Mistakes can happen, but also some people are too ignorant to make decisions, and shouldn't be hunting.
An example:
I was a teenager in a small community close to Mt. St. Helens before it erupted. This was the hunting season after the Columbus-day-storm, which uprooted millions of trees in our area... A "hunter" and his son-in-law from out-of-state decided to go hunting for a buck. (Their first hunt, by the way) They had their deer tags and rifles and started hunting the Toutle River drainage coming off Mt. St. Hel...
They wound up shooting 5 (yes, 5) cow elk which were blocked-in just like a corral in a small draw with trees down on the exits out of the draw.
They didn't know what to do with all the "deer", so their son-in-law drove back home and returned the next morning with his flatbed truck and a winch. They winched the bloated cows which had not been gutted onto the flatbed and drove them to the game department checkout to report their "deer" success.
The game warden in our area gave me this story the afternoon after it had happened... He looked like he could have used a stiff drink.
They lost their licenses, lost their guns, lost their vehicles, and had a very large fine.
