Operator gets shot in hunting accident

A hoe operator was shot in what police think was a stray bullet. It is kinda scary, because this happened only 30 min from me.

click on video for story

Thats to bad, a lot of weekend warriors don't have the mentality to pay attention to what they are doing. Maybe we need to make those safety orange vests out of Kevlar for your area.

In the fall of 1988 I was working a job in southwest Pennsylvania on the banks of the Monongahela River. Pretty country and full of game animals. Turkeys flew back and forth across the river every day and deer were so plentiful that you had to be careful driving for fear of hitting them.

Part of the job was involved in filling an old strip mine to the east of the project and above the river highway with excavated material from the riverbank. This was all a heavily wooded area, and the deer used to congregate in the clearings along towards the late afternoons, feeding on the grasses and clover planted by reclamation crews years earlier. We counted upwards of a hundred nearly every day just within the limited area we were working in.

The equipment didn't seem to bother them much and they would walk around the big end-dumps and dozers as tho in a park. There were a number of big bucks, and all the teamsters and operators, and not a few foremen, were chomping at the bit waiting for the opening day of deer season.

We held a meeting before then as so many people had requested permission to bring their rifles to work with them and bag some venison if they got a chance during the shift. I voted against the idea, fearing that I would end up with some holed equipment, and maybe a teamster or two shot out of their trucks. But I was disappointed when the vote went the other way and the project manager said he would take the idea up with the Corps Of Engineers people in charge of the project. That was my last hope, but again, I was disappointed when the Corps guys gave their hearty approval.

On opening day I made my usual before shift walking inspection of the equipment lineup. My maintenance crew and I did this every morning, noon and night, looking for problems big and small with the equipment. We would fix the small problems immediately, and backlog the others for attention later. Anyway, at daylight the production shift began, and I drove back up to the old mine site to see how things were going before heading into town for a quick breakfast and parts run. I started seeing hunters almost before crossing the highway on my way up hill. The further I went, the more there were. When I got to the fill location I could hardly believe my eyes. I had thought the hunters were to be limited to just our employees. I was wrong.

There was a hunter about every fifty feet all around the opening where we were dumping spoils, all dressed in red or orange, must have been about 50-75 people, all carrying the latest in hunting artillery and all scanning everywhere for deer. I spotted the project dirt super sitting in his pickup and drove over next to him for a short talk. Yep, he was armed to the teeth too, and his eyes were darting all around looking for the elusive whitetail.

We did talk, very briefly, and I got the hell out of there and didn't go back that day. It was plumb scary, and me a Vietnam combat vet.

Fortunately, no one got shot that day or anytime after. My equipment came through unscathed too. The worst thing that happened was that one of the guys did shoot a buck, and whilst dressing it out, slipped and slit his leg open for several inches. He had to be transported to hospital for stitches.

Most of the people up there were relatives or close friends of our people. They had the clearing surrounded for sure and a deer didn't have a chance of getting out alive. But, the deer got the word evidently that season was set to open and they didn't show up, except for the few that didn't hear about the big ambush. Hunters took about six or seven bucks out over the next few days, and the opening day crowd never really came back out, a situation I appreciated.

Unfortunately, a few hunters, non-hunters and cars or trucks, get bagged every year in states around the country. I was just reading about a case up in Idaho I think it was, where a guy shot a cow. He told the owner, who basically caught him dragging it down the road with a chain behind his vehicle, that he mistook it for a Coyote. Similar things have happened all over and in fact, I've had a near miss or two while deer hunting in Michigan myself years ago. Stray bullets have to come down somewhere and they cause a lot of damage when they do, sometimes injuring or killing people and pets or blasting a hole through a windshield.

I don't hunt anymore, haven't for years. Not that I'd mind going up to the family camp and hanging out for a few days. That was always a lot of fun, with good food, companionship, and a chance to catch up on what the rest of the family was doing. But I do my meat hunting at Albertson's now a days. It's cheaper in the long run, and probably safer.

I don't know whether it's true or not, but I've heard it said that on the opening day of Buck Season, there are more armed men in the woods of Pennsylvania, than the US military has on the ground in Iraq.

Stupid drunks that all it is. Around here a cow and horse got shot:beatsme

Cat said:

Stupid drunks that all it is. Around here a cow and horse got shot:beatsme

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A couple years age we were on a job in Cold Bay in the fall. There were all these Huskies running around town with orange safety vests on. I asked the owner why and he told me he raised them and had had several shot by hunters thinking they were wolves. Kind of a bummer coming up on someone skinning out your dog.

Lashlander said:

A couple years age we were on a job in Cold Bay in the fall. There were all these Huskies running around town with orange safety vests on. I asked the owner why and he told me he raised them and had had several shot by hunters thinking they were wolves. Kind of a bummer coming up on someone skinning out your dog.

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I think would have shot them:cussing :crazy :badidea :guns :duh

We have the same problem at the Landfill we run. All the plant managers want to hunt using it as a free deer club or turkey club. We tried explaining that we werent allowed to by the state. Then one of the owners in the company told us to let them. Shot the lights out of our parts scraper, threatened to kill our old landfill dogs and stole about8 feet of 2by 2 angle iron I was making portable wind breaks out of. When we got a few more dogs they ran all the deer off. Around here I have a neighbor that goes deer crazy threatening to kill my german sheperds if they chased his deer off again. Told me they spent 2500 bucks a year making deer plots. I cant keep them out of my greens. I told him the first dog I had come up missing I had several frinds that lived to murder every one of those white tailed sobs. Not had a problem since

surfer-joe said:

Unfortunately, a few hunters, non-hunters and cars or trucks, get bagged every year in states around the country. I was just reading about a case up in Idaho I think it was, where a guy shot a cow. He told the owner, who basically caught him dragging it down the road with a chain behind his vehicle, that he mistook it for a Coyote..

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Hahah I always enjoy reading your posts Joe! Umm what do you say to that one? Come on a cow???????? Just the picture in my head of the guy dragging it behind his pickup is hysterical!:drinkup

Almost every year there is a picture of a cow strapped accross a hood some where in the st.

Taylortractornu said:

We have the same problem at the Landfill we run. All the plant managers want to hunt using it as a free deer club or turkey club. We tried explaining that we werent allowed to by the state. Then one of the owners in the company told us to let them. Shot the lights out of our parts scraper, threatened to kill our old landfill dogs and stole about8 feet of 2by 2 angle iron I was making portable wind breaks out of. When we got a few more dogs they ran all the deer off. Around here I have a neighbor that goes deer crazy threatening to kill my german sheperds if they chased his deer off again. Told me they spent 2500 bucks a year making deer plots. I cant keep them out of my greens. I told him the first dog I had come up missing I had several frinds that lived to murder every one of those white tailed sobs. Not had a problem since

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I'm all for harvesting wild game but people need too use common sense, and I know that might be a huge stretch on certain folks ability. Nobody should get harmed bagging game and if they do then I'd shoot back!

Cat said:

Stupid drunks that all it is. Around here a cow and horse got shot:beatsme

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Don't tar everyone with the same brush. The majority of hunters are responsible and safe, but like any other group there are the highly visible minority of morons that try to screw things up for everybody.

They have banned target shooting here because people on trailers were getting shot by idiots that didn't know where they were shooting. One person ruins it for all the people that do it correctly.

Operator gets shot in hunting accident:

Deere9670 said:

Hahah I always enjoy reading your posts Joe!

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Joe... you really can do an excellent job of writing a post... :thumbsup

I remember reading this thread, but had more or less forgotten about it, until I read the new post by "The Baron", today.

So naturally, I went back and read the whole thing... and this is not meant to diminish any other post, but that one of yours... reads just like a book.

If you can put words down like that, from just one small episode in your life, out of the thousands you could probably tell about... well, you really should write a book... I'm not kidding!!


Oh, btw... might get a little snow right soon... I'm not kidding... lol

I know how much you like snow...

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClic...tField1=45.192083333333&textField2=-107.21625

Lol... Red Flag Warning today... snow on Thursday.


OCR

Where is the video?

Hello.

The link takes me to everything but an operator being shot.

Arabhacks said:

Hello.

The link takes me to everything but an operator being shot.

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Well that link is only 2 years old now =p

I searched through the site, here's the story (no video): http://www.wnep.com/wnep-policesaymanshotpossibly-7422354,0,683084.story

I used to do service work for irrigation center pivots. I would NOT go out to do service work on any machines during the first weekend of deer season. A stray bullet is not worth the risk.

It is a shame that a few bad hunters give everyone else a bad name. We have LOTS of pheasant hunters come in from all parts of the country to hunt. It seems like the guy that is gung-ho and wants to hunt everywhere without getting landowner permission is just begging to get stuck, leave a gate open, or otherwise cause problems. One fall we had a BUNCH of rain just before opening day of pheasant season. Some hunters had stopped by a farmer's house to ask permission to hunt. He had a couple quarters of CRP that they could get to, but they needed to drive around a couple sections to get there, because the 'shortcut' road was VERY muddy. He gave them directions to the land, and even gave them a map with explicit instructions to stay off the minumum maintenance road that was the short way. The hunters threw the map on the dash of their lifted, chromed-out Ford Excursion and left the yard in a cloud of diesel smoke and gravel.

Several hours later the farmer heard a strange noise in the direction of the MMR the hunters were told to avoid. He was busy with other chores so he continued his work. The noise persisted and finally curiosity got the best of him. He needed to get some cane bales, so he hooked the hayrack to the tractor and proceeded down the MMR to the bale lot. As he neared the bale lot, he discovered what was causing all the noise. The hunters stayed off the road they were warned about as instructed--instead they were driving in his newly planted wheat field and had gotten stuck in a terrace channel. They were buried to the axles and had left MASSIVE ruts all over his field.

The farmer had all the hunters empty their pockets and took ALL their cash. He then took down all their names and addresses. He was seriously considering taking all their guns and sending them to their respective owners, but the $1200 he got from them covered the damage to the field. He pulled out their stuck vehicle and made sure they got back on a good road and never saw them again.

Around here standard headwear for much of the year is an orange toque (stocking cap to some). We have hunting seasons, but aboriginal people can hunt year round without a license. Even night hunting with a spotlight is legal for them.

The problem with hunters happens partly because whitetail deer and elk adapt very well to living close to humans and their homes. The deer prefer living around people instead of miles away in the more remote parts of the forest. The dog chases herds of deer out of the garden almost daily from spring to fall. They particularly like fresh apples and tomatoes. No cabbage is safe from them either. Hunting is restricted within 500 meters of occupied dwellings, so the closer a deer is to a house, the safer it often is.

Overall, fewer people hunt these days than in the past, which also adds to the deer population. We live in a four deer zone (for residents), and one of those licenses is free. The world record buck (Hanson) was shot near here, and we see many other big bucks around. Even then, most locals can't be bothered to hunt.

We do get a lot of American hunters, regulars that come up from PA and NY. They mainly want a trophy buck and hunt with an outfitter. They pretty much are guaranteed a nice buck as baiting with grain is allowed. Last year, I saw one big buck shot by an American the day before. They still had not gutted or skinned the animal, which was starting to bloat. If a deer is not gutted and hung in a cool place soon after shooting it, the meat will spoil. But they didn't care - all they wanted was the head. Whether the hunters are Canadian or American, that kind of hunting bothers me.

Goes back to knowing what is behind the target and ensuring you have a good backdrop.

I reckon the best place here in OZ is shooting feral goats in Canberra-you can use parliment house as your backdrop and if you miss you still will have a good chance at hitting a goat.