Man Shot Twice Trying To Shoot Caged Raccoon(IN)

kcci.com ^ | 25 February, 2012 | AP

[marktwain]

REDFIELD, Iowa -- A rural Redfield man is being treated for two gunshot wounds after an attempt to shoot a raccoon caught in a live trap backfired.

[Titan Magroyne]

That right there is just about the coolest kid-oriented program I've ever heard of. IMHO, it deserves its own thread: The kids get to turkey hunt from a blind, using a shotgun with the sights specially video connected with a screen, so the guide/mentor can also see their sight picture.
To accommodate their physical disabilities, as for well as safety reasons, the gun is fired via a squeeze-bulb; but both the shooter AND the guide have one, and BOTH must be squeezed simultaneously, or the gun doesn’t fire.
To add to the experience, their parents/guardians are in the blind with them, too.
The whole cost for them to participate, including transportation, meals, and accommodations, are covered by the program. A local rancher donates the use of his property for the hunting. What's the name/location of that event?

[Lady Jag]

This man is the literal version -

[Slings and Arrows]

[Starstruck]

The young ones are the ones I have to shoot in the cage. They are vicious. The older ones seem to relax and enjoy the ride out to uninhabited country. I suspect they have taken the ride before.

[goat granny]

The only animal I let out alive from the trap at first was a young possum...I drove 10 miles away and animals have territories they try to return to....No coon got out alive. I let ground hogs out but my neighbor has a problem with them, they can undermind a barn wall with their burrows and when I told him I let them go, he said to call him and he would dispatch them...I did and he did....

[LucyT]

Great thread; funny comments.

[Starstruck]

Possums I have no trouble with. Even though I think they look like giant rats, I can take them out to no man’s land and they are docile. I usually have to shake the cage to get them out. Squirrels generally kill themselves before I can take them anywhere. The reason I don’t kill the larger coons is they seem better behaved and I hate digging graves.

[ApplegateRanch]

I’d have to contact the pastor of that church to find out; it’s not our church. May take a while, but I’ll see what I can find out further.

[goat granny]

I was lucky, our farm was over 10 acres and they didn't get a burial, they got dumped in the back of the property...and forgotten, even worms and birds need to eat...:O) We had so many birds killed by coons, I never would let one loose...One got into the chicken coop one night and killed 1/2 of our chickens, only ate one, my guinea's had macerated feet, saved them and their legs....killed and ate baby turkeys, one of my banty roosters I had trained to fly up on my arm. Found his head on the roof of the coop and his body in my front yard...they kill by decapitating... Don't want to list the other fowl those nasty basturds killed....I hate coons...

Your a compassionate man to let them live or woman cannot tell my your name.....:O)

[Titan Magroyne]

Thank you. I am bowled over at the system you’ve described for empowering those kids to enjoy marksmanship.

I’m as fascinated with the cool factor of the very notion as with the genius mind(s) that designed the safeties for the kids & monitors. On such cleverness was this country built.

[mountainbunny]

The program sounds just wonderful.

I am sitting here wondering if there is anything like it here; not sure at the moment, but plan to find out.

Every state should have something like this.