Bow hunter fatally shot in San Juan National Forest

[rtraverdavis]

That’s sobering stuff @Gellar . Where I’ll be hunting mule deer next month requires no orange, but your story in particular has made me decide to wear it anyway. If a guy with those credentials can have an accident like that, then anything can happen. I’m sorry you lost your friend.

 

[MNElkNut]

One thing I implemented for my kids (and myself) while deer hunting is that they must have their headlamp on while going to and from their stand in the dark.

I know someone who was shot in the leg in low light conditions as she left her stand in the evening. That headlamp may have been the difference.

 

[Elkslayer56]

A week ago yesterday I received a notification of a voicemail on my phone when I came back into cell service. Upon listening to the voicemail I dropped my phone to the ground in disbelief. A former coworkers firearm had been accidentally discharged while hunting behind his house. Yesterday, I went to his funeral. My former coworker was a law enforcement officer, a hunter education instructor, a lifelong hunter, and I had spent many days hunting with him even after we were no longer coworkers. He left behind a wife and 2 children that he talked about endlessly. No one that knew my friend would have ever imagined that a firearm accident could happen to him. The bottom line is accidents can happen no matter how experienced a person is with and around firearms. When we are in the presence of a firearm we must always remember the rules of firearm safety including keeping your muzzle pointed in a safe direction, keeping the safety on and our fingers outside the trigger guard until we are ready to fire, and knowing what is in front of and behind our intended target. Anything a person can do to lessen the chance of a firearm accident is a wise decision. I have archery hunted during muzzleloader seasons both elk in Colorado and whitetail deer in Iowa. Rest assured if I am hunting or hiking during a firearm season whether required by law or not I will be wearing at least a hat, a coat, or a vest of blaze orange.

Prayers to you and your friends family

 

[Nick87]

A week ago yesterday I received a notification of a voicemail on my phone when I came back into cell service. Upon listening to the voicemail I dropped my phone to the ground in disbelief. A former coworkers firearm had been accidentally discharged while hunting behind his house. Yesterday, I went to his funeral. My former coworker was a law enforcement officer, a hunter education instructor, a lifelong hunter, and I had spent many days hunting with him even after we were no longer coworkers. He left behind a wife and 2 children that he talked about endlessly. No one that knew my friend would have ever imagined that a firearm accident could happen to him. The bottom line is accidents can happen no matter how experienced a person is with and around firearms. When we are in the presence of a firearm we must always remember the rules of firearm safety including keeping your muzzle pointed in a safe direction, keeping the safety on and our fingers outside the trigger guard until we are ready to fire, and knowing what is in front of and behind our intended target. Anything a person can do to lessen the chance of a firearm accident is a wise decision. I have archery hunted during muzzleloader seasons both elk in Colorado and whitetail deer in Iowa. Rest assured if I am hunting or hiking during a firearm season whether required by law or not I will be wearing at least a hat, a coat, or a vest of blaze orange.

Sorry to hear that bud, unreal.

 

[David58]

Five year renewal might help some as far as hunter ed goes. Some years ago, I went through a hunter training class required to be able to participate in damage control hunts in Oregon. Great class, included a shooting proficiency test. But the sidebar conversations amongst the seasoned hunters indicated that they thought most of the class was BS - basically, those jackwagons weren't letting themselves learn anything, since they already knew it. So for some, it is a waste of time, for others a good deal. But I worry about those that need to be reminded to not scope other hunters, to not make sound shots, or to wear the Orange.

You'd be doing a major face-palm if you saw those seasoned hunters shooting at a paper plate at 100 yards. The elk were save, but not so any other living thing in the woods.

I'm still scratching my head about bows and rifles in the field at the same time.

 

[mountainlaurel3]

Arrest affidavit details fatal hunting incident in Dolores County

An arrest affidavit reveals that two hunters from Pennsylvania were calling in an elk Friday morning in the San Juan National Forest north of Rico when one mistook a bow hunter for their prey and fata...

www.durangoherald.com

"When he saw white in the pines, he took a shot at what he thought was an elk." Oy.

 

[COEngineer]

Arrest affidavit details fatal hunting incident in Dolores County

An arrest affidavit reveals that two hunters from Pennsylvania were calling in an elk Friday morning in the San Juan National Forest north of Rico when one mistook a bow hunter for their prey and fata...

www.durangoherald.com

"When he saw white in the pines, he took a shot at what he thought was an elk." Oy.

Stupid a-hole status confirmed. Who the F does that?

Also, it says the archery hunter was wearing brown camouflage, not white.

 

[OntarioHunter]

Stupid a-hole status confirmed. Who the F does that?

Also, it says the archery hunter was wearing brown camouflage, not white.

Yeah, he shot at sound obviously.

I gotta say, PA hunters have a very bad reputation. It was almost a running joke in Montana when I lived there. This incident doesn't help. In over fifty years of hunting I only had a gun pointed at me once. It was just getting twilight and I stepped into a clear cut on my way back to the truck. An Arkansas dude was standing forty yards away with his gun pointed right at me. "What the hell do you think you're doing!" "There's grizzlies up here." "Really? I've hunted this mountain for twenty years and haven't seen one yet." I was too tired to be angry. Ran into their camp driving out and stopped. "Is that guy up there part of your bunch?" "Yes. Is he okay?" "Just barely. But the next time he points a gun at me he won't be."

 

[Lyfter1013]

Arrest affidavit details fatal hunting incident in Dolores County

An arrest affidavit reveals that two hunters from Pennsylvania were calling in an elk Friday morning in the San Juan National Forest north of Rico when one mistook a bow hunter for their prey and fata...

www.durangoherald.com

"When he saw white in the pines, he took a shot at what he thought was an elk." Oy.

I was keeping quiet giving this the guy the benefit of the doubt until the story came out. But that’s just idiotic.

 

[get-n-birdy]

What a shame.

Goes without saying, don't shoot at sound, color or movement, ever, period!

With unit 71 there's no either sex muzzled loader tags i could find and there's antler point restrictions in place so you can't shoot a spike. So how did he know it was a legal bull or cow if he had both a bull and a cow tag and that it wasn't a spike or a non legal bull?

Can forgive an honest mistake or accident, or at least have some empathy. But this wasn't a mistake or accident, it was a choice to shoot at a color. He assumed what was coming was a legal elk, when he had no clue it was a legal elk with a firearm under his supervision and control. He saw white, and shot? Not good enough of a reason to make the decision to then make the choice to pull the trigger. Everyone should know that you just don't shoot at sound, color or movement. But unfortunately and obviously not everyone does.

Shot a cow in Wyoming years ago with my oldest kid who was 12 at the time. After shooting it a legal bull stood up. We were in some timber and my kid had sat down on a log because I had smelt elk close and told him to sit on the log. An elk stood up behind the way he was facing and I shot her at 20ish yards. She dropped and a bull stood up and was gone before I could get the kid turned around. As we were sitting there over the cow getting ready to butcher her 15 minutes later, a cow call came from the direction the bull had gone. Kid swiveled around and had him load a round. I cow called back. And the cow answered and was getting closer. Something in my gut told me something wasn't right, even though it sounded great. It sounded like a cow, but there was just something a little off and it was close. Getting a little jittery, let out a simple whistle that almost sounds like a bird. My brother, dad and I have done it for years, never spooked an animal doing it and it really sounds like a bird. From about 30 yards down a lip in heavy timber the whistle was mimicked and followed by a friendly voice. It was 2 guys with a kid just not old enough to hunt. Guys asked if they could come up and said yeah. Two great guys and a nice kid. They'd seen the bull and the way the hill and ridge laid out they thought the shot came from farther away and had seen that bull we spooked. Great guys and everyone of us had a good amount of blaze orange on and never saw each other because of how the terrain and foliage laid out. Guys said they really appreciated the whistle and they use pretty much the same whistle and have been taught the same deal from their dads. We talked about how a situation like that can turn bad if there's not some spacial awareness and it was a great teachable moment for the kids we had with. The guys son asked if his kid could touch the cow, thought to myself what a great dad teaching his kid to have enough respect to ask. Said sure and talked to the kid and showed him the elk had an ear tag. Everyone talked in hushed tones and we were all still in hunt mode. Even in hunt mode the gun safety awareness was in full display from these guys. After chatting for a while they asked if we minded if they go after that bull. Laughed and said yeah, we got our work cut out for us for the rest of the day being 3 miles back in. Wished everyone good luck and was a great learning experience for everyone. The kid even thanked us for letting him play around with the cow. Is a very fond memory that could have been very different if one of us would have gotten to excited or made bad choices. We always assume it's a person making noises or sounds in the woods until it's been visually proven factually it is not. It seems so simple.

Can not image how bad the guy feels and how his life, the life of his family and the family of the person he killed is changed forever by making a choice to squeeze that trigger because he saw the color white, and that was enough to discharge a lethal tool that's soul purpose is to kill an animal, not a human. But is fully capable of killing a human and ruining so many people's lives. Understand things get heated in the excitement of the moment and judgment can get blurry. But there is no excuse for this and it's a crying shame on so many levels because he couldn't wait that extra couple seconds to verify if it was a legal bull, cow or human being. I feel empathy for the families that'll be affected forever by such a horrible decision to shoot at the color white.

 

[oswald2581]

Arrest affidavit details fatal hunting incident in Dolores County

An arrest affidavit reveals that two hunters from Pennsylvania were calling in an elk Friday morning in the San Juan National Forest north of Rico when one mistook a bow hunter for their prey and fata...

www.durangoherald.com

"When he saw white in the pines, he took a shot at what he thought was an elk." Oy.

It is very unfortunate that someone lost their life to someone blindly seeing "something" and shooting. Most units in Colorado, including the unit the incident happened in have antler restrictions for bulls. Baffles me how anyone blindly shoots at something not knowing what the target really is. What if it was a cow, or if he had cow tag, was it a bull, deer, Moose and in this unfortunate situation a Human. Also, what on an Elk is white, maybe its ass and most elk are bit darker than white? Something white should make you raise an eyebrow and question what the heck it is, white to me I would immediately think deer's ass or face.

I truly wonder how many animals are illegally shot and killed this way each year that never get reported. The "Moose in this area, be sure of your target" signs CPW hangs baffles me also. If you don't know the difference in Elk, Moose, Deer, Humans, you should not be hunting. Even if your certain its an elk, is it a legal elk? Once that's determined you still don't just fling lead, you should make sure you have a safe, clean ethical shot. Especially with a muzzleloader, you really only get one shot.

 

[Lyfter1013]

I truly wonder how many animals are illegally shot and killed this way each year that never get reported. The "Moose in this area, be sure of your target" signs CPW hangs baffles me also. If you don't know the difference in Elk, Moose, Deer, Humans, you should not be hunting. Even if your certain its an elk, is it a legal elk? Once that's determined you still don't just fling lead, you should make sure you have a safe, clean ethical shot. Especially with a muzzleloader, you really only get one shot.

I thought the same thing. And One more thing to add the guy was 67 years old i would be willing to bet this isn’t his first time doing something stupid.. just the first time it ended so badly.

 

[OntarioHunter]

What a shame.

Goes without saying, don't shoot at sound, color or movement, ever, period!

With unit 71 there's no either sex muzzled loader tags i could find and there's antler point restrictions in place so you can't shoot a spike. So how did he know it was a legal bull or cow if he had both a bull and a cow tag and that it wasn't a spike or a non legal bull?

Can forgive an honest mistake or accident, or at least have some empathy. But this wasn't a mistake or accident, it was a choice to shoot at a color. He assumed what was coming was a legal elk, when he had no clue it was a legal elk with a firearm under his supervision and control. He saw white, and shot? Not good enough of a reason to make the decision to then make the choice to pull the trigger. Everyone should know that you just don't shoot at sound, color or movement. But unfortunately and obviously not everyone does.

Shot a cow in Wyoming years ago with my oldest kid who was 12 at the time. After shooting it a legal bull stood up. We were in some timber and my kid had sat down on a log because I had smelt elk close and told him to sit on the log. An elk stood up behind the way he was facing and I shot her at 20ish yards. She dropped and a bull stood up and was gone before I could get the kid turned around. As we were sitting there over the cow getting ready to butcher her 15 minutes later, a cow call came from the direction the bull had gone. Kid swiveled around and had him load a round. I cow called back. And the cow answered and was getting closer. Something in my gut told me something wasn't right, even though it sounded great. It sounded like a cow, but there was just something a little off and it was close. Getting a little jittery, let out a simple whistle that almost sounds like a bird. My brother, dad and I have done it for years, never spooked an animal doing it and it really sounds like a bird. From about 30 yards down a lip in heavy timber the whistle was mimicked and followed by a friendly voice. It was 2 guys with a kid just not old enough to hunt. Guys asked if they could come up and said yeah. Two great guys and a nice kid. They'd seen the bull and the way the hill and ridge laid out they thought the shot came from farther away and had seen that bull we spooked. Great guys and everyone of us had a good amount of blaze orange on and never saw each other because of how the terrain and foliage laid out. Guys said they really appreciated the whistle and they use pretty much the same whistle and have been taught the same deal from their dads. We talked about how a situation like that can turn bad if there's not some spacial awareness and it was a great teachable moment for the kids we had with. The guys son asked if his kid could touch the cow, thought to myself what a great dad teaching his kid to have enough respect to ask. Said sure and talked to the kid and showed him the elk had an ear tag. Everyone talked in hushed tones and we were all still in hunt mode. Even in hunt mode the gun safety awareness was in full display from these guys. After chatting for a while they asked if we minded if they go after that bull. Laughed and said yeah, we got our work cut out for us for the rest of the day being 3 miles back in. Wished everyone good luck and was a great learning experience for everyone. The kid even thanked us for letting him play around with the cow. Is a very fond memory that could have been very different if one of us would have gotten to excited or made bad choices. We always assume it's a person making noises or sounds in the woods until it's been visually proven factually it is not. It seems so simple.

Can not image how bad the guy feels and how his life, the life of his family and the family of the person he killed is changed forever by making a choice to squeeze that trigger because he saw the color white, and that was enough to discharge a lethal tool that's soul purpose is to kill an animal, not a human. But is fully capable of killing a human and ruining so many people's lives. Understand things get heated in the excitement of the moment and judgment can get blurry. But there is no excuse for this and it's a crying shame on so many levels because he couldn't wait that extra couple seconds to verify if it was a legal bull, cow or human being. I feel empathy for the families that'll be affected forever by such a horrible decision to shoot at the color white.

Thanks for that info on the district. Sounds to me like that old fart will do some time. If he doesn't plead guilty they should really throw the book at him hard.

 

[Deleted member 40728]

I am from PA and I can honestly say I wasn’t surprised when I read that the reckless shooter was from PA as well. I’m not meaning to offend anyone but I think some of the sloppiest/reckless hunters I have ever met in my life are from right here. Their bad habits and carelessness have been picked up from decades of stupidity while hunting our orange army deer seasons. I’ve heard bullets whizzing past me on more than one occasion from jackasses who never identify beyond their target. I know each state has its own idiot hunters, I just feel we turn them out here at a higher rate.

 

[Wayne Clark]

I hated to hear about this. I spend a lot of time in the San Juan last year, and it was crawling with hunters, especially after that snow storm. I can imagine it was even worse this year. Prayers to all involved.

 

[BucksnDucks]

After reading the account from the article it feels so much more tragic and senseless. I 100% agree the shooter should face criminal charges for such an ignorant discharge of his rifle with no target identification. It makes me sick a life was lost because some idiot "just figured" it must be a legal bull. A big take away other than the shooter is an idiot is be vigilant when hunting any species with calling or decoys. Turkey hunters like elk hunters generally have stories about calling in other hunters. I've even had duck hunters stalk into my decoy spread to jump shoot.

 

[jt13]

I am from PA and I can honestly say I wasn’t surprised when I read that the reckless shooter was from PA as well. I’m not meaning to offend anyone but I think some of the sloppiest/reckless hunters I have ever met in my life are from right here. Their bad habits and carelessness have been picked up from decades of stupidity while hunting our orange army deer seasons. I’ve heard bullets whizzing past me on more than one occasion from jackasses who never identify beyond their target. I know each state has its own idiot hunters, I just feel we turn them out here at a higher rate.

We have lots of hunters- about one in every 15 hunters in the country is from PA. Some are good and some are bad. We are known to export lots of folks too, being the home of the largest "outdoors convention" east of the Mississippi. It does seem that we have developed a sort of "Florida Man" reputation in the hunting community.

The shooter fits the demographic for a hunting related shooting incident, old and complacent. He's probably made many questionable trigger pulls with no ill effects, until now...

My condolences to the family and friends of both the shooter, the victim, and the responders. I've been on-scene for too many of these and it's always horrible.

 

[SandyCreek]

i was archery moose hunting last week in colorado.. which opened the same day as muzzy season.. Jesus H christ I've never felt so unsafe in the woods, there needs to be a conversation had whether the muzzy season is shortened and archery is closed during it or its moved completely out of archery. The amount of orange was pretty extreme and it just doesn't feel right

 

[np307]

What a shame.

Goes without saying, don't shoot at sound, color or movement, ever, period!

With unit 71 there's no either sex muzzled loader tags i could find and there's antler point restrictions in place so you can't shoot a spike. So how did he know it was a legal bull or cow if he had both a bull and a cow tag and that it wasn't a spike or a non legal bull?

Can forgive an honest mistake or accident, or at least have some empathy. But this wasn't a mistake or accident, it was a choice to shoot at a color. He assumed what was coming was a legal elk, when he had no clue it was a legal elk with a firearm under his supervision and control. He saw white, and shot? Not good enough of a reason to make the decision to then make the choice to pull the trigger. Everyone should know that you just don't shoot at sound, color or movement. But unfortunately and obviously not everyone does.

Shot a cow in Wyoming years ago with my oldest kid who was 12 at the time. After shooting it a legal bull stood up. We were in some timber and my kid had sat down on a log because I had smelt elk close and told him to sit on the log. An elk stood up behind the way he was facing and I shot her at 20ish yards. She dropped and a bull stood up and was gone before I could get the kid turned around. As we were sitting there over the cow getting ready to butcher her 15 minutes later, a cow call came from the direction the bull had gone. Kid swiveled around and had him load a round. I cow called back. And the cow answered and was getting closer. Something in my gut told me something wasn't right, even though it sounded great. It sounded like a cow, but there was just something a little off and it was close. Getting a little jittery, let out a simple whistle that almost sounds like a bird. My brother, dad and I have done it for years, never spooked an animal doing it and it really sounds like a bird. From about 30 yards down a lip in heavy timber the whistle was mimicked and followed by a friendly voice. It was 2 guys with a kid just not old enough to hunt. Guys asked if they could come up and said yeah. Two great guys and a nice kid. They'd seen the bull and the way the hill and ridge laid out they thought the shot came from farther away and had seen that bull we spooked. Great guys and everyone of us had a good amount of blaze orange on and never saw each other because of how the terrain and foliage laid out. Guys said they really appreciated the whistle and they use pretty much the same whistle and have been taught the same deal from their dads. We talked about how a situation like that can turn bad if there's not some spacial awareness and it was a great teachable moment for the kids we had with. The guys son asked if his kid could touch the cow, thought to myself what a great dad teaching his kid to have enough respect to ask. Said sure and talked to the kid and showed him the elk had an ear tag. Everyone talked in hushed tones and we were all still in hunt mode. Even in hunt mode the gun safety awareness was in full display from these guys. After chatting for a while they asked if we minded if they go after that bull. Laughed and said yeah, we got our work cut out for us for the rest of the day being 3 miles back in. Wished everyone good luck and was a great learning experience for everyone. The kid even thanked us for letting him play around with the cow. Is a very fond memory that could have been very different if one of us would have gotten to excited or made bad choices. We always assume it's a person making noises or sounds in the woods until it's been visually proven factually it is not. It seems so simple.

Can not image how bad the guy feels and how his life, the life of his family and the family of the person he killed is changed forever by making a choice to squeeze that trigger because he saw the color white, and that was enough to discharge a lethal tool that's soul purpose is to kill an animal, not a human. But is fully capable of killing a human and ruining so many people's lives. Understand things get heated in the excitement of the moment and judgment can get blurry. But there is no excuse for this and it's a crying shame on so many levels because he couldn't wait that extra couple seconds to verify if it was a legal bull, cow or human being. I feel empathy for the families that'll be affected forever by such a horrible decision to shoot at the color white.

Thats a good story and reminds me of what I do when turkey hunting. If I realize I'm talking to another hunter I will give a very obviously bad barred owl call. I've never had anyone mistake that of the handful of interactions I've had and it's close enough to a natural sound that it doesn't spook animals.

 

[KipCarson]

I keep seeing the opinion here and in other places that archery and muzzy hunters shouldn’t share the woods at the same time. For this situation I think that’s severely missing the point, it could have just as easily been a hiker, berry picker, or any other muzzy hunter who neglected to don his orange that morning who fell victim to the bad decision of someone else. If that opinion comes from the viewpoint of things being too crowded, face it, that’s not going away anytime soon and is the current state of CO hunting.

I for one bow hunt all the time during rifle seasons (it’s legal here) and don’t see a problem with it. The sad fact is no matter what a person might do to protect yourself, At the end of the day we’re still placing faith in the hope that the other guy is making wise decisions too. This is a tragedy for sure, and unfortunately we hear the same type story every season.