Originally published at: Shot hiker was "mistaken for a turkey" | Boing Boing
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Though it certainly sounds like a mistake, “hunter-related incident” is an interesting turn of phrase.
One that the corporate media will no doubt gobble up.
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Got to protect the hunter’s rights, don’t you know? Wouldn’t want such an excellent American to lose his gun privileges.
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Literally adding insult to injury
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Well, I never! WE turkeys are far more attractive and graceful than humans, not to mention quite significantly smaller.
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That is to say - the hunter fucked up, royally.
Also, that’s a really shitty turkey hunter. Those birds are hard to kill and require extreme precision with your shot - no way to mistake your quarry if you know what the hell you’re doing.
I usually feel okay hiking during most bird-hunting seasons because the hunters typically like to visualize things before pulling the trigger. Likewise bow and black-powder seasons for deer - those folks get one shot, they’re not gonna waste it. Regular rifle season for deer? Stay the fuck out of the frontcountry - go waaay back in the woods to avoid Bubba and the shiny toy he got for Christmas.
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Hrrmm. You need to identify your target and what is behind it.
Someone should bone up on their safety videos.
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Just came across this this morning:
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Also, any opportunity to repost this is worth it:
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He could’ve been mistaken for the more common Jive Turkey species
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Sometimes, when I’m gathering eggs, my old Tom dons hiking boots and cargo shorts in an attempt to trick me into giving him trail mix. They’re cagey beasts.
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But hopefully the hunter will get roasted, not the turkey, this time.
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Why not use the established term “Cheney event”?
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I’m in PA, and don’t trust hunters in any season. There have been too many incidents involving hunters shooting each other, houses, people in their cars, people nowhere near an animal, etc. Putting “hunting season incident or accident” into a search engine leads to a list of cases where it’s not clear why the hunter pulled the trigger, because the people they shot didn’t look like anything else. As a kid, I was nearly shot by hunters who couldn’t see a target - they just reacted to noise and movement. Now I stay as far away as possible from areas where hunting is allowed until the season is over.
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That’s only if the victim apologized for getting in the way of the shot.
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I too have been mistaken for a turkey on numerous occasions. But never shot during said mistake. Lucky me.
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The problem with that strategy, though, is that it keeps you out of the woods for a huge chunk of the year. Here in western NC, big game seasons (deer, bear, turkey) cover mid-September until the first of January, plus most of April and early May. Add early September and all of January for other various bird seasons. If you exclude the “no closed season” critters (armadillo, coyote, feral swine, nutria, and skunk), the only “clear” part of fall through late spring is the first week of April! And I don’t know who hunts crow, but that season is closed only in March through May.
Gotta take a little risk to enjoy the woods, anyway. Best solution for me is to cover myself and the dogs in blaze orange (during deer season) and go more than a couple of miles from the trailhead to avoid the yahoos. I know that doesn’t work for everybody, though, and that sucks. Sundays tend to be pretty safe - most public land is closed to hunting — you should be in church, anyway! /s
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Well that, and birds are up in the air, where humans generally aren’t. Most bird hunting is in more open areas like fields, not in the woods like turkey hunting. Though the famous Cheney incident shows that one must know where their hunting party is, and what is their safe cone of fire.
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This is why, in Germany, to get a hunting permit you have to go to a one year course about ecology, animal anatomy and behaviour, law, food hygiene and weapon safety and then have to pass a written exam, a practical exam and a shooting test.
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