>>78 year olds who aren't professional hunters shouldn't be doing this stuff.
True, but I think if 78-year-olds want to do something REALLY dangerous, they could spend a few nights in a hospital. All sorts of things can go wrong. They could miss a pellet floating around near your heart; immobilize you until you get an embolism; expose you to one of those supergerm hospital infections from bacteria that thrive on Mr. Clean; give you the wrong medication; drop you while moving you to another bed; not bother to start a course of preventive antibiotics until you have a wicked fever and the beginnings of blood poisoning. Et cetera.
Compared to that, hunting birds is a romp.
Yeah, but what was the alternative? Treat him in a house? The whole thing stinks.