When I read this quote, it was the money in the court case:
“When it first happened, I thought, ‘Oh my God, what did I just do? I just killed a wolf!’” said Melton, 19, who lives in Sugar Camp, Wisconsin.
If the kid was not aware of what he was doing he is a problem. Saying something like this indicates that he lacks maturity and self control. Pulling a trigger, even when you fear for your life, should be a conscious decision. This 19 year old made it sound like after the wolf was dead he realized he killed it.
The prosecutor is going to tear him up more than a pack of wolves.
Birdshot is a bad choice for home defense, and just as bad for wolf poaching.
If you know anything about shotgun ballistics and goose-hunting loads, you know that the wolves had to be just a few yards away for him to inflict a lethal injury.
Even on the odd chance he was shooting tungsten ‘T’ shot (which, due to its expense and limited applicability is unlikely), that only extends his lethal range (on a mammal the size of a wolf) to maybe 20 yards. The Tueller drill posits that a healthy young man can over 21 feet in 1.5 seconds. I reckon wolves are at least three times that fast, and if they were so motivated, could have covered 20 yards in one second flat.
The wolves obviously would have known the humans were there long before the humans sensed them. That they weren’t in full flight but in fact approached to within a few yards of the hunters demonstrates intent. This wasn’t an accidental encounter.
Whether he consciously thought it or not, that young man understood that the blast of the first shot probably would scatter the rest. He also understood that if any one of those wolves got in amongst he and his two companions, the chaos that followed would ring the dinner bell to the other five. Some or all of them likely would be killed.
So he acknowledged the severity of the threat took the only decision that guaranteed he and his two buddies all would go home that night.