Bobgobble's awesome Idea...Safety First thread!!
 

It was suggested by Bobgobble that a safety First thread be started. Here is a thread that you can post those ever so important safety issues for first time hunters and also to remind some of the complacent older turk hunters.


ALWAYS IDENTIFY YOUR TARGET, NEVER SHOOT AT NOISE!!!!!!!

RE: Bobgobble's awesome Idea...Safety First thread!!
 

Never stalk a turkey.

RE: Bobgobble's awesome Idea...Safety First thread!!
 

Always identify if the turkey you'rethinking about shooting athas a beardbefore shooting.

RE: Bobgobble's awesome Idea...Safety First thread!!
 

always be aware if there are other people are on the property

RE: Bobgobble's awesome Idea...Safety First thread!!
 

Dont wear white, red, or light blue.

RE: Bobgobble's awesome Idea...Safety First thread!!
 

Understand what it means to be a defensive turkey hunter when it comes to safety....read here...;)
http://www.nwtf.org/tips_adventures/tips.php?id=11551

RE: Bobgobble's awesome Idea...Safety First thread!!
 

Never wave your hand's at an approaching hunter. VOICE TO HIM that you are there.

RE: Bobgobble's awesome Idea...Safety First thread!!
 

1. Know whats beyond that turkey. For the other turkeys sake and ESPECIALLY for other hunters sake.
2. If hunting on the ground sit by a tree wider than you are. It saved me from a few pellets before, plus they are generally more comfortable.
3. Try not to use jake decoys on public ground.
4. Load your gun after you get set up (rarely will you be able to get any shot at a running/flying turkey) so it's not worth the risk.
5. Might sound basic and simple but bring water if its hot. I went through a liter in one afternoon when it was hot.
6. I always have a cell phone for emergencies, but you might want to make sure it's off or silent.

RE: Bobgobble's awesome Idea...Safety First thread!!
 

Under no circumstance do not "run"through the woods with a loaded firearm.....another good idea is when your firearm is not in use,make a habit of leaving the chamber open just like on the trap range,that way your never left to question whether its loaded and ready to go off..;)..

RE: Bobgobble's awesome Idea...Safety First thread!!
 

Always let someone know where you will be. Us old guys sure appreciate that.

And don't leave your ethics in the truck!

4Basic rules of Hunter Safety.
1. Muzzle control at all times - know where your muzzle is even if you start to fall down!
2. Know your target and beyond. (identify clearly your target and then look beyond - take no horizon shots!)
3. Treat every weapon AS IF IT IS loaded! (Wehn unloading check it twice and do look at the magazine carefully - pick up a gun you have not checked - treat it as if loaded.)
4. Never place your finger on the trigger till you are ready to shoot. (Never ever walk with your finger on the trigger and Constantly check your safety - Is it on?)


last of all make this your motto

SAFE HUNTING IS NO ACCIDENT!

Think about it - if you are always safe YOU will have NO Accident. Once you pull that trigger there is nothing - absoultely nothing you can do to stop the chain fo reaction!

JW

RE: Bobgobble's awesome Idea...Safety First thread!!
 

GOOD POINT. IT'S AGAINST THE LAW IN SOME STATES.
I'VE DONE IT, BUT IT LEAVES A TINGLE UP YOUR SPINE WONDERING IF YOUR ALONE IN THE WOODS. I WOULD NEVER DO IT ON PUBLIC GROUND!

RE: Bobgobble's awesome Idea...Safety First thread!!
 

Nothin is more aggrivating and scary to me as a guide and hunter than when someone shows up at our hunting lodge with a gun they know nothing about.I cant tell you how many birds as well as other game I have watched get spooked as a result of someone not knowin there own personal firearm innot knowin how it operates.I have heard on to many occasions when it comes time to shoot"I cant get my safety off,"or it wont shoot"!!!I had an individual last year who decided to hunt with a friends gun and as it came time to shoot of which it didn't put the gun in her lap trying to figure it out to have it go off in the blind as she was messin with it!!Her gun was a case of being dirty and the gun wasn't completely engaging the shell in the chamber.Under pressure situations still learning how your gun operates can create hazardous situations as well as dirty guns too.Bottomline is know how they operate before you take to the field and then through the course of the season periodically check them for matenance and cleaning especially after fowl weather.Read here for some great firearm safety suggestions....
http://www.nwtf.org/tips_adventures/tips.php?id=11556

RE: Bobgobble's awesome Idea...Safety First thread!!
 

Imade a big gawdy sign that sign that says "full strut decoy in use" I put it on the path into the woods Im hunting if Im using my Pretty Boy .

RE: Bobgobble's awesome Idea...Safety First thread!!
 

Always place your decoys at least20 yards in front of you. Not closer...

RE: Bobgobble's awesome Idea...Safety First thread!!
 

When setting up, always try to pick a tree that is wider than your shoulders.

RE: Bobgobble's awesome Idea...Safety First thread!!
 

Don't tresspass onto other property after a bird. Get tired of people stopping on the roads around where I hunt listening for a gobble and then going up in the woods after it even though they have no permission to be on the property.

RE: Bobgobble's awesome Idea...Safety First thread!!
 

I really dont have much progress when I go turkey hunting its just where I go hunting that effects me.

RE: Bobgobble's awesome Idea...Safety First thread!!
 

Make sure you dont walk through the woods holding your jake decoy.

RE: Bobgobble's awesome Idea...Safety First thread!!
 

When mentoring someone young or old, have them right there be in their backpocket, let them have a safe and fun hunt!!

RE: Bobgobble's awesome Idea...Safety First thread!!
 

try not to leave toilet paper hanging out of your pants and bend over that could give a new meaning to pain in the butt

RE: Bobgobble's awesome Idea...Safety First thread!!
 

Read this excellent 1998 article out of Missouri: http://mdc.mo.gov/news/out/1998/041798.html#2

Understand what "premature closure" is and why NO ONE is immune to it. It must be guarded against every single timewe go out to hunt.

In the Missouri article: average age of shooter in a hunting accident = 42 years. average age of victim = 38 years.

Let us all be careful out there!

Oh and have fun! :)

RE: Bobgobble's awesome Idea...Safety First thread!!
 

Here's an excellent article explaining the science behind shooting accidents. I hope you find it useful!






Wardens: Don’t let your mind trick you into shooting another hunter
Research into the workings of the human mind helps explain why hunting “accidents” happen
EAU CLAIRE, Wis. -- It starts with a hunter’s desire to see the target of his or her efforts. Then, given enough encouragement – a sequence of positive indicators such as a likely location, a sound, a movement and a flash of color – the hunter’s brain will connect the dots and fill in the missing link.
Researchers at Harvard University call it “coming to closure,” said Timothy Lawhern, hunter education administrator for the Department of Natural Resources. “Imagination with a strong desire to see a turkey produces a momentary image that isn’t real. The human mind will paint a turkey where there is no turkey. This moment, while short, lasts long enough for some to pull the trigger.”
With the opening of the Wisconsinspring turkey hunting seasonApril 16, conservation wardens are well aware of this phenomenon. DNR statistics show 80 percent of accidents during turkey hunting involve hunters mistaking other hunters for game or hunters failing to positively identify their target. In most cases the hunter has shot a member of his own party.
Science can help explain these incidents, but it doesn’t offer forgiveness. A reason is no excuse when it comes to shooting another person.
Wardens say that in each of these cases, the wrongful shooting could have been prevented if the shooter had followed the four basic safety guidelines for handling a firearm:
[ul][*]Treat every firearm as if it is loaded.[*]Always point the muzzle in a safe direction.[*]Be sure of your target and what’s beyond it.[*]Keep your finger outside the trigger guard until ready to shoot.[/ul]
Additionally, Lawhern said, planning your turkey hunt is crucial when two or more hunters are jointly hunting in the same area and then agree to separate if birds are not spotted.
“Soon, one hunter can be stalking either the decoy or the call of the other,” Lawhern said. “The best way to avoid this situation is to have a clear understanding and agreement on the areas each hunter will hunt and then stick to that plan.”
In DNR’s 19-county west central region, Safety Warden Bill Yearman had a troubling season in 2007 with five incidents, one of them fatal. In the case of the fatality, the hunter was alone in a blind he’d built with sticks and branches at the base of a tree. His shotgun was beside him, loaded, safety off. When he decided to move, he grabbed the gun by its muzzle and as he pulled it toward him, it discharged.
Three of the incidents involved hunters shooting members of their own party. In one case, two hunters separated to stalk a flock. Later, one hunter saw his partner raising his shotgun and ducked down in the grass so as not to spook his partner’s target. The first hunter saw the movement, saw a shape in the grass and fired.
“He pops up and shoots where he thinks the bird’s head is going to be,” Yearman said. “He’s basically shooting at the unknown. It all comes back to identifying your target and what’s beyond. You can’t shoot at movement. You have to see that it’s a legal animal to shoot and you have to shoot at its head to make a killing shot. If you can’t see its head, you shouldn’t be shooting.”
The spring hunt is limited to toms (and bearded hens.) These males are identified by the long tuft of hair or “beard” extending from the front of the bird. Hunters who have mistaken other hunters for turkeys have not been able to state they saw the beard.
“If you don’t see a beard, you have no business pulling the trigger -- even if it is a turkey,” Lawhern said.
Turkey hunting in Wisconsin is statistically safe. On average, since spring turkey hunting began in 1983, there have been two firearm incidents per season. Often the injuries are not severe. Fatalities are rare. Four have been recorded in 24 years. Given that there are now more than 150,000 hunters in the field each spring, that’s a good record, but, say wardens, even one shooting incident is one to many.
DNR officials attribute this to hunter education efforts, youth hunting programs and Wisconsin’s unique system of dividing the spring hunt into six, 5-day periods and controlling the number of hunters in each zone to minimize conflicts.
Still, each incident is traumatic. Wildlife officials and wardens said they will not be satisfied with anything less than a 100 percent safety record. Visit DNR-Pro.org for more DNR relatedinformation and safety articles.

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hunting1979 - Hunt Safe, Hunt Successful

RE: Bobgobble's awesome Idea...Safety First thread!!
 

Check yourself for ticks

RE: Bobgobble's awesome Idea...Safety First thread!!
 

Bring a first aid kit. You never know when you might have tosplint your leg or dress a wound

RE: Bobgobble's awesome Idea...Safety First thread!!
 

Wounded in accidental shooting, hunter rejoins the fray
By Brent Frazee

COLLINS, Mo. --It was a landmark moment in Terry Vert's life, that spring day last year when she revisited the spot where she had lived a turkey hunter's worst nightmare.

Exactly a year earlier, the farm near Springfield was filled with chaos. And Vert was at the center of that scene.
She could see herself, badly injured after being shot by a 14-year-old boy who had fired at movement in the brush. And she could picture the Life Flight helicopter landing in the field, the ambulance that had pulled into a clearing, the emergency paramedics scurrying around.
She was lucky to be standing there a year later, and she knew it.
So much had changed in her life. And this return to the place where that journey had started was just one more step in the healing process.
"It was surreal, standing there on that ridge, looking down on the spot where everything happened and reflecting on the past year," said Vert, 47, of Springfield, Mo.
"The woods were so peaceful and beautiful that day, and the turkeys were gobbling. But just a year earlier, things were so different at that exact spot.
"I remember thinking about how grateful I was to be there. It really was a special moment for me."
May 8, 2005, Mother's Day, started with great hope and anticipation for Terry Vert.
A new turkey hunter, she had already taken one bird that spring. And in the closing days of Missouri's spring season, she was intent on getting her second.
So she got permission to hunt from a landowner not far from Springfield, scouted the property, spotted turkeys and woke up early the next morning intent on heading to the spot where she had seen them.
"The landowner told me that no one had hunted turkeys on his land in 10 years," Vert said, "so I thought I would have the place to myself."
But as she slipped through a patch of cedars on the way to her intended hunting spot, she learned otherwise. First, she heard a blast. Then, she felt her arm drop to her side and her gun drop.
"At first, I thought my gun had misfired," she said. "But I'm always real careful.
"I don't even chamber a shell until I set up. I didn't know what had happened."
Moments later, she realized she had been shot. A 14-year-old boy, accompanied by his uncle, had committed turkey hunting's cardinal mistake: He had fired at rustling in the brush instead of first identifying his target.
Vert felt a burning sensation in her arm, but didn't think she was hurt that bad at first. But she soon learned differently.
She had taken the full brunt of the shot from 32 yards away. She had multiple pellets in her, affecting major organs such as her heart and lungs.
"After a while, I started having trouble breathing," she said. "My lungs had been ruptured.
"But I stayed calm. The other hunters helped me, and I was able to call for help with my cell phone."
Vert's account of the accident was backed by reports from the Missouri Department of Conservation, which investigated the incident.
Vert was rushed by helicopter to a hospital in Springfield, where she was in surgery for several hours. Surgeons worked to repair major organs and found that both of her lungs had collapsed and three pellets were in her heart sac.
But Vert was a survivor. She went home in a week, feeling lucky to be alive.
"If the boy had been using a bigger shell, I don't think I would be here today," she said.
Some people would get as far away from turkey hunting as possible after going through what Vert did.
Not her.
She remembers lying in her hospital bed, jokingly asking a conservation investigator, "Can we extend the turkey season a few days so I can get out again?"
And she remembers the reply: "I don't think you're going to be in any shape to go hunting again for a while."
Vert looks back at that interchange and laughs. It tells a lot about her desire to go turkey hunting.
Brought up in California, she was never exposed to hunting as she grew up and didn't know much about it. But when she moved to Missouri and heard friends talk about how exciting turkey hunting was, she decided to tag along.
She started off with a camera, but by 2004 she was carrying a gun. When she took a nice-sized bird on her first hunt, she was hooked.
"The thought of not going hunting again was never an option," she said. "I just love it too much.
There's nothing better than sitting in the woods as the sun comes up and listening to the world come to life."
Vert didn't blame the sport - she still asserts that turkey hunting is safe. Department of Conservation records support that opinion.
Officials say there is an average of eight to 10 accidents involving two parties each spring season - a small percentage of the almost 150,000 hunters who go out in Missouri.
"Any accident is one too many," said Larry Yamnitz, field chief of law enforcement for the Department of Conservation. "But we feel we're making progress in reducing accident rates."
Vert isn't vindictive toward the boy who made a mistake and shot her.
"Some people were upset with me that I wasn't bitter about what happened," she said. "But that isn't my way.
"That boy didn't go out and say, `I'm going to shoot someone today.' He made a mistake, and he was devastated about what he had done.
"When he came to see me in the hospital, I told him: 'I hope this doesn't keep you from ever going hunting again. I know it's not going to stop me.' "
The Missouri Department of Conservation revoked the boy's hunting privileges for two years. Meanwhile, Vert struggled to put her life back together.
"I had dreams of the accident for eight months," she said. "I couldn't even go out in public for a while."
Vert found healing from an unlikely source.
Last spring, she jumped headlong into the sport some expected her to walk away from.
She went on a marathon turkey hunt in pursuit of the sport's holy grail, the prestigious Royal Slam.
That honor is for hunters who take each of five species of turkeys - the eastern, Rio Grande, Gould's, Merriam's and Osceola.
It takes some hunters years to complete that list. Vert put herself on a deadline. She wanted to be done by May 8, the anniversary of her accident.
She set out April 1 for Texas and took her Rio Grande turkey there. Then she flew to Florida and shot an Osceola bird. She went on to take a Gould's turkey in Mexico with a bow, a Merriam's bird in New Mexico and an eastern in Kansas.
Then on May 8, she returned to the land where she had been shot and took a deep breath.
"It really was a feeling of great accomplishment, having completed that Royal Slam," she said. "It became part of the healing for me."
Vert still carries reminders of that terrible day in the spring of 2005.
She still has pellets inside her, and that has caused problems with lead poisoning. Doctors have even issued dire warnings about the need for future surgeries if things don't get better.
But Vert hasn't let that dampen her enthusiasm for the Missouri turkey season, which will open Monday and continue through May 6.
When the season starts, she plans to be in the woods again.
"The turkey season can't come soon enough for me," she said Wednesday as she scouted land she intends to hunt. "It's just something that I love."

RE: Bobgobble's awesome Idea...Safety First thread!!
 

Be extremely cautious using a full strut decoy! It hink the makers of Pettry Boy, and B-Mobile don't express this enough! Never ever placea strutting decoy directlyfront of you!

If you are a right hand shooter placedecoys off toyour left - and in an area no one can sneak up behind you to take a pot shot. If a left hand shooter do the opposite. If you do see someone sneaking up on your decoys - do not move at all - but holler your fool head off!

JW

RE: Bobgobble's awesome Idea...Safety First thread!!
 

As you may be able to tell from my screen name I hunt turkeys & all other types of game w/bow & arrow only. I have been stalked by fellow turkey hunters several times. I use a double bull blindalong with several motion decoys, and always hunt public lands.
Ihave also be approched by others, watcha' dooin' "Oh" I'm sorry... Last season in Minnesota, last day of my hunt. 2 bird watchers got to within 50 yards of my Hazel Creek Hen before the wife says, Honey I think there is a guy over there. Two years ago same state, different place, two teen boys belly crawled thru a alfalfa field to my set up & bummped a Gobbler that was betwen me & them. We do it onGeese all the time...
Most of my set ups are now out in open fields. If I do set up on a wooded edge I use a orange saftey flag on top of my blind. I also stopped using motion decoys, Michigan has banned them.

I have found thebest place to hunt is a small WMA in Minnesota that isArchery only no guns allowed.
I have nothing against them, but it's like bow hunting during the gun deer season...

RE: Bobgobble's awesome Idea...Safety First thread!!
 

I got those cool signs that say Turkey Hunter Ahead on flourescent orange backings. Also, I hunt on dirt so I hide in my little hut thingy and hang my orange vest on it. I use that vest coming out of the woods with birds.

RE: Bobgobble's awesome Idea...Safety First thread!!
 

I wear a blaze orange hat and use the blaze flagging on my vest as I move through the woods,my decoys are carried in a blaze bag that I tie to the tree I am sitting at so anyone cmoing from behind can see the bag,
All the blaze comes off when I set up.

RE: Bobgobble's awesome Idea...Safety First thread!!
 

Be sure that your gun is not loaded or a shell is not in the chamber when walking to your blind.

Hold your gun tip up when walking as well so you won't have a chance on sticking your gun into mud and plugging the end of it up. That would be bad news.

RE: Bobgobble's awesome Idea...Safety First thread!!
 

In wisconsin hunters safety, they teach a rule that i think covers all the basics: TAB-K
1) T- Treat every firearm as if it were loaded.
2) A- Always point your muzzle in a safe direction.
3) B- Be sure of your target and what's beyond
4)K- Keep your finger outside the trigger gaurd until your ready to shoot.

snakes
 

when you are running and gunning and are going to set up under a tree, check for snakes, alot of turkey hunters get bit on arms and face because they drop down on one hand and knees and aren't looking at the ground.

I hunt public land exclusively. One of the things you see a lot is multiple hunters on one bird. The first thing ALL hunters should do is respect others that are hunting in an area. If someone is parked in an area, don't park next to them if you don't know where they are. And don't try to figure out how you can get to the same area by coming in from a different direction.

If you are setup on a bird and you hear another hunter calling or coming to the bird you are on, give three distinct yelps to let them know you are there. It happened to me last year where another hunter was coming in off a ridge blowing a crow call getting the bird I was watching to gobble. I gave him three loud yelps (had to do it 3 different times) before getting his attention. The gobbler was only about 100 yards from me and was in sight. It never spooked the birds but it let the hunter know I was there.

The first part is common sense - Don't leave your ethics in the truck.

However!

Sorry - calling to another hunter with 3 loud yelps is not a safe way to hunt. You may run into the new hunter who thonks he might be on a hot turkey anyway you look at it!

JW

Don't get lazy and or complacent,
Many accidents happen when veteran hunters start taking short cuts,
Or don't pay attention to the basics because starts to be routine.
Treestands come to mind where hunters who climbed a stand a thousand times,
Maybe forgot their harness in the truck and don't feel like going back,
And happens to be the day they missed a step.

Hiking rough terrain, one foot in front of the other,
Stop paying attention to your step, is when your twisting that ankle.

So what do you do? I've got a guy coming off a ridge at more than 250 yards away. I first gave him three blows from my crow call. When he kept making his way forward I gave him three yelps...not like I was calling a turkey kind of yelps ...YELP ......YELP .....YELP ....loud and spaced out. There was NO way to confuse what I was doing with an actual bird.

So what do you do? I have a bird (birds, actually) that I am looking at that is moving my way and is just at 100 yards away. I have another hunter that is much further out that is making his way toward me.

I'm not going to stand up and yell or say something unless I first try to get his attention by making it obvious that another hunter is there.

Now if there is a guy that is much closer, yeah, I let him know I'm there. But until he closes that gap to an unsafe distance, I am going to try and let him know I'm there before I spook my bird. I'm open to suggestions.

As I said, I hunt public land EXCLUSIVELY. I have had run-ins more than once. Only twice have I had someone actually try to get setup on a bird I'm working and both times they got the same treatment....Three LOUD, well spaced yelps. Both times have worked.

I would like to hear what others think.

Good topic to post on the main turkey forum. But how about the hunter who does not stop and does not call back but continues to come in and you can't see them?

Stalking a bird is NOt illegal in most states.

JW

That's where common sense enters the picture. Like has been said here already, pick a good tree, be aware of your surroundings, and don't be stupid.

My advice is more of how to keep safe while not ruining your hunt.

If it gets to a point where another hunter has gotten to an unsafe range I would give them a whistle first. If they continue I just tell them I'm there. No sudden movements or yelling. Just a simple "Hey".

make 100% sure you identify your target and whats beyond it. once that trigger is pulled there is no way to reverse it. and that can have devastateing consequinzes

very well said it can never be stressed enough once you pull that trigger you cant take that bullet back whether you like it or not anything on the opisite end of that barrel is going to die..