[oucorry]

dHow Hunting Accidents Happen
A few years ago, for a couple of months before deer season, I went out every couple of weeks or so to scout the area I planned to hunt. I was looking for signs of deer, trails, good places to overlook what looked like good bedding areas, etc. I found a spot that I was rather excited about, and made plans for where I would sit on opening morning.

On opening day, I went very early to my spot. I parked the truck about a quarter mile away from the cat road I would be taking to get to 'my' spot. I walked very slowly, in the dark, being careful to make no noise, walk slightly irregularly, stay on the side of the area where I would not be winded, etc. I got to 'my' spot about 2 hours before first light, sat down where trees would break my silhouette, and began to wait.

As I was sitting there, glassing the area as best I could in the dark, I saw several shadows of animals moving about, it appeared they were deer eating. I watched as some of them moved to the fringes of the area, and bedded down. I was getting real excited at this time.

As the sunlight was just striking the tops of the hilltops nearby, a truck drove up with the radio blaring, and parked on the cat road I had walked in on 2 hours earlier. Three guys got out of the truck, slamming the doors, talking loudly, banging about in the back of the truck, and generally making a ton of noise. All I could do was watch as the bedded shadows stood up and walked across the cat road into the dense undergrowth on the other side.

These guys then proceeded to walk along the cat road, kicking rocks, and telling jokes. They walked right past me, and I'm sure they didn't even know I was there, nor could they have known that there were at least six deer that were bedded within 50 feet of where they parked their truck.

Later, after the light came up, and I had glassed the area thinking that maybe, just maybe, some deer might not have left, I walked over to where the deer had been bedding, and found that one or more of those guys had actually relieved himself within 5 feet of one of the beds.

I didn't want to stay where these guys were hunting, but I had scouted this area many times before and knew I wanted to hunt near there. So I walked about 1/2 mile past where I had parked my truck and went to my second site. I headed along a ridge, as quiet as I could be, then down a small ravine. At the bottom of the ravine, I saw a deer bedded under an overhanging tree. I approached slowly and as I got within about 50 yards I could see it was a doe. My doe tag was not good until the following weekend so I just watched. After what seemed an eternity, I started to creep closer and closer to the deer. Finally, when I was about 15 yards away, the deer stood up. We looked at each other for some time, before I decided to continue on my way. As I started to move, it spooked, jumped what seemed like 20 feet, and then stopped and looked at me some more. I continued heading toward the top of the ravine on the other side, which was where I wanted to be to glass 'my' second area.

I finally got to the top of the ravine, and set down in front of a tree to block my silouette. I was glassing the area when I heard Honk, Honk, Honk. A car horn, three times. I thought about it for a minute, what bothered me was that I'd been told that if you're in trouble, you make three loud noises. Well, it wasn't but 5 minutes later that I heard it again Honk, Honk, Honk. At this point I was worried that maybe someone needed help.

I started moving toward where the noise was coming from, and in order to get there in a straight line, I had to go through some pretty thick stuff. After about 10 minutes, though, I heard Honk, Honk, Honk, again. I picked up the pace, because I was starting to get worried. At this point, a very large buck stood up in front of me, kind of made a grunting noise, and then bounded off at an amazing speed. I saw that he had at least 3 points on each side, but I'm not sure how many were actually there. Well, I kept going toward the Honking (must be the Eagle Scout in me).

When I got to a small road, I heard it again, Honk, Honk, Honk. I headed in that direction, to find about 5 or 6 other hunters had done basically the same thing. We all arrived at the spot where those guys that morning had parked their truck. Sitting in a van was a woman, honking on the horn. We asked what the problem was, and she said "Oh, no problem, I'm just calling my husband and our two sons for lunch"

That is how hunting accidents happen

[D Winkler]