SC Hunter and Daughter Mistaken For Deer - Killed

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Two people shot as deer? In a very few words, there is no excuse.

A bud back home had a goat shot during deer season . A mostly white goat with a few brown spots is no way close to a deer.

 
I for believe if you shoot another human go to jail for a long time. Hunting accident or not. It's our job to know our target and what's behind it. Willing to bet if a few Yahoo's did major time. These turds would think twice about shooting into a bush.
 
What was the thing I was taught? Know your target before the gun is raised. Know the surroundings before the safety comes off, know the backstop before the trigger is pulled.
 
Two people shot as deer? In a very few words, there is no excuse.



While I tend to agree for the most part, we do not know the whole story. From what I could find, they were shot with Buckshot, which means they were shot at close range. They also were shot by a member of their own hunting party, which means that hunter knew there were others near-by. I also have not been able to read anywhere confirming one way or the other about the wearing of blaze orange. Since it's not required on the private land they were hunting, it could be they were in camo. No statement about how many shots were taken either. Even with buckshot, it's hard to imaging one shot getting both of them at the range, and in the cover, they could have possibly been mistaken for deer. Just so much wrong here.

Very sad. Very sad indeed.

When I was young, deer drives were a very popular way to hunt deer after opening day. We had very explicit rules about where standers could shoot, and where the "drivers" would come thru. Done correctly, it was/is no more dangerous than any other form of hunting deer. Standers could not shoot into the drive, only once the deer got past them. Drivers could not shoot ahead or beside them, only once the deer got directly behind them. Still, on large tracts of public land, it was common for "drivers" to get lost or wander from their original path and come out somewhere other than where they were expected. Was hard thru the swamps and thickets for all the drivers to keep the same pace. Those folks that tended to shoot at the sound of brush cracking or movement were more often those folks that that they were "sneak' hunting than folks on stand during a drive. My family quit hunting with my aunt, uncle and cousins the day my cousin jumped and spun at the sound of my dad approaching him. The cousin pointed his loaded and off safety gun at my dad, who had come to assist him after my dad had heard several shots in the cousins direction. My cousin had a doe and her two fawns down, and did not have an antlerless tag. We always kinda guessed it was his practice to shoot now, look for horns later, but between the verification of it and the pointing of a loaded gun, my dad refused from that day on to hunt with them.

I crested a hill one day during Turkey season in full camo, only to look up and see a shotgun barrel pointed at me. I was supposed to be the only one hunting that farm that day at the hill top was a favorite mid-morning strut zone of the local Toms. Apparently the neighbor was aware of the strut zone too, but not aware he should ask permission first. He claimed the sound of me walking sounded like a strutting Tom and the top of my head coming over the hill looked like the tail-fan. Luckily I topped the hill just out of range.

Always a certain amount of risk when hunting. One thing that scared me when I introduced my kids to hunting and later in life when introducing my grand-kids. No different than athletics or riding dirtbike, one has to know the risk and accept them. You also have to make sure they have all the protection they need to reduce that risk to the smallest level possible. Ardent hunters are not always the safest, nor do they always follow the rules. Desperate folks do desperate things. I remember one day, my youngest son and I were turkey hunting on public land. We had heard a Tom in an area most of the morning, but could not get him to leave the area and come to us. So we decided to work our way to him. Realized he was calling from a logging road that led to a small flowage. Snuck down the road as far as we dared and then set up about 30 yards back in the brush. Worked the tom for a bout ten minutes when he just went silent. Soon heard a truck coming down the logging road(it was closed off to vehicle traffic) and as it drove by, I could see a guy in the front seat driving and a kid sittin' in the back seat with both windows down. Took m a while to realize what was going on, but once I did, I told my son we had to get out of there before we got shot. As we went back to the road, we heard the truck turn around and about the time we got to the road, the truck came back. Surprisingly the driver stopped and asked if we had seen "that Tom". Bragged about taking a nice Tom from the very spot we were standing a week before. Before I answered, I looked in the back and saw the boy with an uncased shotgun laying across his lap. The dad, noticing what I saw, began to tell me how badly he wanted his son to get a bird and admitted to driving around the road barricades and letting him illegally "road hunt", because this was the only day they had to hunt. He then asked me not to turn them in. That too, was very sad.

My hope is , that in the desperation of a last day hunt, the dad did not endanger his daughter like the dad in my story.
 
Just so much wrong here.

My hope is , that in the desperation of a last day hunt, the dad did not endanger his daughter like the dad in my story.

Ending a life is bad enough; killing a child..

You're just so much wrong here covered it.. However, in all fairness we don't know all the details; however as you mentioned, 2 people getting hit with buckshot is difficult to accept..
Hitting two people with buckshot through whatever prevented him from seeing them is where I'm stumbling.

Same here, when I was young; deer drives were very common. Often, those who filled their tag were drivers and standers hadn't. I never saw anything close to a mishap. I don't know if the standers didn't want to ruin meat or they didn't want to track a wounded deer.
Hunting used to be a lot safer than it is today.

I played football and later raced Moto-X. In short, I saw a lot of accidents at the track.

A sportsman doesn't teach his kid to break the law.

We live on a dirt road in the mountains; yesterday, a hog hunter stopped to ask if he could go look for his dog. I said go ahead. I warned him about the big cats we have here; he said I've seen them.
His dog chased a hog up and down a mountain; then across the valley and up the mountain we are on. Needless to say a few tough miles to here showed some serious predator drive. After he went up the road, he must have let the rest of his dogs loose because in about 15 minutes, we heard dogs and the hog squealing and it got quiet. I didn't hear a shot.
The man was concerned about his dog; yet, he stopped to ask permission; he did the right thing.
 
Hunting used to be a lot safer than it is today.

Rosy retrospection is a memory bias that is very common. IHEA would certainly argue that hunting did not used to be a lot safer based on their hunting accident and mortality stats. The IHEA and numerous states would argue that since the implementation of hunter safety programs, the such incidents have largely been on the decline. For example, New York averages 23 incidents a year now compared to over 160 in the 1960s. https://adventures.everybodyshops.com/hunting-accidents-declining-too-many/ In Texas, when hunter safety programs were introduced, the numbers of incidents and most notably the numbers of deaths dropped signficantly. In 1968, the number of accidents per 100k were 12.3 and were just 1.4 in 2018, fatalities per 100K licenses was 4.3. In 2018, it was 0.2. https://tpwd.texas.gov/education/hunter-education/2018-hunting-accident-report.pdf In general, overall hunter safety has improved over time.

A sportsman doesn't teach his kid to break the law.

Exactly who was teaching their kid to break the law?
 
Exactly who was teaching their kid to break the law?

The gent that buck460XVR mentioned; see quote below.

Surprisingly the driver stopped and asked if we had seen "that Tom". Bragged about taking a nice Tom from the very spot we were standing a week before. Before I answered, I looked in the back and saw the boy with an uncased shotgun laying across his lap. The dad, noticing what I saw, began to tell me how badly he wanted his son to get a bird and admitted to driving around the road barricades and letting him illegally "road hunt", because this was the only day they had to hunt. He then asked me not to turn them in. That too, was very sad.
 
Ah! I was trying to figure it out relative to the OP.

I know it was off topic; however, buck460XVR made a heck of a point.
It seems today way too many people ignore the rules/laws so many of us follow simply because we were brought up that way.

I don't know what is wrong with some people today..



 
When I was living in Montana a teenage boy shot and killed his best friend while they were hunting deer. Apparently they were hunting a ridge and the boy who was shot was wearing a white undershirt. The boy why shot him saw a patch of white moving in the brush and thinking it was the white patch on a deer's neck aimed at it and shot. The white patch was his friend's tee shirt showing at the neck. Terrible circumstances but there again the shooter didn't make sure of his target and has had to live with that his entire life.
 
When I was living in Montana a teenage boy shot and killed his best friend while they were hunting deer. Apparently they were hunting a ridge and the boy who was shot was wearing a white undershirt. The boy why shot him saw a patch of white moving in the brush and thinking it was the white patch on a deer's neck aimed at it and shot. The white patch was his friend's tee shirt showing at the neck. Terrible circumstances but there again the shooter didn't make sure of his target and has had to live with that his entire life.

A friend of mine got invited to go on a pheasant hunt with a big time dog breeder/trainer in our area quite a few years ago. A month later he got word that the trainer had been shot by a deer hunter. He was out working his dogs wearing a brown coat with a white shirt underneath and it was the same story...he popped out of the brush and somebody thought he was a deer.
Ever since hearing that story I don't wear white undershirts, or brown coats when I go out to the woods during hunting season. I started wearing camo instead of carhart just for the fact it looks less like a deer. During gun season I often times will wear an orange vest under my coat and another over my coat so that I can unzip the coat or change layers and still always have orange.
 
I know it was off topic; however, buck460XVR made a heck of a point.
It seems today way too many people ignore the rules/laws so many of us follow simply because we were brought up that way.



....exactly the point I was making. But...IMHJO, it wasn't that off topic. I've seen way too many things happen over the years when folks succumb to the pressure by their peers when it comes to hunting. Every year we hear of a Turkey hunter shot and killed because someone mistook them for a turkey. Like my example above where the neighbor knowingly trespassed in a vain attempt to be successful. At some point, like the young man in the back seat of the truck, someone taught him that "bending" the rules was okay. Like the dad in the truck, so many parents seem to think others will gauge their talent as a parent and a mentor by their kids success. All one has to do is go to a kid's soccer game some time. Hunting is no different. My hope was and still is, that pressure to succeed, and thus, a reduction in safety/ethics or "bending" the law, by the father, did not contribute to the deaths.
 
When there are a lot of guns in the field and the mindset is to shoot, the Bell Curve math says that it is inevitable that someone will get shot - it is as predictable as sunrise.
 
A bud back home had a goat shot during deer season . A mostly white goat with a few brown spots is no way close to a deer.

This is pretty normal where I am. Either my family or a neighbor loses AT LEAST one beef (or occasionally a horse or jackass). Usually a pretty good shot to the head or eyeball though since they are always spotlighting to make such a stupid mistake. Oddly my brother in law or my neighbor with goats has yet to lose one. I guess they look pretty small when lit up at any distance.

It pisses you off pretty bad but if you have much isolated land with road frontage it's just a reality.

Shooting a person....much less 2...with buckshot is an entirely different matter. And I have hunted in the areas where this type of hunt is common, although just north in NC years ago
 
My elk guide this year told me of a guide friend of his who took a .300 Win. Mag. through both legs point blank from a client's ND. Needless to say, he'll never be the same.
 
Please tell more...
When I was 16 I was hunting with my father and some other family on a large family river bottom farm, we were spread out over several hundred acres, carefully. I was hunting along the rivers edge, and at dusk I was walking back the the family home about 2.5 miles from where I was hunting. I crossed a corn field and decided to cut thru a wooded slue, and was about 100 yards into it when I walked up on somebody about 20-25 yards from me. It was still light enough to make out the image of a man, but I couldn't tell who. He saw me and I saw him. I yelled out "dad" "Charlie" and a few other names in my hunting party and got no response. At that time the poacher (most likely) pointed his rifle from low ready to my direction, I in turn pointed my 30-30 at him. What was likely a few seconds felt like forever, after a few seconds the guy took off running, and I was left to walk the remaining two miles in the dark back to the house. (this was all before cell phones). I chose to tread carefully Instead of making a "panic run". When I finally made it back, my dad asks me "did you see some S.O.B. come flying out of the bottoms in a pickup?". I said not the truck, but I saw the man real close up like. Thinking back it makes me wonder if that ever happens again, would I do the same or pull the trigger. One thing for sure, neither one of us mistook the other for a deer, I'm certain of that.
 
Were the victims mistaken for game or was a shot taken at game and they in line?

If the latter were they hidden by something, in a place they werent supposed to be?

Drives can be safe but people need to stay in their spots, wear lots of orange and make sure others know where they are.

Never assume.
 
Wearing camo in that thick brush/trees can sadly, lead to these unfortunate situations.
 
No excuses. It should never happen. You can't stop some people from being stupid or jack asses. I have been on many deer drives. Ours were always co ordinated and managed. But I have run into hunters especially from a nearby city that are totally thoughtless, inconsiderate and careless and kill crazy. A favorite bird spot was wiped out by hunters going through and killing hens and everything else. A large refuge has nothing on it due to overhunting by large groups of immigrants. Most hunters are great but it only takes a few idiots to ruin it for everyone. And killing people. No excuse whatever.
 
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