Another question from a non-hunter...

[Cocoa]

is it really as common as I've been hearing for this kind of thing to happen?

For example, in the account by Mrs. Armstrong, she says this stuff happens "from time to time."

Is that true?

[helderheid]

1. I'm a non-hunter with the same question.

[bliss_eternal]

2. I'm curious too--

seems odd, imo.

[Ztech]

3. It happens

Usually caused by someone walking into the field of fire. When hunting in a group you have to be really disciplined and watch your position in the hunt. Sounds like this guy left the group and then rejoined it without letting the others know his position.

[jwirr]

14. Yes it is a matter of discipline, how you hold your gun while

walking or climbing over a fence and making sure that you are not walking directly behind or in front of another hunter, if a hunter trips over an obstacle anything can happen. When I was in high school one friend peppered the other while hunting pheasants. If they had been any closer to each other he would have died.

[janx]

4. I don't hunt, but I've known hunters, and I'd have to say

that I suspect there is some whitewashing going on with this account. Ms. Armstrong is and has been a Bush supporter for many years, after all.

"Peppering" is one thing. Getting blown in the face by shot is another. There's a guy in ICU right now, and we won't know whether he was "peppered" or more seriously hurt.

I suspect the latter.

[havocmom]

5. We had one hunter shoot another a couple years back

They were in separate hotel rooms at the time... It happens, then you patch the holes in the walls.

Seriously, I see guys coming in and getting one loaf of bread, a couple packages of lunch meat and an 18 pack of Bud per person. Sort of surprises me there aren't more 'accidents'. We often have cows, dogs and even a few ranch kids shot just about every year. It is carelessness and alcohol generally. A twelve year old in a pasture on a bright green John Deere tractor looks NOTHING like a mule deer.

[reality based]

6. It would seem that Mr. Whittington was doing what anyone should do

when catching up to a bird hunting party-- approaching from the rear. The real outrage is the attempt to blame him for the accident.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

7. I grew up in farm country and the only people I heard of getting shot

with buckshot were

1. one brother got another with about 8 pellets while they were out hunting drunk. (15-20 years ago)

2. two kids who had stolen a car in about 1940, shot by a the county deputy (my great grandpa). He loved telling that story, got them in the tails as they were going over a fence.

[Ztech]

13. Buckshot?

Havn't heard that account! What was they doing shooting quail with buckshot? As far as approaching from the rear. You never approach a hunter from a blind position without calling and getting acknowledgement. In group bird hunting safety is only possible when all hunters know the position of the others in their party. Still the question is why are they hunting quail with buckshot?

[Viva_La_Revolution]

15. that was my bad...

they were using birdshot, my gramps was using buckshot. :)

[SpiralHawk]

8. YA GOTTA wonder whether Big Dick had a snootful of Wild Turkey, or

whatever...

[daleo]

9. As we get more details, it will seem worse and worse (my hunch)

I have now heard that he shot the guy twice, for instance.

[TomInTib]

10. It has actually happened to me. Combination of stupidity, too many

people in the field, and alcohol.

Basic incompetence.

Cheney is an idiot for swinging 180 degrees without knowing exactly what was going on behind him.

[Dead_Parrot]

11. It does indeed happen from time to time...

...particulary amoung total retards who have no conception of other people's safety and how to use a gun correctly.

I rest my case.

[sinkingfeeling]

12. I think there were 6 hunters shot last year in Arkansas during deer

season alone.

[johnnie]

16. I used to hunt

And the people I hunted with were experienced hunters. They never mentioned this happening in all the years they hunted.

I do know it happens and I have heard other stories of it happening. From almost all the stories I heard it usually ended up being inexperienced hunters who shot others.

[dsc]

17. Mike Royko used to publish a column of dumb gun owners

each year. Some of the stories were real doozies. People do get shot on hunting trips on occassion but I don't think it is a normal thing.

[The Traveler]

18. First rule is

ALWAYS look before you shoot. Better that one of the little feathered critters get away than you shoot a fellow hunter in, for example, the face.

I shared that with my 17 year old, who immediately observed that Cheney has been known to have a problem with that kind of impulsiveness in the past ...

:evilgrin:

[applegrove]

19. No! From what I know ... if it happens.. you are with a sick irresponsible

fuck and you never hunt with them again. But Cheney lives in an alternative universe. People will be paid or given priviledge to hunt with him.

We will see it very soon.

In reality - this hunter would be shunned.