
DATE: Tuesday, November 4, 1997             TAG: 9710310840

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY ESTHER DISKIN, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  139 lines

HUNTING SAFETY IS NO ACCIDENTPREVENTING MISHAPS REQUIRES VIGILANCE AND EDUCATION, SAY OFFICIALS AND HUNTERS

After more than four decades hunting deer, T. Hayes Griffin has heard safety rules about as often as he's heard the crack of a shotgun. Wear blaze orange. Don't walk in the woods with a loaded gun. Look closely - very closely - before you shoot.

His greatest fear: That a hunting companion won't remember those rules as well as he does.

Griffin, who lives in Isle of Wight and hunts deer in the local area, had a close call about a dozen years ago. An 8-year-old boy, who had been invited along on the hunt, was walking in the woods toting a shotgun. Griffin says the adults didn't realize that the kid had loaded the gun.

They found out suddenly when the gun went off.

``It put the fear of God in me,'' said Griffin, who was walking a short distance ahead of the boy. ``Fortunately, the gun was pointed toward the ground. . . As soon as we got our senses together again, I took him off to the side and talked to him.''

Talking about safety is one of the keys to preventing accidents in a sport where people use deadly weapons, from bows and arrows to shotguns, according to Rich Jefferson, a spokesman at the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, which investigates accidents and sponsors numerous hunter education programs.

In the first nine months of this year, with more than 300,000 people licensed to hunt in Virginia, there have been 13 nonfatal shooting accidents, and a single fatality. However, those numbers are comparatively low, in part because Virginia's general firearms season for deer does not begin until Nov. 17.

Deer is far and away the most popular quarry for hunters, according to staff at the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, although exact numbers are difficult to track. A big-game license, required for deer hunting, also covers bear, deer and turkey.

Statewide in 1996, there were two fatalities and 50 nonfatal accidents. In 1995, there were six fatalities and 67 nonfatal accidents.

For a four-year period from Jan. 1, 1993 to the end of 1996, there were 21 fatalities.

The number of licensed hunters annually declined from about 339,000 in fiscal year 1993 to about 309,000 in fiscal year 1997.

This year's fatality happened in April in the western part of Virginia during turkey season. The victim, who was wearing full camouflage on his face, was shot near his right eye by another hunter, Jefferson said.

An accident like that, he said, indicates that the hunter didn't identify the target before firing - one of the main safety rules his department emphasizes.

``Through every available method, we keep hammering away on the need for safety,'' Jefferson said. ``No matter how well we do, we can always do better. The target - however unobtainable it may seem - is no accidents in the field.''

The department's statistics only include shooting incidents. They don't include other causes of injuries or deaths, such as falling out of tree stands - raised platforms used by hunters watching for deer - or falling into icy waters while hunting waterfowl.

In January, two men and two young boys died in an accident while duck hunting in Currituck Sound, when their boat swamped in 40-degree water. The fifth person in the hunting party, a 29-year-old man wearing waist-high waders, survived for 14 hours in the frigid water.

Anyone who gets a hunting license in Virginia is required to take a safety course, Jefferson pointed out. However, that regulation has only been in effect since 1987, the same year the state began requiring hunters to wear blaze orange to make them more visible.

However, hunters don't have to take a safety course if they are renewing a license, if they have been licensed for many years, or, in some cases, if they have been licensed in another state.

Griffin said that the Myrtle Hunt Club in Suffolk, where he is a member, has sponsored about eight hunter safety courses for its 24 members.

His eldest son, who goes by the nickname T.H., started coming along on hunting expeditions with him when the boy was 5, Griffin said. First he toted a BB gun. Now, at age 14, T.H. carries a shotgun and his younger brother, C.J., carries a BB gun.

Griffin said he didn't rely on safety courses to teach his sons. He taught by example. ``Kids pick up what adults do,'' he said.

Arch Walpole of Virginia Beach has taught his sons the secrets of hunting waterfowl at the Princess Anne Wildlife Management Area. His sons - 18-year-old James and 15-year-old John - accompany him in their 16-foot aluminum boat in search of snow geese, widgeon, gadwal and pintail duck.

``When my boys go with me, it is a symphony,'' he said. ``Everyone knows their job.''

One of the chief safety tips is the simplest: Don't step in the boat without a life preserver, Walpole said. And when people are shooting in close proximity to each other on a small boat, Walpole noted, each one must stay strictly within his own ``field of fire'' - the area, extending outward in a cone-shape from the hunter's position, in which each hunter is allowed to shoot.

That is difficult for newcomers to learn, he said. ``That's why, when you take out two young boys, you don't do much hunting yourself.''

Willis P. Simmons of Chesapeake allows his two granddaughters, ages 9 and 8, to pull the trigger while he holds a .22-caliber rifle - aiming only at cans of water. But when he hunts squirrel in the woods of West Virginia, he goes alone.

``There are probably only three or four people in the entire world that I would go into the woods with,'' he said. ``I'm not sure most people handle a gun right.''

He hunts fox squirrel and gray squirrel, but admits that his interest in netting his prey has waned. These days, he shoots only two or three a year. Counting all the expenses for licenses, travel costs and equipment, it costs him about $200 per squirrel, he jokes.

``Hunting is like fly fishing to me,'' he said. ``It's not the hunting. It's the getting out and observing nature. . . the colored leaves. That's what it is to me.'' ILLUSTRATION: Charts

Hunting Accidents in Hampton Roads

Statewide Hunting Accidents

File photo

THE WASHINGTON POST

According to state officials, deer are the most popular quarry for

hunters. The general season for deer begins Nov. 17.

Graphic

Rules of Shooting Safety

Keep the safety on and your finger off the trigger until ready to

shoot.

Identify your target and what is beyond it.

Be sure the barrel and action are not obstrructed. Use only