X3

My take on all of this FWIW. I read about these "accidents" every year. "mistaken for game" is how the reports read. I truly believe that in the majority of cases, these things happen to good people who think they are safe hunters doing the right thing, but get caught up in the moment and lose their mental focus. Anyone who has taken a Psychology 101 course should be familiar with "premature closure". If you are a hunter, you should become familiar with what this term means. Basically EVERY ONE of our brains is wired to fill in information gaps as the need arises. So someone sees movement or a part of something that looks like a game animal and the brain fills in the rest. That makes the hunter truly believe he/she is seeing the game animal in question. ANYONE can be a victim of this.

So how do you guard against this? Know that it exists and when you think you see your target, look again, look harder, don't see individual parts, see the WHOLE target. Don't shoot into thick brush. Look, look and look some more before you take the shot. Might the hesitation to be sure of your target makeyou lose your shot opportunity? Sometimes, it might happen. No game animal is worth the risk if your brain makes a mistake.

Like fingerz42 said. Discussion like this is always good. It makes us all look inward to see what could happen and makes us all safer hunters. Too bad a young man had to lose his life to bring this about. My prayers are with the family. I can't even imagine what they must be going through.

Good luck to all out there and be safe!