Thread: Why do hunters continue to be accidentally shot?

People love a simple explanation or excuse. Something easy to comprehend. Taking a look through these threads from today and damn it's scary to see the amount of people who have an attitude that only idiots do this sort of thing. It could be any one of us here that makes this mistake.

My most powerful and frightening experience was a few years ago when a friend and I flew into a tussock basin I had seen a lot of deer in when shooting out of a machine months before. We were sidling along the open tops glassing down into these guts when a deer ran out of a gut about 300m in front and below us. It ran along the tussock for about 10 seconds then sat down, turned side ways and suddenly it became a hare only 60m away. I hadn't raised my rifle but I was absolutely gobsmacked. Clear, open tussock and I had shot plenty of deer by that stage in my life. My eyes didn't get a good perception of depth in that split second and my brain had literally made a decision to fill in the blanks and complete an idea I already had, I was going to see a deer in here.

Am I an idiot? Was I a once a year hunter? Every single one of us needs to recognise this can happen to us. It is not a simple fix.