Another hunter mistakes grizzly for black bear in Idaho

[wyodog]

I dunno - the table from 1988 to present shows over 1.5 million students certified. Looks like the program may have been effective.

Look at the age ranges of the shooters and the weapon used. Be very careful dove hunting around young hunters.

Included in the chart is number of hunters each year. When I first looked at the chart it seemed the total incidents was pretty flat for quite a while, then i noticed the incident ratio to number of hunters and it looks like the program has had a significant impact.

 

[HairyScandinavian]

I work in an industry where everything is recorded and every accident is gone over with a fine tooth comb. While there are plenty of cases where idiots messing around are the cause most of the time it’s good people who made an honest mistake, were lead down the wrong path, or just plain had terrible luck.

Tell that to the guy in Wyoming who pointed a rifle at me, he laughed as he told me he had the safety off and was ready to shoot.

 

[7RemMag]

Tell that to the guy in Wyoming who pointed a rifle at me, he laughed as he told me he had the safety off and was ready to shoot.

The first half of his comment refers to individuals like the one you described. He certainly isn't representative of the majority, Now is he?

 

[HairyScandinavian]

The first half of his comment refers to individuals like the one you described. He certainly isn't representative of the majority, Now is he?

I think there's a lot more of those running around than people realize.

 

[7RemMag]

I think there's a lot more of those running around than people realize.

Perhaps, but they're still nowhere near representative of the majority of gun owners/hunters. You're talking next level stupidity/foolishness there. One pretty much has to try to be that ignorant.

 

[HairyScandinavian]

Perhaps, but they're still nowhere near representative of the majority of gun owners/hunters. You're talking next level stupidity/foolishness there. One pretty much has to try to be that ignorant.

I think we as a community project our knowledge and skills a little too far into the genpop. I think the booming culture of gun ownership has brought a lot of people in that wouldn't ordinarily even own firearms. Anybody who frequents forums such as this are probably a little more in tune, Western hunters aren't immune but are likely considerably better human beings in general lol. I'll provide an example that recently took down my opinion of the average gun owner in America a few notches... we went to shoot a new range here locally (queue Texas jokes, I'm cool with it lol) because they have a steel plate range. They made us open our gun cases to show inside, I inquired why and the RO said they always have to turn people away who bring rifles with no sights to shoot. He said it's usually AR's with no sights at all, even irons, but he's had people with bolt rifles too. This range is pretty high traffic so I asked how often it happens, he laughed and said a lot every day.

 

[S-3 ranch]

I think there's a lot more of those running around than people realize.

Yep , I was hunting with a friend and , he shot a doe and were looking for where the blood trail started, when I heard what sounded like a couple bees buzzing by , then heard the sound of the gunfire, and saw dirt flying up
We hit the brush ASAP , then a truck starts driving towards us, the guy stopped
And gets out and starts laughing and said “ I thought yall were couple of hogs eating that corn in the road “ it was my buddies brother in law, and a rather heated fight broke out , with the end result of my buddy breaking the rifle stock and scope by beating it on the BIL truck hood
Luckily the idiot and his wife had packed up and went home before we got back from cleaning the deer,

My only bear confusion was on a guided hunt in Colorado, we stalked up on a huge bear and the guide says don’t shoot it’s a grizzly, after it ran off , I said I didn’t know Colorado had any grizzly bears, and he said he didn’t know of any
But it was better to safe, then sorry, hell it looked like a grizzly to be honest
I have seen some up real close in Alaska, but Colorado hasn’t had any reports since the 1970’s

 

[2Stamp]

A couple buddies and I are heading out to ID in a couple weeks. One of them texted this,

"If we're being honest, nobody said anything bout F-ing grizzly bears in ID! Wtf. I had to take a test to know not to shoot one."

I was a little floored, but not really surprised as he is deathly afraid of all bears. It got some good milage on text banter. Even if with the test I think people really don't understand differences and/or don't want to spend a little time to try and verify.

Locally we had a guy "treed" last year on the north end of the Big Horns that told the press and G&F it was a grizz. Later it came out that nah, was a big black Bear but in the moment thought "grizzly!".

 

[IDVortex]

Good point! Still blows my mind that we need “moose in area” signs at every trailhead in Colorado. How the hell can you mistake a moose for an elk?

My wife thought a moose was a turkey... and she's a Canadian. Needless to say, she has yet to live that down.