Hunting Safety and Etiquette

[royalfan5]

With the opening of deer season here, I have been hearing stories of lax hunting safety and etiquette. We've had a bunch of people hunt without permission of various relatives farm ground, and one of my co-workers put a high power round through his truck because he put a loaded gun on his seat with the safety off. Another guy was hit by a stray while picking his grandson up from his deer stand. It seems like things have declined here recently as far as safety and etiqutte, to the point that most of my family goes out west to hunt because of the lower number of hunters and good relationships with land owners. Is this a localized Southeast Nebraska trend or is it a wider deal? Do you take Hunter safety seriously?

[SoonerLVZ]

Are you saying that playing in the woods with real guns and live ammo isn't completely safe and people need to follow rules?!?!

[Collier11]

Ah hell, with the way society is these days, if someone kicked someone else off of their land they would probably get sued and lose for hurting their feelings

[OhU1]

Hunting rights are leasable and as such are a property right in themselves. Hunting on land without permission is tresspassing and a violation of the lessee's licenced rights. Solution: Need more lawyers in Nebraska to sue the rouge hunters!

[C&CDean]

Hunting up north and hunting in OK are wildly different affairs.

I used to deer hunt in Iowa. Well I call it "hunting" but it's really more like a drunken harvest.

About 20 guys meet up in the morning and start drinking beer. Then they go to section-line roads and post themselves up in the bar ditches and on the edge of corn/bean fields. Then a couple of "pushers" walk or ride 4-wheelers through the property, and everybody unloads their semi-automatic shotguns (no high-power hunting in Iowa - gee, I wonder why the hell not) as the deer flee to the next section and cross the road. I'm seriously perplexed as to why more hunters aren't killed in the crossfire.

Then, they all jump into the back of pickups, haulass to the next section road and do it again. I shot a buck who had 3 wounds in his legs already, and killed a doe who had already been shot in the rump.

Down here, I get up early, walk out to my Ritz-Carlton deer blind, set-up and wait, and if I'm lucky, I'll get a nice buck to step out within 150 yards or so. One shot, one kill, no stress on the animal, etc.

[StoopTroup]

I made it a rule to never hunt in corn fields.

[Breadburner]

I never drink and hunt......I even started wearing a harness in my stand last year....Never have a loaded rifle in the truck....Never load my rifle until I'm safely in the stand.....And always always identify my target...Its hard to fathom how many people shoot at movement alone.....

[thecynic]

getting drunk and killing things is a basic American right.

[soonerchk]

Shoot at anything in orange? Isn't that how it goes?

[thecynic]

Shoot at anything in orange? Isn't that how it goes?

this week any way. and it's a double bonus for me because that's half my family.

[soonerchk]

this week any way. and it's a double bonus for me because that's half my family.

It's probably half my clients, too.

[Jammin']

It's probably half my clients, too.

It's half your stalkers.

[KABOOKIE]

...and one of my co-workers put a high power round through his truck because he put a loaded gun on his seat with the safety off.

That ain't the reason why the gun went off!

[soonerchk]

It's half your stalkers.

Meh, it's probably getting crowded down there at the creek anyway.

[Penguin]

There have been reports of 2 or 3 hunters getting killed by falling from deer stands this year in Louisiana. I might be thinking about last season, but I keep hearing people talk about it at church. People think the hunters are just dozing off and falling.

[1890MilesToNorman]

Here in Maine if it moves we shoot it so stay home!

[Soonermagik]

I live in OKC, but my dad has a hunting cabing with quite a bit of acreage in S.E Oklahoma. It's really good hunting and there are a lot of deer. However, it can be dangerous. Many in S.E. Oklahoma do what they call sound shooting. If they hear something with heavy footfall they shoot at the direction of the sound. I'm guessing you can see how this can go wrong. Luckily, we have done a good job of keeping people off our property.

I would never step foot on public hunting land. There have been too many guys wounded and killed form reckless hunters using sound shooting methods. Not to mention, half of them will try to steal your setup.