Wednesday, November 18, 2009

I swear I thought it was a deer up in that tree...in blaze orange...sipping coffee...

Accidents happen. I realize this. And yet, some are just so incredibly stupid and down right idiotic that they are inexcusable.

In my mind, gun accidents fall into this category. Specifically, gun accidents out in the field. While hunting.

Excuse me while I dust off my soap box podium.

First of all, I realize not every situation that involves someone getting shot in the woods is complete carelessness. Since I hunt primarily public land, I know a thing or two about having someone come across your little stake of the woods from time to time. Because of this, when you get a grouping of a few dozen people trolling around the same few acreages of hunting ground with guns that can hit something hundreds of yards away, it's a good likelyhood that an accident or two is gonna happen. But when you think about it, should that even happen? One of the things you learn when you are taking gun safety, and one of the things they emphasize strongly, is to know what lies beyond your target. You are taught to not only take into account what happens when you hit your traget, but also what happens when that bullet leaves your target. With that in mind, theoretically, you shouldn't ever shoot at something with a wide open space beyond it right? But bullets do richochette (sp?) and wandering around in the woods in the scenario played out above involves risk. Those of us who do go out in these situations accept it, and do whatever we can to avoid it.

Of all the accidents that happen, the one above about getting plunked by a stray bullet fired 300 yards away is one that I can kind of let go. Chalk it up to just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It probably should never happen sure, but it's not as careless and downright dumb as the scenario that inspires this post. And that is shooting at noise. Or shooting at "something". I'm sure many of you heard about the jackass that shot his little boy last season while turkey hunting. We'll ignore the fact that he had beer and pot in his system for now. He claims he mistook his boy for a turkey. Really. Have any of you seen a turkey before? And how about a little boy? Do YOU think they look alike? Regardless of that, the absolute #1 rule when it comes to hunting is know what you are shooting at. Not have an educated guess. Not kind of have an idea. KNOW, 100%, as in you see the target and know for sure it's what it is. Stories like this should never happen. If you can't see clearly, don't shoot. If you just saw a flash of it, don't shoot.

As a responsible hunter, I'm sick and tired of the dumbasses giving us that know what we are doing a bad rap. It's simple: know what you are shooting at. Never have the gun loaded until you are settled in. If you are stalking or hunting upland, always always ALWAYS know where your muzzle is pointed. It's not hard, it just takes a little bit of awareness and common sense. I'll step off the box now.

MN's rifle deer season wraps up (for the most part) this weekend. Be safe out there. We want to hear about the hunt from you, and if we do read about it in the paper, we want it to be because the deer was that big.

3 comments:

  1. Where do you put Cheney's shenanigans from a few years back on the all-time dumb ass hall-of-fame?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jeremy-At least in the top 5.

    Shotgun-Hunging is the product of 1) getting all wound up about a subject and writing angrily and 2) not caring about spell check and "actual" words.

    ReplyDelete

 
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