Thread: hunter down :(

Been thinking a lot about this. We as hunters or firearm users are getting something wrong from day 1 as this is 100% avoidable. It doesn't matter if this guy has 45 years of experience under his belt and is part of the NZDA, what it shows is hes been doing it wrong for 45 years and all it took was the right ingredients for it to happen! I wonder how many deer hes dropped over that time span and not clearly identified the target. This time unfortunately it was a human in his sights.

The whole thing makes me sick just thinking about it for all parties involved. The victim in this instance had high vis on, and pretty much sums up the insignificance of it. I'll still wear it but it gives me no confidence or security that im any safer in the bush.

Originally Posted by Rusky

The victim in this instance had high vis on, and pretty much sums up the insignificance of it. I'll still wear it but it gives me no confidence or security that im any safer in the bush.

After a personal experience last roar, i believe in some situations and conditions wearing hi-viz (blaze orange) actually puts you at a greater risk. I no longer wear mine, instead wear camo and/or green. I know this has been thrashed out a few times before, but i feel its important for people to think about it - You may not be as 'safe' as you think you are when you pull on your blaze orange top or hat.

From my experience where i roared in another hunter (two actually) and saw colour and movement thru tight bush, the small amount of colour i could see looked right, but i couldnt see enough to 100% identify as a deer, saw bush move, was expecting the stag to emerge any second, then two hunters pop out wearing full blaze orange, I alerted them that i was there, and we all shat ourselves. It was a really big wake up call for me i tell you, I honestly believed that it was a stag when i saw the colour and movement thru the thick stuff.

I can certainly see how this happens, very scary shit!

RIP young hunter, my thoughts are with your wife and 2 kids (I have a wife and 2 pre-school kids myself, and cannot imagine the impact on them if i was not to come home one day.

Should add to the above. I know of some people who pride themselves on being able to spot and shoot obscured deer in heavy bush, at times only seeing an eye etc. This is an example of one of those pathways clearly heading fpr disaster. Statistically it could take a lot of deer for an injury or close call to happen but one is too many.

Originally Posted by Rusky

Been thinking a lot about this. We as hunters or firearm users are getting something wrong from day 1 as this is 100% avoidable. It doesn't matter if this guy has 45 years of experience under his belt and is part of the NZDA, what it shows is hes been doing it wrong for 45 years and all it took was the right ingredients for it to happen! I wonder how many deer hes dropped over that time span and not clearly identified the target. This time unfortunately it was a human in his sights.

The whole thing makes me sick just thinking about it for all parties involved. The victim in this instance had high vis on, and pretty much sums up the insignificance of it. I'll still wear it but it gives me no confidence or security that im any safer in the bush.

This is it. Often we focus on the actions immediately associated with the event when the hunter ould have been heading down the pathway of causing injury for a long time. Not saying this is the case with this guy but more that it is healthy for us to focus on seemingly minor errors in firearm handling/hunting practice to.avoid them being integrated into a series of errors/poor philosophy which compound as bad practice that can lead to serious harm.
Sweating the small stuff and being even more aware of negative possibility is very justified in our sport.

Thoughts are with the family and those effected and hope that some change happens as a result of this to reduce chances of it in the future and bring some sense of assurance to the family