Thread: Not getting shot or shooting someone by mistake

I am keen to hear from other hunters who have had near misses with either being shot at or near to or have accidentally shot at or near to another hunter/person believing they were a deer/pig.
I have had 2 close calls, both with me being the shooter. One right hard on dark at absolutely minimal light on a heavily used deer track where I knew a good Sambar stag came out on dusk. Fortunately I held off when a tramper walked up the track so close to dark he was within 15 metres before I could tell him from a deer. Finger was on the trigger ready to go. Gave me a hell of a shock as had never seen anyone in there before.
Other time I missed the first shot and the animal ran 20 metres and stopped to look back. Fired second time and heard a yell as my mate had the projectile whiz over his head as he was fortunately behind but below the animal. Again, absolute shock on my part that I had come so close to dealing to someone.
In both of my cases it was totally my fault the situation occurred. I accept that. I also know that this stuff happens and the longer you hunt the more likely it is to happen. What I also know is that if all of us were wearing something that allowed us to more readily differentiate us from the background I would not have been aiming in that direction. So , I have been working on a cap with red flashing waterproof LED's on it-(deer don't see red ) and run off a rechargeable battery ( minute but lasts 60 hrs) . What I don't know is whether hunters will actually use them- other than me and my mates who would rather come home than worry about looking cool when no one is there to see anyway other than the guy that might shoot you or your kid. I am after feedback to decide whether to get them made in a commercial quantity or to just make a few for me and mine. So if you have had an "incident" I am keen to hear about it as no one has any real idea of how often such things happen and any opinion on whether you think the target ( could be a deer on a hunters back) would not have been one if wearing a flashing red LED hat much appreciated.
Thanks

and while your at it, public admit to any other firearms related crimes you have been involved in. armed hold ups, robery etc..............
lets let everyone know just how dangerous ALL firearms owners are.
greg

Reporting minor incidents raises awareness of safety and decreases major incidents.

"Identify your target BEYOND ALL DOUBT" instantly springs to mind !!

Mate, your post makes you sounds like you are a walking disaster waiting to happen!

Hunting from the track with your finger on the trigger what the fuck???

Good on ya for posting your mistakes. We can all learn from them.
A deer run is different to a public track and I know plenty that I wouldn't expect to see someone either.
Been shot at a few times but that wasn't by mistake. Ha Ha
Only ever had one sort of a close call when hunting sika on public land in the NI. Wasn't that close to worth a mention. I genuinely feel sorry for what NI hunters have to deal with as far as area to hunt and too many hunters in an area.
I spose I am lucky to have areas to hunt that I can be reasonably sure no one else is there due to their access and location.
I also like to get a very good look at an animal before I consider shooting it.
Not just for a safety point of view but as value to me as meat or trophy.


Deer may not see colour but they will see a flashing LED no matter what the colour IMHO


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk. So please forgive my sausage fingers!!!

I've to my knowledge have never had or caused a scary moment, unless theirs a body in the bush that know one knows about. Gimp your right, I think a lot of near misses ain't reported because of the embarrassment, looking bad, etc as bad as this sounds I hope Cme learns valuable lessons, reads more on safety or gets shit from this forum that he will take to heart and improve his skills. Head in the sand doesn't work, unless your hunting Ostriches

Give him some credit , sure sounds less than ideal but a least he knows he's done bad . I've had numerous deer use tramping tracks as there path way to come to and investigate our roaring . I would shoot a deer off a track ,ie accros into bush or a slip on a face etc . Safer than being in the bush and not knowing the track was just below you and shoot at a deer .

He says it was a deer track, not that it was a tramping track.

My bad

Just as long as its not a wind up from an anti-gun person trying to get genuine hunters to state how ''unsafe they are'' on a public forum? I agree that we can always learn from our mistakes, but I have never personally felt in danger on public land from another hunter. I've been tricked a couple times during the roar, as too have I roared in a few hunters and we all made the correct desisions about target ID and had a chuckel about it when the penny dropped.

The only issues I've ever had with firearms safety was:

1) with an American client overseas who discharged a firearm inside a vehicle (and blew my ear-drums) when I was guiding in the UK.
2) And (as luck would have it another American) an ex-boss of mine who was ''ex-army'' but I think he was just a con-artist and a total fuckwit with firearms, nearly shot me and another team mate on more than one occation. He was sacked from our team and police notified of his unsafe behavour.

kj

Yes on reading again it says deer track.
But if I was that tramper and came round the corner to some dude pointing at gun at me with his finger on the trigger I would of kicked the shit out off him.
Just my opinion, but don't put your finger on the trigger until you NO it's a DEER

Yes, finger never on the trigger except when firing, is something that is not taught in NZ but definitely should be.


Edit: really hardly any safety is taught in NZ, the culture is not very safe in general, at least in my experience. It's considered 'soft' or 'gay'

"One right hard on dark at absolutely minimal light "???????

The red flashing light hat????? in daylight????

Good to see the discussion on it. Yep it was a deer only track leading into a bedding area and I had only found it by following the stag I was after back from his feeding areas so I knew the area very well having hunted it a lot. Like most deer, it was well away from any tracks used by humans. The tramper walked past at 3 metres and did not even see me. I was just thankful that I was actively looking for a sign it was not a deer as I am lead to believe most shootings occur when the hunter is already believing the approaching "thing" IS a deer.
When it comes to shooting over my mate. He had moved position out of my line of sight. The animal had run at an angle across and onto a slightly elevated position.
I have been peppered many times by duck shooters when I am hunting ducks so I know incidents happen far more often than the media gets to hear about.
On the issue of red being seen. Sorry, if you don;t have the receptors for red you don;t see it no matter whether it is flashing or not. The new wildlife cameras are fitted with "black flashes" which humans do not see. These are just further into the infra red zone where we don't see but the ccd's in the cameras do. X rays are the same. They see through you but we don't see them because we don't have receptors for them. X ray film does.
With the red lights in day light. Most people shot are shot under poor light in the bush. The fact is that as many hunters are shot in the US now that they use blaze orange as when they didn't. That is because in the bush blaze orange is not blaze orange any more. It can only reflect light that hits it. Trees absorb much of the red into their leaves. ( Chlorophyll is green because it absorbs the red part of the white light from the sun but not green. so if there is not much red under the forest canopy, blaze orange becomes a murky yellow compared to what it is in the open. Ask any diver about it. A torch transforms the sea floor into a colourful wonderland instead of dull green/yellow simply because all the red light gets filtered out by the water first.
While I don't think people should have to protect themselves by wearing a flashing red hat. I do know that less accidents happen when people drive with their headlights on in the daytime. The earlier you see someone in the bush the less likely they are to be either targeted or in line with a target. Have a good one