Hunting Accident? More Likely Careless Hunter

A deer hunter walking out of the woods was mistaken by another as a deer and shot in the back.

The man was shot with a rifle by another hunter who mistook him for a deer, said Officer Fred Gorchess of the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.

The victim was walking out of the woods near Watha about 5:30 p.m. Friday when he was shot, Gorchess said.

A 23-year-old man was charged with negligent hunting resulting in bodily injury, a misdemeanor, in connection with the shooting, Gorchess said.

Wilmington Star

The hunter that was shot is hospitalized in Wilmington recovering. There is little other details that have been made public to help explain how this could of happened. Hunters in North Carolina are required to wear unknown if either had it on. The end of legal shooting light was at 5:32 pm the article states the accident happened around 5:30pm.

Bottom line is the shooter failed a number of safety rules including the most important one to identify your target. In most cases like this one I don’t feel that the victim shares any of the blame because the shooter is 100% responsible for the identification of the target and the release of the bullet.
Don’t get me wrong there are things we can do to reduce the risk of getting shot including wearing hunter orange hat or vest. Use artificial light when exiting the woods. I wear a light clipped on my hat so as I walk out there is little doubt what I am even though I have the utmost trust in the safety of the individuals I hunt with.

Hunter safety is all our responsibility so be safe.

Post by Dan McLaughlin AKA Moose

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone has a great day we all have a lot to be Thankful for.
-Moose-

180 Class Deer Taken In Yadkin County

What a hoss of a buck and I’m afraid I have none of the details. These images were posted up on NC Hunt & Fish and I’m pretty sure this is an actual NC Deer and not an internet rumor. One of the regular posters over there has posted his own game camera shots of this buck and it was taken within a 1/2 a mile of where he hunts. I hope this deer shows up at the Dixie Deer Classic this year and I’m sure we’ll hear more about it and who the lucky hunter is.

Seems like we are seeing more and more big bucks in North Carolina these days and I attributed it to the two buck limit as well as more and more hunters willing to let small bucks walk.

Post by Dan McLaughlin AKA Moose

Drought Conditions Impact Waterfowl Hunts On Caswell Game Lands

While most of the state has returned to more normal water levels the R. Wayne Bailey-Caswell County Game Land still has drought conditions impacting the waterfowl impoundment. Hunters who have been drawn for permit hunts are urged to contact the Caswell game land depot at (336) 694-9272 prior to going on their hunt. NCWRC states that the permit hunts have not been canceled for Caswell but the conditions are less then ideal.

Post & Photo by Dan McLaughlin AKA Moose

Gabriel From Outdoor Smorgasbord Connects on a Buck

Congratulations to Gabriel From Outdoor Smorgasbord for taking a nice Alamance County Buck. Check out the story and additional photos he has posted.

Muzzleloader Week The Good The Bad & The Ugly

Well as I promised I’d tell you all about my muzzleloader hunt. I had planned to take the entire week off and just hunt but my best-laid plans did not work out. I had work as well as other commitments that forced me to return home for part of the time. I know weather wise I missed some of the best hunting time that week but what are you going to do? I saw deer mostly a couple of little bucks that kept me entertained the whole time because they were pretty unpredictable when and where they would show up. One in particular was pretty oblivious to most things around him and was living on the edge with the risks he seemed to be taking. Check out my post about Educating a Young Buck.
The Bad
My intention was to get some meat for the freezer so I was hoping some does would show up and give me the opportunity to drop one or two of them. I saw some does but for the most part they stayed outside the reach of my muzzleloader. It was fairly warm and the end of the week rain and high winds set in making the hunting difficult.

The season ended on Friday and I had not even burned any powder but Saturday the rifle season opened and all these does I’d been seeing at 150+ yards would now be reachable with my rifle.
The Ugly
I guess the final kicker on the season was during lunch on Saturday I decided I’d better shoot my muzzleloader so I could clean it at home and put it away. I had two caps go off with out setting the charge and on the third time it was a hang fire but it did go off. I had tried hard to keep my powder dry despite the wet conditions and really thought I had but obviously not. I guess I’m glad Mr. Big Buck didn’t step out on Friday cause I’d of been mad if my gun had malfunctioned.
The Good
Although I was disappointed I didn’t get to shoot a deer that week I did enjoy a number of sunrises and sets along with a bunch of other things. The turkeys were spectacular and fun to watch. They are all flocked up for the winter and it is deafening the noise they make coming through the woods.

No deer with the muzzleloader lets hope the rifle season I have a bit of success.

Post & Photos by Dan McLaughlin AKA Moose

Report Finds Lack of Oversight and Supervision by National Park Service in Biologists Death

Last year Eric York a biologist for the National Park Service died from the plague after doing a necropsy on a mountain lion that died from the same disease inside of Grand Canyon National Park. A year latter a report has been completed on his death;

National Park Service investigators found unsafe work practices, violations of federal labor regulations and park policy failure in the death of wildlife biologist Eric York, 37, who was found dead Nov. 2, 2007.

Their report recommended additional supervisor oversight and further safety requirements for handling dead animals.

York — who was not wearing gloves when he conducted a post-mortem examination of the cougar — died alone on a couch in his house on the canyon’s South Rim sometime between Oct. 31 and Nov. 2 from an advanced stage of pneumonic plague, The (Flagstaff) Arizona Daily Sun reported.

UPI
The National Park Service over the past few years has really been stretched and one has to wonder if the strains on the system has put workers at risk. A very tragic situation and even harder to think that this may have been prevented had the NPS management been giving employee’s appropriate supervision.

Tennessee To Hold First Elk Hunt In 2009

Tennessee will join the states that have an annual elk hunt next fall. A number of states have been experimenting with the reintroduction of elk including Tennessee and it’s great to see the elk are taking off. While the odds of being drawn will be astronomical with only 4 tags being available it is a step in the right direction. A fifth tag will be auctioned off with the proceeds being used to support elk restoration. Hopefully at some point North Carolina’s herd will reach a huntable level.

TN Elk Program

Post & Photo by Dan McLaughlin AKA Moose

Feral Hogs In North Carolina

Get a group of hunters together these days and someone is bound to ask about hog hunting. Feral hogs continue to expand their territory across the state but they are not so wide spread that many of the hunters encounter them much. Feral hogs are domestic hogs that have gotten lose and have reverted back to their wild side. Hunters for the most part love the opportunity to have another specie to hunt but most landowners and farmers hate them because of the damage they do do the land and crops.

Feral hogs I believe will be viewed as a curse if and when they establish themselves like they have in places like Texas. I can wait to have this hunting opportunity available to me. I know that Caswell County has been having an issue with them and the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission has contracted with trappers to help remove them. Johnston County has had them for a number of years and limited hunting opportunities are available through Johnston Community College Howell Woods. I did a story a while back about Harnett County and the problems they were having.

A recent news story in the Salisbury Post reports on how one was struck in Rowan County;

Kenneth Miller was watching television in his house at 13360 Old Beatty Ford Road — about a half-mile from Emmanuel Church Road — shortly after 8:30 p.m. Sunday when he heard a crash.

“It sounded like one car hitting another car,” Miller said. “I was expecting the worst.”What he got instead of a car crash was a wild hog. A darn big one.

Miller said Kelly Barringer, 43, of Albemarle, was driving a Chevrolet Suburban along Old Beatty Ford Road and struck and killed the wild boar after it lumbered into the road in front of him.

“He told me he saw it a split-second before he hit it,” Miller said.

It took Barringer a ways to stop. He turned around and returned. Miller hustled from his house, the first to arrive with a flashlight.

He approached the dead boar from its backside. The creature was stretched out in the roadway, steam still rising from its hide.

“I thought it was a bear at first,” Miller said.

Eventually, he and a handful of others investigated the creature more closely and saw it was a boar.

A very, very distant relation to Piglet.

Miller said he stepped the creature off and determined it was 6-feet long from the tip of its tail to the top of its snout. He estimated its weight at at least 300 pounds.

“I weigh 200 pounds and I’ll bet it’s twice as big as I am,” Miller said.

Where it came from is anybody’s guess. Miller said his beagle has been barking at something in the dark on recent nights.

He wondered if the dog was yapping at the hog hiding in the woods, doing whatever it is that 300-plus-pound hogs do.

Miller said he was certain the hog wasn’t a domestic animal that escaped from a neighboring pen. It had two tusks, Miller said, though one had apparently been broken off in its collision with the Suburban.

“It was as wild as could be,” Miller said of the animal.

Tommy Rainey is another resident of the area and showed up at the accident site with a camera. He said the Suburban’s collision with the boar did considerable damage to the front left side of the vehicle, knocking a hole in its radiator.

I suspect that those who want the opportunity to hunt hogs will have a number of options in the next few years as the population explodes. I’m also certain some of us will be unhappy with the damage these critters will cause and the impact on native species and flora.

Post by Dan McLaughlin AKA Moose

NC Bear Hunter Rescued Off a Ledge

Jeremy Kirkpatrick slid down a 30 foot rock face ending up on a small ledge with a broken leg and weather conditions that were unseasonable cold. Temperatures were in the 20’s as a front moved across the state bringing conditions more common for January and not November.
Jeremy and his girlfriend were navigating their way through the woods in the dark after a day of bear hunting when the accident happened. They were able to reach Jeremy’s mother on a cell phone and she was able to contact 911 for help.

“He’s so upset,” the hunter’s mother can be heard telling a dispatcher in a recording released today. “He’s going to go into shock is what he’s going to do. He was screaming ‘Momma I can’t move and I am cold.’”

Volunteer rescuers from the Jonathan Creek Volunteer Fire Department responded and was able to extricate Jeremy off the rock face.

Fire department Capt. Mike Messer said the rescue operation was technical and dangerous. Rescuers anchored ropes to trees above the ledge where Kirkpatrick landed and dropped down. From there, they swung side-ways along the rock face to reach him.

Then they loaded him into a special basket and lowered it down the other side of the rock face to an ATV. They used the ATV to cross the Pigeon River and get Kirkpatrick to an ambulance.

The operation, from the time his mother called 911 to the time Kirkpatrick left in the ambulance, took about three hours. The temperature was around 20 degrees

A tip of the hat to all the rescue personnel both paid and volunteer that brave the conditions and the dangers to help us in our time of need but especially these guys from Jonathan Creek Volunteer Fire Department.

“This wasn’t some July hiking trip,” said Greg Shuping, Haywood County Emergency Services coordinator, “This was serious. Those volunteers saved his life. This was a heroic effort from the Jonathan Creek Volunteer Fire Department.”

Citizens Times
We are glad to see that this has a happy ending.

Post by Dan McLaughlin AKA Moose

Free Lecture on Bobwhite Quail Restoration in North Carolina

Photo courtesy of NCWRC

The final wildlife seminar for this year will be held on Wednesday 19th November at the Centennial Campus in Raleigh. I realize this is short notice but I’ve been spending a lot time in the woods so I apologize. The Bobwhite Quail is certainly an interesting topic and a specie that has been in serious decline across most of the southeast.

The program will focus on the efforts by N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission and Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries biologists and N.C. State University researchers to restore populations of the northern bobwhite, or quail. Past collaborations have identified ways to stem the population declines of this once abundant game bird and researchers say efforts must continue into the future.

The seminar is free and no registration is required. A networking session with refreshments begins at 3:30 p.m. and the program starts at 4 p.m. The series is presented by N.C. State University’s Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences Program and the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.

The Centennial Campus Center for Wildlife Education is located on the first floor of the N.C Wildlife Resources Commission’s administrative headquarters, 1751 Varsity Drive. A free parking pass is available by e-mail request, with name and mailing address included, to centennialcenter@ncwildlife.org. For more information, call (919) 707-0203.

Educating A Young Buck

Muzzleloader season for the centeral zone of North Carolina has ended and rifle season has begun. I spent a lot of time last week with a muzzleloader in my hand but never got the chance to shoot at a deer. Well I should clarify that statement; the does stayed out of range, big bucks never appeared and the little bucks taunted me almost daily. I have a couple of small bucks that have been around my stands and for the most part pretty bold. One of these bucks I’ve been seeing 3 or 4 times a day. On Saturday the opening of rifle season I saw both bucks and had an encounter with one that will hopefully make him a bit more cautious. The weather was rough, but I’ll do another post about that latter, that at one point I decided for my own safety I needed to get out of my stand.
Once on the ground I decided to check out my game feeder and see how low it was. I was just about to it when I noticed beyond it on the field’s edge an antler in the brush. My initial thought was it was a dead deer but I wanted to check for sure. I was about 30 yards away and I brought up my rifle up and almost immediately realized it was the small buck and he was napping with his back to me. I decided to sneak up on him and give him a bit of a scare. I got within about 10 yards of him when the wind switched and carried my scent right to him. I saw him spin his head around and he about jumped out of his skin when he saw me. He jumped up and crashed off into the brush and I hope he is a bit smarter.

While on our lease we try to take older bucks other neighboring lands may not be as friendly to the younger bucks.

Hopefully I’ll see his daddy or granddaddy real soon.

I’ll post some more stories from last week soon.

Story by Dan McLaughlin aka Moose

Next Page »