Teen Shot and Killed "with AK47 assault rifle", In Hunting Accident

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Our thoughts and prayers are with the family. If you are going to traverse woods guys remember the safety.
 
Lots of people hunt with AK-47s. They make good deer rifles. Grandpa didn't have the safety on.

LAVACA COUNTY, Texas -- A 14-year-old boy was accidentally shot and killed in a hunting accident by his grandfather, investigators said.

According to the Lavaca County Sheriff's Office, Taylor Michalec's grandfather said he was walking behind the teen when the trigger on his AK-47 assault rifle snagged a branch and discharged, striking the teen in the back.

The shooting happened Wednesday afternoon near County Road 290, about five miles west of Moulton, Texas, about 100 miles east of San Antonio.

Both his father and grandfather tried to administer CPR, but when EMS responders arrived, the teen was pronounced dead. Michalec had just completed his freshman year at Steele High School, where he was a member of the football team.

Lavaca County investigators said they will not file any charges on the boy's grandfather because the shooting appeared to be an accident.
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This is so tragic. I'm sure the Grandpa wishes he could trade places with his Grandson. Just no excuse for this type of thing to happen. :(
 
The guy has a Yugoslavian surname - it could be that the AK-47 was the rifle he was most familiar with. Or maybe he just liked hunting with it. It's weird but not extraordinary.
 
It's not the rifle that matters. It's how you use it safely while in the woods.

Just about a year ago two kids I knew back home were out spot-lighting. They had taken a big doe, and after taking it back to camp one of them said, "let's go back and get one for me now!"

walking along the trail, one of the kids dropped his rifle. In an effort to grab it before it hit the ground, he put his hand on the trigger guard and one of his fingers slipped through and pulled the trigger.

It was a .270 in 'remchester' format. As good-ol-boy as you could get. The bullet entered the other kid's lower back and came out his chest. He never had a chance.

My prayers go out to the family, but that doesn't mean I'm not angry at their unsafe practices.
 
when the trigger on his AK-47 assault rifle snagged a branch and discharged, striking the teen in the back.
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Color me highly skeptical. Aside from the extremely obvious safety on the AK, the trigger ain't exactly light. The story does not smell right at all. How can you forget whether the safety is on? Why wouldn't it be engaged? How would a mere branch set off that stiff, heavy trigger? Why was it pointing at the boy's back? It sounds like someone didn't want to face manslaughter charges for being negligent and made up a story about the branch.

Anyway that's why I like Mosins on the trail. And why I let the rifle fall if it's going to fall. Won't hurt nothin' but the ground.
 
That is sad to hear, and I'm sure the grandfather feels the worst about it.

But, I was wondering just what they are hunting. Here in Georgia there is no open season on anything except coyotes. And around here (and most likely elsewhere) they are hunted predominantly at night.
 
The Tapco G2 triggers are actually pretty light have have been coming standard on some of the Century guns latley.
 
I can see how, moving through woods and brush, you could hang the trigger on a green limb or one of those stubs on the side of a tree and fire a rifle if carrying horizontal. However, I have always carried over shoulder pointing up if I was walking in the back...as he obviously was. Front man only carries pointing forward down. I will actually quit and go home if I get swept while hunting.
 
I can buy the trigger getting snagged. What I can't buy is walking with one in the chamber and the safety off and having the gun pointed at anyone.
 
why wouldnt you have the safety off when hunting?

i mean if you are stalking game, im betting that the CLICK of an AK safety disengaging would be more than enough to spook them... likewise for chambering a round...
 
I could see "safety off" also, if you're stalking and not traveling. We could "guess" he was already pointing forward, BUT...he could have been carrying it pointed in a safe direction and actually have tripped and was falling when the trigger got snagged. In this case it was truly unavoidable unless the gun was safetied. Maybe everything just "lined up" and it's just a sad accident.
 
The safety should have been on, especially if they were walking through brush. Muzzle should have been up. Sad story.
 
I don't understand the sensationalism.
The round fired by the AK is an intermediate round and actualy less powerful than the rounds fired by most traditional style hunting rifles.

The gun is also harder to accidentaly set off than many traditional rifles.

A sad incident.
 
Who in their right mind would hunt with a ak-47?
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Who in their right mind would hunt with a .30-30 Winchester? With 150-grain bullets, they're ballistically almost identical.

Here's a non-automatic civilian AK in NC-legal hunting configuration, with 5-round hunting magazine:

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Who in their right mind would hunt with a ak-47?
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They're in San Antonio. Texas has the largest population of wild hogs in the nation. The AK makes a dandy hog rifle. 30rds. of 7.62 could come in handy when eye level with an angry/wounded boar.

Its June. There's nothing else they could be (legally) hunting but hogs, and like I said, the AK makes a dandy hog rifle.


My prayers are with the family.
 
My father was pretty strict about keeping the guy with the gun up front.

When we went hunting together we stayed side-by-side about fifty feet apart. The trick, in addition to using the SAFEty (the word "safe" is even built in), is not allowing anyone downrange.

Seems like the idiots rarely kill themselves. They always end up killing someone else.
 
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