I just passed up on what I believed was a nice big bodied doe but it was too dark for a positive ID and ethical shot. Sucks for the son.

Rightful and legitimate criticism aside, I cannot think of more anguish than knowing you've killed your own son.  

Sheesh. Damn shame and totally preventable. I've been hunting my entire life. Been in the woods thousands of times alone and with other hunters and my son and have killed many deer.

In all that time I've never mistaken another hunter for a deer, or for any other mammal for that matter.

Never and can't see how it even happens

Negligence most likely.

"Oh shit, there's something walking through the woods over there."  Blam-blam-blam

Fucking idiots.

Sadly, this. I thought it was an exaggeration but, yes, lots of folks just blast away at "shadows" from the excitement of getting a deer. It sounds insane, because it is.... that's how you get to shoot and kill your own son.

December 2nd, Delaware County, Ohio

Legal sunset was 5:11 P.M., and legal light ended at 5:31 P.M.

Yup, every year there are a few.

Something rustled or moved, light off a few towards it!

I took a shot at a hog one night without knowing fully where the bullet would stop.  Even though it was at night and I was in the middle of nowhere, I absolutely shouldn't have taken the shot.  I didn't kill anybody, or the hog for that matter, but I still feel guilty to this day about taking that shot.  It was the only time I've ever been even a little bit reckless with a firearm.  

I can't imagine accidentally killing my son because I couldn't wait a few seconds to verify my target.  I honestly feel for the guy.  

I still see 5:06:24  on this one:

https://sunrise-sunset.org/us/delaware-oh


But we're splitting hairs really.  It was snowing, super cloudy, with a touch of fog at least in my AO.

I couldn't see shit through my scope after 4:55pm. And it's not bad glass.  Leupold VX3 1.5-5.

Attached File


What part of his deer was he aiming at? Damn fool.

Hunters are one of the biggest reasons I don’t hunt or go near the woods during the season. And I can kill deer in my yard or walk one minute to FS land, doesn’t matter I still don’t go. I think of all the ‘hunters’ I’ve seen tumble out of a pickup falling-down drunk, or my friend who I went hunting with 8 years ago that smoked bowl after bowl after bowl of weed while driving from one place to hunt to another, and my desire to go shrivels to nothing.

I've watched dip shits start heaving lead into a bush when they heard a noise.

Usually it's someone with a lever action in utah, or some bubba pump rifle. Or some beat up old jc higgins or piece of shit savage that I have seen do that.

It's why I switched to bow hunting

Each year, the ODNR publishes a sunrise-sunset table by which hunters are required to abide.

My kids are just old enough to start hunting with me. I cannot imagine that man's grief.

Oh deer.

Is there a bag limit on 'sons'?

Again, he taught his son to hunt with no orange on, he taught his son to walk through the woods at night with no light when his son straight up knew other hunters were in the woods...Do folks really not understand how this happened?  They were unsafe people and the logical result eventually occurred.  The result doesn't surprise me at all.  If they ignored those rules, how much time did Dad spend with Junior on target and backstop identification in Junior's youth.  The rules were made for a reason.  Disregarding them makes death far more likely.

Ah!

I just go by what my watch tells me as official sun rise / sunset time.


At least I'll be on the conservative side of things.  Tonight it sets at 4:55pm.

He didn't "mistake his son for a deer", the idiot shot at a movement, a shape or at a sound without correctly identify it while he KNEW his son and other hunters were in the area. That's a level of stupid that's hard to comprehend.

okay that's funny but yeah, never be in the woods without a light during gun season

The mind can make a deer out of anything if you stare at it long enough. Saw a guy shoot a fire ant mound with some grass growing out of it once and still swear what he shot at was a deer.
Women I worked with sisters husband got one buckshot pellet to the spleen by someone that thought he was a deer and died before help got there. They had a monitored walk you to the stand come get you hunt at a site I worked at once and someone still shot some guy and killed him when he got down and moved around to take a piss I think.

I think the one that bothered me the most was a guy that took his very young daughter hunting and made her climb up in a deer stand instead of sitting on the ground. Came time to go and he climb down and even though she was crying and begging him to get her help he brow beat her into climbing down because he didn't want to bother the other guys that might still be hunting. She fell and broke her arm and got a bone sticking out fracture.

I’ve never spent less than 10 minutes or so watching through the scope, waiting for that perfect shot. Last weekend, I watched a buck for an hour before taking a shot. I don’t get the mentality to shoot at something randomly moving in the woods.

I never buy these stories.
People do not look like deer.
If you're shooting AT a deer, and not aiming for correct shot placement ON the deer, you're not hunting, you're just shooting at shit.
It's a combination of stupidity, ignorance, impatience, and recklessness that I just cannot understand, it's right up there with the absolute lack of brain function that would lead someone to vote for Biden.

did he have a tag for him!?

In many states you’re allowed to shoot up to 30 minutes after official sunset. I got two deer this way in KY hunting with @buck19delta

Just download the ODNR app to your phone.  

It's has your current licenses and permits, lets you check in game that needs it, you can buy permits with it, and has all of the rules including sunrise-sunset times.

Answer: "in the general direction of..."

I hear of these shootings every so often and they never make sense, even if the shootee wasn't wearing hunter orange.

I've hunted here in the southern end of Appalachia for 40 years and, coincidently,  Delaware County, OH. Not that much difference between here and there. Delaware is not as hilly as my haunts and they have large patches of that Multiflora Rose, but that is no more visually obstructive than patches blackberry.
When i was there in 99, deer hunters were barred from using centerfire rifle. They all used slug barrel shotguns and the season was only a couple of weeks.   Regardless, you don't shoot through brush, unless you are a moron.

My cousin shot his dads calf mostly off with a shotgun once on the way to hunt. He tripped over some fence wire when they were crossing with his finger on the trigger and the safety off. Uncle did finally worked through it enough he could use the leg with not cane.

Spent the money on the 2nd 30 pack of Bush light?

The whole "he killed his son is punishment enough" argument is tired. There are probably a lifetime of questionable decisions that preceded this incident. Dude should get wrekt.

Oddly enough the only two people I am kin to that were shot liked a drink before, during and after and were shot by sober people. One by his son and the other peppered with bird shot by someone else during a bird hunt.

What round for son?

He already started his life sentence. No need to do it behind bars.

Iv sat that same spot a dozen times n never seen a deer.. Your a lucky dude.   I shoot probably 90% of deer in the last few minutes of light, and first few minutes of early light, a good scope turns a dark blob  50 yards away into a easy to identify buck / doe, or dog, etc. Where with your bare eye only, its just a dark blob and no way to 100% identify thus not shoot.

Also...yeah, lots of careless fuckers in the woods deer hunting. How someone handles guns / behaves while holding a gun is a good indicator if you want to be friends with them. Carrying a light is a good idea, i dont like to as deer are easily spooked by lights, and got used to never using one while in the woods in the military, but if i think there's another hunter around i ALWAYS use one. I ALWAYS wear orange as well. Its suicide to not wear it.

Damn, just really sad.
I have deer hunted for years, only once did someone in my area shoot at a sound and some king of movement, no one else saw anything.
When he got back to the camp and told his story he was asked to pack his shit and go home and never come back.

No charges filed, wtf?

If I was in the woods 30 minutes after sunset I would have a flashlight going to let morons know I was 2 legged.

Law Enforcement does not seem to be able to let families just suffer with the grief anymore . They need their pound of flesh to punish the already grieving and get it by finding something to charge them with. It used to be a hard world. Nowadays it is a hard world plus a kick in the ass.

^ does the father still collect life insurance on the kid, since he wasn't charged with a crime?

The only way I feel sorry for the dad is if he was shooting at a deer, and his son was walking behind said deer and accidentally got shot.. that is the only scenario I can imagine where it was an actual accident and not pure stupidity...

Short story time, I hunt, and own land.. it’s rather thick, and surrounded by Fields.. Well one year my good friend (who I have hunted with many times) brings his friend along.. this guy was pushing 60, old timer but appeared to have his shit together and talked a good game.. I was walking him to a stand along a field edge, when 3 doe jumped out of the thicket about 100 yards away , and stood there staring at us.. Before I could tell him hold on not to shoot that direction he unloads 5 slugs from his hip while running at them... needless to say that guy has never stepped foot on my property again, and I chewed my friend out as well.. Those are the type of idiots that kill people in the woods.. it’s not that they mistake a hunter for a deer, they literally shoot with out aiming period..

So if you firing your weapon defending yourself against home invaders and a bullet goes thru the wall and hits a neighbor in the leg you get charged but shooting at a SOUND AND MOVEMENT and killing someone = NO charges ?????????

Why is it that these incidents where hunters fail to ID their target before shooting seem to be mostly in Ohio and Pennsylvania?

As a hunter, I can't imagine ever taking a shot without knowing my target and what's behind it.  As a father, my heart breaks for this guy regardless.

Sucks for sure.   I wear a red light once I'm out of the stand and walking back to the truck.   Orange doesn't really work too well in very low light and after dark.   I don't know of any animals that would be wearing a red light so figure that should send a pretty good message to anyone else that I am not prey.  I had a scare of my own, but in reverse.

In Indiana we have 30 minutes before sunrise and 30 minutes after sunset.  Those of you that hunt know at some points in the season those 5-10 minutes on either side is often when you see some of the most deer activity.   When I hunt with a partner we always discuss a meet up time and location, and then call / text if that changes.

A few years ago about 20 minutes after sunset, but 10 minutes left in shooting light I saw a dark figure walking towards me across an open field.  Not only was it late in the day, it was also overcast, so there were no shadows of any significance to also help with identification.  A human being walking straight at you in low light, actually doesn't look all that different than a 4 legged animal walking straight towards you in low light.  Given the challenges with depth perception it is hard to tell if that person at 100 yards is really a deer at 200 yards.   And remember, not all deer have antlers.

Because of the location and time, I did not for a single instant think that it was a person walking towards me.  The time was wrong, the direction was wrong, etc. for it to be my hunting buddy.  So I raised my rifle and used my scope to ID the target.   I IMMEDIATELY determined it was not a deer, but was my hunting partner.   So, the whole "ID the target" rule definitely came into play.   What my brain initially interpreted as a deer walking towards me at a longer range was actually a person at much closer range.

Not that I for an instance can explain what happened in this case, other than the brain can play tricks on you.  When you are expecting to see a deer, your brain could process less than perfect information into what you want to see.   Just further reiterates that if you are not 100% positive, don't pull that trigger.

Friend of a friend shot his father with a 30-06 in the leg and almost killed him due to blood loss. Now he walks with a limp

This, sad but avoidable.

Never have a good Christmas again.

I'm sure he feels bad enough.

Sunset was 5:15 ish this past week. You are allowed hunt 30 minutes after sunset in Ohio.

I just don’t get people taking potshots at stuff in the woods. I have gotten at least two deer a year for years now and never once didn’t have the animal identified and crosshairs on the vitals before pulling the trigger. Shooting at movement? I don’t get the people that take multiple shots when the deer’s on the run. Yet it happens all the time.

Edit : sunset was earlier but is half hour before sunrise half hour after sunset. Little fuckers always come out right at that line too.