Thread: Another Hunter Killed

We all need to be very clear about this – ANY hunter can make a mistake that can and frequently is fatal to another human.

How can this happen – well it’s our brain interpreting our senses incorrectly.

The easiest way of understanding how it can happen to ANY OF US is to consider why pilots need instruments for flying in cloud or at night. No matter how experienced the pilot, the sensory information being conveyed to their brain is open to misinterpretation. A pilot understands this and their training is to absolutely rely on the instruments – it took a lot of deaths to gain this understanding !!

ALL Hunters MUST understand that the they are capable of making a mistake (of misinterpreting the data) – no matter how experienced they may be – that’s because we don’t have an “instrument” to rely on, only our understanding of our own weakness, and that understanding can prompt us to re-evaluate.

If you are not convinced by the pilot example, exactly the same thing happens to sailors - both amateurs and professionals, they mis-time lights, they hit rocks clearly marked on charts (and chart plotters), because they trust their senses instead of their instruments.

This is the reason I actually feel in more danger (when hunting) when I see many of the comments in these sorts of discussions “it will never happen to me” – my first though is - oh yes it will, and you’d better understand how and why, or it may indeed be you pulling the trigger !!