Rumney isn’t in the NF, it’s right next to the road, and it’s full of climbers. No one is going to hunt there. Deer season is after Halloween; are you climbing then?
No, it’s actually very easy to swallow. The adrenaline rush you can get when hunting can override normal thought processes. People get caught up in the moment and pretty much anything can look like a bear or a deer. Color, size, shape can all fool the eye. It happens every year in similar situations, but doesn’t always result in a fatality.
Hunting is allowed almost everywhere in the US on public land except in State and National Parks, even there there are many exceptions. The point is that unless you are in deer or another major game season you are extremely unlikely to see a hunter in a popular hiking/climbing spot. But it’s almost always open season on things like coyotes and rabbits. I’ve never changed my hiking plans due to hunters, but I have worn blaze orange at times.
BTW, I’m not a hunter, but I know many hunters and I hike nearly every weekend.
It’s these damned poncho wearing bears that are to blame.
This story still bothers me though. I’ve been bear hunting and there’s no way that I’d ever think about letting kids out to do it on their own. Hell, I needed a burly bear hunting guide along with me before I’d try it myself. A wounded deer sprinting off is one thing. A wounded bear is a whole different ballgame. I wonder what caliber of gun the kid was using.
Finally, this line should be removed from that story “That’s comforting to us, but there is a hole in the family.” :smack:
Since many if not most nonhunters don’t have a good idea of when the hunting seasons are, one would think that posting signs delineating those seasons in areas with maintained or well-frequented hiking trails would be an excellent use of tax dollars. If I know there’s hunting going on, I’ll stay out of the woods where it’s allowed - but I usually don’t know.
The reality that hunters frequently shoot at just about anything is something I’d regard as making wearing orange more of a ‘requirement’ than any stupid regulation would.
I’m not sure it’s as silly as you suggest. Certainly I have no trouble considering a manslaughter charge against both kids in this case. Whether that’s the appropriate charge, I’m not 100% certain, but it seems the best place to start.
And from there, based on further investigation, I could see the charge being lowered, or raised, easily. I support hunting, and don’t want to see it regulated out of existence, but this case seems to have more red flags than I could shake a stick at. There seems to be a lot more, here, than a simple accidental shooting. Buck fever could be the explanation, unfortunately, so could deliberate murder.
For the OPs concern, I think that it is a good idea to let hikers and recreational types know what hiking trails are set up near active hunting areas. I’m not a hiker, but I couldn’t imagine hiking in NYS during deer season. There are too many accidents there, already.
We don’t climb after mid-October when we’re that far north. So it looks like we’ll miss deer season. Any other season we should know about? Clearly, it’s bear season in Washington.
I’d just like to see on the trailhead sign: “Warning: Deer Season in Progress” or something to let me know whether I should head back into town to get an orange vest for the hike to the crag.
And fer fuck’s sake, add an age restriction so you don’t have unaccompanied minors.
Given that they were hunting right next to a major trail, I wonder if they had the skill to 1) navigate the woods where the big game is to be found and 2) field dress a bear.
Ew. That’s a very unfortunate choice of words.
That’s what I was trying to get at in my previous post. Even if we accept the claim that he thought he was shooting at a bear, is it realistic for two people that age to be bear hunting? If they had the skills to field dress it, would they be able to haul it out of the forest with just the two of them?
And what does someone want with a dead bear?
Sauk Mt. Trail is part of the North Cascades National Park, it shouldn’t need “no hunting” signs. As mentioned previously, hunting is not normally allowed in national parks and North Cascades is no exception. Bear season doesn’t even begin until next month!
I don’t think it matters much if it was another hunter or a hiker. If a new hunter shoots a person, because they didn’t identify their target, there should be a serious penalty and not an “Oops, well, shit happens.”
I agree that “murder” is silly, but if you shoot someone because you didn’t take the time to 100% identify your target, that’s seems criminally negligent, IMHO.
I also agree with you that training is the best way to prevent accidents. The kid has been licenced to hunt with a firearms since he was 9 years old. Buh? Officials say that anyone born after January 1, 1972 has to take a 10 hour “hunter education class”. So how rigorous is this class if a 9-year-old can pass it and get a licence?
Technically, at the age of 9, he was allowed to go ito the wood on his own with a firearm. I don’t think in that case the negligence would be the child’s, but I’d look long and hard at regulators for not thinking that there was something inadequate about their system.
Follow-up stories have said at 14 he “showed little knowledge or expertise on the species he was hunting”. :smack:
Oops, my mistake. Bear season has started in the Cascades, other areas start next month.
News reports have said bear season started in the region August 2 for the entire Sauk Mountain area.
On other websites I’ve read that there is no hunting in National Forests. So I’m getting more and more confused.
ETA: Ah, read your post after. Still, was that trail part of a National Forst or just publicly owned land?
What about a person wearing a bright blue poncho looks like a bear?
Here are the Washington hunting regs in case anyone is interested: Washington Hunting Regs 2008 ~ PDF
This is why I’m an archery hunter (not that they’re all sparkly clean and perfect either). I’ve heard too many horrible stories about “sound shots” to feel comfortable out in the woods during gun season. My husband has a story about a hunter in Wyoming who was crawling under a fence and got shot in the leg. As he was lying there, he heard or could see someone walk up to him, stand there for a moment, then walk away. Luckily he managed to crawl out to safety.
Just a horrible event. Of course I’m not too sure what they can do to prevent it. Hunting areas are getting harder and harder to find and there are already mandatory hunting education requirements.
There was a bit of confusion on my part, I think. I was interpreting the “murder” post to mean that the hunter intentionally shot the woman, as in, it wasn’t an accident. I agree that this person should be charged with a crime, a serious one. But I was trying to say that I don’t think there was any ill intent on the hunter’s part.
The WMNF has well over 100 trailheads, many on private property. Posting signs at all of them would be a waste of time and moeny since, AFAIK, there has never been a non-hunter shot while hiking in the WMNF. The signs would be constantly vandalized and need replacement, and the hunting season dates change every year. The only significant hunting seasons out here are deer and moose, both of which take place in the late fall after leaf season when there aren’t many hikers. And most hikers then know about hunting season. I’ve never seen any hunting info posted at trailheads mainly because hunters rarely use trails.
Most hunting in NH takes place on private land, anyways. Most of the sections of the NF popular with hikers aren’t good for hunting deer or moose.
They probably shot at the sound and movement, not the object. Sad, but true.
General Western Aug. 1-Nov. 15 GMUs 407-466, 485g, 501-520, 524-574, 601-684
And here’s the info for Sauk:
I don’t know the area well enough to say who was where.
I was questioned by a game warden a few years ago while I was hiking on public land in Pennsylvania. He was concerned that I did not have a hunting license. I explained that I was not hunting. He questioned further about the firearm I had in my possession. I showed him my concealed carry permit, and my .357 magnum. He was still confused.
I explained that I was concerned about being shot by a hunter. It was my intent, I explained, not to go down without a fight. He wanted to cite me for something, but realized that I was not breaking the law.
(In reality, I had been target shooting on a friend’s private property, but had to hike in/hike out and ran into the warden on the way back to my car.)
A little more than a year ago, the 14-year-old nephew of a good friend of ours was killed by a hunter who mistook the boy for a deer. This despite the fact that the kid was in blaze orange, etc. Link to news story.
I don’t know the outcome of that man’s trial, but the sidebar to the linked article shows what he was charged with in Minnesota:
This site led me to believe that’s it’s in the North Cascades National Park but I’ve since found that the park is off to the east. It is part of the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, though, and may also be part of a national recreation area.