Here's the details of the accident, as told by the Game Warden on the scene:

Accident Kills Austin Man during Hunting Trip with Daughter

On the eastern edge of the Texas Hill Country, Lampasas County — with a population of 30,000 — is a magnet for deer hunters from around the state and the nation. During his 17 years assigned to this deer hunting hot spot, Game Warden Jim Lindeman has accumulated a lot of memories in this Edwards Plateau Region getting to know most of the land owners and many of the hunters. The memory from November 17, 2012, however, he would like to forget.

“The Sheriff’s office dispatched me to a ranch in the central portion of the county off County Road 3220,” Lindeman explains. “A hunter had been shot on the property of about 1,000 acres. I know the landowner, and the hunters who have been leasing the ranch for the last decade.”

Lindeman, and a county deputy who was following him, arrived on the property and drove the ranch road where a 47-year-old man had been shot. The two men arrived before the ambulance.

In a chaotic scene, the victim was lying on the ground with a gunshot to the abdomen. The man’s brother and another hunter were taking turns performing CPR in a desperate attempt to save his life. The deputy and another game warden also tried CPR as the victim’s 10-year-old daughter and another child of about the same age were escorted away from the scene and were being consoled by an adult.

“After the morning hunt, a vehicle came to pick up two of the hunters from their stand,” Lindeman says. “As those two hunters were getting into the high-rise hunting vehicle, a .243 rifle which was propped up against the platform seat began to fall over. The man reached for it, and somehow it went off, striking him in the abdomen. This was very much an accident.”

The man, who has been identified as Eduardo Lopez of Austin, was pronounced dead at the scene.

His death may mark the third hunting fatality of the year. On November 10, a 71-year-old Livingston man was killed in what was reported to be an accidental shooting. The Polk County Sheriff’s Office is investigating. Witnesses told officials that a rifle was accidentally fired while it was being unloaded. And in April, a San Antonio man was shot in the head while hunting opossum on the San Antonio River.

“This is not good news,” Terry Erwin, TPWD hunter education manager, says of the number of apparent hunting fatalities this year. “If this is true, it surpasses the two fatalities we had last year.”

In 2011 Texas had the safest year on record. There were a total of 23 total hunting incidents, 21 of them non-fatal. The number has steadily declined since Hunter Education became mandatory in 1988. In that year there were 12 fatalities and 58 non-fatalities.

“This was a very nice man who died Saturday,” Game Warden Lindeman says of the Lampasas County accident. “And it happened in a split second.”

sorry for the family

Hate to read things like this. Prayers for those family's.

Horrible story.

Awful

Terrible! Praying for the family and all involved. That's why we are absolutely anal about open chambers any time getting in/out of stand or veh and always open chambers at camp. Horrible tradgedy

Prayers to all involved especially those children what a horrible thing for those kids.

Hunter education is a must at any age . i try to go ,when i start someone new hunting ,keeps my mind fresh about the danger involved in hunting . my prayers go out to his family and all involved .

Prayers for the family.

Yes,very troubleing.Unfortunately they will never get over it.
Prayers up for them and the family.

What a horrible tragedy. My heart breaks for the family. Another grim reminder that firearm safety cannot be stressed enough.

Prayers up.

prayers to the family

While tragic and should be a lesson to us all, it should also be pointed out that "hunting" is very dangerous when you compare it to something we fear like animal attacks. In the US, hunting incidents resulting and injury or death FAR outweigh those by coyotes, wolves, bears, mountain lions, and sharks combined, IIRC. In hunting in Texas alone, you are more likely to be killed or injured than being killed or injured by a mountain lion anywhere in the US. Of course, there are a lot more hunters in Texas than there are mountain lions in the US.

Here are the last 10 years of hunting incidents. Note that if you are going to be fatally shot, there are about even odds you will do it yourself. It used to be that dove and then deer were the animals most associated with these events but in Texas, that is now becoming hogs. It should also be noted that as well most places in the US, such incidents are in decline. This is attributed to hunter safety programs, although they still happen far too often and virtually are always (or are always) preventable.

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publications/pwdpubs/media/pwd_rp_k0700_1124_2002.pdf
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publications/pwdpubs/media/pwd_rp_k0700_1124_2003.pdf
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publications/pwdpubs/media/pwd_rp_k0700_1124_2004.pdf
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publications/pwdpubs/media/pwd_rp_k0700_1124_2005.pdf
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publications/pwdpubs/media/pwd_rp_k0700_1124_2006.pdf
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publications/pwdpubs/media/pwd_rp_k0700_1124_2007.pdf
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publications/pwdpubs/media/pwd_rp_k0700_1124_2008.pdf
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publications/pwdpubs/media/pwd_rp_k0700_1124_2009.pdf
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publications/pwdpubs/media/pwd_rp_k0700_1124_2010.pdf
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publications/pwdpubs/media/pwd_rp_k0700_1124_2011.pdf

Dude you are full of it.
Compare hunting to other recreational activities, not stupid stuff like coyote attacks. You will see it is one of the safest out there.
What's your agenda here?
If it's what I think, take it somewhere else.

If a single death is a lesson to us, Dude, then people dying every year and bunches of others getting stupidly shot due to irresponsibility and negligence should hammer home the point.

This was not an isolated event. These incidents are always tragic and always disheartening, but none of them should have happened, NONE. That is the agenda. Whether you like the comparison with dangerous animals or not doesn't really matter. These people should not have gotten shot, Dude.

Yes it is dangerous and we need to be careful. Hunter Education and gun safety programs VOULNTARILY staffed work to do this . Deaths and injuries from hunting accidents have plummeted over the past decades.Of course,no accidents should happen-but (in case you haven't noticed), they do. That is because some people will always be careless and/or dumb.

Your post, comparing hunting to "lightning in a bottle" type stuff in order to make hunting seem more dangerous than it actually is, is unfair. Period.

Driving a car is dangerous, operating power tools/chainsaw is dangerous, playing football is dangerous, rock climbing is dangerous, scuba diving is dangerous.Eating fried foods is dangerous. Heck,getting out of bed is dangerous.

One careless moment can change lives forever. Be that driving a car, hunting, stepping off a curb, playing baseball/football/soccer, ladders, stairs, even saying the wrong thing. Accidents happen. To blame an inanimate object for some persons inattention to safety is well irresponsible in itself.



Prayers up for the families involved in the original information in this thread.