Shot while running from hogs

This is a terrible tragedy, but one that sounds like should not have been a tragedy. Dylan "D-Ray" Seymour (16) was hunting hogs with his mom and older brother (19) when they were reportedly charged by a sounder of hogs. The hunters all ran and may have been shooting as they ran. That stopped when D-Ray announced that he had been shot. The last of the hogs ran by while they were inspecting his wound. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Of course between the mom and surviving brother, nobody knows what happened.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...d-hogs-attacked-family-hunting-trip.html
https://henryclubs.com/boy-16-is-ac...attacked-his-family-during-hunting-trip/

My guess is that they came across a sounder of hogs and shot at them and then happened to be in the egress route of the hogs. When the hogs ran at them, it took them by surprise, scared them, and they took off running from the hogs, thinking they were under attack. While fleeing, one or more of them discharged their guns. That hogs continued to just run by the family as they were checking D-Ray's wounds would seem to indicate that they was no attack, just hogs trying to get away.

Generally speaking, hogs don't attack or charge (as in attack) en masse. They will run in fear en masse, however, and that can be visually overwhelming, but isn't likely to be very dangerous unless one accidentally runs into you, which doesn't happen very often and even then you might suffer a hit and possible bite or cut, but usually not much more. Standing your ground, particular as a group of hunters, is going to be much safer than running and gunning as a scared group of hunters.

Very sad; very sad indeed.

Tragic!

Good lord man, how sad.

This is terrible, and a real good reminder for us all how dangerous the weapons we hold can be. God bless this boy and his family, what a horrible accident.

Horrible news. Prayers for comfort to the family. I can't imagine what there are going through.

Prayer for all.

Agreed.

Can't imagine what they're going through....

Always be sure of your target and what is beyond.

Tragic. So sad

Horrible tragedy for that family

Unbelievably tragic!!!!!!!!!!!!! Prayers for all involved!!!!!!!!!!!
It's exciting moments like this when hunters must maintain self control and be aware of their surrounding and make certain shooting will not have a tragic consequence!!!!
As a Hunter ED instructor I try to address these moments of hyper excitement where such horrific accidents occur. I almost shot my dad in such an out of control situation as a young hunter and is the reason I try to instill awareness of these potential tragedies,

It might be no different than the person, who in their fear of drowning, acts irrationally without any thought of the impact his/her actions is placing on others. Unless you've been trained how to do it, you never want to get close to anyone who believes they are drowning. In this case, the person starts shooting out of fear they're going to be attacked and killed by the animals they believe are after them.

Very tragic but it does have a smell to it. Could there be more to the story?

Yeah, what you teach in a classroom doesn't always translate into action during an intense, high stress, panic situation. That is no fault of your own or Hunter's Ed. Talking about the elephant may help some, but it can be hard to know how they will react upon seeing the elephant, so to speak. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seeing_the_elephant

The military actually does stress inoculation training to enhance battlefield performance and help prevent battlefield panic and even that isn't 100% effective.

I have to think that there was some group think panic going on. They were all running.

This is incredibly sad. I was in a similar situation a few years ago that fortunately didn't have any tragic results. I thought about posting the story here as a safety example, but never got around to it, however I feel compelled to tell it now. Maybe 5 years ago I had taken my two boys on an east Texas guided night hog hunt. They were about 14 and 16 at the time, both experienced with pistols and rifles for their age, and relatively safety minded as a teenager can be. I wasn't hunting, just spotting for them, and also instinctively acting as kind of a safety officer. The guide was excellent, and put us on some hogs on multiple properties throughout the night. If we saw any, the boys would quietly set up the rifles on sticks, side by side, and would fire simultaneously from a verbal countdown by the guide. Because of our movement, hogs were usually 100+ yards. On one of these, a large group of hogs at 50-100 yards scattered at the shot, including some that ran directly at us. I admit its exciting with stalk, the shoot, and the sudden chaos out there in the middle of the night. I'm not very experienced hunting hogs, but I had an immediate sense that this is a problem. I had this sudden vision of the boys going into CQB swinging their guns around with the hogs running all around us. Each one of them got off one or two more shots at the hogs running at us without any hits, but as they got close I started yelling at them from behind to not shoot anymore. Both of them heard me and stood up from their firing positions. It was kind of surreal there for a few moments as squealing pigs darted around and through us, with a few circling back to do it again. It was fun and exciting, but later as I thought about that particular situation, I realized how dangerous it could have been. In hindsight, we should have briefed that situation before hunting, or at least the guide should have. I didn't know enough at the time to consider it. If with multiple hunters and the hogs come back towards you, you don't change the orientation of your firing line, just stop shooting. In the heat of the moment, its easy to forget common sense, and that's when bad things can happen.

A truly sad deal regardless of how it went down,

This discussion if passed on will be a life saver. I know it's almost impossible for me in a class room to create the adrenalin that gets released in these rare situations but we all know the consequences that can result. Take the time to relate this to a new hunter so they might be more controlled in the event this or something similar happens

Very sad indeed prayers to the family.