BigGameHunt.net Hunting Forums

[moderator]

May 2004 Poll:

Is hunting safe?

Safe hunting practices and discussing hunting accidents is a regular topic on the board although there never has been a poll specifically about general hunting safety. This month we are asking hunters to tell us what they think about hunting safety; good, bad, or indifferent.

Is hunting safe? In your opinion, how does hunting safety compare with other outdoor activities?

[fuzzybear]

I'm not quite sure what the question is. Yes, hunting is a safe sport

If they're referring to hunting being an activity that includes the use of a gun, bow, etc...My answer would be yes, hunting is safe. As long as the tool is used responsibly.

That's like asking if driving is safe. Cars don't cause accidents. Drivers do. If we use a car responsibly. Driving is safe.

When a hunter takes to the field with the tool of his choice. He takes the responsibility that goes with it.

It's a sad day when they place a hunter in the same catagory as a gangland murderer or a homicidal maniac or a poacher.

One of the best analogies I've read was posted in an earlier thread in this forum. Don't quote me, but it read something like.
Calling a poacher a hunter is like calling a drug dealer a pharmacist.

Anyone that believes the sport of hunting is unsafe, probably doesn't understand the sport or maybe they have another agenda.

[donmillion]

Well, I have to disagree to a certain extent, fuzzybear.

I can be a perfectly responsible driver and yet some other jerk might come barrelling out of a parking lot, slam into the side of my car, and kill or seriously injure me. In that regard, driving comes with certain unavoidable dangers. Just because I'm a good, careful, responsible driver, that doesn't guarantee I'll never be hurt.

Hunting is much the same. I might be perfectly responsible and yet some other jerk might mistake me for game (though I've never been able to figure out how THAT happens!) and shoot me.

Of course, that doesn't change the fact that you're correct when you say that most of the time when people say hunting is not safe it's because they have some other agenda going on. And despite my comments above, I consider hunting a safe sport.

[bitmasher]

Asking whether something is safe verges on the psychological rather than the logical. Some folks have very little tolerance for risk, others reveal in it, unfortunately there are those low tolerance folks that feel it their duty to assure that the revealers be put in padded cages for the revealers "own good".

Hunting is one of those activities that anti-hunters like to say is obviously (how could gun toting folks blasting away at stuff in the woods be safe? they say) unsafe and unfortunately non-hunters are led astray, when in reality it is one of the safest outdoor sports around.

Folks looking to prevent outdoor accidents would do far better to campaign against drinking-and-boating or mandatory atv helmet laws for youth, than picking on hunters.

[mister_venison]

150 people die each year in car-deer accidents. We are all more likely to die from hitting a deer with our cars than getting shot during a season. Think about that!
Those deer don't have guns, and they're more dangerous to us.

[Aunt Cindy]

Hunting is just like everything else, follow the rules of safety and ALWAYS practice them, and we will all be safe. Unfortunately, the public "stereotypes" our sport as dangerous because of a few idiots that hunt illegally or do not follow the rules of safety. Those people should be banned from hunting. One strike and you are out forever!

Accidents are caused and can be prevented!

I have two nephews that were shot by a hunter last fall and I still believe hunting is a safe sport. If the jack--- that pulled the trigger had been aware of his target and beyond (like the majority of us would have) my 13 year old nephew would not be blind today.

KNOW YOUR TARGET AND BEYOND! Enough said!

Aunt Cindy