I just wanted to share this with the forum, in hopes it may save you all some grief...
Yesterday it finally happened. I was in a hunting party that had an "accident." Fortunately no serious injuries, the Good Lord was watching over us all. This is not a rant or a sermon, just a reminder that what we do IS inherently dangerous, and constant vigilance is a never ending necessity.
Long story short, on a pheasant hunt someone got peppered. The shooter is an extremely experienced hunter, well over 30 years and known to me for almost that long. I have hunted with him, shot skeet and clays with him for years and he has ALWAYS demonstrated exceptionally safe gun handling. I wouldn't be hunting and shooting with him if he didn't. Anyhow, myself and one of the others (total of four in our party) started to move in the direction the dog was telling us she wanted to go, when a bird flushed over by the dog and the other two. Somehow the shooter lost his sense of where we were, swung on the bird, and the guy closer to me got peppered. Distance was about 50-60 yards (fortunately!) The shot didn't even penetrate his clothing, but we didn't know that until he stripped out of his vest and shirts(about 3 layers.) He said the impact HURT though, and we weren't sure about the penetration until we checked. His arm had several little red welts on it. Upon closer examination I saw his outer shirt had actually stopped the shot, the pellets were clearly visible on the outer fabric.
Needless to say the shooter felt like absolute dirt. I understand. I could only imagine. I have had NDs on the range (only two in my lifetime) and I felt like garbage when that happened, but mine only put a hole in a shooting bench and a safety wall respectively, never endangered a person. I don't want to even THINK about what potentially hurting a person would feel like.
In case you were wondering, we all were wearing copious amounts of blaze orange
I guess my point is, it can happen. And it often happens to VERY experienced shooters/hunters, not beginners and neophytes as you might expect. I think sometime we get overconfident because we are so experienced, and then in a split second something can happen.
Again, no serious injury, just a few welts. Thank God he was wearing protective eyewear (although there was no indication of the glasses being hit.) Even his demeanor and humor held, he did more than anyone to console the devastated shooter, and convince him that things can happen, learn from it, and get back on the horse.
Thank you God for looking out for our group, and thank you for our personal Christmas miracle.