The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1911-11-15
MlsrAkINe AuNrgRs EoR ogER
Accidents in the Woods Mostly Due to
Carelessness

son open than reports begin to come
in that this or that man has been shot
by mistake for a deer" or bear, OF
other game, or by accident The
truth about how these accidents oc-
cur is seldom told. The tendency of
the men who do the shooting and OF
the friends of the victim is to cover
up as many of the details as posi-
BILE, but Adirondack woodsmen and
thoughtfully obseryant sportsmen
know the truth
The reasons for these maimings and
killings are found in sundry classes
more or less interrelated as for in
stance:
Accidental discharge of guns when
their muzzles are pointed toward com
panions.
Shooting at objects not seen clear
ly
Stray bullets that fly far.
Didn't know 1t was loaded"
Intoxicated, and stumbled.
Explosion of firearms.
Inexperience in using weapons and
in hunting.
CHANGING bullets.
Rarely, indeed, is there any suffic-
lent excuse for the manning OF man
( by his own weapon or by the weapons
of others The accidents that human
foresight could not prevent are few.
! There is no excuse, for instance, for
accidentally discharging weapon
that is pointed at another for the first
| thing a hunter of ability and intelli-
| gence teaches his son in the field is
| that under no circumstances should a
weapon be pointed at another person.
Last fall Trume Haskell, noted
guide on the West Canada creek In
the Adirondacks, was carrying dead
deer along a trail above his camp. Be
/ hind him came one of the sports. y
This sport had his gun held by the
muzZle, pointing ahead. As Haskell
stopped to drop the deer on the
/ ground to rest, the sport tossed his
gun off his shoulder II struck log,
the cooked hammer was loosed, the
| bullet tore through a siXinch hard
wood tree, hit Haskell in the back,
ranged up and lodged in his shoulder.
The name of the sport was withheld
In September. 1907, Jesse Meyer of
Chases lake started TO crawl under a
| log His gun seems TO have been
cooked as he carried it. and the trig-
ger caught in a twig. The man died
almost instantly.
These are typical instances of the
result of carrying a gun cooked when
one is hunting. The practice is due
to the fear that there will not be time
enough to cock the gun after the
game is sighted TO get in shot. The
fact is, the only hunting in which
carrying a gun cooked is justified-if
it is ever justifed--is in bird shooting
in thick brush If one would rather
jeopardze his own and his compan-
ions lives than lose a "whack" at a
bird, well and good. In all Adiron-
dack hunting carrying gun cooked
puts in jeopardy every one in range,
| including the bearer. Any one who
knows how to hunt can cock his rifle
as he throws II TO his shoulder on
sighting big game
The accidents that happen to the
men who do not know how to handle
their weapons are without number
apparently. One would suppose that
there would be no need OF carrying a
| gun loaded till the hunting grounds
are reached. but the custom is "a
load guns at camp and then go jam.
ming and stumbling through the
woods, in wagons, in boats, or on foot
In the case OF Frank Bushaw of Buck
lin, ~ Y. a companion stumbled as
they crossed brook in St Lawrence
county He fell, and his shotgun
threw a charge of buckshot into Bus
haws hip. Bushaw bled TO death be
fore they could carry him to camp
OF cooked gun accidents some cas-
lily recalled are: John Burgess, jam
med rifle butt into snow while he fix
ed his snowshoe strap, and when h,
took the gun up by the muzzle wen
OF and killed him. This was neal
Indian Lake. Hamilton county, n. Y
Henry o. Comstock, hunting muskratl
near Camden, ~ Y, pulled the muz
zle OF his gun toward him in boat
and was killed instantly. Variss,
Narean Oi Upper Lake, was shot II
the back by 800 rifle protectile. dis
charged when the trigger caught
bush. Thomas Clifford. listening {,
his brother Roy's account of how h,
would shoot a deer looked into IN,
muzzle OF the shotgun aimed at him
and died a few minutes later. for Ro,
forgot II was cooked
The deaths and INJURIES due directl,
and clearly to the hunters blood lus
and greed are as numerous as thos
due TO folly and ignorance. There /
only one reason why men shoot a
men without knowledge OF what the
are shooting at-they are afraid
they do not shoot at the movin
brush they will not get deer or beal
Two OF these accidents reporte
this year from the Adirondaoks are a
follows: On October 6, Fred ALE
1 was following a deer runway in IN
Forestport country. He had killed
deer, and was coming out to get hel
to carry II. AS he climbed throug
birch top branches lying on IN
ground, l6 year old James Dean of A
der Creek brought him down dea
! with bullet in the neck. Allen ha
ON red sweater and red ribbone
hat. GOV. Dix has just gone into IN
woods relying on red clothing to pr,
teot him from such accidents.
Ernest Salisbury, hunting near IN
Browns Tract Lumber company choI
, ping, in the Fulton Chain county. wa
shot from the brush on October
some say by an unknown person. II
was mistaken for deer and the bu
: let cut through his right side. II
managed to make his way to the cam
for the shooter hid himself when n