I think he just understands that if a hiker gets shot, the hiker has the most to lose - and so it’s in his best interest to consider his actions carefully, up to and including carefully considering whether it’s worth the risk to exercise his right to be in the woods during hunting season. Any hunter that shoots a hiker should be charged with felony reckless endangerment and never be allowed to possess guns again - but that won’t help the hiker, who may be disfigured, paralyzed, or killed in the incident.
As an avid motorcyclist, the analogous situation for me would be to think carefully about whether I want to exercise my right to ride mile after mile in another driver’s blind spot.
Well, yes, but it’s a little weird to come in and quiz someone who is out burying gut piles–and is therefore presumably pretty familiar with hunters and hunting and the dangers therein. It smacks of a tu quoque: the OP is potentially critical of some hunter, somewhere, and the response is to go looking for something to attack in return. ''Yeah, well, who knows, but why were you even out there?" is an odd response.
That may not be at all the intent, but it’s very much how it came across.
Here’s another vote for mercy killing not being a dickish move. When I lived in Indiana, during doe season, killing a spotted fawn was legal if you had shot its mother. An animal that young would not survive, especially in the coming winter, without a mother to take care of it. The dickish move was not taking the fawn for meat (although with its chest blown out, there wouldn’t be much there) or to dispose of.
Not at all. There is little to no meat in the chest. That is where you want to shoot an animal for a clean, quick kill (hitting the heart and/or lungs), as well as ruining the least amount of meat. The meat in a deer is found primarily in three areas, from most to least: rear quarters/legs, front shoulders/legs, and middle/backbone area (loins and tenderloins). Deer liver is pretty tasty if you like liver, but there is nothing else in the chest area to eat unless you are very gastronomically adventurous.
But I agree, if the kill was for humane reasons, or even by mistake, it should have been harvested for the meat.
Indeed. I go hiking in the fall, and I’ve not heard of any accidental shootings of hikers in my area (Appalachia) in pretty much forever. Googling “hiker shot by hunter” returns very few results. I am unable to find statistics.
Plenty of people go hiking in the woods where I live in the fall, during hunting season. While the risk is non-zero of being shot by a hunter, I think it’s very low.
And if it’s not low, it’s not up to hikers to change behavior. If we start getting high numbers–a hiker shot every year in a single state–the problem is with hunters, and regulations need to change on the shooters, not on the victims.
From what kayaker said, the whole chest was blown out. I have dressed and butchered deer and know where the meat is. On an animal that only weighs 15 lbs. or less though, what meat there is is negligable to begin with.
FWIW, I got interested in this question. The best answer I could find to the question, “how often are non-hunters killed in hunting accidents?” comes from this page
So, this is just for California, but in ten years, no nonhunters have been killed in hunting accidents. Wearing blaze orange might still be a good idea, but the risk it avoids is very, very small.
Sorry to jump on you, but “regulations need to change on the shooters, not on the victims” is so out of step with logic and reality I don’t know where to begin. First off, there are hunting regulations regarding being properly identifying your target and being certain of what you are aiming at, and what is behind it. Second, 99.99%+ of hunters are extremely careful and concerned with safety. There is no need for additional regulations regarding not shooting people, either on purpose or by accident. It just simply rarely occurs while hunting. When it does occur, it’s because someone is being lazy, careless or negligent, and regulations aren’t going to fix any of that. Hunter education is all about safety, and that point is driven home and internalized by almost all hunters.
Finally, some here seem to take umbrage with even the idea that hikers should be cognizant of hunting seasons and wear some orange during hunting season. I suppose these are the same people you see walking along the highway wearing black clothes.
A friends home was hit a year or two ago. She was in the kitchen and thought her cat knocked something over. The police were called, recovered a bullet, but unless a suspect and rifle were found, she was told the case would likely never be solved.
Years ago a woman was shot/killed by a young bear? hunter…
Here it is. She was killed by a 14 year old, accompanied by a 16 year old.
Please read what I wrote. It’s not out of step with reality, because I acknowledge repeatedly the reality that there’s no actual problem. I said that IF there were a problem, there would need to be a change in hunter behavior, not in hiker behavior; but again, nonhunter deaths from hunters are almost nonexistent. I’m clearly NOT calling for regulations, given reality.
Did she paint her house blaze orange?
Edit: also, that bear-hunter shooting is one of two that I found when Googling hikers shot by hunters. The cases seem to be really, really, really rare.
No, you said if there were a problem, there should be a change in regulations for hunters. You didn’t say “behavior”. Sure, I’m nitpicking, but the constant call for new policies, rules, regulations and laws irks me. It’s a pet peeve.
In the end, we agree that there is no significant problem to address, through either education or regulation.
Yes, why are your dogs wandering around, not on a leash, in a open range, with deer hunters around? This is not safe for your dogs. And likely illegal.
There is no hunting on Sunday. PA law. My dogs are allowed to enjoy our property off leash, and are welcome on adjoining property owned by our friends/neighbors. So far this year there have been no gut piles on our land, other years that has not been the case.
Our neighbors’ lots? We are talking about hundreds of wooded acres. Illegal for our dogs to be off leash. WTF? Cite?
Sorry, but I do not believe you understand the situation well enough to give meaningful input.
I’m going to tell my gf about the possibility of a doe being taken and her fawn being humanely killed. My reason for asking the OP was to find a way for rationalizing the fawn’s death. She was pretty upset and I think it will help her to assume it wasn’t just a dickhead killing a fawn for fun.