Here's the one issue that still bothers me about this thread. The percieved threat that your life is in imminent danger while hunting. There's plenty of other circumstances where if someone is pointing a weapon at you, or what you believe is a weapon, in a hostile enviroment, that shooting first is justified. That one's easy enough.

The key is a hostile enviroment. A sitution where a reasonable person would percieve that their life is in imminent danger. We're talking about hunting situations. I don't consider that a hostile enviroment. I've never felt the need to fear murderers in the woods. Caution and worrys about hunters with poor judgement and poor gun handling is different story.

Isn't there any comradery amongst hunter's left?

Do you percieve fellow hunters as muderers and a real threat to your life?

Is there any tolorence for ingnorance or poor gun handling?

Think about all the examples of dumbphuckitude that you see at a public shooting range. We've all seen that. Unfortunately it carrys over to the field and hunting situations.

The blanket statement that someone will shoot another human being, in a hunting scenario, is IMO flat out wrong. There at least has to be qualifying and extreme extenuating circumstances to justify pulling the trigger and taking someone's life. It should be an absolute last resort in only the most unusual of circumstances rather than a knee jerk reaction. Even then you're probably going to kill an innocent person. I couldn't do it unless somebody shot at me first. I'm willing to gamble on the infinitesimal odds that I'm going to get shot vs the extreme odds that I'm going to prison for shooting first.

My first reation to somebody pointing anything at me would be to wave my hat and let them know I'm there.

There is one circumstance that greatly changes the hunting scenario and that's hunting in Arizona. PhilinAZ, do hear me on this one? Hunting near the US/Mex border poses a entirely different threat with the current issues there. The way things are now you're just putting yourself in harm's way. Personally, I wouldn't want to hunt or venture anywhere near the border. It shouldn't be like that, but it is.

Am I'm making any sense at all to those of you that have made the blanket statement that you're going to shoot somebody for pointing something at you?

It's the blind ingorance of poorly educated hunters and knee jerk reations of others that would justify far greater controls and requirements for hunter education and gun safety than currently exist. Do any of us really want that?

I'm absolutely amazed at some of the attitudes of the "knowlegeable" folks here on the fire.

Were supposed to be the good guys setting the right examples.