A friend of mine got shot yesterday

[Taverner]

He's OK - his family rents their land out for hunting. This is rural MO. Anyway, one of the hunters shot my friend, thinking he was "game" DESPITE THE FACT EVERYONE WEARS DAYGLO VESTS WHEN THE HUNTERS ARE THERE....grrrr

Got shot in the leg, which broke his femur, among other things.

He said it didn't hurt until he looked at the wound.

No more hunting on their property now.

Have any of you ever been shot?

[datasuspect]

1. yes

i was running to get bubba and all of a sudden it felt like something jumped right up and bit me in the buttocks

[HappyMe]

2. Nope.

[JHB]

3. Any charges against the hunter? "Reckless endagerment" at least?

I seem to recall "don't pull the trigger unless you have identified the target and know exactly what you are shooting at" as one of the rock-bottom basics of firearms safety when hunting.

[Taverner]

6. Rather than tracking down the hunter (who did not identify him/herself)

He got a ride to the hospital

Hunters can be dumber than a box of rocks

Once, hunters asked him if they could ride ATVs all over his family's land while they hunted.

[MattBaggins]

36. ATVs and cameras all over the place

and yes some of these "hunters" think they should be able to have remote guns they can fire via the cameras. Yes they think this deserves the title of hunting.

[PETRUS]

4. In the back with a .177 pellet from an air gun. I was wearing a thick coat.

So that probably doesn't count.

[bluedigger]

5. That's on my list of things not to do.

I hope your friend has a good recovery.

[Eleanors38]

7. Nope. Hunting has become safer over the years.

[Taverner]

9. Really? Even despite the numbers?

Simply because there are more people - hence, more people hunting, hence more guns going off...

[HappyMe]

18. There might be less places to hunt.

Rural areas sometimes get swallowed up by mall-land subdivisions.

[bluedigger]

20. I think hunter numbers are down, actually.

Or maybe coming back up after a long decline. The problem is more with the rest of the population, and development encroaching on traditional hunting lands. As your friend discovered to their misfortune. Does your state require hunter safety courses to get a licence? They do here in CO.

[Crepuscular]

45. With the advent of hunter orange laws and hunter dafety classes

hunting accidents have decreased substantially. I'm from Michigan, 50 years ago, it was typical for there to be 40 -50 gunshot fatalities during firearms deer season, now maybe 1 - 2 per year. Bird and small game hunting tends to result in more accidents, due to shots being taken at moving game but accidents are still much, much lower than in years past. Not much legally open to hunt with a rifle this time of year other than coyotes and groundhogs.

Hope your friend recovers.

[niyad]

8. no, but two people were shot and killed in my community last night (including the CO -DOC

head), and, as a friend told me earlier, he knew the man who was discovered dead in a motel room a week or so ago, also here in my community.

[Earth_First]

10. What type of hunting were they engaged in at the time?

Were they rabbit or pheasant hunting?
Nuisance permit hunting?
Were they "pushing" the area?

Hope your friend has a quick recovery...

[Taverner]

11. Not sure - what does one hunt in Missouri this time of year?

I am assuming something that doesn't hibernate...

[Earth_First]

12. Yeah, I'm not sure...I don't hunt so I don't know the particulars of 'in season' game...

I do know enough, however to know that there are certain types of activities that hunters sometimes utilize that are less-than-safe practices.

My father was shot at by a friend in his hunting group when they were flushing a hedgerow way back when.

My father doesn't hunt any longer due to medical condition; however he would actively participate in these types of hunts while acknowledging it's unsafe principles...

No idea why.

[Taverner]

15. Hunting never appealed to me

No desire to kill another animal (and I'm a carnivorous hypocrite) and no desire to wake up really early, go to the woods and just sit....

Fishing - at least I don't mind the death of the fish. Kind of hard to feel sorry for a trout.

Boars and deer, however...

[sharp_stick]

14. Turkeys maybe

probably indicating that your friend was hit with a relatively light round.

If it was anything bigger he would have probably lost the leg. Hopefully they find the dumb as a brick idiot that did it.

[HereSince1628]

23. For rifles? maybe coyotes in season, I think feral pigs have an open season in MO.

[cherokeeprogressive]

25. Coyote is all I can find.

http://mdc.mo.gov/seasons

[MattBaggins]

37. Spring Turkey? Not from MO but it seems a bit early for them even in the south.

[RebelOne]

32. None. I checked DNR website hunting regulations and dates. n/t

[madokie]

13. Many of us vets have

And no it didn't hurt at first, that came later

[Taverner]

16. Wow...so is it the sight of the wound that causes the feelings of pain

Or does it eventually hurt?

[premium]

28. When I got shot, I didn't even really know I had been wounded

until after the firefight and my buddy noticed that I was bleeding, that's when the pain hit me.

[madokie]

43. Oh it eventually hurts once the shock wears off

but not immediately
the body has some strange ways of dealing with injuries such as this.

[DollarBillHines]

51. Not in my case

fractured femur, hard to walk.

I knew it, right away...

[Maine-ah]

17. with a BB gun...

and the barrel directly on my ass. Glad I had a pair of jeans on, they literally saved my ass.

[madokie]

44. If the barrel was against the body the air ahead of the bb slowed it down so it doesn't hit with the

same velocity as it would if the muzzle was a short distance away.

[Maine-ah]

52. that's a good thing!

Glad my friend was such an idiot - lol

[whistler162]

58. So was I and after my Mom and Santa both told

me I would shoot my eye out when I begged them for one. Then there was the incident with my younger brother and the frozen flag pole.

[Generation_Why]

19. Fortunately, no. It is one of my greatest fears. nt

[enough]

21. We have hunters who hunt our land, but we know exactly who they are

and who's out there at any given time. They also know each other and coordinate. I wouldn't like the idea of having someone out there without knowing who they are. Never had any problem, though there are always plenty of stupid hunter stories every season. The more populated the area becomes, the stupider they seem to get.

The venison is great.

[HereSince1628]

30. I do too, but I won't let people use anything but shotguns.

Last edited Wed Mar 20, 2013, 04:19 PM - Edit history (1)

which means slugs for deer.

They also have to agree to firing lanes that are away from mine and neighboring homesteads. That after being in the barn mucking out the sheep pens and seeing a neighbor shoot at a running deer, that made me standing in aisle part of his backdrop.

[enough]

48. Shotguns and bow. (nt)

[premium]

22. Yes.

But that was during wartime.
Shot in the left shoulder by an AK-47 round, didn't even hurt until the firefight was over.
Luckily it was a T&T, missed the bone, no real damage done.

[pinboy3niner]

29. Same here

AK fire, left shoulder and face. Pain was delayed, but there were two other immediate reactions. I'd been in a crouch, so muscle reaction sprang me into the air; and my brain went into hyperdrive, so my body seemed to be turning slowly in the air for a long time as I saw everything around me happening in slow-motion.

When I came down I reached to my shoulder and my entire fist went inside the hole there, so that was the first indication of what had happened. Plus I was struggling to breathe, choking on blood and pieces of teeth and bone. My main concern was fighting to stay conscious, because I knew that if I didn't, I'd stop breathing and die.

[premium]

31. You took a pretty good hit.

Even after all these years, do you still feel any pain?
On a cold day, my left shoulder will stiffen up and trying to raise my arm above my head will hurt like hell.

[pinboy3niner]

33. Minor stuff, more the jaw than the shoulder

Cold weather makes my jaw stiffen up, making it harder to talk. And because of damage to salivary glands, when I first start to eat I get a shot of pain as the remaining glands compensate. But some pains that I had for years eventually went away.

I sometimes have a misplaced sensation where an itch on one part of my face can only be relieved by scratching a different place. That one kinda makes me chuckle.

[premium]

34. Glad you're able to cope and compensate.

Same war, 67-68.

[pinboy3niner]

35. You, too

2/501 Inf., 101st Abn. Div., 1969-70.

[Taverner]

40. Jeez...that's the stuff of nightmares...

How did you deal with the pain?

[pinboy3niner]

54. The body and the brain react to injury in their own ways

Upon injury, some feel the pain immediately, while in other cases it may be delayed. That probably has more to do with body-brain reactions than with our volition.

Was I able to somehow suppress or numb the pain? Not consciously, but my necessary concentration on forcing myself to breathe, and to stay conscious in order to stay alive, occupied almost all of my attention and may have helped a little.

Yet I was aware of what was happening around me. My medic running up and yelling, "Oh my God, he's hit bad." Waiting for a long time for the medevac chopper to return after they came in and extracted our other casualties.

Even the humor of the situation, though it may just be apparent to me now. Struggling to breathe and waiting for the medevac, but when it finally came and winched me up in a basket, breathing was even MORE of a challenge under the propwash. After the slow ascent to the chopper, expecting the impact of more bullets all the way, finally being hauled onto the chopper's floor--and discovering that the blow-by of the air in the doorless medevac STILL made breathing more of a struggle!

Finally being rolled on a gurney into the evac hospital, where the crowd of doctors and nurses around me asked me to open the bandage I was holding to my jaw. And when I did, all of them going, "UGH!" and one of them telling me to put it back. And me slapping the dressing back, thinking, "THESE are the medical professionals who are supposed to be reassuring me?"

The ORs were full with the casualties we'd sent back, so they told me I'd have to wait and I gave them a thumbs-up. They rolled my gurney off to the side, against the wall. Their mistake was that they left me facing that blank, white wall. If they'd left me facing the other way, I'd have had the action in the room to focus on.

It was only the conscientiousness of a nurse who came back to check on me that saved my life. She discovered that I'd stopped breathing, so an emergency tracheostomy was performed on the spot. That's the only reason I'm still here...that nurse.

[Taverner]

55. OMG I am so sorry

Nobody, I repeat NOBODY should be asked that from their (or anyone else's) government.

[nomorenomore08]

50. Oh my God. That is fucking insane.

And I know anything I say can probably only serve to trivialize it, but just, wow...

[pinboy3niner]

53. Yeah, war is fucking insane

Traumatic combat wounds like mine and much worse are the rule, not the exception. My entire Army hospital floor in the States was devoted to amputees and facial casualties.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

24. Yes, with a CO2 powered bib at long distance.

Fekking kid sniped me from the window of his parents house when I was 15.

It hurt like hell, but I'm sure not like anything your friend is going through.

Hunters do dumb shit like this all the time.


I have an uncle in Maine that goes out with a dayglo vest and boombox whenever he is in the yard doing chores.

[rurallib]

26. I have a question - who pays the bill?

Really curious if you know.
I think the final insult in a shooting is often a victim must pay the hospital bill.

and to answer your question - shit at 5 times - not hit yet.

[Ganja Ninja]

27. I use to hunt a lot as a kid but I was always mindful ...

of where my shot was going. I would always be careful to make sure my shot was not level or pointed in the direction of someone's house.

[Taverner]

39. The few times I have shot a gun, I was scared to death of it ricocheting...

[Hayabusa]

38. Glad he's okay.

Never been shot before, thank God. Hope I never do.

[Daninmo]

41. sorry for your friend

I hope he reported this to police and the game warden. I don't know what they could have been legally hunting now. Perhaps coyote or feral pigs.

though I suppose all gunshot wounds treated by doctors have to be reported.

[Mnemosyne]

42. Step-father shot squirrel hunting with idiots. nt

[me b zola]

46. I've been shot at

~while rescuing my neighbor who was about to be killed by her husband. We all survived.

[NickB79]

47. My cousin's fiance took a 12-ga. blast to the head

He stood up in the duck boat to shoot at an incoming flock, and the trigger caught on a boat hook they'd attached the duck blind to. The gun discharged into his armpit, and the shot column came through his shoulder and took off the side of his face and head. Steel BB's penetrated through his skull into the brain. My uncle and his brother didn't see it happen and looked over after the ducks were gone and noticed he wasn't moving. They yelled to him if he was OK, at which point he turned to look at them and tried to stand, they saw the damage, and he collapsed.

He was airlifted to the hospital but they pulled the plug 4 days later, he was declared braindead.

[Taverner]

49. That's terrible - I'm so sorry

[marions ghost]

56. My grandfather died from a hunting accident

but I didn't see it. My mom was very young & she never has really gotten over it. She was so attached to him. He was 33.

I have been in gunfire a couple times (once in DC) --both time I had to duck into hotel lobbies. Had a gun pulled on me twice. My sis in law held up at gunpoint in FL. One time a neighborhood kid almost hit my SO with some kind of rifle, I'm not sure. My neighbor suicided with a handgun. And then all the other killings and accidents you hear of around you...

America is way too casual about guns.

[SoCalDem]

57. I had a 9mm pointed at my forehead..but was not shot..just robbed

but picked him out of the lineup and he did 7-12 years

[LWolf]

59. No, but my dog was.

Back in the 80s. He was a springer, a flushing dog, and the ex took him pheasant hunting.

He found out that there were other hunters in the area when the dog flushed some birds, and shots were fired from a different direction. He took some bird shot to his scrotum.

It was his last hunting trip. I got custody of the kids and dog when the marriage ended.

I live rurally, right next door to miles and miles of public land. I ride my horse out until deer season begins. It doesn't matter how much dayglo the horse and I are wearing, when we can hear guns going off from different directions, we don't ride out. Even with the dayglo, it's hard to see through the growth of trees and brush.

I have to say, though, that when hunters actually have seen us, they stop, wave, smile, and wait for us to get out of the way. At least they did when I was still riding out. It didn't take more than a couple of rides to convince me to stay home during hunting season.

[treestar]

60. Has he apologized to the shooter yet?

Harry Whittington will tell him how.