IIRC, Texas Dan posted a thread about the hunter safety incidents in Texas being at an all time low, which is great news. However, I have a google alert set up that keeps me updated regularly on incidents in the US in general, and some from other parts of the world. One popped up today that left me just shaking my head. The initial story reported 3 people shot with one shot in Virginia.

https://wcyb.com/news/local/3-inured-in-scott-county-hunting-incident

Subsequent searching found that 3 turkey hunters were all shot in the head/face area, but that all three have been released from hospital. https://www.wjhl.com/news/local/hunting-accident-in-scott-county-va-leaves-three-injured/

I read a lot of these stories. Usually, it is one person hurt or killed, sometimes one person and a vehicle/property. Rarely are two people injured. This is the first time, I think, that I have seen where 3 were injured.

Holy moly!

Special kind of stupid.

Really makes me want to go hunt out of state.

It’s sad how people no longer seem to care about ethical hunting, the lack of attention is embarrassing to all hunters!

Many years ago, I worked with a man that shot another man IN A TREE, thought he was a turkey. A couple years later shot his own car, covey of quail got up between him and his car. Daniel

I think what you are talking about used to be a lot worse than it is today, as evidenced by the numbers of hunting accidents that occur. That people needed to be taught in classes that it was a bad idea to make sound shots or movement shots without identifying their targets is hard to conceive, but people do learn not to do things like that in hunter's ed classes and it has really helped. However, there are folks that still let don't get it or lose control of it via buck fever. There always have been. There always will be.

Intentionally unethical acts have always gone on and are part of the reason we have many of the hunting laws that we have.

I agree. Given the number of people hunting, the number of 'accidents' is honestly pretty good. Say what you want about feeder hunting, it does two things: 1) GREATLY increases target identification, and 2) makes it much easier to harvest a deer. Lazy hunters and unethical hunters are always looking to cut corners. Feeders cut a huge corner for that group, one of the likeliest groups to be involved in an accident. Removing them from the equation helps a lot.

the good old east Texas "sound shot"

😎

seems most hunting incidents occur where there is an absence of common sense.

Accidents used to be much worse in the past that they are now. I don't know if its the result of hunter safety or fewer drunks with guns

I'll guarantee it isn't that.

The worst I know of was constable Bill Bailey’s (a local prominent figure) son killed by his own child. They were both ascending a ladder to the blind, Dad went first. The boy shot him from below. Sad, sad, sad.

I was a victim of this once while deer hunting in Maine. Was still/stalk hunting in a draw when someone using a shotgun let go with a round at the sound of me walking out of the woods. Fortunately I was behind a tree when the buckshot hit all around me. I yelled and cussed at them and heard them running away from the area. Scared the he!! out of me and pissed me off at the same time since I was covered in orange.

Later on another hunt up there I was getting a doe through the check station when someone brought in a small mule thinking it was a "mule deer". Lots of city folks up there from Massachusetts and New York made it unsafe to hunt until there was snow on the ground and the cold weather kept them at home.

I wish I could be the oracle that writes up the hunter safety classes. The typical drill is "learn about your gun's safety" and be sure of your target and what's beyond it" That's okay but I think a lot more could be done, such as going over all the recent accidents. Falling out of a tree stand, duck hunting and grabbing a shotgun by the muzzle, rabbit hunting with folks all over shooting.

Should have made that hunter eat that mule!!

I had an old Winchester 94. You had to unload it running rounds in and out the action. Well I knew enough to keep my fingers away from the trigger but in moving the lever back and forth the cuff of my jacket caught the trigger and fired. Fortunately I was away from others, at the bottom of my tree stand. I spent some time thinking about it. I now knew why you should unload away from camp and the next day I traded the 94 for a Marlin 336 that had a cross bolt safety- you could unload and have the safety on. The point is: some hunter safety classes simply say "all guns are dangerous" Maybe so but there are realities. When someone gets into handguns I always recommend a revolver, you can swing out the cylinder to unload it, etc. There are simply some firearms better on safety features. I bought this old side by side 16 gauge shotgun with the express plan to rebuild it but if I took that thing and rapped it on the floor the sear noses were so worn that the gun would fire. It had a low hammer problem that I fixed. Works great now.

When I was in high school, my football coach’s son shot and killed a man while turkey hunting. The man was up a tree and turkey calling. The dad took responsibility and said he did it, but everybody knew it was the kid. No charges were filed.

Also when I was a teen, I was the gas attendant at Dad’s Esso station, and the windshield cleaner and tire pressure and oil checker. A couple of Cajuns came in for gas and had a goat across the hood. IT was a ‘spike’ they said. Dad told me to say NOTHING.