My annual reminder of an event back in 2008 as listed in the TPWD 2008 Hunting Accident Report...




“Some of you may already know that I was involved in a hunting accident on New Year’s Eve but wanted
you to hear about it from me so that you have the story first-hand and know that I am going to be okay.
I was sitting in a tripod stand on my lease in South Texas at dusk when one of my hunters drove down an
adjoining road. He stopped his jeep in my sendera, and I waved my hat and whistled so that he would see
me and leave. I watched him get out of his jeep and the next thing I know I hear and feel the shot at the
same instant. I was able to stand up and yell to him that he shot me and he drove to me as I climbed out
of the stand. The 25-06 bullet went in the front of the top of my left shoulder where it joins the neck and
exited out the back. He rushed me to the Eagle Pass emergency room which is only minutes from the
ranch.

I was flown home to Houston the next afternoon and have been having the wound treated at home by a
doctor friend until I get in to see a general surgeon tomorrow. I have a very nasty exit wound that will
require several weeks to heal and then plastic surgery to finish off. I was very, very fortunate in that the
bullet missed all bones and vitals. I have attached a picture of the wound (don't open if you are
squeamish). You will see how lucky I (and the shooter) am to be able to sit and write this today. I will tell
you that it hurts, a lot!

As to the question of how this could happen I don't have an answer. He is an experienced and normally
very safe hunter and he can't explain his total lapse in judgment at shooting at something he could not
positively identify, in very low light and at a 200 yard distance. He broke the number 1 rule in gun safety.
His recovery time will be much longer than mine but he is not getting any sympathy from me at this time.
The soreness gets a little better (easier to take) every day, and I expect to be working at least part time
tomorrow and picking it up a little more every day.

I'm thankful for all the support I have gotten in the last few days. I expect to have a great new year!”

Source

I had not heard this. What a nightmare.

Not trying to be a horses azz, there has to be a better explanation than what he told you. It is incomprehensible that an experienced hunter shoots another deer hunter up in an elevated tripod, that is just crazy. Had he been drinking or on medication?

That’s quite a hole ya got there…

This is an incident that happened back in 2008 as described in the TPWD 2008 Hunting Accident Report and not something in which I was involved. I share it every year the week before the General Season Opener in an effort to remind folks to stay safety conscious.

All the TPWD Hunting Accident Reports dating back to 2002 can be found at the link below. Each one makes for some interesting reading.

TPWD Hunting Accident Reports

So this didn't involve you, the OP? People do stupid things all the time.

I’m right there with you, Stub. Doesn’t make any sense.

I harp on gun safety to my son. I keep telling him once bullets leave they can’t be called back.

May confuse a goat or cow in low light for a deer or hog but not a hunter in an elevated tripod; this is a clear case of negligence or was intentional. Hopefully the shot hunter took him for maximum civil remedies and/or the hunter was criminally rung up.

Most accidents (hunting, auto, work, etc) involve at least one stupid person. Seems that's the case here too.

The only explanation I can think of that makes any sense at all is that the shooter mistook the other hunter for a turkey sitting on the roost. Nothing else is going to be up above ground level.

The only close call I had.........late evening, in poor lighting I see a hog about 200 yards out in thick grass/cover that is about 12" tall. I have plenty of deer closer that I was not interested in. As I put my scope on the hog to line up a shot the front shoulders and legs totally separate from the rear 1/4's and legs, revealing to me it was two does facing away from each other that were perfectly aligned when I first saw them. At first look I was 100% convinced it was a hog. A valuable lesson I learned without paying a price.

I can't imagine the level of carelessness it takes to take a shot mistaking a person for an animal.

Which isn’t even legal, as I read it.

Texas Dan - Thank you for posting this and putting the reminder in our thoughts regarding gun safety as we move towards opening gun weekend.

Two hunters died from Carbon Monoxide so far this year. In a camper with the stove on.

That reminds of the the Border Patrol agent who saw a glimmer in the distance only to realize that it was a scope on a rifle pointed right at him.

He went through the whole adrenaline rush, life passing before his eyes, etc...

The rifle kept holding, no shot. Eventually, he realizes... Jackass hunter was just using his scope to see what the Border Patrol agent was up to...

He drove over to the hunter's stand and proceeded to tear into him about firearm safety.

We were calling predators one night (~1987) and kept getting eyes on and off from about 150 yards away. This was a brushy area west of Goldthwaite in some sandstone/red dirt draws near the river. The eyes would disappear, then re-appear every time we started calling. The light we had was good enough to make the eyes shine but not good enough to show the animal. After a minute or two (they never changed position), one of my group fired a shot and killed the rancher's Angora billy goat, who was bedded across a draw and just kept looking up every time we started the caller. Whole lot of red flags ignored by some idiot high school kids:

1. Eyes weren't nearly as reflective as most predator eyes
2. Position never changed over a couple of minutes
3. WE NEVER CLEARLY ID'd THE TARGET

Harsh lesson that is still with me today; thankfully it was just a goat.

You can’t pick your kin folks, but you can pick your hunting partners.
I was on a lease with a man and his three sons, that he never disciplined, they had two accidental shootings in one weekend, luckily no injuries, I got off that lease.
I’m glad you will be ok eventually.

Buddy of ours KM invited me & JC to deer hunt on his place outside of Cotulla. First morning hunt JC gets dropped of first in a tower blind, me next in a ground blind and KM where ever?
Morning hunts is over KM picks me up, we drive over to get JC and I notice the DA pointing his rifle right at us, he is following our arrival through the scope of the rifle right up until we stop to get him

BTW we all had a pair of binoculars.

Dude in WV shot a fellow hunter that was in a tree. He said that he thought it was a deer. I don't recall the circumstances. In WV the guy may have been eyeball level across a ravine. From what my BIL told me there may have been some history between the 2.

Had to be some history between them. ?

Our hunters ALWAYS carry a flashlight with them (they also have their cell phones with a light) when its late in the evening or early in the morning. You DO NOT want to be walking down a sendero or dirt road when its very early or very late without a light on. Too bad you didn't have a light to shine at him as soon as you had seen him approach your sendero.

This is what happened to a family on a hill country ranch next to where I hunted back in the early 70's.
Some 13 yr old kid unsupervised was climbing up hill to a ridge that overlooked a deep canyon, unaware that his cousin and uncle a father and his ten yr. old son were sitting in a tree with their backs to him looking down into the canyon.
The 13 yr. old mistook them for turkeys since they were wearing dark clothing and no hunter orange.
The young boy the 13 year olds cousin caught a 30 caliber slug in the lower back, and what I heard was he didn't make it.
That 13 yr. old is now an old man that if still living has had to live with this accident his entire life.
I started hunting at about that age as well and I was given freedom and trusted to make my own life and death choices at that early age so you fathers out there please teach gun safety above anything else, and make sure the message gets driven home.