I had to do some shopping this morning and while in the store I happen to walk by the magazine section. Yeah. Like I don't need to buy another hunting or shooting magazine. Well, I happened to look at the latest issue of DEER & DEER HUNTING, December 2006 and on the front cover was a caption that really garnered my interest.
" Are shotguns really safer than rifles? Shocking new insights"
I had to buy it. I live in the wonderful state of Massachusetts which has been a shotgun only state since at least 1911. I found that little bit of info while sitting in a courtroom library while on jury duty. Everyone who hunted during the firearm season had to use a shotgun with buckshot or slugs. In the past, even rifled slug barrels were not allowed. I remember hunting with my grandfather, father and on occasion a family friend. The gun of the day was the venerable Sweet 16 Browning autoloader. Gramps carried one at his favorite place on Mt. Grace . It is also the place that he died on the last day of the deer season. I have always wanted to go back to that same old abandoned farm where we hunted and where he left this world. I think I will do so this deer season, just for old time sake. Sorry about rambling off like this.
Anyways. This fear of rifling even extended to the first ten years of the muzzleloader season in the Bay State. I remember the old regulations. The gun had to be a pre-1865 design , smoothbore, single barrel with open or peep sights, 18" inch minimum, fired from the shoulder and between 44 and 775 caliber. It was a whole three days long after the week long shotgun season.
Well, that was changed and now with muzzleloading, it is pretty much anything goes except break open breech actions such as teh Encore or NEF Sidekicks.
I read the article and basically it was an eye opener. The author, Mr. David Hart, basically states that shotguns aren't much safer and there is some evidence that when you look at the ratios, there are more shotgun deer hunting accidents that rifle accidents. The author uses evidence from states such as North Carolina, Wisconsin, Virginia and Pennsylvania.
Cpt. ChrisHuebner, NC hunter and boater safety coordinator, states that one reason for this is that shotgun shooters tend to swing their muzzles more at their targets and less likely to be aware of others or buildings downrange.
In addition, some hunting methods such as deer drives tend to have more accidents.
It is food for though after reading this article. In all honesty, it does have to contend with one large issue . It is one of society. If society, even in it's ignorance, percieves that a shotgun with slugs is much safer than a rifle for deer hunting: then the rules will remain for some places to be shotgun only.
