One of the rules for safe hunting is -
Be Sure of Your Target and what lies beyond it!
* Avoid hill top shots, or shots with an obscure background.
* Best backgrounds are hillsides or dirt banks free of big rocks.
* Identify your animal from tip (nose) to tail before you shoot. Never shoot at a sound or movement.
A sample question -
When taking a shot:
(a) do not worry about what lies beyond your target, the bullet will not travel through the game animal or target
(b) take shots at game when on a hill or ridge, for the bullet will be traveling upward
(c) be sure of your target and what lies in front of and beyond it
(d) always shoot at the nearest sound in the brush
Safety First - Four Rules for Safety
There's been a fair amount of confusion about the circumstances that led to Dick Cheney shooting his hunting partner Harry Whittington.
I figured ESPN would be fairly unbiased in their report so I checked out ESPN Outdoors -- VP Cheney accidentally shoots fellow hunter. What I learned from ESPN -
Harry came up behind Dick Cheney. This isn't quite the same as saying Harry snuck into the line of fire, as some are reporting.
Harry didn't announce or otherwise signal his presence behind Dick Cheney. Birds are pretty easy to spook, being quiet would seem to be a reasonable approach when hunting them.
Texas law does not require a hunting party to report an accident unless a fatality is involved. In other words it's not against the law to shoot someone, as long as you make it a hunting expedition and just wing them.
Dick Cheney shows a great deal of deference to the rights of property owners. He didn't report the shooting for over 24 hours because he was "deferring" to the ranch owner the right to report what happened on her property.
Dick shot Harry at 30 yards. The 28 Gauge Shotgun that Dick Cheney was using is "good" to 35 yards as reported in the Progressive Farmer Great Outdoors, it's referred to as the Ideal Upland Game Gun. The article says -
"While the 28-gauge is not considered a good waterfowl, deer or wild-turkey shotgun, it does deliver small-game harvesting energy loads out to 35 yards. And it compares favorably with the 23/4-inch 20- and 12-gauges. For example, the 12-gauge energy load per pellet at 30 yards is 1.77 foot-pounds of energy, the 20-gauge is 1.58 foot-pounds and the 28-gauge is 1.47 foot-pounds. The 28-gauge is well within the necessary energy load to take small game at that range, and it's not too far under the 20- and 12-gauge shotguns."
I heard on the news last night that Harry may have to live with some buckshot embedded in him. Gonna be tough getting through those metal detectors.
