I’ve been steaming over this incident for a day or so now, debating if was worth writing about.  Obviously, the “go ahead and write about it” side won out.

On Sunday, I made a sort of last-minute run out to the Grizzly Island wildlife area for an afternoon duck hunt.  I mentioned it to Holly earlier in the week, and she asked if I’d be willing to let one of her friends, a fairly new hunter, come along.  Alison (the friend) lives here in the SF Bay area, and was hoping to get to know a little about Grizzly Island, since it’s relatively close to home.  I figured the least I could do was show a new hunter around. 

The afternoon was pretty slow, from a duck hunting perspective.  A couple of little flocks of spoonies were moving around from pond to pond, but there wasn’t much else to get excited about.  Alison and I were set up on a little dry spit of land with a reasonable cover around us.  We told hunting stories, and joked about distant birds, and generally relaxed and enjoyed the marsh… with the never-ending hope that birds would come to land with the decoys. 

A shot rang out suddenly, WAY too close.  I could hear the crack of the shot load ripping through the dead fennel not five yards from Alison’s head, and a very tight shot string smacked the water about 20 yards in front of us.  We both sort of sat there in shock for a moment, and then Alison scared the crap out of me again.  “At least it didn’t hit me,” she said kind of weakly.  And then, “I’m not hit, am I?” 

Oh, man!

She wasn’t acting like she’d been hit, but then I wondered if she was so calm because she was in shock.  Of course, in a couple of seconds we both realized she was fine… but it was a long couple of seconds. 

Then the anger hit me.  I know there was no one within 200 yards or more when we came in and set up, in the broad daylight.  What idiot was out here shooting blindly through the grass?  I popped up to see.

Some guy was wading along the opposite side of the levy with his dog, oblivious to our presence.  The moronic thing wasn’t that he was there, it is public land after all, but that he fired a shot dead-level through the grass without knowing if anyone was around.  I’m still not sure what the hell he was shooting at, as there were no birds in the air.  Was he killing coots?  Tweety birds?  Just bored?  He could have been pheasant hunting, but there were no pheasants there.  If there had been, they would have been sitting in our laps. 

The point is, it’s a duck marsh.  Duck hunters are camouflaged and hidden from view.  With that in mind, it doesn’t require great leaps of intelligence to realize it’s probably a bad idea to be shooting into the grass when you can’t see through it.  Not a bad idea… a frickin’ stupid idea.  That moron could have killed one of us, especially at that range.

So I yelled at him, of course.  He looked at me with an idiotic Alfred E. Newman sort of expression, and sort of shrugged his shoulders. 

I’m generally a very non-violent guy. I don’t like fighting and I try to avoid putting myself in a situation where it’s inevitable.   Nevertheless, I wanted to curse this guy a blue streak, but I couldn’t find words.  All I had was my gun in my clenched fist.  There’s just not much future in physical confrontations, especially when both parties are armed.  I let the possibilities play through my head and none came up well for either of us in the long run.  So I just glared at him. 

At first, the goddamned moron thought he would just continue hunting whatever he was hunting, poking around behind his dog less than 40 yards from where we were sitting, but I guess he thought better of it and sort of eased off across the marsh.  I watched him as he crossed the pond and then started to set up on the next levy over, still within 100 yards and plenty close enough to be dangerous.  I stepped out into plain view and stood glaring until he picked up and moved on out of sight. 

At that point, I wanted to follow him back to his vehicle and turn him in at the check station, but the truth is, what could they have done?  Technically, no law was broken.  No one was hurt (by sheer luck) and no property was damaged.  Idiots like that need to have their guns taken away, but the problem is that there is no mechanism in place to do so. 

Anyway, we managed to move past the experience and hunt the rest of the afternoon.  There was a brief flurry of activity just before sunset, but the evening flight I’d counted on never happened.  Even though we managed to get a couple of shots off, it just wasn’t meant to be and we walked out of the marsh empty-handed. 

But at least neither of us made the evening news…

Every year, at about this time, hunting seasons are running full tilt across the country.  With this number of people in the field, we usually see an apparent rash of hunting-related accidents.  Sure enough, a quick search-engine check found that there were three fatalities and a handful of incidents just over the past weekend.

In Stockton, NY, a hunter was found dead of a gunshot wound on Saturday afternoon.  No details are currently available with possible explanations (was the wound self-inflicted or from another hunter?), but from the tone of the short piece, it appears to be a hunting accident.  On the same day in Vermont, a deer hunter was trailing a wounded deer with two buddies.  For some reason (it’s unclear in the article), the hunter fired a shot and fatally hit one of the other men.  Apparently filled with remorse, the hunter turned the gun on himself and committed suicide on the spot.

Meanwhile, over in Iowa, two more hunters were injured.  One said that the gun he was carrying got tangled up in some bags and discharged, hitting him in the foot.  Another hunter was shot by one of his companions during a deer drive, when the slug passed through the deer and hit him in the leg.

And then there’s the terrifying near-miss.  In Conewango, NY, a deer hunter shot at a deer and missed.  The bullet carried over the fields for more than 500 yards before passing through the door of a school bus and lodging in the roof.  The bus was loaded with school children at the time.

So where’s all this going?  Am I going to beat you all about the head and neck with my pedantic stick and blaze on and on about safety?  Am I going to point out the obvious safety and judgement errors that lead to incidents like these?  Will I quote the International Hunter Education Association texts about being sure of your target and backstop, etc.?

I could, and honestly, I don’t think it would be a waste of time.  But I won’t.  The information is out there if you need it, but I’m fairly certain that most of you, good readers, are already aware of the rules of hunter safety.  In fact, I’d say it’s a good bet that every one of the individuals involved in these accidental shootings was equally aware, and probably just as well educated as the best of us. This isn’t a question of not knowing safe practices… it’s about not following them.

I’m pretty sure there aren’t many of you out there who haven’t heard about the Utah duck hunter who was shot in the backside by his dog.  This poor guy is sure to be the butt of many jokes around the duck marsh, even though the situation is only funny due to pure luck.  This hunter was lucky, not only that he survived, but that he wasn’t even badly hurt.  Besides the sting of 27 pellets, his pride apparently took the worst injury.

I’m not going to get all holier-than-thou about gun safety, or the safety rules this hunter should have observed.  Hell, I’ve laid my loaded gun in the back of the truck, the deck of the boat, and on the ground many times.  There, but for the grace of a dog, go I.  My guess is I’m not alone in this either.  I’m not saying it’s alright, but it is reality.  Sometimes expedience and convenience trump safety considerations… particularly when the actual risks seem so remote.  What are the odds that a dog is going to step on the safety button, and then stick his toe in the trigger guard and shoot you in the back?

For that matter, what are the odds of being involved in a hunting accident at all?

The NSSF and some other organizations will tell us that, statistically, hunting is one of the safer outdoor recreational activities.  Their calculations say that only 1 in 2000 hunters will be injured in a hunting accident.  By the numbers, you’re more likely to be injured on the golf course (1 in 662) or in the swimming pool than in the field with a deadly weapon.  And they’re right, of course.  It’s hard to argue with numbers.

But the thing about statistics is that numbers don’t have emotions.  They don’t have friends and families.  They are about as objective as you can get.  So when that one in 2000 shot comes up, as far as numbers go, it’s still just a one amidst 1999 other ones.

For us, however, for you and me, being that one in 2000 will make all the difference.

So I guess all I really wanted to say here is, “pay attention”.

And be careful out there.

Just a quick note before I head out (this evening) to do a little guiding up at Coon Camp Springs.  I wasn’t planning to guide up there this year because most of our clients would be self-guiding, but at the last minute, Dave called to see if I could come up to work with this client for a couple of days.  I jumped at the chance, because I’m really missing what had become an annual retreat.

Anyway, I got a little fed up listening to the morning news (or what they’re selling as “news”), so I flipped the TV over to the Sportsman’s Channel to see what was happening there.  At the worst, it would be some mindless sort of background while I got my work day off the ground.  I didn’t expect what popped up…

A guide and client were slipping along a rocky ridge in the Texas Hill Country.  Below them, a trophy axis buck fed in blissful ignorance of the impending death.  The hunter set up for the shot, but just before he could pull the trigger, the deer moved.  The guide pointed out another vantage point and they picked up to move.

As they snuck along the rugged ledge, guide in front and hunter behind, the hunter stumbled on a rock or something.  As he tried to regain his balance, there was the unmistakeable crack of a rifle shot and a flurry of chaos.  The guide stumbled and fell, one of the helpers rushed forward, and there was a lot of yelling.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.  Keep in mind that I’d dropped right into the middle of this program with no idea what it was about. It was a very real depiction of every guide’s worst nightmare, and it was very realistically filmed.  All I could think was, did that really just happen?

The episode didn’t back off right away.  I recognized Larry Weishuhn as the assistant guide when he rushed in to apply pressure to the guide’s wound, and there was actually a sense of panic in the voices of the others as they used their radios to call for help.  A camp truck rolled in, and they loaded the bleeding man into the back as the hunter broke down off to the side.

I scanned my memory as hard as I could to remember any news report of Weishuhn being involved in an accident like this one.  You’d think it would make news, at least amongst the hook-n-bullet press, but nothing came to mind.

And then there was a commercial.

By this point, I realized I was watching a dramatization, but I was pretty impressed by how well they had played it out.  After the commercial, they stretched it a little more and then gave it away… it had all been a dream.

I hit the Info button on the remote, and saw that I was watching A Hunter’s Life.  I hadn’t seen this one before.  From the show’s description, it sounded like most other programs.

Follow outdoor television legend, author, spokesman and all around good guy Larry “Mr. Whitetail” Weishuhn as he hunts the globe for big game.

There was no indication that they might stage situations like I’d just seen, but I honestly felt like the surprise only made it better.  I was glad to see, not only something different, but a message so powerful and important.  It was totally realistic, at least from where I saw it, which added to the impact.  While I can see how something like this could quickly become over-used in the industry, I would like to see a little bit more of it… particularly if it’s well done as this episode was.

So kudos to Mr. Weishuhn and co.  Nice job!

The other day, something came up about CPR and the person I was talking to mentioned that he wasn’t sure he could remember the procedure.  It occurred to me that this is probably what stops people from stepping in to help when CPR is necessary… they’re unsure that they know how to help, and that uncertainty freezes them at a time when seconds can be critical. 

For my own part, it’s been a couple of years since my last, official First Aid and CPR certification.  Nevertheless, after years as a Boy Scout, football coach, SCUBA diver, and hunting guide, these are subjects that I stay on top of pretty closely.  I’m pretty sure I could take and pass the certification exam right now, if the opportunity were presented (and yeah, I should go get a new card).  Happily, besides some basic wound dressing, I have never had to put any of these lifesaving skills to work.  But I do feel prepared, and I think that sort of preparation is something that all of us should have… particularly those of us who spend much time in the outdoors, where professional help is not always right at hand.

When it comes to CPR, it shouldn’t matter if you’re officially certified or not.  This is particularly true since the American Red Cross has begun promoting “Hands Only CPR”.  There’s very little to remember in this procedure.  Just get in position over the victim, place the heel of one hand in the center of the chest and cover it with the other hand, and then begin pressing hard and steady at the pace of about 100 beats per minute.  That’s pretty much the rhythm of the chorus to the BeeGee’s Staying Alive. 

Not clear enough?  Then check out this video. 

Remember!  This procedure is only for adults who have collapsed and are not breathing (or unable to breathe).  In some cases, such as drowning, or when the victim is an infant or small child, you will still need to use the full method of rescue breathing and chest compressions.  My best advice is to get trained, stay current, and remember… if you act you may save a life.  If you don’t act, you won’t.

Winter’s final gasps are fading across much of the country, and the earth is beginning to warm.  The turkeys are gobbling and strutting for the hens while the mallards are engaged in their obscene gang-rape mating frenzies.  The does are giving birth, and a careful and observant walk through the woods edge may reveal the spotted fawn.  Hillsides, even in the arid west, are green and dotted with wildflowers. 

It’s a pretty awesome time to be outdoors.  But this is also the time of year that I want to remind everyone to pay attention to the ground around your feet… the snakes are out and about. 

Turkey hunters need to check twice before they plop down under that oak tree, and hog hunters would do well to step carefully over that log, rather than just heedlessly jumping over.   Fishermen need to peer through the reeds along the stream’s edge.  For most of us, snakes are a minor threat.  They don’t hunt us, and would just as soon disappear without ever being seen if given the chance… but a careless outdoorsman can quickly become a very sick outdoorsman. 

Stay alert and observant. 

Maintain situational awareness. 

Don’t get bit.

And watch your root beer.

Some of you may recall my infatuation with the Benjamin Marauder PCP air rifle, as related a month or so ago.  I’m hardly alone in this new fascination, as the “adult” air rifles are rapidly becoming more popular. 

And for good reason…  These pellet rifles are capable of firing pellets at muzzle velocities in excess of a .22 short… or at about the same speed as a high velocity magnum shotgun pellet.  Even with a relatively tiny .177″ pellet, that’s significant energy to cleanly kill small game… or in unusual but realistic cases, to kill larger animals too. 

Like humans.

While exploring over at the Moose Droppings blog, I saw that in the space of a week there have been two fatal shooting incidents in North Carolina involving air rifles and young children.  In one case, the child was shot as his grandfather inspected the safety of the rifle.  Unfortunately, the muzzle was apparently pointed at the boy’s face at the time, and the gun went off, sending the pellet through his eye and into his brain.  It’s a terrible, terrible tragedy that should never have happened.

In the second case, a seven year-old child received a pellet rifle for Christmas.  Apparently, he was allowed to shoot without supervision, and last week his four year-old brother cried for a turn.  The circumstances get sketchy here, but the bottom line is that the seven year-old was shot once through the chest. 

In situations like these, it’s really easy for everyone on the outside to jump up and down about the gun safety rules that were violated.  Blame the parents.  Blame the kids.  Blame everybody.  But trust me, nothing anyone here is going to say can punish the parents and relatives of these kids more than what’s already happened.  So please, keep it to yourself.  I doubt there’s a reader on this site who can’t see perfectly well what went wrong, and how it could have been prevented. 

My reason for sharing this story is maybe not much more noble than anyone else dogpiling on the story… but I believe it’s an important cautionary tale.  No gun is a toy, but these “Adult” air guns can be deceptive… especially to people who may not be as steeped in gun handling and safety as most hunters.  If you’re buying a new air gun, give it the same respect and handling you give any other firearm, and teach the same to your children.   And if you wouldn’t have your child alone with a shotgun or rimfire, then don’t leave them alone with a high-powered air gun either.

Yes, bears do it in the woods.  Sometimes, so do hunters.  And I don’t know about you, but I occasionally get a little concerned with that whitest part of my body waving around in the bushes.  Who knows what some nimrod up on the ridge might think… especially when I have the little flag of white striking paper fluttering in the breeze!  A flash of white… and BANG! 

Well, thank goodness that, in his search for the new and newsworthy, JR Absher of the Outdoor Pressroom has located Rutt Wipes!

Don’t get shot with your pants down!

You need survival essentials in the woods, including hunter-safe toilet paper. So why are you flashing white toilet paper in the same anatomical area you would find a white deer tail?

“Rutt Wipe” is the orange toilet paper you need to protect your assets. It’s biodegradable, non-toxic and soothing for your outdoor hygiene needs.

That’s right, HogBlog readers!  You NEED survival gear, and having blaze orange toilet paper waving behind you so you no longer look like a whitetail deer in the bushes is exactly the kind of survival we’re talking about! 

Seriously, it’s not a bad idea… even if it may be a little over-the-top.  The biggest problem I see with it (besides the possibility that some folks are allergic to the dyes), is that too many lazy losers don’t bother to bury what they leave behind.  It’s one thing to see little white kleenex flowers blooming behind the bushes at every trailhead… now those flowers will be blaze orange and visible from much further away.  That’s just crappy.

Maybe I’m remiss in letting this year’s hunting seasons get so far along without the compulsory safety reminder.  I mean, heck, archery seasons are in full swing across most of the country, and some rifle hunters are already afield as well.  Shotgunners started in on doves in the past week, with other species on tap over the coming month. 

The accident reports are coming in already too, such as the tragic fatality in NC where an uncle shot his nephew, and the couple in MD who were shot when a gun discharged as it was picked up by another member of their hunting party.  One report in particular reminded me, though, that even bowhunters need to pay attention to what they’re doing and follow some basic safety practices. 

Stalking with a nocked arrow is a lot like stalking with a round in the chamber.  Most of us do it, but for some reason, bowhunters often seem to forget to pay attention to where that broadhead is pointed.  This becomes really critical when you’re slinking along behind another hunter or a guide.  Those broadheads are (or should be) razor sharp, and it doesn’t take a lot to drive one right into a person.  Maybe that looks funny in slapstick comedy, but in real life it can have dire consequences… even, as in this article, deadly consequences. 

A 50-year-old Kelso man was killed Friday morning while bow-hunting near Toutle in what authorities are calling “a freak accident.”

According to Cowlitz County Sheriff’s Capt. Corey Huffine, Benny White and his hunting partner, a 31-year-old Rainier man, left their pickup truck after spotting an elk about three miles east of Toutle, near the old Green Mountain mill site.

“The victim was hunting with a crossbow, which is allowed because he’s disabled,” Huffine said. “His partner was in back of him with his compound bow, and he had the bow in position.”

The victim apparently stopped abruptly and the second hunter ran into him, his arrow piercing White “in the torso,” Cowlitz County Coroner Tim Davidson said Friday afternoon.

“He had not fired his bow,” Huffine said. “It was just a freak accident.”

A “freak” accident… 

Bowhunting accidents aren’t common, but they do happen and they are almost always preventable.  Remember that just because a bow doesn’t have a firing pin and powder charge, it can still be a pretty deadly weapon.  A hunting arrow and broadhead is like a stick with a scalpel attached to the end of it.  It only takes a moment’s lapse of attention to result in a bad cut or a deep puncture.  

And don’t forget tree stand safety as well.  Wear those harnesses, folks.  You don’t have to fall far to ruin (or end) your life. 

Take a little extra time, and pay a little extra attention this season.  Be safe.

Note:  A nod, by the way, to the Outdoor Pressroom…  a great source of relevant outdoor news whenever I’m running a little shy of content or ideas.

Just got this in my email and thought it was worth sharing.  It’s a great opportunity for young hunters to get a much better Hunter Education experience than they’d get trying to sit through the regular course.  It also just sounds kinda like fun!

Check it out, contact information is included:

Quail Unlimited Host 16th Annual Hunter Education Camp

The Fresno and Stillbow chapters of Quail Unlimited will once again be hosting their annual Covey Camp, June 27 through July 1, 2010, at the Stillbow Ranch near Dos Palos, CA.

It is a Hunter Education summer camps where Safety, Sportsmanship and marksmanship are reinforced by daily Hands-on training.  Quail Unlimited’s Hunter Education COVEY Camp is open to youngsters from ten (10) to 15 years of age who are seeking their hunter education certificates.  The Stillbow Ranch Summer camp expands the traditional 10 hours of classroom instruction into a five day program of hands-on learning by doing and repetition.

 While completing their hunter education requirements the campers will be learning to safely handle shotguns, rifles and pistols. Once the basics of safe firearms handling are understood, the youngsters will visit the range everyday where they will learn shotgun and rimfire marksmanship skills.

The campers will take part in a dove nesting cone project to check usage and replacing nesting cones as determined by the survey.  Chukar from a local game bird farm is used to teach game care and basic cooking.  Local dog trainers stop by to demonstrate basic puppy work and retrieving.

The Stillbow Ranch is a unique site for a youth summer camp.  Located in the grasslands of central California the 500 acre duck club offers a variety of waterfowl and marsh wildlife, the Ranch is part of the Grassland area with several wetland and other wildlife reserves near by.  The ranch members have  contacts with USFS biologist, dog trainers and other experts to help make the camp a memorable experience.

A camp coordinator, two certified California Hunter Education instructors, junior counselors and volunteers from local Quail Unlimited Chapters who assist on a day-to-day basis staff the camp.  The Campers will take the Hunter Ed test on Thursday and successful participants will receive their hunter education certificate.

Stillbow Ranch is located 8 miles east of Los Banos, California (One and a half miles south of Highway 152). The club offers bunkhouse style lodging with three to four campers per room, a full kitchen and classroom.  There are duck ponds for wading in addition to the shotgun and 22 caliber shooting ranges.

Many Quail Unlimited Chapters offer scholarship programs.  For scholarship information and any questions regarding the camp contact your local Quail Unlimited Chapter or contact:

Dick Haldeman, QU Western Regional Director,
39455 Black Oak RD., Temecula, CA 92592
westernqu@aol.com, or 951-767-3435.

Spring has sprung, and across many parts of the country, temps are climbing steadily upward.  That means a lot of things, of course, not the least of which is that more and more folks will be getting out into the outdoors.  Whether turkey hunting, hiking, fishing, or just stepping out to do some yardwork, people everywhere are shaking off the winter doldrums and getting active.

Just keep in mind that we’re not the only ones getting back outside in the warm temps.  As my fellow Skinny-Moose blogger, The Desert Rat reminds us, warmer weather also means time to start watching for venomous critters… most notably, snakes.  While his blog post is primarily focused on AZ, the safety tips he includes are valuable pretty much anywhere.

Watch your step, pay attention in the thick stuff, and if you see a snake or other poisonous critter, give them their space.