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Hunter injured in Pink Mountain Provincial Park





STARS Air Ambulance is currently en route to Pink Mountain Provincial Park to pick up an adult male who has sustained injuries as a result of a firearms related incident. Fort St. John RCMP Corporal Jodi Shelkie says the incident involves two hunters.





Hunter shot by accident

Fort St. John RCMP have revised their statement about what happened this morning.
RCMP now say the two men were in separate hunting parties, when one mistook the other for wildlife and mistakenly shot him due to poor visability. The injured man was sitting on his ATV at the time, and was shot in the knee.
The 56 year old from Delta was taken to Fort St. John Hospital and then transported to the hospital in Grande Prairie where he is in serious but non life threatening condition. The man who mistakenly shot him is from Vancouver Island.
The investigation is ongoing.

No excuse for something like that!

Partsman,

Does BC have a requirement to wear blaze orange? Even if you don't it doesn't sound as though due care was taken.

Jim

No, we do NOT and we do NOT want one. either. The problem, as I have witnessed many times at my range and sometimes in the bush, is that most "hunters" today have very little real gun knowledge/skills and our provincial "training" programmes, are too weak and do not give the skills needed to be safe and skilled hunters.

It is MUCH too easy to obtain a BC hunting (and driving ) licence and many who actually hold these cannot speak English and have NO bush or actual gun handling experience in their pre-hunting lives.

I would like to see a programme like that in Germany, where the course for hunting licences is thorough and demanding, but, that will never happen for obvious reasons.

We had an excellent and thorough training course in junior secondary school, when I took my initial training, in 1958, age 12. However, we did not have powerful, leftist-agenda-driven public sector unions at that time............

One, comprehensive Canada-wide training and testing situation and then Canadian citizens (ONLY) can carry whatever they choose to wherever they wish....works for me.

"Due to poor visibility, when one hunter discharged his firearm it hit an ATV. A piece of that vehicle then flew off and hit the other hunter in the leg.

The 56 year old's injuries are considered non-life threatening, but he will be transported by air ambulance to the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital in Grande Prairie."

I can sympathise with the urge to shoot an ATV but one should be sure the operator is not sitting on it; usually.
If visibility is poor, there is no excuse for taking the shot. If the area is a "bulls only" season, one would think the ATV or the operator would have to at least be sporting antlers.
I suppose it possible for anyone to make a mistake but mistaking an ATV and rider for a moose seems a stretch to me. They don't even sound the same. GD

IMO, poor excuse to say visibility was an issue!!

If you dont know your target, dont shoot. DO NOT use a rifle with a scope as your BINOS. Get a pair of BINOS!!!


Speedy recovery to the injued gentleman...the other guy should BE CHARGED for sure !!

I know the hunter that was shot,I can only pray for his full recovery.The POS that pulled the trigger needs to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law,there is NO EXCUSE for shooting when you are totally unsure what it is you are shooting at.Monashee

That made me think of the hunters, who are packing their trophy antlers out. It doesn't make for the best pictures but I like the idea of hanging pieces of flagging tape from my trophy for the pack out.

The moose season in that area is either immature or mature bull only. The former can have no more than 2 points on one antler and the latter must have either (a)10 points on one antler or (b)3 or more tines on at least one brow palm.

I just came back from that area 2 weeks ago and we saw 8 bulls, and shot one. The rest were either confirmed not legal, or we we trying to count points until the animal departed.

Like Arac,I've hunted that area and run into numerous bulls that were not legal or could not be determined to be legal.We went home empty handed and a bit frustrated but those are the rules.If the shooter in this sad tale couldn't tell a guy on a quad from a moose I would guess that antler points or legality of the moose he thought he was shooting at never entered his mind.I've had enough of this kind of s**t,prosecute him. Monashee

Not in any way shape or form excusing the assh ole who shot him (especially considering I hunt there a bunch), but there is an elk season going there (antlerless as well as 3pt and better) and a bison LEH on now. Not simply a moose season.

If in doubt don't shoot, you must always insure what your target is and the background b4 shooting. Just basic safety. Cheers NC

Hi Kodiakhntr,I hope is all well with you!The dipschit wouldn't have been able to tell a moose from a bison if he couldn't tell either from a guy sitting on a red quad.There just isn't any reasonable explanation for this tragedy except irresponsibility and just plain stupidity.I hope the shooter pays the piper both in the courts and in a civil suit. We just don't need people like this in the woods,although God knows he's not the only one.I've been scoped before and if I had been able to catch up to the bastard(he ran when I yelled)I would have done him some harm.The reason most hunters carry binos is to determine the legality and species of the game they intend to shoot.This guy obviously didn't bother.Monashee (sorry for the typos,its a chemo day!)

If visibility is quoted as a problem then wearing colour would likely have gone a long way to avoiding this incident notwithstanding Kutenays opinion.

Jim

I

Doing well sir, thank you for asking. Hope all is well with you and yours.

I completely agree with you.

Also quite positive that a piece of clothing wouldn't have made the difference, if several hundred pounds of machinery didn't.....

Can only hope that the idiot who pulled the trigger is in his own personal Hell right now thinking about what he did, and what almost was.

No,Jim,nail his a88 to the wall. Well, I'm almost as old Kutenay,I came to hunting later. It was hammered home to us in class " Unless you are sure of your shot,DON"T shoot" .I've passed on 4 or 5 moose because I wasn't sure in the dark spruce. Wearing blaze is almost condoning careless stupidity.

I'll take issue with Kute (again,chuckle). Since manditory hunter ed came in,the number of hunter incidents dropped each year,whereas the number of hunters remained fairly constant. When those guys who had bought a sporterized 303,a box of Dominion shells and a hunting license from the Army and Navy for under $40 died off,the sport became much safer

Ray, you misunderstand my point here, as I am IN FAVOUR OF mandatory hunter education and strict licencing procedures. The problem is that the system we now have in BC, is NOT thorough enough and is also open to corruption in granting of the certificates of "passing" as some incidents have demonstrated.

Dave (KHntr) makes exactly my point and it is that IF, as it appears from the available details on this shooting, the shooter could not see well enough to distinguish an ATV, a large machine, from a legal Moose, the wearing of an orange, red or yellow vest would very probably not have made any difference.

I always and I MEAN always, carry a blaze-orange vest and cap in my backpack and I NEVER leave my transport without that pack on my person; I do this to wear while packing out meat and I always carry a roll of bright flagging tape and bedeck the antlers with it. However, my concern is to avoid further useless regulation of BC hunting as what we REALLY need are MORE Conservation Officers and MUCH stricter and thorough training of all incoming hunters in BC-Canada.

I think that the problem is, as I observed at our club a few weeks ago, one of a lack of real gun and bush knowledge among our increasingly urbanized population and the most effective means of dealing with that is better training before a licence is made possible.

So, perhaps we actually agree, after all. Hope to see you at Mission or maybe a gunshow, soon, would enjoy talking with you again!

The point is that you don't just go shoot at stuff without being certain of the target.

It is always both sad and shocking to hear of incidents involving firearms which result in injuries or death to another hunter.
This year there have already been too many including a son shot and killed by his father who fired at a sound in the bush.
Hunter training can not force a trainee to use what we see as basic common sense when hunting or shooting.
The pain and long term effects of being injured as the result of such an incident will likley be with the innocent victim for the rest of his life.
Financial hardship is often created as well if the innocent victim loses time at work or is even forced to change careers.
If the shooter has home insurance which covers incidents away from home it usually has a clause which voids coverage if criminal charges are placed as a result of the incident.
I wish the victim in this incident a speedy and complete recovery.
BillR