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A hiker in Missouri was seriously injured after being shot by a hunter who mistook him for a turkey, according to the St. Charles County Police Department.
We can only hope it was this guy...because seriously, who the hell else looks anything even remotely like a turkey?
Years ago, I knew of a property owner in New Mexico who had to paint COW in large letters on the sides of several cows he owned. He lived in a forested area and deer hunters would sometimes mistake his cows for deer.
I have 3 favorite "stupid hunter shooting the wrong species" stories from many years ago:
1. This one is probably an old wife's tale. Mule deer season in S. Oregon. CA hunter with an out-of-state tag shoots a rancher's burro grazing in a field. OK, it was grey and had big ears...The burro's owners saw the guy dragging their pet up onto his car from a distance. Instead of confronting him they called the state troopers. Highway patrol caught up with the hunter a few miles down the road. After "educating" the idiot and issuing all sorts of citations, they told him he must leave the burro tied to the car until he crossed back over the state line 100 miles away. He got an escort to make sure. Hopefully he was completely mortified every time another driver caught sight of it and passed him howling with laughter.
2. I worked for a local state game management area during a waterfowl hunt assigning blinds, checking licenses, checking for lead shot, and gathering data from the birds they brought in. You can imagine the stupid human tricks I got to witness. Sleep-deprived, bone chilled guys slogging through half frozen marshes, slugging beer or laced coffee while carrying guns...what's the worst that could happen?
Anyway, had a late arrival show up at the station long after everyone else had trotted out into the field, hoping for a leftover daily blind permit. He seemed pretty clueless to me, but he had the proper license and shot so I couldn't really refuse his request. He chose a site very close to my station and proceeded to blast away at everything that flew by whether it was in range or not. Eventually he walked back to the station carrying a cormorant, explaining he didn't know what kind of "duck" it was, just that it was a big one...bigger than any of the others he saw. I should have made him cook and eat it on the spot but had to be satisfied handing him a hefty Migratory Bird Treaty Act violation.
3. The best IMHO. What is it with turkey hunters? Once again, I was working at a wildlife refuge that had done a turkey re-introduction about 10 years before. They suspected they now had free roaming turkeys, so decided to hold a special one-day hunt to find out (made such great sense...go to all that trouble to re-introduce a species that had been hunted to oblivion, and to see whether the re-introduction worked, go kill them again). Anyway, we issued about 20 permits for the day. All the hunters took off gleefully into the bushes just after dawn. Didn't hear a peep from anyone until early afternoon. All but one returned discouraged. No one had heard or seen a thing. We waited for the last holdout. And waited. And waited. Just after sunset we were about to start a search for him when he appeared; sopping wet, clothes and boots covered in mud, shuffling and exhausted, just about dragging his gun in the dirt. He had something in his knapsack.
He told an incredible tale about trying to lure the single turkey he found, calling, calling, following it through brambles, bushes, mud and marsh. The bird would respond to the call but wouldn't come within range. The farther the bird went, the more determined he got. Finally, success. We were all excited and begged him to show us his prize. He proceeded to pull a battered great blue heron out of his game bag.
Last edited by Parnassia; 05-09-2021 at 03:02 PM..
1. This one is probably an old wife's tale. Mule deer season in S. Oregon. CA hunter with an out-of-state tag shoots a rancher's burro grazing in a field. OK, it was grey and had big ears...The burro's owners saw the guy dragging their pet up onto his car from a distance. Instead of confronting him they called the state troopers. Highway patrol caught up with the hunter a few miles down the road. After "educating" the idiot and issuing all sorts of citations, they told him he must leave the burro tied to the car until he crossed back over the state line 100 miles away. He got an escort to make sure. Hopefully he was completely mortified every time another driver caught sight of it and passed him howling with laughter.
Yea, this sounds like a "Stupid Californian" tale that Oregonians like to tell each other. Oregonians love to hate Californians. I can't imagine any Highway Patrolmen escorting a car for 100 miles to the border, with or without a burro.
There should be a one-strike-and-you're-out rule regarding accidental shootings. Shoot someone by accident once, you lose your hunting privileges for life and you lose your right to possess something with which you might accidentally shoot someone again. Again, for life.
But that won't happen, because we coddle reckless hunters who do this sort of thing. Often, no charges are filed. When charges are forthcoming, they are rarely felonies.
Stern looks? Check. Grave observations that it's not good to shoot a person by accident? Check. Actually consequences? Not so much...
I worked with a woman whose husband was teaching her how to hunt. She told me her husband told her to shoot as soon as she saw anything that came out of the bushes. This kind of irresponsible hunting is what gives hunters a bad name. That, and the plethora of empty beer cans discarded around deer blinds.
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