I just had a personal wake-up call when it comes to bird hunting in a party. Things that are general safety items but often overlooked due to a wide variety of circumstances.

My brother-in-law lost his left eye, and almost all vision, in a quail hunting accident last weekend. A lot of things went bad, but two things stand out the most. 1) eye protection, 2) hunting party awareness.

His hunting buddy started off down a trail, and he soon followed, unbenounced to his partner. He also normally wears glasses, but had his contacts in this day. The partner jumped some quail, and one sped off to the left. The partner swung in that direction, not knowing my brother-in-laws position, and shot. A good percent of the shot hit him in the eyes and face. Vision will return to the right eye, but he lost the left one.

It is this kind of accident that reminds us all to go back to basics when it comes to hunting safety. Simple things like wearing shooting glasses and hunting partner position awareness can save your site, or even better, save your life.

I'm sorry about the injury but I hope we can all learn from it. For myself, I need to get safety glasses.

That's a sad story but a good lesson to everybody. Communication is very important when hunting any kind of upland bird that is jumped and unpredictable on where it will fly. I'm sorry to hear about that.