2008 Turkey Hunting Incident Reports Carry Safety Lessons

By Jim Low, Missouri Dept. of Conservation

First posted on 04-17-2009

Don’t make these mistakes.

Missouri’s 2008 spring turkey hunting season was one of the safest on record. The few incidents that did occur offer lessons that could make this year’s season even safer.

The Missouri Department of Conservation recorded three firearms-related spring turkey hunting incidents last year. None was fatal. The safest spring season since turkey hunting became widely popular was 2007, when the season ended with two nonfatal incidents.

The causes of last year’s incidents illustrate the most common errors that lead to firearms injuries during spring turkey hunting.

At 11:47 a.m. April 25, 2008, a 61-year-old hunter saw a turkey walking through the woods. He released the safety on his shotgun and stood up for a better shot. He stumbled on his shoelaces, and his shotgun discharged as he fell, striking his left wrist.

Releasing the safety prematurely and failure to maintain control of firearms both are major contributors to hunting incidents. Furthermore, a surprising number of hunting incidents involve self-inflicted gunshot wounds. Finally, age and experience are not as effective as you might think in preventing hunting incidents. If anything, younger hunters might be safer, because hunter education is required for most hunters born on or after Jan. 1, 1967.

At 8 a.m. April 21, 2008, a 21-year-old hunter heard a turkey yelping to his right and waited for the turkey to move closer. About 30 minutes later he heard something walking in the brush in the same direction as the yelps. When he saw something move in the brush and saw something red he fired, assuming it was a male turkey. He struck a woman who was hunting with her husband on the same public area.

Failure to properly identify the target is one of the most common causes of hunting incidents. Hunters should always wait to see the entire animal before pointing a firearm at a target. Shooting in heavy cover also makes it almost impossible to determine that the line of fire between and beyond the target is safe. The victims might have been spared their ordeal if they had been wearing hunter-orange vests and hats.

At 8:05 a.m. May 6, 2008, two hunting partners split up. One shot a turkey and returned to their vehicle and moved it closer to where the other man was hunting. Later he heard his friend calling and walked toward the caller, answering with simulated turkey gobbles. When the caller heard the sound of a gobbler and saw movement and a flash of white in the same direction, he fired, striking his friend in the left side of his head, neck and body.

The victim put himself in an extremely dangerous position by approaching a hunter and trying to sound like a gobbler. The shooter failed to identify his target. Both men should have agreed on and stuck to a plan that kept them safely apart. Again, a surprising number of turkey hunting incidents involve hunting partners who separate and either mistake one another for game or get caught in the line of fire.

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