Hunter Mistaken For Elk Shot, Killed

[CO Liberal]

Just how many elk have any of you seen waring orange jackets? - Wayne

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Hunter Mistaken For Elk Shot, Killed

Coroner Says Wisconsin Man Shot By Friend

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. -- A Wisconsin hunter who died this week was shot by a friend who mistook him for an elk, the county coroner said.

Gerald Holverson, 44, of South Wayne, Wis., died early Saturday about a mile west of Waller Reservoir in southern Routt County. He was shot below the right shoulder with a .54-caliber muzzle loader, authorities said.

He was wearing some orange apparel, and alcohol was not suspected to be involved, County Coroner Dwight Murphy said Wednesday.

The Sheriff's Office would not release the name of the person believed to have shot Holverson. The investigation was continuing.

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http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/2510126/detail.html

[MrBenchley]

1. Hey, those crafty elk

often hide their antlers under an orange cap....

[wyldwolf]

2. Enough beer and a gun...

..and men start to look like elk.

[Bozola]

3. but hunters aren't in season....

maybe he mistook his friend for a housewife in a dressing gown in her backyard. They're in season now, aren't they?

[unblock]

4. is no one suspecting murder?

maybe his 'friend' slept with his wife, or worse, voted for a democrat?

[Superfly]

5. Nevermind

blah

[RoeBear]

6. That was unfortunate...

...but is there a point? You're not an anti-hunter are you? Are you looking for a law that would prevent this tragedy? Tell me.

[CO Liberal]

7. The Point is Simple, RoeBear

Even experienced people can make mistakes. And a mistake with a gun can be deadly.

[DoNotRefill]

8. So can a mistake with a perscription pad.

Your point?

[MrBenchley]

14. And yet the American Pharmaceutical Association

isn't lobbying to get rid of laws governing prescriptions...or doing all it can to make sure drugs get in the wrong hands....

[CO Liberal]

15. Or Pushing For Immunity From Lawsuits

Wait a minute .... weren't they looking for immunity from lawsuits connected to the antrax and smallpox vaccines?

[MrBenchley]

16. Yeah

and Lilly got immunity for its autism vaccine as part of "Hoemland Security"...shows what a scummy deal the gun industry is trying to engineer for itself.

[DoNotRefill]

17. HUH?!?! WTF do you think "Tort Reform" is all about?

eom

[CO Liberal]

18. It's All About Punishing Trial Lawyers......

... for supporting Democrats. The same way that school vouchers are all about punishing teachers and the teacher's unions for supporting Democarts.

[DoNotRefill]

25. horseshit.

It's about protecting doctors from large malpractice suits when they accidentally kill somebody.

[RoeBear]

9. But, did you have a point?

Yep, accidents happen. This has as much to do with gun control as a car accident.

[CO Liberal]

10. No One Was Talking About Gun Control In This Thread, RoeBear

Until you......

[RoeBear]

11. So this was just a heads up for hunters...

..to be cautious while hunting?

[CO Liberal]

13. You Could Take It As That

And a helpful hint that elk very rarely wear orange......

This whole story reminds me of the time that my 6-foot-4 brother-in-law was shot during small game season by someone who mistook him for a squirrel.

[DonP]

12. Expected this time of year from Wisconsin

Along with over 40,000 deer killed on the highways every year,
sadly, (apologies to my friends behind the cheddar curtain) this time of year we start getting pretty regular reports of hunting accidents of all kinds.

They range from shooting a cow to guys that fall out of their tree stands and hang upside down all day in the woods and are found a day or two later.

Ocassionally a bowhunter will fall on one of his arrows and bleed to death too, or a four wheeler that gets too close to the edge of a cliff or drop off and rolls it. So it's not just guns that get involved.

Then the lakes freeze and the snowmobile "skipper" reports start coming in. These people see how far they can get their snow machines to "skip" across open water from the edge of a frozen lake. If that doesn't get the less than cautious the series of wire fence decapitations that start with the first heavy snow might.

Famous last words up there are; "Here honey, hold my beer and watch this".

There are a lot of ways to be careless and get yourself killed I guess. I would suppose that a muzzleloader, with its limited range, is pretty unusual. The "No alcohol involved" part makes me sceptical though.

Don P.

[jody]

19. Hunter safety courses are very effective in reducing hunting accidenents

In 2001, the following fatal hunting accidents occurred in the US.
2001 US Incident Summary

ARM..........TWO PARTY......SELF INFLICTED
Shotgun..........23...............7
Rifle............31..............10
Handgun...........0...............0
Muzzleloader......1...............2
Bow...............1...............0
Crossbow..........0...............0

[MrBenchley]

21. I'm sure you skipped the 700-plus non-fatal accidents

for some reason other than to make hunting look safer than it really was....

Just like I'm sure we can trust the hunter's clearinghouse to do something other than clear hunters....

[CO Liberal]

22. Wouldn't It Be Kinda Hard To Get a Self-Inflicked Bow-and-Arrow Wound?

Just the mechanics of that seems rather difficult.

[jody]

23. Probably the hunter injured him or herself with a broadhead.

The arrow head is very sharp and could easily lead to injury, e.g. using a bow quiver and having the arrow slip out while moving.

Still, hunter safety courses have been very effective in reducing accidents.

[DonP]

24. Usually it involves a fall too

The last one I heard about was a guy falling out of his tree stand, getting his leg tangled in his climbing ladder and landing on one of his broadheads. (OOOOuch!)

My uncle was the EMT that went to the site. The guy got a tetanus shot and a bunch of stitches but was generally all right. No drinking involved, just a case of serious buck fever for a first time hunter.

Don P.

[jody]

20. Many states have an optional online hunter safety course. See info at

"Hunter Education Now Available on the Internet!"

[MnFats]

26. when i lived in no. wisconsin...there were a few rules..

....about hunting season. for example, if you weren't a hunter, you just stayed the hell out of the woods. This was years ago and i think they've cracked down some, but hunting season used to be an excuse to ditch the wife and get fucking hammered for three or four days, spending a couple hours in the woods each day shooting at anything that moved.
There used to be whore-houses in all the border towns along the Wisc./Mich border.
EVERY year several people would be killed. Blaze orange didn't seem to help.
it's crazy. those hunting rifles have enormous "stopping" power and they can send a round a mile or two at deadly speed. Every so often someoen would be killed bgy a stray bullet, too...which was too bad because there were families who lived out in the woods who needed the deer to put some meat/protein on the table.