Nearly anything is possible. But IMO the raw odds favor accident over malice by 50 or 100 to 1.
If we begin to learn additional details that will change the odds. But with a neutral prior, it’s overwhelmingly likely to be an accident.
A similar story from 2020, where “I heard something so I shot at it..” Dumb@ass nailed a man and his nine-year-old daughter. Oh, and apparently he had previously been engaging in some hard partying beforehand.
Hunting while roaring drunk is a long-standing tradition in some circles. Maybe less applicable to the OP case, but we don’t know yet, and maybe never will.
I’m reminded of a T-shirt which read
- Achohol
Tobacco
Firearms
Sounds like a hell of a party!
Whole lotta folks seriously think that way.
My best friend was out hunting in the woods one day, and heard an arrow go whistling past him. Then he heard a voice ask furtively, “Did you get him?” My friend stood up from his blind, looked at a couple of guys not 40 feet away, and said, “Hi there.” They both turned ashen, and silently quick-stepped away.
It’s crazy how many “hunters” will shoot at mere shadows, not taking the ordinary care to identify clearly what their target is.
The humor is derived from the disdain many people have for hunters. Even though many critics of hunting have no ethical problems eating meat, they object because they don’t like the character of those who hunt. “Those people derive pleasure from killing animals, they’re not like me,” they might think to themselves without any sense of irony while eating a BLT.
But I can’t ignore the inherent absurdity of mistaking a human being for a squirrel. It sounds like the punchline to a bad joke. Recently there was a big game hunter who was killed by a Cape Buffalo. Comedy is often about subverting expectations, and in this particular scenario we typically expect the hunter to win.
Back when I was into target shooting, the shooting club I was a member of included a fair proportion of hunters. The number of “…And I almost shot my buddy in the face!” stories I heard from different people was astonishing. Occasionally I was asked if I wanted to join someone hunting. I declined.
As the producers of Up were well aware, “squirrel” is an inherently funny word.
The rules are for idiots, and since I am not an idiot, the rules must not apply to me. Sometimes it is just that stupidly simple.
Except for, ya know, squirrels being that shade of brown we call grey.
This is a picture of a squirrel from the Iowa Wildlife Federation Iowa Wildlife Federation (link spoilered because if you scroll down on that link, it shows a couple of dead squirrels, but the picture at top is a very alive and somewhat browner squirrel I assure you). I think it’s important to link to a squirrel from Iowa because I have no doubt the cost of squirrels will vary over their range.
There’s a fair amount of brown in there. Throw in shadow from the foliage overhead (one of the news articles indicated that varying lighting and shade played a part in the this incident) and I’d say seeing a mass of brown hair moving through the woods is a pretty good sign of a squirrel:
ETA: For some reason, you can embed media, but I can’t. So click this link to go direct to the picture of the squirrel and bypass the webpage.
Yeah, looks exactly like a human, especially the size and the tail.
He was riding in the back of a pickup truck, not a bike, and it was at least 40 years ago and the head was ancient.
Oh, so probably a wooden form. Yeah, no. Not seeing it.
Who was driving the pickup? They didn’t notice antlers sticking out of a kids back pack?
That would’ve certainly alarmed me.
There were a lot of us, and no, we didnt. We had lots of gear with us.
Who let you ride in the back of a pick-up unsecured?
50 years ago that was normal.
That’s what you found implausible about this story? Heck, even I’ve ridden unsecured in the back of a pickup truck. And yes, this was forty or fifty years ago.
Up at least into the 1990s that was normal.
My oldest brother is 65. When he was 15, going to a football pick up game was thrown from the back of a truck bed. Yeah, we picked gravel out of his back for a year or more.
Lucky he wasn’t dead or crippled.
But, no. That’s not what I found troubling about the post to begin with. I believe I stated my point, in my first reply.
I believe the correct term, as so well enunciated in My Cousin Vinny, is “yute”.