last night there was a programme on the tele about a hunter who had shot and killed a women brushing her teeth in a public car park. he was spotlighting illegaly and saw the reflection from her headlamp and fired killing her.
He broke the golden rule of possitive identification. to his credit he has pleaded guilty and placed himself at the mercy of the justise system.
??? how many of you guys and girls have had insidents out in the field that could have been as bad.
I know I still shudder over the one time I came close. I was sitting watching a swampy area and saw a flash of brown fur I had the bolt half closed and was looking VERY closely for the deer when 2 guys with a brown dog came around the corner!!! I nearly shat my daks! the training of my youth taught me to possitively identify my target beyound ANY dought. I thank my teachers for that. do you fellows have any similar stories to share for the benifit of educating others how plurry easy it is ???

I began hunting later in life than most so I'd heard a bunch of stories like that before I started. Because of that I've always been VERY careful about IDing the target before putting the scope on it. One incident that I do remember was when three of us were hunting groundhogs together. Turned out one of the neighbors was anti-hunting so she tried to slip down through the woods to scare off any critters we might shoot. She was wearing a brown jacket at the time. We checked out "the critter in the woods" with binoculars and realized who it was. By the way, her solution to the groundhog problem, since shooting them was "inhumane", was to feed them chewing gum still in the wrapper so it would block their intestines and they'd die from that...

Yes. Very early in life.

I'd rather lose a deer being sure it was a deer then shooting someone dressed like a deer...Long story about an idiot....

Spring gobbler season !!!

Was calling in a gobbler and he flushed about 15 yards in front of me. I couldn't see him till he flushed because of the tall grass and thick brush. I knew right then something wasn't right but I heard a hen clucking and yelping right behind him. Then I saw some grass move. Thinking a second tom might be coming I kept my gun pointed in that direction. Next thing I saw was another hunter standing in front of me.............man was he good with that mouth call !!! Needless to say he wasn't none to happy looking down the barrel of me turkey gun. I think he got a good education that day about walking the woods while trying to call turkeys.

Chambered wrote:

Needless to say he wasn't none to happy looking down the barrel of me turkey gun. I think he got a good education that day about walking the woods while trying to call turkeys.

Not to mention the importance of having a spare pair of jocks and trousers in his kit.

I've never had an encounter like any of these...like all of the others here...I was taught, and learned very quickly to ensure I identified my target way before even thinking about the shot. Its one of the things I learned very early in my Army career.

One thing that is common practice amongst a lot of hunters is the habit of using their scope to scan and search for game. I've been guilty of this myself...but what people don't think about is that where their scope is pointing, so is their rifle, and if its loaded, ready to go, then so is the bullet.

Cheers, Vince

On the same note, Vince. Be glassin'an area with your binocs and come across a person glassin' you with his scope. I'ts called. "Holy sh*t!!!" and duck.

Bushmaster wrote:

On the same note, Vince. Be glassin'an area with your binocs and come across a person glassin' you with his scope. I'ts called. "Holy sh*t!!!" and duck.

I hear that!! I know some that won't use binoculars, would rather use their Scope..They say if it's a shooter their already on it..

Vince on army training, Ive hunted with 3 different guys over the years who had done thier time in the terries(reserves ,saturday sunday soldiers) and in all cases it took me plurry ages to get the huas to control thier muzzles!!! they would turn towards you and the muzzle would follow. very disconse rting untill the message got given loud enough to get through . I hunt with 8x binos in my day pack and use the scope to check out something suspicous BUT the bolt is half open and finger is NOT on the trigger.my hunting buddy knows when Ive seen something cause thats the ONLY time the bolt closes.the binos come out when glassing clearings etc.

I hear ya Elvis.

I was NOT a WOFTAM, Weekend Warrior, Cut Lunch Commando, Chocco or Tupperware Soldier...I was regular Army mate.

I spent a total of 26 years in three different battalions of the Royal Australian Regiment...an Infantry Regiment. During my time, I was posted to three different reserve units and I saw what you experienced regularly. Having said that, there were also some bloody good soldiers amongst them as well.

Cheers, Vince