Man and Dog killed in Illinois

[SDS-GEN]

This happened in Illinois during the first firearm season.  http://qconline.com/qcnews/archives/qco/display.php?id=316164

Makes me feel real good about going out for second season this weekend.

[The Sodbuster]

The link you provided requests a user name and password to access the article.  Why not just tell us what happened.

[SDS-GEN]

It won't load for me any more either.  A hunter killed a man and his dog during Illinois' first firearm season this year.  The event happened in Mississippi Pallisades State Park.  Capt. Hunter of the Illinois DNR said that the man and his dog weren't supposed to be in the area during firearms season.

I don't know exactly what happened here but I've heard from semi-reliable sources that the hunter shot the man thinking he was a deer then saw the guy's dog and shot it thinking he had missed with the first shot.  Guess there's nothing in the regs about not giving a blind man a hunting license.   

I can't wait to get out in the woods this weekend for second season with guys like this in the woods.

[Dusty Miller]

Is there any follow up information on this story.  I can't believe this guy is not being prosecuted for manslaughtaer. 

[oso45-70]

Unbelievable

Like dusty i would like to hear what the outcome is. It always amazes me that a person starts looking like an animal to some. Not too sure what shooting the mans dog means but, To me it sounds like an assassination and shooting the dog don't make since either..........Joe..........

[SDS-GEN]

I haven't heard a thing about it, the case was supposed to be turned over to a grand jury.  The last thing I could find was an article from Dec 1.  http://www.clintonherald.com/opinion/local_story_335230102.html

[GRIMJIM]

I've hunted in southern Illinois for fifteen years on public land.( no not the same place) And on more than one occcassion people have walked through with dogs. The adrenalin starts pumping when you see that white tail coming through the brush. Those people are very lucky I check my targets before I shoot. Maybe the combination of seeing the dogs tail and heavy cover made him think the movement he saw was a deer. I'm not trying to defend him as it's guys like that who give the rest of us a bad name. But there must have been some kind of circumstance that led to this.

It's really amazing to me what some people do. During opening weekend I had a family come hiking through the woods right by my stand and I was in pretty deep. Two adults and three small children, no blaze, no bright colors at all. I think it should be posted somewhere that it is gun season and stay out of the woods. You would think that people that live there would know.

[Little Joe]

Several years ago we had a guy shot and killed in the back. He was hunting behind Mt. Hood East of the Cascades. I can’t remember which unit he was in. He was wearing a black coat with a black backpack. The hunter who shot him thought it was a black bear.
So sad. 

Little Joe

[Dusty Miller]

One of the basic rules of hunting/shooting is BE SURE OF YOUR TARGET.  Those who fail to do so and bring any degree of injury to another person should have to face an appropriate degree of punishment from the courts. 

[Ranger J]

I can understand someone perhaps being killed by a shot taken at a deer ¼ mile away from the victim and that poor guy just being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  That case is probably one in several million?  On the other hand to shoot at any target without completely identifying it is unexcitable.  I used to hunt in Southern Illinois around Crab Orchard lake area and the locals used to tell ‘stories’ about the city hunters that would show up with guns still in their boxes and asking if someone knew how to put it together for them.  One of the other stories was about the fellow who when asked if he saw any deer that day he said no but he got several sound shots.  My favorite story is that several of the local wags went and bought several goats and put a tattoo in each goat’s ear and then went and turned them loose in the public hunting area near the refuge.  They then each put ten dollars in a pot and each one took a number.  They spent the day hanging around the local check station until; the story says a Chicago hunter, turned one of the goats in.  They then checked the ear for the number and that person got the pot.  The hunter was real proud of the horns on the ‘deer’ as the story goes.  These stories all came from way back in the days when there were only a few deer permits passed out for the ‘hot’ deer counties down state and somehow they always went to politically connected people out of Chicago.  Granted these ‘war stories’ are probably of the urban myth verity but they do represent the kind of hunters that should not be in the woods with a gun.  If you can’t identify it let it go.  While it is not too bright to go walking in the woods during hunting season the onus is upon us the hunters not those other people in the woods.  They may be stupid but legally they have the same right to be there as we do.
RJ

[GRIMJIM]

Urban legends. I myself am from Chicago and hunt around crab orchard and can verify that I only shoot deer. I prefer the white ones with a nice long beard, the grey ones taste funny.

[SDS-GEN]

Several years ago I heard a story about a horse that was shot in southern Illinois.  The way I heard it some old man(in his 80's) made a 150+ yard shot with a slug gun and killed the animal.  That isn't too unbelievable until you understand that the horse had a rider on its back.  The girl riding the horse wasn't hurt.
As Dusty said one of the main rules of shooting is being sure of your target and what is beyond it.  The place I hunt for deer is very thick with vegetation but I still can't ever think of an instance when I didn't take the time to be sure of what I was shooting at.  Twice I have had shotgun slugs deflect of of brush and miss, but I could still identify the target clearly.  If this guy couldn't tell the difference between a human being, a dog, and a deer he has no business being in the woods with a gun.  Some people get to worked up over killing something, all the deer this guy will ever kill won't make up for a human life.

[LEO]

It is scary what some hunters do, I have had hunters that I was contacting ask me if I new how to unload their rifle without shooting the ammunition and many other wild tales.  I have witnessed first hand a man with a goat that he thought was a deer, there were feral goats in the area and they were free for the taking but this fellow though he had a deer.  An as far as the non hunting public, most of them have no idea when hunting season is and where hunters go.  I encountered a fellow trail running during the first part of gun season who asked why there were so many people in the woods with guns.  It has always been critical to be sure of your target and backstop before you shoot and it is even more so now because there are so many more people in the woods who may not be wearing hunter orange.  I had a hunter walk by my stand this year wearing brownish gray coveralls that might as well have been a deer hide suit.  You just never know, just remember blaze orange is your friend, the more the better, even that is no guarentee.

[GRIMJIM]

I went up to Wisconsin to rifle hunt for the first time and all I had in blaze was the vest and hat I wear here. The first thing my friend said was " you're gonna get shot!" That made me think and I went out and bought a full blaze set of coveralls and a coat for the next season. Granted it's rifle up there and they will go a lot farther than a slug gun. Down here I just wear the vest and hat.
When I hunt in southern Illinois I stay in a national park, and it's amazing to me the number of guys that drink all evening and then go out on the woods with a firearm. I have really been thinking about buying some property so I won't have to deal with all the things you see on public land.

[Ranger J]

I used to live in Illinois but am now happily ensconced in the Missouri Ozarks.  I now hunt an overgrown farm that is nestled between two ridges.  Most of this land is national forest land open to hunting.  I know that our rural mail carrier and some of his friends hunt one of the two adjacent ridges.  On the first day of season last year I didn’t see much at all down in the valley but there was a lot of shooting up on that ridge.  After season I caught him one day and asked if he and his friends did any good considering all the shooting.  He huffed and then said that non of them got a shot that first day and the shooting was done by another camp that was down the road from him and he said, ”They don’t even get out of camp but spend their time drinking beer and then shooting at the cans.  That was all the shooting you heard.”
RJ