Has anyone been shot at while hunting?

[HeavyAssault]

Sounds like a good reason to pack along a VS17 panel.

 

[loganwayne]

I've never been shot at, but a good friend got shot by his buddy turkey hunting. Somehow they both got mixed up about where they were going to setup. his buddy didn't have much hunting experience and he was calling buddy heard a turkey and saw movement and shot. hit him in the back of he neck, head and shoulders. He got knocked out and woke up in hospital. for about a year he was popping pellets out from under his skin like a pimple as the body was working them out. And he has to carry a card now that says his body may contain metal fragments.


EDIT: i take that back i believe i was shot "close to". here in the south doing man drives and/or running dogs for deer happens a good bit. Ive done my fair share of man drives the last week of season, but had never dog hunted. We got invited so i said sure. i assumed everyone used shotguns with buckshot like doing man drives. ( believe it or not this is safer) i was wrong everyone had semi auto hunting rifles. we surrounded the block and they dropped the dogs. it was going well till the dogs started circling and doubling back. then all hell broke loose guys running into the block shooting. people shooting from behind me on road (i was 15 yards into woods to get through the thick brush) people shooting towards me. i found a hole and laid low. apparently a big buck ran right by where i was standing but i was in the hole.

we left and i would never do it again with those guys. i have since done it with guys that we do man drives with once one got some dogs.

 

[Warmsy]

We weren't hunting, but hiking up a mountain near Yuma, AZ. Sort of got lost while exploring... Knew to head west to get to the highway. We're going along and we're on the rim of a large wash, and the there's trash strewn everywhere. We stumbled onto the wrong end of a shooting range. We here a couple bullets whiz by, and see 2 guys, shooting pistols , about 80 yards away. The 4 of us 6'+ guys start jumping up and down and yelling. Broad daylight. They started shooting faster.

It was about 200 yards of up-and- cover until we were out of sight. We were pretty angry, but surprisingly calm about what was happening and what we needed to do.

 

[bigeyedfish]

Twice. Both unintentional. One time was deer hunting. The other hunter shot at a running deer with trees as a "backstop". A couple bullets flew by close enough to scare me, but they were probably weren't as close as it seemed. The other time I was hiking with my wife, and some douchebags were shooting a pistol on a shotgun range that had no berm. They didn't know we were on a trail a few hundred yards downrange. A few bullets hit within 100 feet of us. I was really fired up about that one.

 

[kthomas]

We weren't hunting, but hiking up a mountain near Yuma, AZ. Sort of got lost while exploring... Knew to head west to get to the highway. We're going along and we're on the rim of a large wash, and the there's trash strewn everywhere. We stumbled onto the wrong end of a shooting range. We here a couple bullets whiz by, and see 2 guys, shooting pistols , about 80 yards away. The 4 of us 6'+ guys start jumping up and down and yelling. Broad daylight. They started shooting faster.

It was about 200 yards of up-and- cover until we were out of sight. We were pretty angry, but surprisingly calm about what was happening and what we needed to do.

As someone who comes from the world of target shooting (long range/PRS type stuff), I find it really disappointing how many behave when they are out target shooting.

Leaving trash everywhere, not being respectful of others, not being safe, and doing absolutely dumb stuff like what happened to you and your friends. Seems to be a similar case to what happened to me. People seem to have a stunningly low respect for firearms and their surroundings.

If you want to see a real shitshow, there's always Reddington pass. Right on the East side of Tucson. People shooting, hiking, biking and OHV'ing all in the same area - and no one seems to know where anyone else is at. My wife was having a friendly conversation with an LE officer (I believe Pima County Sheriff's Dept.), and he was telling her that their department policy was to always roll in with at least two units at Reddington - because of all the weird and sketchy stuff that happens there.

 

[WCB]

I've had a shotgun slug hit the top of the tree I was sitting in...then two more whiz by. definitely heard the shot then the slugs come by. Guy that shot my way was definitely shooting level or down slightly and slugs were deflecting off the ground. Sound like giant Bumble Bees.

Also, had some slugs come through a corn field I was sitting next to. Could hear the slugs plowing through corn stalks. Guy was shooting into the private we were hunting out of his truck window. Game warden was called but we only quickly saw the truck before the shooting started so no good I.D. possible.

A couple times had rifle bullets snap over head.

 

[drra]

Never had a rifle bullet fly by me that I'm aware of however I was shot by a duck hunter at less than 30 yards. I prefer to hunt in locations others aren't willing to travel.

 

[Jmort1754]

Took birdshot to the chest and arms one year. Luckily it was from quite a distance.

I was 14-15 years old deer hunting on the ground. A flock of turkeys was working through this apple orchard when all of the sudden. Boom boom boom. Two guys from out of town had seen them cross the road and snuck in, trespassing.

My dad lit them up.

 

[drra]

Number 3 bird shot causes damage even to humans at 30 yards, I had two surgeries and multiple out patient procedures. Still have 17 pellets in me.

 

[wyosteve]

Had shotgun slugs sail past me in the cattails close enough to hear the cattails snap, had bullets whiz overhead hunting whitetails, took bb's to my leg deep enough to imbed while pheasant hunting and got hit in the neck hard enough to break the skin another time while pheasant hunting.

 

[rclouse79]

I had something similar happen in AZ when I was javalina hunting, except they did not know I was there. I saw them first and was bummed to see they had a couple javalina hanging from a tree. After a while they got up and moved up the hill to shoot at rocks. It was pretty crazy to hear the crack of the sonic boom overhead followed by the gunshot. I got by ass behind a rock pretty quick.

 

[Banded_spooney]

My great uncle was killed by a 'stray' bullet on a West Virginia whitetail hunt. Circumstances were a little shady as his wife was the only witness and her boyfriend may or may not have been hunting that day.

Alas, it went down as a hunting accident with the shooter having apologized before running away never to be seen again.

 

[Arcticmanak]

Yes, intentionally shot "at", or at least in our direction in attempt to run us out of an area.
I was in high school and we were duck hunting. Boated in, had camp set up, and at some point during the hunt we had bullets whizzing right through our camp, around us, over our heads. It was no doubt intentional. We didn't stand up long enough to see who or where from. We hit the deck as dad hollered for them to stop shooting. I don't recall that made much difference.
I'll refrain from explaining where we were and the ethnicity of those that were likely perpetrators.
They eventually stopped and we carried on with our hunt.

 

[Wags]

Number 3 bird shot causes damage even to humans at 30 yards, I had two surgeries and multiple out patient procedures. Still have 17 pellets in me.

Yup, I was hit with 22 3" 3s to my left quad at 5 yards 17 years ago. I'm lucky to be here. Getting life flighted on opening day was a rough start to the season.

 

[Steelhead]

This season albeit not intentionally, just a quad full of dipshits shooting wild and blind at a doe off a fireroad...with 2 camps, 2 bright red ATV's and 4 grown men in eyesight. Trying to poach at best, attempted manslaughter at worst. I will not sidetrack into the rant of how the flourishing ATV market is allowing more full-retards into areas they wouldn't normally go but...

Camped with my daughter near the side of a small ~2 acre, mud pond surrounded by pines. Another camp setup on the other side of the pond. Very rough, pretty remote, ridgeline dirt track runs alongside, we hunt down the nearby draw. ATV's slowly cruise the road all day, over the past few years these have increased substantially.
Case in point, TWO side-by-sides had pulled into the mud pond, just past the trees and were looking at tracks. I could see the 4 men from my camp and waved and they waved back, smiles and enjoying themselves, checking out game tracks from the looks of it. There were does (no legal doe tags in this zone BTW) that was practically domestic that hung out right in our camp and would drink and bed alongside the pond.
I went back to chopping firewood and BOOOM from the direction of the dirt track. thoughts of "did someone shot a buck or a bull so close to camp?" came to mind but also "if not, WTF are they shooting at and in what direction?" Immediately heard an ATV revving up and tearing off down the road.
It turned out not to be the guys hanging out in the mud pond, when I approached them they were wide-eyed and walking out from the pond through the pines. The folks at the other camp were on their way over to see what was going on too.
Turns out another blue 4 seater ATV driving down the road, likely saw one of the does through the pines and just pulled over and shot at it...happily it missed everybody including the deer but they likely immediately noticed the TWO freaking RED quads sitting just beyond the pines from the road, saw the 4 men and tore off. Seeing as the does were usually right in between the pond and our camp it didn't sit well with me.
F&G were notified with a description and we all agreed we'd return fire if the act was repeated.

 

[Glendon Mullins]

Been shot at 3 times, but not while hunting, lol

been shot once while hunting, rabbit hunting, me and a buddy was walking a road, other hunters was walking same road towards us, we popped around a curve, about the same time the dogs chased a rabbit across the road in the curve. We see a buddy raise his gun, I say something like "Oh sh**t he gonna shoot" luckily when he shot, of course he was aiming at ground towards the rabbit, and we were still a good ways off shotgun wise, we saw the shot skip off a mudhole, and peppered us a little below our knees, didn't even hurt. Me and my buddy looked at each other and was like, "Now way that just happened" Of course the other guy apologized profusely, but all was good, we didn't make a big deal out of it.

 

[Geewhiz]

If that's all I have to do to keep people from coming back to my spots, maybe i'll start shooting at people!


A story if you care.

Not while hunting, but heading home after a dirt bike trip ( not during hunting season). A mile or two outside of white sulpher springs heading into town. Going highway speeds. 4 guys in my buddy's crew cab flatbed pickup with all of our bikes on the back. Heard something hit the metal on the flatbed, we all looked at eachother like WTH. Then the front passenger window exploded. We were all sure that it was a bullet. No projectile entered the pickup that we could tell and it did not exit anywhere else on the truck.

We were driving past some ag fields and the only thing we could think was some kids were shooting gophers with a 22 and though it would be fun to shoot at cars as they drove by.

Weirdest part was a week later my buddy drove back through white sulpher with his window taped up and stopped for fuel. A guy walked up and said "looks like you got your window shot out" yep, "yeah, we don't really like outsiders around here". Like straight up from some old movie. lol Super weird.

 

[CHWine]

I was quail hunting with two other guys in CA many years ago. We were about 40-50 apart in broken cover working a side hill. We might have been a half hour into the drive when a small covey blew out of a poison oak bush right next to me. The hunter on the other side pulled a "Dick Cheney" on me and shot my way. Only a couple of pellets hit me through the brush and didn't penetrate my jeans. Scared the shit out of all of us. I could have lost an eye or worse.

 

[gilby]

Paddled to an oak island in a swampy river bottom with a buddy two hours before first light. We both got setup in our respective trees to archery hunt, 20min before first light a group of duck hunters drives their motor boat and sets up 40yards away pointing semi-towards. We were both shining headlights at them as they drove in, so they knew where we were and would have seen our car at the boat access. Mallards start to fly into their spread and every shot they had to their right was into my buddies tree. Luckily the leaves were thick and he got down from his tree pretty quick and paddled out and gave them a look... There was an apology from them on our car when we got back to the parking lot.

 

[tfransene]

Today I was out hunting West of Benson AZ, just north of Mescal in Unit 33 for mule deer. I was hunting in AZ State Trust Land, East of Mescal Road by mile marker 3, to provide some context for those that know the area.

Didn't have much luck in the morning, saw a few doe but no bucks. By the early afternoon I ended up hiking to an area that was just a bit South of where I was hunting in the morning and on Friday, to see if there was any good terrain to glass from. While hiking around I heard a series of gunshots - at first I thought someone was just a really bad shot and shooting at a deer, but after the 4th or 5th shot, I assumed they may have been target shooting and didn't think much of it besides it being a bit odd (even though I don't think target shooting is allowed on AZ State Trust Land). I ended up on a hillside facing south, and setup my tripod and bino's to glass.

I was there for about 5 minutes, and then I would hear a gunshot and a second later the whizzing of a bullet flying over my head. Boom, another shot and bullet flying over my head. I hit the deck to reduce my signature, as I was pretty exposed on the hillside that I was on. I think one or two more shots went over me, then a pause. I got up in the kneeling position, and as soon as I did I hear another boom, followed by a bullet flying over my head. At this point I'm thinking "what the F...CK, someone is definitely shooting AT me". I waited another moment or two, then grabbed my backpack, tripod with binos and my rifle and ran over the crest of the hill so I was no longer exposed. No more gunshots after that.

I headed straight to my vehicle, which was pretty close at that point. I would periodically stop and scan with my bino's to see if I could see anyone in the vicinity. I never saw who was shooting me. I'm assuming they were shooting from a dirt road that runs parallel to Mescal, that had a few spots which they could've shot at me from. As I left in my vehicle there was two guys and a girl loading up an OHV on a trailer where the dirt road meets Mescal Road, but this is a popular hunting area and I'm not going to make any assumptions it was them without any proof.

I have no idea what to make of this situation. This is my first hunt ever, and only my second day hunting (and last) for this specific hunt. Tomorrow is the last day for my specific hunt, but after today's experience I'm just going to call it quits and cut my losses. I was really excited about picking up this new hobby, but this really puts a damper on my enthusiasm for it.

That's to bad. Some people...