black powder and haven't had a problem since.
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