Thread: Hunter shot in Kaimai Range near Te Aroha

Just reading this,...something is so wrong....so called “experienced” hunters..REALLY??? The so called seven rules do not take into account human factors,when the “hunt” is on.......Im in the buisness of dealing with “human factors”.....humans make unbelievably stupid decisions,.....no amount of “solid” rules will solve this issue,.....the deaths and shootings prove that rules,no matter hard you stick to them ...cockups are inevitable......The human factors Gibo?,some/ many are better at dealing with them than others.....



Quote....Long senior mistook his son for a deer through about 20 metres of bush after spending a considerable amount of time trying to identify his target.

Tragically, he was convinced his target was a deer when he pulled the trigger.

An experienced hunter and member of the Southland Deerstalkers Association, Long senior, like so many before him, failed to follow the basic firearms rule. Identify the target before pulling the trigger.

He isn't alone.

Just 11 months earlier, another experienced Southland deer stalker and hunting safety advocate, 56-year-old Wayne Edgerton from Tuatapere, accidentally shot and killed 25-year-old Adam Hill who was hunting with a separate party in the Longwood Range.

It was inexplicable, Judge Michael Turner said at Edgerton's sentencing, that a man with his background would pull the trigger without clearly identifying his target.

That appears to be the crux of the problem.

Both Edgerton and Stephen Long were convinced they had identified their targets and were shooting at deer, not people.

In Long's case, he told police he spent "two or three" minutes confirming it was a deer, both with his naked eye and by looking through the rifle scope. He moved left and then right to identify his target and he saw, he mistakenly believed, the deer feeding and antlers on its head before pulling the trigger, killing his son.

Edgerton, hearing several roars of what he believed was a stag, walked towards the sound and saw, both with the naked eye and through a scope, what he believed was a deer. He checked the target again with his naked eye, raised the rifle, and fired, killing Hill who was wearing brightly coloured hunting clothing.

Only Davidson, Long and Edgerton, and the others who mistakenly shot people while deer hunting, know what was going through their minds before they pulled the trigger.

But what is known is many hunters who fatally shoot other hunters convince themselves it is a deer - rather than prove to themselves it is not a deer.

New Zealand Deerstalkers Association president Bill O'Leary says hunters should treat every movement and sound in the bush as being a person.

"And it's only when the deer positively identifies itself that you pull the trigger."

Positively identifying a deer requires hunters to see the head, neck and shoulders of the animal at the same time, not pieces of a deer or what they think are pieces of a deer.

He also stressed that hunters should wear high-visibility orange or blue so it was easier for other hunters to identify them.

They should never use their telescopic sights to identify deer, which Edgerton and Long had both done, because the sights magnified the image and often showed only a small piece of the animal.

O'Leary says about 60 per cent of people shot in mistaken identity cases while deer hunting were shot by people in their own hunting parties, as was the case with Vanderley and Long.

Reasons for the shootings vary, with mistaken identity and the accidental discharge of firearms prevalent.

Two of the five cases this year were the result of failing to identify the target.

"We know why they happen. They don't identify their targets. Why does it happen? That's got us flummoxed," O'Leary says.

"We traditionally thought it was people who were young and inexperienced. But we have got people who are middle-aged, experienced hunters, and they are failing to identify."

O'Leary, who chairs a multi-agency committee focused on improving gun safety, says a possible reason is that some older hunters have poorer eyesight and are perhaps a bit blase when hunting. They perhaps rely too much on their past deer shooting experiences to draw conclusions - instead of going through the methodical process of fully identifying their targets.

Older and experienced hunters were often looking for a flicker of movement, such as the white from a deer's tail, and not seeing the whole of the deer, O'Leary suggests.

Hunting tragedies while spotlighting was another issue being looked at, but it comes back to the golden rule. It is safe if people identify their targets, O'Leary says.

O'Leary and Nicole McKee, the former NZ Mountain Safety Council programme manager for firearms and hunter safety, believe the increasing numbers of hunters in New Zealand is a factor in the increased number of shootings.

"Hunting nationally is on the increase, there's more people out there participating," McKee said when she was still working at the mountain safety council.

Her aim was to have the seven basic rules of firearms safety embedded into the brains of hunters, so they abide by the rules as naturally as motorists put seatbelts on when getting into their cars.

McKee says at least one of the seven basic firearms rules was broken in each of the reports about hunting tragedies she has read.

"When you read some of this stuff you will be pretty gobsmacked about how some of these events occurred. We are actually trying to say, these things have happened due to the breakdown of common sense and people failing to abide by the seven rules."

Richard Vanderley says each time another deer hunting tragedy hits the news, the death of his own son comes flooding back.

"It hits you like a wave again. You know another couple of families have been torn apart.

"Accidents, carelessness, stupidity ... but the fallout is just immense."

The NZ Mountain Safety Council, which is undergoing a restructure, plans to analyse hunting tragedies and injuries so trends and hotspots can be identified and new initiatives developed to try and keep hunters safe, she says.

But there is no simple fix, and McKee knows it, because the human factor comes into play.

"Once they are out there and in the thick of the roar and the adrenaline is pumping, people forget those things [safety rules]. It's still going to happen, but if we can reduce it because people think more and are better educated, it's worthwhile. If a life is saved, it's worthwhile."

With more than 241,000 licensed firearms holders in New Zealand, McKee suggests a way to get the message to the masses is to get alongside corporates and publicise safety messages ahead of the popular stag and duck hunting seasons, when accidental shootings often occur.

She believes the number of tragedies can be reduced.

But for some it is too late, and the pain doesn't go away.

Mark Vanderley, and 27 others killed in deer hunting tragedies in the past 24 years, aren't coming home.

"We just feel he has been robbed," Vanderley's mother says.

"He was a good person, he had a lot to offer. It's just so unfair."

- Stuff