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fcach year Virginia’s newspapers carry stories about persons who are killed or wounded in hunting accidents.
Many of these mishaps could be prevented if hunters followed good safety rules, said Peter T. Bromley, Virginia Tech Extension specialist in wildlife.
Between July 1, 1961, and June 30, 1977, Virginia game wardens completed 972 Uniform Hunter Casualty reports. Of these 972 hunting accidents, 49 percent were caused by errors of judgment. In 194 instances, victims were mistaken for game animals or birds.
‘‘How many of these tragedies could have been prevented if the victims had been wearing blaze orange hunting clothing is not known, but wes suspect a marked decrease in risk would have resulted,” Bromley said.
Victims were out of sight of shooters in 136 instances. The trajectory of the bullet or shot beyond the target animal was not considered adequately by the shooters.
In 99 accidents, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences faculty member said, the victims were shot when shooters fired at moving game that passed between the shooter and the victim. In 46 instances, the victims moved into the line of fire.
“Many, but not all of these accidents, could have been prevented if the shooters had heeded the cardinal rule of hunting—be sure of your target before you shoot.”
In addition to the accidents through errors in judgment, shortcomings in the skills of hunting accounted for 22 percent of the mishaps. Shooters stumbled, fell and discharged their firearms, injuring themselves or companions 99 times during the period.
“One wonders how many of these shooters had proper footwear or had spent days before the season scouting the woods and getting into good condition. How many learned how to handle a firearm during a fall?”
In 61 other accidents, the trigger caught on an object, causing the unexpected discharge of the firearms.
Bromley reminded hunters that the safe hunter guards the trigger, keeps the safety on and points the firearm in a safe direction.
Twenty-nine accidents occurred during loading and unloading firearms. These were due both to lack of skill and unsafe barrel direction.
The final category of causes was the violation of safety rules and laws. The unsafe acts of removing or replacing loaded firearms from vehicles and riding with loaded firearms were responsible for 61 accidents.
Loaded firearms, fell from insecure rests, causing 29 casualties. Crossing obstacles, such as wire fences with loaded firearms resulted in 27 injuries.
93.4%