Annual Safety Post

[retranger]

Having served in law enforcement for 30+ years I do not believe in hunting accidents,,,,,someone did something wrong (maybe 1% of all incidents are accidents) Nor do I believe in hunter orange requirement. Nothing wrong in wearing it if you like, but many hunters have been shot wearing an orange jump suit. In NY these incidents are now being brought to the court of law. Just a couple of years ago a fellow was shot by another hunter, thought he was a deer,,,,shot with a high powered rifle with a SCOPE!! He is spending time in the public rental unit but only for 4 years.
The hunters safety course,,,,,,,nobody has brought up the 10 commandments of the course. If we all would, and I’m sure every one of us on this forum does, abide by those 10 items every one of us would be safe. I have never seen another hunter look like any turkey, deer, rabbit etc. no matter what they are wearing. Guess like mentioned several times here our only recourse is to hunt defensively. Good luck all, be safe.

[ylpnfol]

this is good stuff, i was thinking of this earlier today while reading an article in the am. hunter mag from the nra about " fanning " for turkeys, essentially stalking up on turkeys while waving a turkey fan about, this article was about a technique used out west, and i think the author said he used it in new york, even using it on private land, where "NO ONE " but you is hunting is asking for trouble, as far as i'm concerned, defense is the best offense....

[Fan Club]

this is good stuff, i was thinking of this earlier today while reading an article in the am. hunter mag from the nra about " fanning " for turkeys, essentially stalking up on turkeys while waving a turkey fan about, this article was about a technique used out west, and i think the author said he used it in new york, even using it on private land, where "NO ONE " but you is hunting is asking for trouble, as far as i'm concerned, defense is the best offense....

I have a "Trans Fan" that takes the theory one step further and has a gobbler head painted on it. I got it about 5 years ago. It produced mixed results as a decoy and brought in a few birds, but I could never bring myself to use it "fanning" as shown on the instructional video. Even though I hunt all private land, my brain just keeps saying "bad idea."

[Cut N Run]

I had an older hunter take a shot at me back in the mid-80s when I was deer hunting on public gamelands. I'm thankful he was a bad shot. There was an old logging road which ran the ridge between Robeson Creek and the Haw River at Jordan Lake in Chatham County, and along that ridge were a couple of saddles where the deer liked to cross from one side of the ridge to the other. I had been bowhunting deer in there, but since the firearms season had just started, I decided it would be a good idea to get my stand out before it got stolen. I had raked the soil bare in the saddle so I could tell if the deer had crossed the ridge or not and if the stand might be worth hunting.

I was able to recover my stand and I needed to cool down, so for about 30 minutes I parked on a rock outcrop below the saddle. That must have been when the other hunter moved into the area and set up on the rocks on the opposite side of the saddle about 100 yards away. Otherwise, he would have seen me take down the stand. I was wearing an orange vest, but had my grey camouflage stand slung across my back. As I approached the saddle through a growth of head-high pines, I heard the crack of a bullet, followed by the report of the rifle, and the top of a small pine limb exploded just above and to the right of my head and the bullet smacked the rocks behind me. I freaked out and started yelling as loud as I could. I also held my rifle up at port arms and asked the guy if he felt like dying that day...and what the #@*% was he thinking? He was wearing glasses and shooting a lever action rifle with iron sights. I was almost shaking uncontrollably at that point and I quickly turned away from that fool to get as much distance between me & him as possible. By the time I got back to the truck I heaved my stomach a couple of times before I could drive. I got back to the sports shop where I worked at the time and I must have been the color of a ghost because everyone there could tell something bad was wrong with me. I told them about what happened and realized that I hadn't taken down the license plate number of his truck. By the time they drove to where I was, the guy's truck was gone.

My guess is that the shooter found my raked area and mistook it for a scrape. Then he set himself up in an area where he could see between rock piles. Unfortunately, he didn't identify his target before he fired. I hope it shook him up as least as badly or worse than it did me.

That ended my deer hunting on public land during firearms season. I work hard to maintain private land where it is at least somewhat safer to hunt. The trouble with hunting on public land is that you don't know who else might be in there or how skilled (or not) of a hunter they may be.

Jim

[shaman]

,,nobody has brought up the 10 commandments of the course. If we all would, and I’m sure every one of us on this forum does, abide by those 10 items every one of us would be safe. I have never seen another hunter look like any turkey, deer, rabbit etc. no matter what they are wearing. Guess like mentioned several times here our only recourse is to hunt defensively. Good luck all, be safe.

This is a peculiar circumstance. Normally the 10 commandments is all you need. However, in this one case, Spring Gobbler hunting, you have a wicked mix of influences. Basically the further down the road you are as a turkey hunter, the more likely you are to be the shooter. The shooters are absolutely convinced they see a turkey. Their brains have played tricks on them.

Me? I've got 30 years in. Have I ever seen a gobbler that was not there? No. However, I hunt my own land and I tightly control who hunts it, as well as tightly control where we go on the land when we're out hunting. I'm dreadfully fearful of someone sneaking on the property and getting shot. We did have one shooting incident back in 2002. My son and I were moving from one spot to another and had a load of shot come past us at close range. The neighbor had snuck on early in the morning without our knowledge and set up just where the two of us were heading. It was a shoot-thru type of incident, not a mistaken for game. However, this guy is notorious for a) poaching and b) shooting at people's decoys, thinking they're turkeys.

[turkey junky]

im with retranger when there is a near shooting or shooting in the woods somebody did something wrong & was far to careless period... i dont think the longer you hunt turkey the more likely you are to be a shooter of another turkey hunter???

i mean the more i hunt turkeys the more i know how to identify a wild turkey gobbler & or jake or hen? regardless of yrs of experience in the woods hunters still have to clearly identify there target B4 they shoot correct??? i know flashes of red white blue & black could draw fire from a hunter or make your brain think it sees a phantom turkey? so i dont wear them colors but seeing a flash of color behind a bush & or what ever obstacle the trigger happy hunters view is obstructed by doesnt make up for that hunter not actually seeing a turkey walk out & stop in the open & give him time to put the bead on its head/neck & fire thats what i need to have happen each & every time i pull the trigger on a wild turkey & or deer or what ever im hunting???

if i do all that B4 i shoot at something i dont feel the longer i hunt i will be more likely to shoot another hunter while in the turkey woods??? as soon as i feel my eyes get n worse due to age i will have to have corrective eye surgery ASAP so as i dont put any hunters at risk??? something that guy with glasses who shot at cut n run should have done long B4 he ever touched a rifle/gun!!!???

all that said hunting defensive is the way to go by far dont let some trigger happy fool wreck your hunt/day/health its not worth it... i will always hunt public land & them fools are just something we are going to have to deal with sometimes i guess
???

good luck to all & have a safe productive season everybody...

[FireFly908]

Treerooster, your annual safety post is heeded by me with great respect. It's a great reminder to start the spring turkey season and something that needs to be foremost in everybody's mind.
Good job and thank you.

[shaman]

Look, I don't want to diagree with you. However, the stats I saw said that the average shooter in these incidents had 8 years hunting experience under his belt. Personally, I can't fathom how it happens. I just know that it does. TreeRooster's experience is pretty typical.

Retranger and you are both right: you should just be absolutely sure of what you're target is before you pull the trigger.

However, this is an instance where it is better to assume the shooter's judgement is comprised and it's up to the shootee to act accordingly. I don't mean to throw fault at James, TreeRooster's relative. However, it were me, I'd have done two things:

1) Make doubly sure Fred (the shooter) knew where I was.
2) Pull of enough of my camo, put on an orange hat, tap dance, whistle "Dixie" or do something so anyone in a 40 yard radius knew there was a turkey hunter behind that bush.

If I was Fred, I'd have made doubly sure I knew where James was going to be, before I left him.

I kind sort of see how this might happen, on a sunny day, if you have 40 yards and an intervening bush, and a hint of red, white, or blue. The pattern of color moving behind the bush might very well appear to someone at 40 yards like a turkey in front of the bush instead of a hunter behind the bush.