Hunting Accidents
Safety
Basic rules for safe turkey hunting:
- Identify a turkey’s head and beard before aiming.
- Never shoot at sound or movement. Assume it is another hunter until you can clearly see a turkey’s head or beard.
- Wear hunter orange when walking through the woods.
- Use hunter orange to identify your hunting location.
- Wrap a bagged turkey or decoy in hunter orange when transporting it.
- Dress defensively. Never wear red, white, blue or black while hunting turkey.
- Know the effective range of your gun.
- Be sure of your target and what lies beyond.
Hunting Accidents
If you are involved in a firearms-related hunting accident, the law requires that you identify yourself and render assistance. Failure to do so is a Class A misdemeanor.
There were four nonfatal and one fatal firearms-related hunting incidents during the 2011 spring turkey season. As you will see, simple carelessness and failure to positively identify game can result in injury or death. Don’t make the same mistakes these hunters made.
- April 9—A 15-year-old boy, his 11-year-old sister and their adult mentor were sitting along a logging trail. When a turkey approached, the adult told the boy to shoot. He wounded the turkey, which began to run away. As the boy stood up to take another shot, the adult said, “shoot it again.” Both children fired, and the girl’s shot struck her brother in the right arm.
- April 10—A father and son were walking through a small clearing when the father saw what he thought was a turkey. Both hunters lay down on the ground, and the father told his son to shoot. The shot struck another father and son who were also hunting turkeys.
- April 23—A man watched another hunter walk across an open field toward where he was hunting. To alert the approaching hunter, the man stood up, removed his mask and gloves, and moved from behind the tree where he was sitting. At this time the approaching hunter fired, shooting the man in the body. The victim fired two shots in the air and yelled, but the shooter ran away.
- April 23—A hunter was gathering his gear after finishing turkey hunting. His gun was propped muzzle-up against a tree. When he reached for his gun, vegetation or a piece of equipment apparently snagged the trigger of the gun, causing it to fire. The shot struck the victim’s head at point-blank range, killing him.
- May 4—A hunter and his companion were calling in a turkey. The hunter heard what he thought was the gobbler clucking. When he saw what he thought was the red head of a strutting turkey, he shot, striking another hunter. The victim had walked down a logging trail, calling as he went, in an effort to ambush the same turkey the shooter had been working.
