River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1902-01-30
HUNTING CASUALTIES.
Many Accidents Result from Care
Iessncss with Guns During
the Open Season.

In the first few days Of the open
season for deer shooting IL persons
were shot by accident in Maine, and
five of them died. Others may prove
to have been fatally hurt.
In about the same time the num-
Der of casualties in the Adirondack
forests of New York was not less
than %. It is thought that full re-
turns will show 25 or more men
killed or wounded by other Hunters
or by their own weapons.
The Minnesota record has started
least a dozen hunters have been shot,
some fatally, by other seekers for
deer and lesser game. Wisconsin and
Michigan have been keeping step
with the states which haEe furnished
pretty complete records of their
hunting casualties.
It seems quite probable, says the
Cleveland Leader, of recent date,
that the close of the season for deer
will find not less than 100 men killed
or badly wounded by bullets intend
ed for wild animals, in the woods Of
six or seven states. That may prove
an underestimate.
Meanwhile the amateur hunters of
Ohio have been doing pretty well in
demonstrating the perils of their
sport, though they use shotguns in
stead of rifles, and do most of their
shooting in comparatively open coun-
try instead of in the heavy timber of
the \ Drthern deer forests.
Among the long lists of accidents
which are published in the country
papers of this state are accounts of
the serious wounding of farmer
working in his field, by two men
whose dog started up a covey of quail
near him, and the fatal shooting of
a young woman by her own brother,
whose gun was accidentally dis
charged as he stumbled in running
to show her the game he was bring
ing home from the first hunt.
Another young man shot his
brother in the eye with charge in
tended for a rabbit. A rabbit hunter
who picked up his gun, with the
muzzle pointing toward him, was
shot in the breast and killed in
stantly. Near one town sports
man almost shot his own foot off,
and it may be amputated to save his
leg, while another man let his gun
slip while he was standing on log,
and was very seriously wounded in
the abdomen.
A father shot his son while they
were trying to kill rabbit. The boy
will recover. A lad of 10, who was
hit by charge Of shot from his
brother-in-law's gun, was less for
tunate, and died. In another locality
a hunter was fatally shot by his COM
rade. Rabbits were supposed to be
their quarry.
These are only scattered incidents.
Anything like a complete list of
hunting accidents, of a serious char
acter, in Ohio this season, will never
be made, in all probability. But it
is clear that scores of men and boys
will have been killed or badly wound
ed by other hunters or by their own
guns, before the last shooting of the,
fall ends.
The pursuit of wild creatures as
helpless as rabbits, quail, ducks and
cartridges by men armed with dead
" weapons of the latest type seems
altogether one-sided, bat the blum
dering of the hunters makes two
casualty lists, and both tend to
lengthen every year. More hunters
take the field each successive au-
tumn, and it appears certain that the
proportion of them who are unskilied
in woodcraft and in the use of fire.
arms in the open country tends to
increase with the great growth of
the city population.
An effective remedy, short of the
prohibition of hunting except by men
carefully examined and then licensed,
seems impossible to devise.