Today i almost had a heart attack

[HANDLOADER]

As the tittle says it almost happened let me tell you what happened to cause this. I was setting in my back room today looking out the window and all of a sudden I see a giant flock of black birds fly over head. I have been having trouble with them due to the fact that they like to poop all over my buildings and vechicals. So I grab the pump 12 gauge and some of my high powered reloads and I walk down to the side of my back shop. I throw the shot gun up and fire into the mass of them and I make no contact at all. Bad day to much wind.

So I am now left with 2 rounds of ammo in the tube. So I decide to throw the gun on my steel plate targets and shoot as fast as I can. Just as I am about to pump the action somthing orange in the conor of my eye caught my attention. So I am in the middle of cyclying the action when I look towards the steel plates and what is standing there. A 10 YEAR OLD KID. He was the neighbors a mile away and he was hunting and came upon my steel plate range. I just about dropped my shotgun when I saw him.

If it had not been for that orange I might of made a terrible mistake. You see the kid was wearing orange underneth what I can best descrbibe as a homemade GHILLE suit. And he had his back turned so he blended in the woods which are behind my steel plate setup. And as I shot he jerked around and thats how I saw the orange. It scared the living crap out of me when I saw him and what I was about to do. So I waved to him and he waved back and I went back to the house where I just about fell down due the fact I was shaking so awful. So what did I learn today just because it is your property does not mean that there is no one else one it. So please everyone take this situation and keep this thought in mind "BEFORE YOU START SHOOTING MAKE SURE THERE IS NO PERSON AROUND YOUR TARGET" I have been shooting for the past 30 years and never had this happen before so it was a leason in reiterated saftey to me and hopefully some one else will learn from this post so let me know. Thanks

GOD BLESS US ALL
GOD BLESS OUR TROOPS

Handloader

 

[7.62X25mm]

And I'm betting the birds are probably a protected species too.

 

[koginam]

Sucks them up don't it.
Few years ago I was hunting coyotes in a bunch alphalpha circles, I was at the pivot of one that was along the edge of a ditch. I was calling for about 20 minutes and about to give up when I saw something moving on the edge of the field, I brought up my rifle and looking thru the scope saw what looked like a coon bouncing up and down on the edge. I started to pull the trigger but something inside said the coon wasn't moving right, just then I saw a head under the coon it was a coon skin cap on a guys head, then too other heads popped up the three were walking along the ditch with just the cap sticking up above the alphalpha. I was sick for a few minutes thinking about what could have been the headlines in the morning paper had I shot, three found shot in field. I would have felt bad about the witness.

 

[GlowinPontiac]

You might want to inform that kid and his parents that he should not be hunting or target shooting on your land without permission. If he had your permission he should have at least come to the house and told you he was going to be out there. Thats what i always do when shooting on somebody elses land.

 

[esmith]

You should put up signs around the perimeter of your range telling people to be careful when going on that part of land. Or put up "No Trespassing" signs. Either way they need to be told that that is where people shoot. Granted, you should always be careful when YOU shoot, but others should also take responsibility for themselves.

 

[tpaw]

HANDLOADER

Thank you for sharing that experience. It happened to me once on a 400 acre piece of land that I hunt on. A poacher was about 50 yards behind a huge buck that I had my cross hairs on. It was rifle season, and this guy was in full cammo hunting with a bow! As I took aim, I just happened to see movement because his body was in front of an old iron ore quarry. Needless to say, I did not take the shot, the buck took off and the owner of the property had the guy escorted by state police. It was later found out that the poacher was wanted on a multiple warrants.

 

[Starship1st]

You had a sharp eye and alert frame of mind to detect the orange color in your perifeal vision and determined that something is not right so hold fire.

Well done!

 

[moooose102]

you might want to inform that kid and his parents that he should not be hunting or target shooting on your land without permission. If he had your permission he should have at least come to the house and told you he was going to be out there. Thats what i always do when shooting on somebody elses land.

+1! I would have yelled at the kid, and put the fear of god into him! Not mean, but explain to him just how lucky he really was, and to at least come and ask to play on your property. Wow, that was a close call. I hope he learned something from it.

 

[Titan6]

I am glad it worked out ok. This is a little odd. 10 is a little young to be hunting alone. I am thinking more like 12 or 13. I certainly hoped you went and talked to his parents and explained a few things about poaching, tresspassing, hunter safety and gun safety to them.

What was he hunting for this time of the year?

 

[ultradoc]

glad everything turned out ok.

 

[Duke of Doubt]

You averted tragedy by following the gun safety rules.

I scared the heck out of myself a few years ago at the trap range. Even though I had shot there for a few years, I was unfamiliar with an obscure procedure followed for those exceedingly rare situations where a man happens to be inside the trap throwing shed when it runs out of clays during the middle of a game, and there are insufficient clays in the shed to continue the game. Long story short, for a fraction of a second a human head popped right up in front of my loaded gun. That should NEVER have happened, but tragedy was averted because my finger was not on the trigger. I SHOULD have removed my gun from its aim point and broken it open, but I was unfamiliar with the procedure (which I believe is a flawed procedure) for that unusual situation. I scared myself badly, and learned that even a "gun safety freak" can get into a dangerous situation. It was a good example of how the gun safety rules can prevent disasters by setting several consecutive obstacles in their way.

 

[Tirod]

Good point, Handloader. You should never assume.

As for the Coonskin cap hunter, same thing. We were hunting in a party of three on public land. MO requires a vest and hat in full Hunter Orange. I was still hunting back to our start point where we had dropped off our less ambulatory partner when a group of three others came down the ridge slowly - rather too close together. The eldest was wearing a fur cap with a large white patch at the back. We traded the usual "Seenanydeer?" and parted.

Once I got back to the stationary hunter, he told me he nearly put a bullet in the white fur - all he saw was what looked like a whitetail slowly flagging just under the curve of the hill. It wasn't a great shot, so he let it go, when he noticed the two trailing hunters as they came up to him. Seeing the conversation, Mr. Fur Cap circled back to chat.

The older gent didn't care to be told he almost got shot for his cute hat.

 

[PocketProtector642]

Thank God you trusted your instincts and and didnt pull the trigger!

 

[mcdonl]

Rule #4 Know your target, and what is behind it. It was created just for this reason.

Nice job handloader. It could have been a sad story in the papers instead. The fact the kid was tresspassing and hunting would not have been mentioned, just the gunman shooting the little boy.

Nice job. Good eye.

Leroy

 

[Rubber_Duck]

The OP reminds me of a similar situation that happened to me.

I was shooting with some friends who were sighting-in their hunting rifles for deer season. Where we were shooting was a valley with a river going down the middle, and we were on one of the riverbanks. The riverbanks are very flat and wide, and someone had built a 10 ft. tall dirt berm about 30 feet wide on one of them, which we set our targets in front and drove 200 yards back.

After a while a group of people riding four-wheelers drove right up over the berm from the other side WHILE WE WERE SHOOTING! They would've been shot if a stray bullet had gone over the berm just as they came over it. I don't know if they would've been able to hear the gunshots while riding a loud ATV but surely the adults in the group should've know better than to lead the kids/teens through an active shooting range. We could NOT see them coming, but we checked for other people before we started shooting and there was only one truck on the opposite side of the river shooting as well, not in our way at all.

 

[Duke of Doubt]

Rubber Duck, we've had snowmobilers zoom through our range while we were shooting at the 200 yard berm. We posted signs, and they were ignored. We blocked the trail, and our block was destroyed. Finally we built a REAL block, and got an angry letter from some snowmobile club. We explained that we are not a public trail, they have no easement, and more to the point, they had nearly been picked off by marksmen as they zoomed through the line of fire. This last seemed of little account to them. Finally we forwarded their letter to the local police department, which I am told warned them for trespassing. That seems finally to have halted the suicidal incursions.

 

[gvnwst]

Thank God you didn't pull the trigger, good job. I almost shot a few people once during a dove hunt, there were two groups, and the dove broke right off to where the other group was standing, i stopped (was allready pulling the trigger, i had that dove in my sights) right before them, as i saw um, and missed by a dozen yards, that really freaked me out. Got another dove to replace it though

 

[larry_minn]

Few yrs back during winter I decided to do some cold weather target practice. I walked back of house and set up a few targets and (more out of habit then anything) and see nothing. I line up for first shot..... Instead I reset safety and looked around again (really looked) Nothing..
So I line up again and remove safety..... reset it. Something is bothering me.
So I unload and use scope to scan area. There were two fox hunters (in white camo) just over a 1/4 mile beyond my backstop. As I shoot from a slight rise above berm at a downward angle. It seems my "weak" eye was noticing movement when I focased dominent eye thru scope. When I looked directly I couldn't see it.
I decided to shoot another day.

 

[Macmac]

very nice.... When target shotting make sure that is all that is there.....

Now hunting these days is a different deal. NON hunters will be in the woods and some have no idea... none, nada...

And then like many my state requires some blaze orange, but I see guys out hunting all the time in full blown woodland camo, and not a pin head worth of anything even red.. last time it was 2 guys one behind the other skulking along just like a deer might. I was aiming for the small window ahead in balsum firs. I was aimed and all set to drop that deer, which turned out to be 2 men not 15 yards away.

And to top that i saw a man in orange hat,coat, pants, gloves, and boots with a woman who had her own rifle, and she was in a brown fur hat, a full length real racoon coat, with tall to her knee hi fashion boots.

It was deer and bear season and I think the guy was hoping some other hunter would indeed KILL HER!

Be dammned sure what you shoot at, and if it is a human so be it...

 

[cassandrasdaddy]

no matter how stupid they(the folks down range) are the press and many others will blame the shooter

 

[wankerjake]

A good friend of the family was elk hunting a few years ago here in AZ. He was hunting in a fairly popular spot and had spotted a bull across a small valley. He had the bull in his scope and was starting to squeeze the trigger when a blaze orange hat walked thru his field of view. He said it made him so sick he didn't hunt the rest of the day, said he wanted to vomit.