As a kid I loved the State sponsored pheasant hunt. My best day was the second week of the season and I shot 4-rosters. My most angry day was when a late arriving father-in-son did not take part in the safety briefing and the son was handling a autoloader with problems. As they tried to catchup with the line of shooters a rooster jumped up and the kid fired a shot. A number of us were raked with shot. Lucky me was wearing a heavy leather welders jacket. I felt the shot hit but recieved no injuries.
The primarly reasons for the accident was failed parent control. The parent should have had the kid there in time for the safety briefing. The shotgun should not have been loaded until the kid was in the shooting line.
When parents take part in these hunts they are normally behind the curve when it comes to keeping up with the kids. The father ran a small business which did not involve physical activity. He was having a hard time keeping up with the 14-year old. I know that a number of us would no longer go into the fathers business and it folded in two or three years. That is how thing work in small towns.
As a former hunter safety instructor there are lessons to be learned.
When I was a kid my Dad would drop me off on top of a mountain and I would hunt to the bottom. Because of the early wake up time I would stop around noon, eat some lunch and take a nap. One afternoon I woke up when I heard a hunter and his dog pushing the heavy brush in my direction. A very large 3x3 with nice eye guards appeared before me. At the sametime I observed the brush moving from the hunter in blending colors appear on the other side. I did not fire. The hunter was angry that I did not shot the deer he pushed to me. To this day I consider him a fool, because he was in direct line. And I was lucky to see him because he was not wearing any safety color, be in Red, yellow. or organge. The bottomline is my Dad would have kick my butt and taken my rifle away from me if I took the shot.
I consider safety lens a must when out hunting with a shotgun. I have had shot rain down on me from duck hunters, and upland bird hunters. Next week I will being ordering new vision glasses. Polycarbonate lens are high on my list. Years ago I took a hard hit in the face from a chunk of wood off the tip of a chainsaw. It smarted, but the safety glasses I was wearing protected my eyes.
Hunting victim loses an eye
Boy accidentally shot by another child at state-sponsored event.
ByMattWeiser
BEE STAFF WRITER
An 11-year-old Lafayette boy lost his left eye when he was accidentally shot during a state-sponsored pheasant hunt Sunday in Sutter County.
The boy was transported by heli-'-' copter to UC Davis Medical Center, where Tuesday he was listed
• m stable condition in the intensive care unit. His injuries are not
-•considered life-threatening. »'/' The Contra Costa Times identi-"''"fied the boy as Dreyson LeDoux, a ^ifth-grader at Springhill Elementary School in Lafayette. His family could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
The accident happened at 2:45
p.m. Sunday during a youth hunt-
(jng event sponsored by the Califor-
c nia Department of Fish and Game.
It was held at the Nelson Slough
"unit of the Feather River Wildlife
°**Area in Sutter County.
,^u Department spokesman Steve
Martarano said LeDoux and two other boys were arranged in a line about 20 to 30 feet apart when a hunting dog flushed a pheasant rooster from the brush between them. LeDoux, who was on the left side of the group, and the boy in the middle both fired at the bird. As the bird went down, the boy in the middle fired at it again, striking LeDoux, who was behind the bird.
The boys were firing 20-gauge shotguns. LeDoux was struck with shotgun pellets in his face and left hand. He underwent 12 hours of surgery, but lost use of his left eye. Doctors worried he may also lose sight in the right eye as scar tissue develops.
Capt. Roy Griffith, a state game warden and hunter education program administrator, said the state typically enforces one-on-one supervision by adults at its youth hunting events. Usually the adult supervisor is the child's parent. In this case, LeDoux was supervised by his grandfather during the hunt.
All involved must have hunting i licenses, which means they are
trained in hunting practice and firearm safety.
Griffith, who was not at Sunday's incident, said California typically experiences 20 to 24 hunting-related shooting accidents statewide every year, with usually two of those being fatal. He said this is the first time in at least five years that a state-sponsored hunting event has resulted in a shooting accident.
"This would certainly be an extremely tragic occasion," Griffith said. "Our instructors will take a hard look at this incident and ask themselves if there's anything we can do differently in our programs to keep this from happening."
Griffith said it appeared likely that two of the hunter's "10 commandments" were violated in this incident: The hunter failed to maintain a safe zone of fire and failed to recognize what was behind his target.
• • •
The Bee's Matt Weiser can be reached at (916) 321-1264 or mweiser@sacbee. com.
