I copied this link from the northeast forum which has about 7 pages of related heated discussion. I've gotten a lot of my info from reading those posts and I'll try to come up with a few more links, but several people there were actually defending this knucklehead whose bullet ended up striking a woman 0.5-0.75 miles away, then would not even apologize to her, and is currently being sued civilly. It seems this guy had some other hunting violations concurrent with this incident.
What do you guys think? I personally feel he was not practicing safe shooting methods---no solid backstop---and should definately be condemned by the hunting community so we don't all look like idiots and also b/c it the right thing to do.
just added second link
I see now that she is starting a petition to stop deer hunting in that county and of course don't agree with that, but I feel that this may have all been pre-empted if the "hunter" had been remorseful?
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Looney tunes deductive reasoning:
--Me smell Mohican burning
--Me last Mohican
--Must be me!!!
--EEEOOOWWW!!!!!
Burns and Dickinson traveled to Harrisburg and met with the game commission to discuss changing Pennsylvania's hunting laws. They want the state to limit the kinds of weapons hunters may use near populated areas so that high-powered rifles such as the one Wetzel used Nov. 30 can't be fired near homes and businesses.
So we'll have laws that say you cannot use rifles within 1 mile of any dwelling. That should make the anti's REALLY happy. And you'll have to ban ALL waterfowl and pheasant shooting - and dove too - because there are no backdrops to shooting arial targets. Squirrel hunting will need to end as well.
That IS what you're asking for, right ? The absolute, 100% way to end absolutely ANY chances at ANYONE being injured by rifle/gun fire. And you're willing to pay ANY price to achieve that, right ?
Six tenths of a mile is 1076 yards, a 7MM Mag. would drop about 400 inches in that distance or about 33 feet. While it is obvious that since the bullet did infact hit this woman he was at fault, I do have to wonder what factors we are not being told.
1076 yards is a long distance when you are standing flatfooted and looking down range.
As for his not "Showing any remorse" this was a trial to determine guilt or innocence in a State Court on state charges, I wonder if the threat of a pending civil action might not have had something to do with his lack of anything to say, sometimes you are better off just keeping your moth shut no matter if it does make you look like a callous heel.
I'm not defending him or his actions, just wondering what the whole story really is.
So we'll have laws that say you cannot use rifles within 1 mile of any dwelling. That should make the anti's REALLY happy. And you'll have to ban ALL waterfowl and pheasant shooting - and dove too - because there are no backdrops to shooting arial targets. Squirrel hunting will need to end as well.
Are you talking to me? All I was saying if someone was at fault for shooting someone else thru negligence(as was the case here), the shooter should, have the integrity to admit they were wrong and apologize and if the wrongfully injured wants to pursue damage claims against said shooter then more power to them. The article said she had $100,000+ in medical bills. It is unfortunate that she is now participating in an attempt to limit hunting in that area, but if someone is to blame, then I say it was the idiot shooter (who also violated--thru his own admission--other game laws as well) and those that support his defiance. Please don't make absurd comparisons to upland or small game hunting commonly done with a shotgun----perhaps that's one reason it is illegal to waterfowl hunt with a rifle, but I'm not going to get into the physics.
I just think that perhaps her attitude would have been different if his had. Incidents like this and the inevitability of urban sprawl are exactly and unfortunately what lead to weapons restrictions and view of hunters, by the general public, as irresponsible and dangerous[:@]
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Looney tunes deductive reasoning:
--Me smell Mohican burning
--Me last Mohican
--Must be me!!!
--EEEOOOWWW!!!!!
It is unfortunate that she is now participating in an attempt to limit hunting in that area,
Lets be perfectly rationale about this. The guy was a frickin' idiot. Not knowing his target and not seeing a backstop makes him a class A fool that should be strung up -- but he's not alone.
I was almost shot when I did hunt in the past. Perhaps more ire should be placed on the schit heads in the woods that don't have a clue as to what they're doing.
Limiting the hunting is a knee jerk reaction, but i've seen both sides of the fence. I actually know a guy that seat belts himself into his deer stand because he has fallen out in the past being too drunk.
POLICE YOUR OWN. Get rid of the idiots and people like this won't have a leg to stand on when trying to pass legislation that kills legitimate hunters.
Six tenths of a mile is 1076 yards, a 7MM Mag. would drop about 400 inches in that distance or about 33 feet. While it is obvious that since the bullet did infact hit this woman he was at fault, I do have to wonder what factors we are not being told.
1076 yards is a long distance when you are standing flatfooted and looking down range.
As for his not "Showing any remorse" this was a trial to determine guilt or innocence in a State Court on state charges, I wonder if the threat of a pending civil action might not have had something to do with his lack of anything to say, sometimes you are better off just keeping your moth shut no matter if it does make you look like a callous heel.
I'm not defending him or his actions, just wondering what the whole story really is.
I just know that I couldn't live with myself if something like this happened w/o reaching out to the person any and every way possible
__________________
Looney tunes deductive reasoning:
--Me smell Mohican burning
--Me last Mohican
--Must be me!!!
--EEEOOOWWW!!!!!
POLICE YOUR OWN. Get rid of the idiots and people like this won't have a leg to stand on when trying to pass legislation that kills legitimate hunters.
Amen
__________________
Looney tunes deductive reasoning:
--Me smell Mohican burning
--Me last Mohican
--Must be me!!!
--EEEOOOWWW!!!!!
Location: The place that Harry Henderson calls home....
Posts: 1,672
RE: Pregnant Woman Shot
I grew up in the Southern tier of NY. It was shotgun only hunting. Of course there were a few oldtimers, on large farms, who would occassionally use a rifle. Here in CT, any landowner with 10+ acres can authorize the use of a rifle. State lands, and those under 10 acres, are shotgun only.
Here in the Northeast, I'm personally bewildered that rifles are allowed. With today's modern shotgun & muzzleloader technologies, whereby hunters can successfully harvest whitetails out to 200 yards, rifles are slightly overkill. Yes, a cleaner and usually more accurate kill---but I would bet that 95% of whitetail kills in the Northeast---probably on the entire Atlantic coast, are under 100 yards. Most in NY and in New England are under 75 yards, the majority at 50 yards.
So the big question isn't "was this guy an idiot". The big question is, are we (the hunting community) setting ourselves up for such 'accidents' by allowing the use of large caliber rifle loads in strictly confined land spaces?
I mean really...does anyone in the Northeast really need a 30.06 for whitetail hunting, considering the amount of densely forested habitat?
I've only once been in a situation where I wanted a rifle, and then the shot would have been unsafe anyways (deer at the top of a 300 yard uphill pasture). I hunt various amounts of land, some private woodlots and a few farms. I hunted multiple 300acre farms in NY---and never needed a rifle to fill the tags. The Adirondacks are slightly different, in the Northern tier. Far fewer houses amongst the forest, and the deer substantially large---but still shotgun "harvestable".
I've been to PA, and often wondered why rifles were so prevalent. Was this person negligent---yes and no. From the description of the related articles, there were multiple fields and multiple trees separating his hunting position from the houses. His bullet actually richoted through an apple orchard. It was not as if he was looking at the woman sitting in her car. Again...would we be discussing this is he was using a 12 gauge slug---definitely not.
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"The first requisite of a good citizen in this republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his own weight." Theodore Roosevelt
Pregnant Woman Shot
