moondog

From what I've read and experienced I believe most incidences are caused by hunters who are so hyped up and intent on getting a deer, turkey, elk, ect., that they for get to focus on what is taught right from the beginning in hunter safety training, BE SURE OF YOUR TARGET and MAKE SURE YOU ARE SHOOTING IN A SAFE DIRECTION. In 1997 I was shot in the thigh(missed the artery by less than an inch) at 105 ft. It was 1:00 in the afternoon, the ground was snow covered and I was wearing a blaze orange hat and a bright red shirt. I don't believe I looked anything like a deer. I could see the guy aiming at me(after the shooting started) and he emptyed his gun(5 shots). A NYS DEC officer came to my house a week or so afterwards to take a second statement from me. He told me that the DEC does not call them hunting accidents, they call them hunting incidents. He said that he'd been investigating these incidents for over nine years and that there was only one incident that he might have called an accident and even then he said that the incident could have been prevented.