[Kenneth Niles Bora]

It would seem to me that with the exception of the lurking PETA folk keeping tabs on us all, the majority of us here are hunters. Ether avid, semi regular, occasional, or have gone out once or twice ?for the dogs?. That said, how many of you have been involved in a hunting accident? I consider myself an avid hunter. I was brought to the family Deer camp as soon as I was old enough to haul fire wood and water, had to earn your keep to get a bunk. I buy my licenses every year on January 2nd, when the town clerk opens up for the first of the year. I have been involved in one hunting accident. I was the shooter. I remember it like it was yesterday. It was the fall of 1985 and I was hunting upland game in Starksboro, Vt. One of the members of the party announced, ?I am going off to the right, see you all back at the trucks.? He disappeared and we continued on in a straight line. Two of us walking on ether side of an ancient stonewall in the forest. Stonewalls on a sunny autumn afternoon are great for holding grouse. After about fifteen minutes time slowly walking the sides of the wall we flushed a couple birds. I had a perfect going away shot and cleanly dropped my bird. As it folded up and fell I hear ? I?m Hit!? from the direction of the bird. I was very surprised and ?Knew? it was Jerome, who had gone off to the right. He was not in view at all. He had intentionally gone just a little to the right and forged ahead of us. When we got to him he had a few trickles of blood coming off his forehead and neck. He had not taken a direct blast but as the shot pattern spreads out over distance and goes through foliage, he got the bottom of the pattern in the face. First I excitedly asked ?Are You OK?? Then I screamed ?WHY THE HELL ARE YOU HERE!!!? You went off to the right!? He said he wanted to get in front of us to get the birds he was sure we would flush but miss. He is an idiot! Still to this day he is an idiot, but with scars on his face from my shot. Even when you are sure you are doing everything right, shooting accidents can happen. Every time I hunt the Lewis Creek WMA in Starksboro I think of Jerome. Every time he looks in the mirror, he thinks of me.

Ken Bora

 

[badbullgator]

I was peppered at a dove shoot once. About 30-40 yards away from the shooter. Left a lot of red marks on my chest and cracked my sunglasses. I was pi$$ed off but unhurt.

 

[Dave Combs]

Lost count of how many times I've had shot rained down on me. Both on public and private land, both from people within my party and those that were not.

 

[achiro]

Does a hunting accident need to include an injury?

I have been peppered across my back before. Not sure if it would have penetrated my skin if I hadn't been wearing a coat and hunting vest. We were in a line like we were suppose to be, I was in view. The guy had never hunted quail before. I let him know how I felt about it. We killed several more quail that day. Thank God I was able to.

I have been duck hunting several times and had shot shower down on us from other hunting parties. Not sure if that could be called an accident but I am never happy about it. I try to avoid crowded areas anymore.

One narrow escape a couple of years ago. I arrived at a spot to deer hunt. There was a wheat field that I was going to hunt. As I got my gear and started to walk I look up and there is a deer standing in the field. A guy ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FENCE started shooting at the deer, she was directly in between us when he fired. Dirt flew up within 50 yards in front of me. I was freaked, I didn't even hunt, just quickly dove behind the truck, waited on him to stop shooting. Climbed in and drove off. I called the land owner of the place I was hunting and he called the land owner of the other place. There wasn't suppose to be anyone there. The game warden didn't find anyone. :evil:

 

[badbullgator]

Lost count of how many times I've had shot rained down on me. Both on public and private land, both from people within my party and those that were not.

Well if we are counting shot raining down on you, then I am the victim almost every time I hunt public land. I don't count that; shot coming down on you from a skyward shot is not a big threat. I have had that happen on shooting ranges.

 

[Terry Britton]

I have been involved with two.

One had another group of hunters in full camo without their legal orange on public land while quail hunting. These guys new where we were at, and came accross the field (half mile) and out of a ditch to meet our dogs on point. When the quail fllushed and flew at us, one of the guys standing to my right was hit pretty hard. This accident was due to gross neglegence on the group of strangers. Lucky my friend wasn't hurt too bad.

The second one still goes in the stats as an accident even though a gun wasn't the culpret. After downing a nice buck 400 yards on the other side of the fence the icy Friday morning after thanksgiving in 1987, I proceeded to find a place to cross the fence. It was a 9 wire fence that came up to my shoulders.

I found a steel fence post to climb over the fense. My footing slept, and I reache to the steel fense post too catch myself. When I caught myself, the fense post went through my left hand. I was able to pull myself off of the post and get over the fense. I had enough clothes on to protect me, and would have been okay if I had not reacted to catch myself.

I decided to 1/2 mile walk directly to the road where a neighbor picked me up rather than the mile back to my truck or 2 miles home. It would have been interesting driving a stick shift back in to town with one hand.

It is also pretty gross to open your hand and see the tendons and bones with bleeding. The pain didn't set in until day 3 or so.

From now on, I find a place to either go through or crawl under fenses.

Also, the guy shot while quail hunting also had a similiar fense crossing injury when he was younger.

 

[Arturo]

Yes I had an accident. I'm sure you heard about it through all the media coverage so I won't bore you by repeating it. :wink:


Dubya

 

[Terry A]

I was 15. I peppered someone who had sneeked onto the property and was hiding in some reeds. Had no idea he was there until the yelling started. He had lots of marks but no damage

 

[Roger Perry]

I heard through a second party that while at a hunt test a gunner slussed a duck on the water that was in line with the gallery and peppered the people there including the AKC rep.

 

[Jerry]

One of the most profound statements I ever heard came from a young man who was shooting the flyer at a FT. The flyer was the left bird, flighted to the right so the AOF would be some where near the center of the other gunners.

When the Test Dog ran, this young man waited and waited, then shot the bird where it would not fall to the Judges satisfaction. When the 8-point Judge sarcastically asked him if he could make the shot or not, his response, in an equally loud voice was:

"Yes Ma'am, I can make that shot every time but I'm not gonna shoot at my friends!!!"

The gun station was quickly rotated 180 degrees and all went well.

Jerry

 

[JS]

Not really an accident but long ago I was sitting in a boat with a good friend when he reached for his thermos or something and his gun went off. Fortunately, it was sitting, butt on the deck and pointed straight up, but obviously with the safety off. Didn't need to tell him what I thought of that trick and never been hunting with him since.
Your best friends, drinking buddies, golfing partners, etc. don't necessarily make your best hunting partners. Some of my best hunting buddies have been guys I rarely socialized with outside of the season. We were just on the same page in the field.
Not to take the thread in a different direction, but I don't understand the accidents happening because someone broke from the group; especially to retrieve a bird. When we drop a pheasant(s), everything stops while the birds are being brought in (usually amidst a bunch of bragging and/or razzing, etc.) What is the deal with someone going out to look for a bird and everyone else just keeps moving?? (Maybe that's a large group thing and I don't hunt in large groups.)
JS

 

[Guest]

accident

My husband was peppered while dove hunting by a Calif Lawyer they removed a few pellets but left some in his arm

 

[labdoc]

I missed a bird once (ok truthfully twice). Does that count as accident??? :lol:

 

[AmiableLabs]

I am forty-five years old, and I started hunting with my father when I was eight. With the exception of being peppered with falling shot two or three times, I have never seen or been involved in a hunting accident. (PTL)

BUT, I have HEARD of dozens. For instance, when the son of one of my hunting buddies shot and killed his dog when it was on point.

 

[Uncle Bill]

I've been both, but neither serious, just sprayed. Many times while blocking on pheasant hunts, and a couple times while hunting dove.

Only time I was the 'shooter', was when another blocker moved in closer to my "area of responsibility" without informing me, and was behind a hay bale when he got sprayed.

UB

 

[Chris Atkinson]

I witnessed a nephew shooting his uncle on an upstate NY pheasant hunt at close range. We all had gathered after a morning hunt to discuss lunch plans.

The nephew put his loaded over/under butt on the ground and leaned it against his knee while standing. (yes, a loaded gun was pointed directly at his face!) He twisted around, pulling a sweatshirt off over his head, and the gun fell. When it thudded to the ground, the mechanism let loose. His uncle's foot was two feet from the muzzle and took some of the pattern.

As the uncle hopped about on one foot saying "I'm hit, I'm hit." The shooter and the shooter's father both immediately snatched up the gun and began examining it to see why the gun went off. The dad exclaimed that the safety was on and that he was going to take the gun to a gunsmith. :roll:

Once the two generations got done finding a way to blame the equipment, rather than the irresponsibility of the poor operator, they began to pay attention to the uncle, who by that time was lying on the ground.

Luckily, the bulk of the pattern went into the dirt, making quite a little crater. About a dozen pellets or so tore into the man's foot. He made a complete recovery, as far as I know.

I had a couple opportunities to hunt with this father/son team again. I declined each time!

It is amazing that these sorts of "sportsmen" manage to pass hunter's safety courses!

********************************************************

Once my hunting partner and I were hunting in a little oxbow from my duckboat. A pair of mallards 'lit out of gunrange and were swimming into the spread. As my parner and I were discussing whether we were going to jumpshoot them when the got into range, my partner chose to slide his safety off prematurely. When he did, the gun discharged. It was pointing up at the sky, but the muzzle was below our ears (he had the butt of the gun on the floor of the boat).

That scared the heck out of me.

*********************************************************

Both of these were elementary violations of the simple rules that are paid lipservice to by every kid who passes a hunter's safety class. Like so many successes and failures, it typically comes down the the basics. Execute the basics and chances are that things will work out well.

 

[Gerard Rozas]

Used to guide duck and goose hunts in the rice fields east and west of Houston. It is alot different than what you would picture the avg client would be. Most were corperate purchase agents or sales people and many had never been hunting a day in their lives. It was common practice for someone to show up with their new gun still in the box, waders, coats, boots with the price tags still attached. Very dangerous situation.

I had one scare that changed the way I did hunts.

Rag spread hunting geese, had a client that discharged his shotgun into the levee next to us. After that I set up some rules that I always followed:

1. I would pick a spot on the horizen (oil tank, tree, Power lines) and require that everyone lay their guns on the ground pointing at the spot.

2. I would have everyone get away from their guns once they told me that they were all pointing properly.

3. I would personally walk the line and check the safetys - only then would I declare it safe for everyone to move around.

Basicly I ran it just like a shooting line at a gun range.

 

[crowncreek]

We where hunting in North Dakota in October of 2005 with four people in our hunting party. We had scout this field and it had several thousand geese and ducks using it. We set up the next morning on the X and everything was going fine, after the third or fourth flight of birds I was out with the dog picking up and I heard one of the guys with us say to the other two " What would you say if I said I shoot the tip of my toe off" and of course they where joking around and said shut up. He then replies no really I just shoot myself in the foot. At this point I am still out picking up birds and can hear some of what is being said and then I hear one of the guys say holly Sh*t we need your help (since I am a EMT I) still thinking it is a joke I say wait until I run this last blind and then I really hit me after they started to yelling at me that it was real. So I walk over to him and he is still laying in his lay-out blind and I look down and the tip of his boot is gone and all you can see is meat. So after doing some checking I find that it is just the tip of his toe(from the toe nail up) on his big toe that is missing. I carry a first aid kit with me all the time since of my line of work and we get the bleeding stop and then he decides he wants to go to the Hospital( I don't know if anyone here has every been to Hurdsfield ND but let me tell you it is quite a drive to the hospital) When the flight of birds where coming in and we called the shoots his gun had got hung in the stubble straps on his blind and we guess he had already knocked the safety of and hit the trigger. You could take a 12 gauge shell and put it into the entry hole on his boot and the rest was gone. We decided on of us would go with him to the hospital and the other two will stay with all the stuff and of course hunt. Needles to say it was the best day of hunting that I have every been apart of while they were gone to the hospital. They got back from the hospital a few hours later and told us that they would not give him any pain medicine just take some Advil and you will be fine. Also at the hospital they told him that he need to contact the local Sheriff when he got back to the field. So we make the call to the police so they can make a report. Well they come out and the cop says it is not his county we need to call the other county and he leaves. We call the other county and they get there about an hour later pull out into the field and ask what happened the four of our names and tells us to have a good hunt and drives off never getting out of the Truck. Needles to say about half way through this story it has turned in to a big Joke. When something like this happens you are so glad that everything is going to be fine that all you can do is joke about it to get over the fright. On the other hand I hope this is the last hunting incident that I am every a part off

 

[Steve Bean]

I have been witness to several accidents that resulted in minor personal injures, and have seen several 'near-misses' as well. Any one of these could have been catastrophic....if it were not for safe gun handling practices, or just plain luck. All involved experienced hunters, which IMO is the most likely bunch for something to happen. I read somewhere that at gunranges, those with experience were most likely to be involved in accidental discharges or injuries. It is probably luck that more injuries don't occur...and don't think you are immune or it can never happen, because it can, easier than you think.

 

[Terry Britton]

Basicly I ran it just like a shooting line at a gun range.

I have been on a guided quail hunt where the guide would only allow one person out of the jeep at a time to shoot over the dogs with only one shell in the gun at a time for safety reasons.

Towards the end of the day, the guide realized that my brother and myself were very safe and grew up hunting together, so we got to get out at the same time. My uncle and cousin who never hunted were restricted to getting out one at a time when it was their turn.

It was safe, and everyone had fun. I was surprised Cheney's guide didn't run the hunt in the same fashion.

--------------------------------------------
As far as friends, I had one friend lose his middle toe on his right foot to an unloaded .410. A deacon in my home town church blew out his kitchen cabinets and wife's china when going to clean an unloaded 12 guage in preparation for opening of quail season. Another friend and HS teacher blew a hole in his left arm when he was in Jr. High from a fence crossing accident which left his left hand crippled.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------