Thread: How Could This Happen ?

Makes you wonder if the moron did not do it deliberately to try to intimidate their way into getting the hut for themselves. I mean in the open at a popular, well used Hut site, next to the Hut itself , while the guy is dressed in those bright yellow bike jacket & helmet ?

Originally Posted by Ftx325

I understand the lycra also gives them chafeing issues ... and makes their butts look fat

As if 2020 has not thrown enough at us already ,now we have to be on the look out for wild MADIL.... Midde Aged Deer In Lycra

Originally Posted by Woody

Positively identify your target. Basic stuff. It should be reported to police.

Not just that, but no shooting within 500m from any trail or hut. And it sounds like they were shooting towards the hut, so didn't ensure a clear field of fire.

I agree with @Moa Hunter, there's a distinct lack of training going into new licence holders. This spoken as someone who had no previous experience of any consequence with firearms before getting into the sport... I took it upon myself to read up as much as I could on firearm safety etc., but as someone else mentioned, this doesn't prepare you for the adrenaline hit in the heat of the moment. I think there's an obsolete expectation that firearms users have grown up being exposed to and trained in the use of firearms by older generations. I was pretty shocked when I sat my FAL test by the general ignorance of many others in the group.

I don't know if it's a funding / resourcing issue... I imagine the cost of a FAL would have to increase significantly to cover the sort of hands-on training we're talking about. No doubt there would be plenty who would volunteer their time, but then that may raise all sorts of liability issues (although the HUNTS course seems to navigate this okay).

In the absence of anything being done about it, I would strongly urge all you older & wiser blokes to take a newbie under their wing (as @Moa Hunter did for me). I appreciate it seriously compromises your hunting effectiveness, but for those who don't have someone to show them the ropes, you'll be potentially saving lives and starting a multi-generational chain of good practice.

Originally Posted by csmiffy

Absolutely terrible.
Similar but with a better outcome (the dude didnt get killed), as the lady tramper with a headlight getting shot while washing stuff at a creek.
Seriously like WTF?

IIRC she was cleaning her teeth...

Having been shot at by some young hunters across a creek, I can understand what the guy felt.
And that was back in the good old days when everyone was firearm proficient. Yeh, right.

X2 on what @mopheadrob said.
Always a bit of a no-no shooting near huts when i was growing up. That was because of my mates dad, who was a forest ranger, and that rule did apply because of the predominantly non hunted track to the huts we used to frequent. Much more likely to see non hunters there.
Same went with the walking track they were on. Never had the gun loaded either. Did some very fruitless stalking on the tops by above the appropriately name top hut and its newly built replacement but quite a bit further around, plus a bit of the same by the old one hour back down the track, but again that was 10 min walk away and not on the track.
I will add though that some older school friends at that lower hut during some holidays in the rain and snow did resort to splitting some firewood with their 303's as some wanker had pinched the axe.
From this you could probably work out I havent done much hunting from huts. I'm sure there have been quite a few shot from huts now and again.
Bit of common sense applied here really but these young fellas have certainly been very fortunate they didnt kill someone

Originally Posted by mopheadrob

Not just that, but no shooting within 500m from any trail or hut. And it sounds like they were shooting towards the hut, so didn't ensure a clear field of fire.

I agree with @Moa Hunter, there's a distinct lack of training going into new licence holders. This spoken as someone who had no previous experience of any consequence with firearms before getting into the sport... I took it upon myself to read up as much as I could on firearm safety etc., but as someone else mentioned, this doesn't prepare you for the adrenaline hit in the heat of the moment. I think there's an obsolete expectation that firearms users have grown up being exposed to and trained in the use of firearms by older generations. I was pretty shocked when I sat my FAL test by the general ignorance of many others in the group.

I don't know if it's a funding / resourcing issue... I imagine the cost of a FAL would have to increase significantly to cover the sort of hands-on training we're talking about. No doubt there would be plenty who would volunteer their time, but then that may raise all sorts of liability issues (although the HUNTS course seems to navigate this okay).

In the absence of anything being done about it, I would strongly urge all you older & wiser blokes to take a newbie under their wing (as @Moa Hunter did for me). I appreciate it seriously compromises your hunting effectiveness, but for those who don't have someone to show them the ropes, you'll be potentially saving lives and starting a multi-generational chain of good practice.

that is basically what the firearms officer said to me when the missus and my teenage son got their licenses recently. They breezed through as me being a hunter/shooter for nearly 30 yrs and the kids both growing up around guns and using them and being taught how and when to use them he was happy as to sign off on them. But he really struggles when he goes to interviews only to find that there is no history of firearms use in the family and zero experience with guns , from a safety aspect , to bring himself to sign off on them and will often dig deeper looking for a reason not to issue the license.

....well there is no requirements with firearms licensing for training. Wasn’t any when I did it anyway. Not to say it wouldn’t have being a good idea but did grow up with them. With the greater urban/rural dis connect practical training wouldn’t be a silly idea.


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Originally Posted by tiroahunta

....well there is no requirements with firearms licensing for training. Wasn’t any when I did it anyway. Not to say it wouldn’t have being a good idea but did grow up with them. With the greater urban/rural dis connect practical training wouldn’t be a silly idea.


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the closest thing to training as far as a new license goes would be the mountain safety course they had to do, but even that requires no real practical knowledge of firearms to complete

I couldn't believe when I had to redo my FAL, after letting it lapse while abroad.

(Police also had no record of me ever having had it despite me still having the physical license, which isn't a good thing if they are running our register)

Of 13 or so people on the MSC course only 4 of us had ever handled a firearm, of those 4 only myself and 1 other had been hunting, or even shot more than a handful of times.

I have had a shot fired over me (ex Army so know what it sounds like when danger close), passed within a few feet max.

Yelled out and heard someone probably 40m away gap it real quick. Prick didn't even come check if he had hit me. Heavily poached area so not super surprised.

Another guy burst out maybe 5-10m from me while I was sitting eating lunch and sighted on me. That was pretty fucken terrifying, being ID'd through scope at that distance. At least he had the decency to stop and apologise and was actually a nice enough bloke.

Gave him a bit of a lash about using his scope to identify his target when I was clearly visible without it and he admitted hearing me rustling about and came out aiming at the sound.

Bumped into him at a shitty middle of nowhere Pub a few years later and he recognized me so it at least put the shits up him a bit.

Pretty sure there was supposed to have been a "practical handling" aspect introduced into the process already IIRC?

I see some guy down south died the other day too, seems he tripped on a low fence and somehow discharged the firearm fatally. Condolences to the family and friends.

Shit that's a bloody frightening story - on several levels. Sounds like it was only luck that spared your mates life.
When I got my FAL quite some years back now, you had to do and pass a safety course & test. Course & training ran like 5 or 6 nights for a couple of hours each night. Covered most of the basic stuff fairly well. But I think that's gone by the way these days ? You'd have to ask why ? We've heard that the police hierarchy have for many years diverted the income from firearm licenses into other policing areas. And we've seen the staffing gutted & centralised for "efficiency".
You gotta wonder .... its almost like the cops & polies want shit like this to happen, so they have yet more reason to ban firearms completely ??!!

We were all brought up the same & not just from my old man any older hunter we were invited along with to show the ropes always drilled into us no shooting near huts & gun unloaded on walking tracks frequented by trampers etc. I can say in all honesty neither l or anyone l have hunted with have ever shot near a hut in my 30+ years of hunting.

Plus it was only up to a few years ago before they really cracked down on it that it was not unusual to find private camps scattered through even the remotest areas,made from everything from loca timber to tarps & ground plastic sheets.So you never knew when you would come across someone ,down here there was infamous old Hippy hermit that lived in one of my hunting spots right in the middle of a good patch of trees.He would make buttons etc from cast antlers & sell them at the markets once a month,he lived there for 8 years that l know of.

well we have taken great pains with my boy , and daughter for that matter , to drill into them when it is safe, identify target beyond doubt etc . When we were at one of our local huts around a month ago the lad beat us to the hut and came barreling back down the track , "there's 2 deer right next to the hut!' did you shoot at them "no" why not "cause they are right next to the hut and don't know if it's safe" good lad
Kinda sucked because we ended up walking out empty handed and he was gutted because he so want's to drop his first deer , but still had enough restraint to think before he acted .
So if the younger one's are trained properly there is hope and as much as I hate to say it knowing the costs would be added to our license , it is probably not a silly idea to actually have some kind of training at least in the practical side of firearms handling...say at an indoor 22 range maybe.

oh and as an aside there was one guy in my famdamlies course who wanted a license simply because his dad had died and he wanted to keep his old man's firearms in the family , apparently had no desire to actually use them.

Well spoken @Phil_H. This quote sums up a LOT of my encounters around here. Especially when I know for a fact they are at least gang "affiliated"

"Then there were some younger males, who I have to say, if I saw them pull up to the same car park of a piece of bush that I intended hunting, I think I would get back into my car and drive away."

Problem lies with - some people can seem sketchy but are absolutely not, and some so called "up-standing members of society" are utter scumbags. I do not envy the role of the Arms Officers in making a D that could, in potentially EVERY instance result in a Royal Commission.

They can only work within the legal framework and hope that is enough.

Although some form of handling skills should be a mandatory part of the process as well IMO. If it is indeed not already (not sure what changes, if any have implemented recently)