I spent the opening day of Michigan’s waterfowl season with both of my sons and a few friends out on the water in a local state game area Saturday. It was my youngest son’s first of what he calls “Big Boy Hunts”. He finally gets to go out with the entire crew of men to become one of the men and partake in taking game from the field.
All went extremely well and he even got his first bird of which everyone give him a congratulatory birage of “ataboys”! We all took a duck or two and made our way back to the launch. Upon arrival I was greated with a terrible surprise of a shot out window on the back of my pick up!
Someone, whom I will not call a hunter, found it necessary to shoot towards the parking area at what I hope was a duck and not just plain malicious destruction! I say not a hunter because a hunter would know where his or her safe zone of fire is. A hunter would know where the parking area is. A hunter would know that it is dangerous to shoot towards any area where people might be congregating. That is why I will not call this person a hunter. I know accidents happen, but this is exactly why you don’t shoot towards an area that you don’t know what is in front of your shooting lane!
Just think what could have happened if this had been a group of hunters standing there instead of my truck? I might be writing a story of how a group of hunters were shot or worse yet killed because of someone’s stupidity!
Am I mad? Hell yes, I’m mad, but I won’t let this ruin what was one of my greatest days in the field watching my youngest boy become a man that day hanging out in the marsh with fellow hunters! And by the way, he knows his safe zone of fire, we went over it thoroughly that morning! Have a great hunting season and be safe out there!
To read about our entire hunt and view the photos check out my Up North Journal Hunting Blog.
