Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 16, 1993 TAG: 9305160018
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: E11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A turkey gobbled on the ridge above him; then, another responded below him. Everything appeared to be perfect.
When he struck some notes on his turkey call, the gobbler on the ridge began to stride his way. The hunter decided to close some of the distance by stalking toward it, but that spooked the bird.
So the hunter traveled back down the ridge, where about 40 minutes later he heard what sounded like turkeys fighting. Then he saw something that looked like a turkey with its feathers ruffled out.
He put his 3-to-9 power scope on it and peered at it for a minute or so. Convinced it was a gobbler, he pulled the trigger on his .243 rifle.
The Department of Game and Inland Fisheries accident report says at that point "A man jumped up and yelled, `Oh God!' and fell back down."
At a distance of 192 feet, the hunter found another hunter dressed in a camouflaged hat, pants and jacket, a camo mask over his face, a turkey call and owl hooter on the log beside him.
There was a bullet hole in his chest under his left arm.
Leon Turner cites that fatality, which occurred May a year ago, as an example of why rifles should be outlawed during the spring gobbler season. Turner, a game department board member from Fincastle, has been backing a proposal to make the spring season a shotgun-only affair - no rifles, handguns or combination rifle-shotgun - beginning next season.
Safety is the reason.
Other backers of the proposal, which is subject to a final hearing June 18, say there's another reason, too.
A turkey is too magnificent a bird to be shot at from a long distance with a rifle, they say. It should be called to within shotgun range, or it should be left alone. That's the position of a number of leaders in the Virginia Wild Turkey Federation.
There are some fine turkey hunters who argue that the shotgun-only restriction isn't needed. Some of these also are members of the turkey federation.
They say that the rifle option should be retained, especially for hunters who have spent big money to purchase a combination gun that features a rifle over a shotgun barrel.
All but one of the nine hunting accidents reported during the past spring season involved a shotgun, and one of those was a fatality. So you could argue that there is no hard data that shows rifles in the spring woods to be a major safety problem.
There is a feeling, though, that if a hunter is mistaken for game his chances for survival are better when hit with a shotgun rather than a rifle. A Pennsylvania study has been cited that shows seven out of 10 rifle wounds are fatal.
A couple of season ago, the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries outlawed the use of anything bigger than No. 2 shot in shotguns used during the spring season. That came out of the feeling that buckshot is so dense a hunter doesn't stand much of a chance if struck by it.
But hunters shouldn't have to decide what they'd rather be hit with. The important thing, believes Sgt. Rex Hill, the department's hunter-safety coordinator, is to educate everyone so there won't be any mistakes in the first place.
"It isn't so much a situation of what firearm they use or what size shot; it is a matter of not positively identifying their target," he said.
Hill believes strides are being made in hunter-safety education. Spring gobbler hunting accidents this year are down sharply.
As for the shotgun-only proposal, Turner said he had heard from a number of Southwest Virginia hunters who oppose it, especially those who own combination guns. He is thinking about seeing if the proposal can be reworded so a combination owner could use his gun in the spring season as long as no rifle rounds are carried.
by CNB