OK, I’m not going to post everytime I read a story of tragedy and stupidity in the field this season… not that there would be that many posts anyway.  I mean, really, statistics being what they are, hunting is one of the safest sports in which to participate.  Shining a spotlight on the event doesn’t really do hunters justice… or does it?

But this, the first report to come out of the nascent spring turkey season, kinda set me off.

So here’s the deal.  Saturday morning, a group of guys was turkey hunting up in Tehama County (northern CA).  One of them, for whatever reason, was crawling through some thick brush.  According to the reports so far, his buddy saw the man’s beard, mistaking him for a tom turkey, and took the shot… hitting his “friend” in the head with a magnum load of 12ga #4 shot. 

The article, which you can read here in the Redding Record Searchlight,   goes to some depth to explain that the “accident” was at least partially due to the camouflage and long beard of the victim. 

A man’s camouflage clothing and beard apparently contributed to his shooting death in a weekend hunting accident, Tehama County Sheriff Clay Parker said Monday.

Let’s get something abso-frickin-lutely straight here. 

The camo and beard did NOT contribute to that man’s death.  A load of #4 shot took care of that all by itself… a load of shot delivered by one pull of the trigger by one man who did not take the time to distinguish a human face and beard from a bird.    It was NOT the dead man’s fault! 

Common sense might tell most of us that a beard as big as a grown-man’s couldn’t possibly belong to any turkey alive!  Honestly… even setting basic hunter safety tenets of target identification aside, the mere size of the beard should have been enough to discourage a shot. 

Unfortunately, common sense apparently had no place in the blind on this trip.  Neither did basic hunter safety. 

I generally hate the dogpile of self-righteous condemnation that follows one of these stories… the second-guessing and finger-pointing don’t seem to serve much purpose except to make the rabble feel better about themselves.  But for this case, it’s pretty much justified.   Based on the reports, and the shooter’s own testimony, there are simply NO mitigating circumstances.   

Folks, please… don’t let me be writing this about you.  No trophy or meat is worth the price that this turkey hunter will be paying for the rest of his life… and it’s definitely not worth the price paid by the dead man and his family.

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