I don't know if the news gets out more , or if we have more idiots but it sure seems like a lot of "hunting accidents" as of late.

A man shot up in the U.P. last week with a cross bow, dead, how, men don't resemble deer in any way.
Last year around Christmas time a father and daughter were killed while deer hunting, shot with "buck shot " another close range weapon yet two dead !
A woman was shot near our NY farm last year, dead, shot by her neighbor while walking her dog in deer season .

You have to wonder how many are truly accidents.

We just can't automatically assume that "those like us" are like us. I am a hunter, soldier, republican, fisherman, etc. Some of the most stupid and asinine people I have ever met in my life are also, hunters, soldiers, republicans, fishermen, etc. Always have a high sense of situational awareness and always live your life like everyone is out to get you or, better stated, like nobody else is looking out for you.

You may want to hook up with folks at the Liberal Gun Club Forum. The are hunters, non-miliary (many), democrat or independent, fisherman, etc. I looked at pics of stuff they like. There are: guns, knives, watches, cameras, musical instruments,.......

I’m lucky, never been hunting where an accident and injury or worse has happened. Guy took safety off a L-61 Sako in his truck to unload it. It blew hole through floorboard, cut brake line.

That doesn't surprise me. Hide in plain sight.

No I dont feel entirely safe...................With all the idiots I've come across while hunting I'm surprised there aren't more accidents (if you could call them that). I've seen hunters scope out other hunters with their rifle scopes rather than binocs, had people shoot elk off the paved road 200 yds from my house,, even saw one shoot a bull while it was standing on the centerline of the road.

Arizona does not require hunters to wear any red/orange but I always a least wear a red/orange hat or put orange survey tape on the back of my backpack (even when wearing camo).

The cross bow killing, bothers me, how far away do people shoot at deer with them? Was it just a "lucky " hit , It just makes no sense to shoot a man in mistake for a deer , with such a limited range weapon !

Depends on my hunting partners.

Been peppered a couple of times bird hunting. Not pleasant.

I don't like hunting pheasant in large groups. Too many trigger happy people who only want to get a bird at any cost.

Yes. I am safe.

Used to hunt in deer clubs. Now private property — Alone —

Beside, I’m armed !!

Safer than driving

Them liberals care about: healthcare, education, environment................,therefore, they would probably make safe and responsible hunting partners.

30+ years ago I was elk hunting on Bethel Ridge in WA State when a guy was shot and killed. Took a couple years for the police to charge the wife for contracting the hit.

Know a guy who lost an eye to a wayward bb at a big pheasant shoot. Young guy, just passed the bar exam. I forget the dollar amount of his law suit but it was significant.

My uncle was severely beaten with a rifle butt by a deranged man up deer hunting. Never hunted again.

As said above, stay aware and alert.

I was hunting pheasant last year and a young guy was fooling with his untrained dog sweeping his loaded shotgun past other hunters .

I made sure to stay on the other side of the field .

The only time I felt 'unsafe' was one time I was in Colorado bowhunting elk during the muzzleloader season. I called in a couple hunters by accident and I wasn't wearing orange. Yikes.

Why I don't hunt public land during deer rifle season anymore.

Absolutely safe.
I feel safer while hunting than I do in most any other aspect of my life, no matter if I'm hunting dangerous game or harmless birds.

About 20 years ago a guy with a climbing stand on his back was killed by a guy in a tree stand with A BOW! Happened about 20 miles south of here.

I got scoped by another hunter in PENN when I was a kid. He was walking towards me and probably less than 100 yards he pointed his rifle at me. I was sitting on a bucket and dressed in orange, I stood up when he pointed the gun at me. He lowered the gun and walked up to me and said, "I just wanted to see who you were"

Then there are sound shooters.

Jimy: I "Hunt" virtually year around!
I Hunt Big Game, Small Game, Upland Game, Waterfowl, Spring Bear, Varmints and Predators.
I experience no fear what so ever when I venture out on these quests.
Of course after 29 years of front line law enforcement service my fear factor is way different than 98% of Americans.
In fact at this stage in my life I actively fear nothing - Hunting is relaxing, rewarding and rejuvenating to me.
The last bit of "trepidation" I experienced while Hunting was a few years back when my partner and I were cleaning and boning out a Mt. Goat high up in the Gravelly Mountains of Montana and I looked down the slope and a large slow moving Grizzly was coming our way!
Even though the bruin was 1/2 mile distant we were sure it smelled our kill/gut pile and we sped up our boning and caping out to the max.
I, of course, use caution and when required and wear my 400 square inches of blaze orange.
I also feel blessed that I now mostly Hunt in a state and in areas where there is only modest and low Hunting "pressure".
Hunters ARE humans though and "accidents" and inexplicable incidents like you cite do happen.
Tragic though they are - the incidents you describe puzzle me greatly.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Were they carrying with a hot chamber? What was the field of view of the scope at the distance they were away from the person they were scoping?

There is no reason to point a gun at anything you don't plan to kill !

More worried about breaking my leg or some sort of injury. Coming down solo with 100lbs on my back worries me.

I had a good friend in high school that was shot by another hunter his first year of deer hunting at age 14. He was out hunting with his dad, and shots from the far ridge started hitting close to them. Then one grazed the kid on the upper thigh. His dad freaked out and ran toward the shooter, eventually running him down and beating him nearly to death with his rifle. In the mean time, another shot had struck and shattered the kid's upper arm where he was attempting to hide. It was determined in court that the shooting was intentional, and that the guy just wanted to shoot somebody.

I see some real morons everywhere I go, including out hunting. I only feel safe when I know there is no one else hunting anywhere near where I am.

I recall that story was in "BowHunter magazine" if I recall the young man that did the shooting was sent to prison for quite a while, because the shooting took place almost an hour before shooting light .

I feel as safe as i can feel.

I have control of what i do but can not control what others do.

I like to think where i hunt that folks around use their brain.

Hunting Caribou in unit 13 can be scary!

I generally feel safe while out hunting, but also generally hunt by myself.

There's LOTS of people (including some on this very thread) who self declare that they're safe, but things I have seen them post in the past make me think otherwise. This goes beyond being mistaken for a critter......I'm talking accidental discharges and such too. I know some of the things that I feel perfectly safe doing, others disagree on, such as carrying cold chambered in griz country. There's people on these boards who think that's suicide, for some reason. I feel safer doing that than carrying hot anywhere, with or without bears.

Everyone's idea of what is, and what is not, "safe" seems to differ significantly. There's a reason I prefer to hunt by myself, and there's plenty of people out there who feel that is a danger in and of itself.

In exactly 30 days a half million to 600K deer hunters will hit the Michigan woods - 98% of them on opening day. Shots will be going off like popcorn. In the old days when we had 20-25 shooting fatalities a year, with the mandatory hunter orange and hunter safety classes now that number is usually 2 or less. This will be my 43rd straight opener. I'll be out there, wearing 60% blaze orange, feeling as safe as I did for the 42 others.

For what it's worth, most firearm accidents happen in the home. Statistically, you have more to fear from falling from a treestand or heart attack in the woods. And as a matter of fact, hunting is safer than cheerleading.

A couple of times while deer hunting from a tree stand 15 feet high I've had bullets pass close enough to my head that I could clearly hear the sound it made as they went by. I was hunting on private ground and was the only one hunting it so it must've come from adjacent properties.

Local farmer family had bullet holes through the wall in the second story of their home during deer season one year. Their home was on the highest ground for a good mile on the side where the bullet holes were.

Why any deer hunters would be shooting that high is beyond me.

Our early archery deer and squirrel gun seasons overlap some and orange is not required for either so for that reason I never got into hunting squirrel with a .22 and didn't do any bow hunting until squirrel season ended.

Generally speaking, I feel "safe" while hunting.
Hate the large pheasants drives.
Been sprinkled with birdshot while quail, dove, and duck hunting.
However I have had 3 incidents where a firearm was waved in my face up close & personal.
Two involved teenage boys, one for trespassing, one for "whose deer was it".
The other involved a hermit hippie type character, and "whose elk was it".
All 3 of those incidents there were at least 4 armed people present.
The whose was it involved a wounded animal and who eventually put the animal down.
Not counting the 2 incidents above, over the years I have killed 4 big game animals that had been wounded by another and all those were settled peacefully.

There was mention of this the other day, never did get any details. I commented at the time that the story did not pass the smell test.

I would not like hunting on public land. I tried it a couple times. There was a numbnut behind every tree.

I feel safe now that my Uncle and cousin let me post their land.

My very first deer hunt, I had a 12 ga. slug hit the tree 1 foot above my head while I was sitting in the stand 12 feet in the air. Others wizzed by just before that. I jumped out and yelled at the completely intoxicated dipshit to quit shooting at me. My BIL came running and grabbed his shotgun and threatened to beat him to death with it.

We left. I shook for an hour.

You have got to be shitting me, Pyle.

I'll buy that. No one's ever had to carry me out of the deer woods, but if you ever see me do the splits, somebody call 911. Please.

Yep, after many years in the business I have little faith in the safety habits of many, if not most gun owners.

When hunting I wear orange and have an orange panel on my pack. At least if I get shot the asswhole won't have a good excuse['grin]


mike r

I do remember a time when I first started hunting that dad made sure you had on red or orange material on your coat. I remember us coming out to the truck to get lunch and a guy pulled out a muzzleloader (ML’s had yet to get renewed life). He started practicing on the side of a little knoll and here comes a guy walking over the knoll.

Where we were hunting there may have been 100-200 people camping in areas around 6000 acres. If you seen someone you coughed or waved to get their attention. Back then 4 counties in the state were known for having deer and everyone flocked to these counties.

Not so much anymore, deer cover the state. From about 1980 on we pretty much had the place to ourselves, other than a few people who would try to find our hunting spots.

I do not do treestands anymore, though I miss it. I have always hunted solo or with only a handful of former ranger buddies or some of my bros from Grand County. These days when I want to get into some serious [bleep] I hunt north and west of Lake Onalaska in a huge swamp with stands of oak and deciduous. It is freaky scary after dark. I love it, no body else in there but me away from the bike path and have I mentioned that it is huge?

When you say "point at" can you define that? Is a muzzle 90 degrees off pointing at someone? Is a muzzle 10 degrees off pointing at someone?

If you have to ask that question you would argue about the answer. What is acceptable to you?


mike r

I killed a Grizz and 2 wolves in 13.

Deer and elk hunting I don’t worry much even on public land. Places we hunt require orange and are pretty open.

Bird hunting on the other hand, scary stuff at times. I kindly decline offers to participate in big pheasant drives and almost never even go dove shooting on public areas with the masses. The prospect of catching a swarm of copper plated 4s when someone in a skirmish line stumbles or swings on a rooster makes me very uneasy.

I never give a second thought to going out alone or just with my 5 year old. Never really had any worries with bears when I hunted where they live, even Kodiak and Afognak.

I love hunting. I get out as often as I can. I'm 61 and have hunted 55 years or more!
I learned from My Father, Grandfather, Uncle, and older cousin.
I'm picky about who I hunt with. Very picky.
I'm also very careful where I hunt.
Things happen while hunting, nerves can go wild. A flushing bird or covey of birds, a running deer or elk.
People can get careless real fast.

I can accept the million to one chance of stray fire injuring or killing someone. But under no circumstance can I understand mistaking a human being for a game animal. It just doesnt even remotely make sense.

I got stopped on a public road and accused of trespassing. The big guy was threatening to call the game warden. I was not afraid of a game warden, but I was afraid of the guy who stopped me. I gave him $100 and went on my way. I have not hunted alone since.

Keep the crosshairs a few feet off of me, and I don't give a schidt.

.
If anyone has to argue about scoping out another person with a scoped rifle, doesnt matter field of view, degrees of muzzle, doesnt even matter if the rifle is unloaded, or any other crap you can dream up.... THAT is something that you just dont do. If you think its OK then youre some kind of moron and I dont know where you got your gun safety training but it sucks.

I was hunting with a work buddy one time, not someone I had known for any length of time but found out he felt the same way. We were on a ridge glassing with binocs and he spotted a couple guys across on another ridge looking at us through rifle scopes. He hauled ass over there in a rage and I thought I was going to witness a murder right then and there but I managed to get him to leave with me without him shoving their rifles up their azzes. The guys were scared [bleep]. So was I. PS. It was shortly after this guy I was with came back from Vietnam.

Sitting in a tree stand with a rifle in my lap, watching a farm on a frosty morning? I can’t imagine feeling safer.

I am just not going to get worked up over someone not pointing a gun at me.

Exactly!!!

I have never had an issue, until I came to AK and caribou hunted. Bullets were flying over mine and my son's heads. He went out again this year and said it was worst than when we were out 7 years ago and that occurred. That was my worst experience ever.

I had a bullet hit the tree I was in six feet above my head one year. Other than that, no problems.

My uncle and his wife found another man and his woman in their tree stand on their property, and before it was over, there was a Mexican standoff with my uncle and wife facing four armed trespassers. It ended with the trespassers deciding it was smarter to leave than fight. Lucky. Glad I wasn’t there. Not sure I would have kept talking once someone started pointing a weapon.

I always carry my Glock when hunting, and often hunt with a FN FAL or an AR-10 variant. Somebody wants to fight out there, we can do it. They won’t like it. I am always hunting my own place or the neighbor’s, who is a good friend. Nobody else is supposed to be out there. Other than that, maybe with family on family land. Always watchful, anyway. Never been attacked by anything but chiggers and ticks in the woods, and don’t expect to, but if it happened, I would be least surprised if homo sapiens was the offending species.

I don't worry about it but if somebody or some group wants to do you harm there is really nothing you can do about it. You are wearing orange and easy to see and situational awareness goes away when you are in the woods.

alaska is a real big place with few people. find another spot. that sounds like deer hunting in New Jersey

I "feel" nothing.

My safety is based on calculations and recalculations of what's happening around me at the moment and the decisions I make based on them.

I ain't skeered to go huntin'. But, if there's one thing that keeps me up nights is being the Range Safety Officer for Sight-In Days at the club. For the next 4 weekends, every swinging dick with a rifle and a box of shells will be coming out to put a few on paper. Most of them haven't seen their gun since last hunting season. Some of the most fugged up gun handling you'll ever see. I have no idea how I get roped into this schitshow. Must be my winning personality. I wonder if I'll send the wrong message showing up in Kevlar and a flak jacket instead of the safety orange vest.

That has to be one if not my all time biggest pet peeve. A scope is an aiming device, not a fuggin observation device.

I have hunted for 27 years in a stretch of wilderness with very few hunters, near and houses and farms are miles away over a large ridge. I am totally spoiled and It will be hard to hunt in more populated areas if my buddy sells the property.

I hunt my own ground for deer , squirrels, and ducks, so I feel very safe. Several times a year I duck hunt on the White River Refuge and other hunters can get a little close at times. When I duck hunt with other farmers on their land I also feel safe. I rarely hunt public land so I am blessed beyond words.

Same here, I got roped into it for a couple of years and quit, just plumb crazy, 90% of the yoyo's showing up had obviously never had so much as 30 seconds of firearms safety training.

I have been hit with shot from quail hunters and had shot land all around me from pheasant hunters, but I have never been fearful.
We had ricocheted bullets sound like it went right over us from guys with Calif. plates whistle pig shooting.. We chewed them out good, but I think it fell on deaf ears
I try to avoid crowded areas hunting big game.

Not completely safe but I prefer to hunt private land.

I have been hunting same club 40 years and feel very safe.

I have a cousin from Minnesota. He told me a story over 30 years ago about hunting in Minnesota. F that. I am sure it hasn’t gotten any better. He said he found a fallen tree and laid by it until the shooting stopped.

My dad quit hunting in the late 50s because of his experience with idiots taking "sound shots" so It wouldn't be surprising to me if all are actual hunting accidents.

Yes, I hunt where the people aren't.

When I taught Hunter Ed, my best lesson was:

That rustle in the bushes? It's Russell.

There was time when I would sit on the stand until at least 30 min after last legal shot time. Was afraid of the azzholes sitting on the road watching the edge of the treeline for anything. And then I always came out singing and swinging a flashlight. Had one of the idiots shoot a doe right under my stand with me in it once. That was a real eyeopener for me.

Nothing like glassing the edge of a 1K yd field and see somebody looking at you thru a rifle scope.
Lots of folks stopped squirrel hunting after the deer numbers shot up in my area, too afraid of the idiots.
It has gotten a lot better with newer laws regulating dog hunting and some county's forcing the use of elevated stands if using a rifle. Also I think a lot of the younger folks don't give a chit about hunting as much anymore so there are just fewer people in the woods.

Having said all that, one of the guys I hunted with, his grandfather shot my grandfather thru the hand with a 30-30 back in the late 40's. Running deer with dogs and probably drunk as well. He and I both were and are very careful and use the story as a what not to do scenario.

If there are other folks around I don't feel safe. I don't fret and worry over it but I do take care.

Still hunting has become something I only do when I'm fairly certain no one else is around and I do my "Great Pumpkin" imitation with vest and hat. Pouring rain days work well for it and few people are hunting (outside of shooting houses).

I would say that I do feel safe, but I also feel that I am the one responsible for my own safety. I don't hunt in big groups or with people that I don't know. I don't care to hunt on opening day of just about any season, and usually try to avoid weekends if I can.

I only questioned my safety and that was my first public land hunt up in Ohio 30 years ago. I was in the federal forest that I was never in and the shooting started a few minutes before daylight. Shots every few minutes all morning. I came in through a bottom and I could here the slugs smacking the tree limbs Up above me on the ridge. I got my big arse behind a huge tree and stayed there until noon. When the shooting slowed down I moved up over the ridge and dropped down into the next drainage. I found me another big tree and sat down. About ten minutes later a nice 8 point came trotting around a bend on a ledge across the drainage. He Got about 30 yards away and I let the air out of him. That was my first buck. I really didn't have a clue where I was in relation to where my buddy was supposed to,park the truck.
I remember thinking “ now what?”. LOL. But I was so excited I didn't give a crap.

I was shot at by a 18yoish kid home from college. Kids dad put a ladder stand across from me but down the powerline just on the line, about 250 yards. I guess the kids saw me moving. I never want to hear bullets wizzing past me again. Kid claims there was a deer between us...and the kids was shooting well over the line if it was where he said he was. I'm just glad my son wasn't in the stand with me.

This has kept me safe for 60 yrs of hunting! My Dad was also a vet (WW2) and country boy- so I had a good role model for this. Later, it kept me from getting my guts cut out by Rascist Angry Negros as a soldier in Germany.

My last brush with that sort of thing, I muffed a shot on a doe during 2004 ML season and went onto the large hillside on our western boarder to scout for sign. This was right at sundown and I was carrying a Coleman lantern. All of a sudden, I started taking incoming from the opposite side of the ravine. I swung the lantern and yelled, and the next few shots were closer. I dowsed the light and hid behind the nearest large tree and when I could, I skeedaddled.

It turned out the neighbors had been having a ML shoot behind the house (about a 1/4 mile) and the ricochets were flying out over the ravine. I didn't quite get an apology. I haven't hunted that part of the farm since.

To the actual question: Yes, I feel safe while hunting., but we are all careful. We hear 1-3 shotstrings a minute through the first half-day of rifle season. It's an impressive fusillade, but I feel safe. I'm up in a stand on The Opener with about as much orange as you can manage. There are parts of the farm we don't go during season, just because we don't know where the neighbors are hunting. We also have set plans on who is hunting where, set lines of ingress and egress, and we use walkie-talkies to let everyone know when we're going in. None of us walk around with a hot chamber, we don't load until we're settled into our blind and we unload before we get to the truck or back to the house.

I usually feel safe while hunting but on rare occasions you will find women there too.

Twenty five years ago I left the nut case filled NE part of the state to drive 350 miles across the state to get away from people. The deer got bigger and the bigger woods got way less crowded. Early on hunting with dad’s older lodge buddies made some memories, but not all good ones concerning safe gun handling. Having a big black bear trail me to the base of my tree had me thinking about not being at the top of the food chain. And having a wolf come up behind me from down wind gave me a thrill. Now as I’ve gotten older, having a coronary event or a fall from a tree stand are my main concern. Can’t fall off the ground has been on my mind lately since the deer aren’t quite as important as they once were.

Holy Crap!

you live in eastern arizona. my understanding for years that after vietnam a number of people seaking refuge were living in the canyons on the southern eastern side of the state. drugs, and other stuff kep my interest level in going there low.
i have found camo bunkers out in the mts when there was no real purpose for them being there.
and i have seen people glassing me with rifle scopes.

I have trained my grandsons i hope well enough if they are out walking around, treat it like its a war zone.
and i have known several people that have drilled their vehicles while drunk and shooting at night from the vehicle, or trying to unload the gun in the cab of the vehicle. i own a number of WWII jeeps. people have suggested to me perfect to shoot from on the run at night. yeah right,
arizone isn't 1944 belgium.

i remember years ago a news paper listing for a vietnam memorial event. went out in the desert around buckeye, these guys in camo had created a firebase, with guard towers, fire pits,underground hootches. etc. I left real quick.

I gave up deer hunting public land long ago, in Michigan and Ohio. Far from safe. I hunt only private clubs now with the exception of spring turkey on public.

The way tags are issued in my preferred zone, I feel very safe. 269 tags issued in 2019 and just under 2000 square miles. Last time I hunted I only saw 2 other hunters road hunting. Deer were sparse due to California moving opening day to mid September.

According to most of the posts here, why would one want their Kids to take up hunting?

Glad to see you posting, Ron.
How ya doing?
The most afraid I ever was while hunting, was on a coyote hunt.
No takers, and when we were going back to the truck, we found a mountain lion track in one of my boot tracks.
~15 yards behind our stand !!! Be careful out there, guys!