[OldDominionAngler]

These types of sad stories always remind me that I should wear blaze orange more often when fishing this time of year...even when I'm close to a hunting boundary.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...?hpid=newswell

According to this article, there have been 39 hunting related fatalaties in VA since 1998. 17 of the 39 people killed were shot by hunters who thought they were animals. Anyone else find these numbers suprisingly high? Perhaps I do because I've never been deer hunting before, but the idea of mistaking a human for a deer absolutely blows my mind...the silhouette, colors, and types of movement of the two seem so completely different.

These stats made me want to gain some perspective so I did some google research and one statistic I found was this: about the same number (44) of fatal black bear attacks occured on the entire North American continent during the 20th century. Of course, there are many angles to consider here...one being that two thirds of those fatal bear attacks happened during the 90s.

This is not an attempt to start a "What's more dangerous?" discussion or suggest that many hunters are reckless. It is, however, interesting that the scary thoughts that consume my mind while being in the woods involve bears and snakes while my chance of being killed by a hunter's bullet, albeit miniscule, are far greater.

[Rodn276]

The even more scary part is that it doesn't mention how many people were mistaken for an animal, shot and did not die.

I know of at least one, a guy and his son-in-law, the son-in-law mistook the guy for a deer and shot him in the pelvic area and he survived, I am sure there are more, possibly more that survive than shots that are fatal.

[AshevilleTroutBum]

Simply unbelievable. That's what adrenaline combined with eagerness can do.

[GrannyKnot]

I'm not much of a hunter, but my dad has sat in a tree stand or blind every season for the last 45 years. When I forwarded him this story, his response was, "I really don't see any way this could have been an accident".

The mother of that girl sure does have a good heart.

[Rodn276]

Originally Posted by GrannyKnot

I'm not much of a hunter, but my dad has sat in a tree stand or blind every season for the last 45 years. When I forwarded him this story, his response was, "I really don't see any way this could have been an accident".

The mother of that girl sure does have a good heart.

I agree as well, I have been hunting for 10+ years and don't understand how it could happen either, but evidently it does.

[rbishop]

My uncle was shot thru the chest by his brother in South Georgia deer hunting back in the 80s. Mistook him for a deer. It was late in the day in poor light conditions and my uncle had just got out of his truck and stepped into the woods without his orange vest. The 30-06 slug passed thru him without damaging any vital organs. He survived to hunt many seasons after that. They were both very, very experienced big game hunters. He should have taken the time to put his vest on and his brother should not have taken a shot without knowing 100% it was a deer. Both made critical mistakes.

[Neusewader]

Thank goodness those were critical mistakes and not fatal mistakes!

I put my faith in a blaze orange cap. Maybe I should switch to kevlar waders

[dshort]

I've always been under the impression that most of these accidents involve idiots taking shots at sounds. They hear something coming through the brush and just shoot before they even see what they're shooting at. This one is scary because they were in an open field and that obviously wasn't the case. All kinds of stupid things can happen though...

I was on a hunting trip with my Dad and some other guys when I was about 15. Towards the end of the day one of the guys was making a drive towards us to run deer in our direction. We waited for a while and eventually a deer ran out. I shot the deer and it dropped but didn't die right away. We stayed put not wanting to push the deer, knowing that if we moved toward it, it might get up and run. In a few minutes the guy making the drive walked out toward us with the deer between us and him. The deer spotted him, got up and bolted toward us. The guy still hadn't seen us, but he saw the deer and commenced blasting away at it... right in our direction!! He succeeded in finishing the deer off but also almost succeeded in shooting us. Needless to say, there were some words spoken and my Dad and I never hunted with him again.

[ddoss]

I live maybe 10 minutes from were this happened and I use to be a game warden working this county. I have also had the opportunity to sit down and talk with people who had just shot someone by mistaking them for game. These conversations usually happened a day or two after the incident, and most of the shooters are absolutely convinced that what they shot at was game. That of course does not make it any less of a crime, in my opinion. Something that is often said, off the record, is that blaze orange has work almost too good. Now if a hunter see something in the woods that does not have orange on, then by default that movement is some sort of game animal. The mere fact that there is no orange in that direction somehow makes it alright for them to shoot that way. Every interview that I have had occasion to be involved with, the first statement out of their mouth is, "I thought it was a deer". The second is, "I didn't see any blaze orange." So now, in my opinion, it is more important that ever to wear blaze orange into the woods.

[DrLogik]

Having hunted for many years I can truly say that I have no idea how you can mistake a person for a deer in an open field. That's just an irresponsible and inexperienced hunter. Pure and simple. The man that taught me to hunt deer was a master. His famous words were, unless you can COUNT how many POINTS are ON THE RACK, you're not close enough and it's probably not a deer.