There are more than a few of us that understand this.
The fact is, there are also many who haven't a clue of what they are talking about.
Par for the course. ;)
Posted on 02/13/2006 10:38:19 AM PST by SirLinksalot
How Did Dick Cheney Break the No.1 Rule of Hunting?
For veteran sportsmen like the vice president, safety is a core value
By TIMOTHY J. BURGER/WASHINGTON
The cardinal rule of hunting could not be more simple: Don’t shoot the people (or the dogs). If there’s anyone in Washington who knows this, one would have thought it would be Vice President Dick Cheney, who accidentally shot his friend and fellow hunter Harry Whittington, 78, late Saturday afternoon. Whittington is expected to recover from his injuries, but the question will linger on: how does an accident like this happen among hunters with so much experience?
For years, Cheney's take-charge public image has been bolstered by photos of him fly fishing in Wyoming and stories about Cheney jetting into hunting hotspots for quail, pheasant and other game. While serving as a congressman from Wyoming — before President Bush’s father tapped him for secretary of defense in 1989 — Cheney was a solid ally of the National Rifle Association, the staunch defender of gun rights, which also preaches gun safety.
Cheney frequently hunts ducks in Arkansas, Texas and South Dakota. His hunting career had been relatively smooth until controversy arose after he was reported to have taken conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia hunting in Louisiana in 2004, just after the Court had agreed to hear a case involving the secrecy of documents related to the Vice President’s 2001 work heading an energy task force. (Cheney was in favor of keeping them secret.)
Cheney also drew attention for reportedly shooting ducks and some 70 pen-raised pheasants at the exclusive Rolling Rock Club in southwestern Pennsylvania in December 2003. Experts were quoted at the time as saying there’s nothing wrong, legally at least, with blasting away at stocked birds. But depending on how and when they are released, it should not be confused with actual hunting, since disoriented birds placed in the field or released in front of the shooters are often neither as wary or elusive as wild quarry.
An eyewitness account reported by the Associated Press suggests that Cheney may have, in the heat of the moment, violated the No. 1 rule of hunting by failing to keep track of his hunting buddies at all times. The AP quoted the ranch's owner saying that Cheney could easily have failed to see Whittington, as the latter walked up behind the Vice President from lower ground and in tall grass. To be sure, safety should be paramount for everyone in a hunting party and some responsibility would have fallen to Whittington to make sure his fellow hunters knew he might be just out of sight behind them. But for the shooter, hunting safety dictates that focusing on the target should never be more important than keeping in mind what's behind it.
Accidents can happen, of course, in a single careless moment. Quail, when you find them and they flush, don’t exactly follow gun-safety rules. They fly up suddenly and may go in any direction. And the first thing that happens to the hunter is the adrenaline rush. That’s why quail hunters wear orange, as Cheney's group reportedly were. And that’s why experts counsel the hunter not to sweep the shotgun around and fire if they don’t know what’s in the line of fire. Knowing what's behind the target is also a rule with which, one can bet, Cheney’s Secret Service detail would have wanted Whittington himself to be intimate.
What probably spared Whittington more critical injury was the tiny size of birdshot being used on the hunt; quail are typically hunted with No. 8 shot, which is even smaller than BBs. After the accident, Whittington's face "looks like chicken pox, kind of. He's so lucky, it's a miracle," Whittington's daughter Sally told the Dallas Morning News. Cheney visited Whittington in the hospital the next day. The vice president "feels so bad," said Sally Whittington. "He's a very accomplished hunter. He was obviously relieved to see how well my father was doing."
If Cheney now finds himself criticized or lampooned, he'll ironically be in the same position he himself put Senator John Kerry in during the final days of the 2004 Presidential campaign, though the circumstances then did not involve a potentially deadly accident. At the time, Cheney used his widely-known experience as a hunter to mock a duck-hunting foray in Ohio in which Senator John Kerry ended up shooting a goose. "The senator who gets a grade of 'F' from the National Rifle Association went hunting this morning," Cheney reportedly said, to hoots. "I understand he bought a new camouflage jacket for the occasion, which did make me wonder how regularly he does go goose hunting.” As the Texas incident shows, experience does not make hunters immune to accidents, which is why hunting advocacy groups put such a relentless focus on safety as the top priority.
Bingo. And, contrary to those who want this to be about 'bashing the President', this is about sending the right message about firearms safety in the most publicized hunting accident story in quite a while. And the right message does not come from blaming the guy who was accidentally shot.
Uh, I am not talking about worrying about a house a half-mile away when I am shooting 8-shot.
HOWEVER, if you are shooting into a line of trees, and am not sure if there are houses just behind the line, that is negligent.
Whittington announced he was leaving the "line". Upon his return, from the rear, he made no such announcement.
See post #101. The other hunters should not have progressed to get the next covey until Whittington came back to the line.
There are more than a few of us that understand this.
The fact is, there are also many who haven't a clue of what they are talking about.
Par for the course. ;)
I tell you what, after some of the responses I've seen on this subject, this might be a good time to make an inventory of "freepers I would never go hunting with".
have it your way
I'm sure all the sporting hunters over at Time Magazine would never break the 'cardinal rule of hunting'. No never. Especially on all their forays into New York City's Central Park for the excellent pigeon hunting.
I've hunted plenty, more waterfowl than upland birds but an occasional upland hunt. Which is why I know that you don't blame the guy you shot for your own failure to know your field of fire. Those who are blaming Whittington are the ones who don't know jack, and are sending a very WRONG message about hunting and gun safety.
"No, the first rule of hunting is to make sure you won't hit something other than what you are aiming at. Even if you have a moron in range, it is your responsibility to make sure you don't hit them - especially when they are wearing orange."
Agreed. Why are excuses being made because it's Cheney? Remember - guns don't kill/injure people. People do. In this case, the person is Cheney who is responsible.
From King of the Hill:
"I didn't know it was loaded" is not an acceptable excuse. "I wasn't there" or "I never met those people" are better excuses.
You want the shot to spread out in a pattern to increase your chances of hitting a bird on the wing. The amount of spread related to the choke. Some chokes are meant for close-in hunting and the pattern widens quickly. Conversely, if you are hunting geese, you would want a tighter choke so the shot doesn't spread out as fast, since you are typically shooting at a bird further away.
Was the bird that Cheney was shooting at only 5-6 feet up in the air? How far out does the birdshot spray and is it smaller than a BB?
Quail tend to stay closer to the ground, as opposed to doves which will try to rise up higher.
We don't need any statements from people that were there. It is far more fun to just make stuff up.(/sarcasm)
"Of course as a shooter you need to always be aware of what's around you, so perhaps this is no excuse."
No 'perhaps' about it. There's no excuse for discharging your weapon without first knowing where your hunting party is. As us "conservatives" have preached on this site for years, the gun isn't responsible - the person holding the gun is.
In this case, it's Cheney who is responsible. He should've known where Whittington was at all times.
"I tell you what, after some of the responses I've seen on this subject, this might be a good time to make an inventory of "freepers I would never go hunting with"."
That was way to logical.
"I'm sorry, but the vast majority of hunting accideents don't just happen."
Amen.
Triggers are NOT SQUEEZED ACCIDENTALLY.
As long as folks hold the person who pulled the trigger blameless, the wrong lesson will be learned from it.
.....Even if you have a moron in range.....
Hadn't heard that. The shootee was a mormon?
Too many cooks spoil the broth and the hunt...
Too many secret service agents and other strap hangers cluttering up the hunting site...too many people to keep track of and too much distraction for something so potentially dangerous...
8 shot tends to get attenuated by air resistance fairly quickly - the victim was about 30 yards away and it penetrated his skin. The biggest danger at that range would have been if it hit an eye or caught too much in the neck where it could have impacted an artery or vein.
Now, if he had been hit by goose load (2 shot) at that range, he would have been much more seriously injured.
8 shot (doves and quail) is smaller than a BB (8 shot is smaller than 4 shot (duck and pheasants), etc.). But there is a lot of 8 shot even in a 28 gauge shotshell.
"As long as folks hold the person who pulled the trigger blameless, the wrong lesson will be learned from it."
Well, yes. The shooter is responsible for his shot...always.
I don't know what the rule is in that area, but turning to take a bird that flies behind you is always forbidden on any hunt I've ever been on. It's just too dangerous. First, your line of fire has to pass over the hunter on one side of you as you turn. Second, you have not been following what is going on behind you, so someone may have approached without your knowledge. Third, you'd miss anyhow, since that's just not a natural shot.
Normally, in a line of, say, three hunters, each hunter has a virtual cone in which he may fire. The angle formed by that cone is a matter of discussion among the members of the party, but, in general it's about 60 degrees. That encompasses a full 180 degrees. The side shooters take birds on their sides and the center shooter takes birds in front. The cones overlap a bit, especially for the center shooter. By sticking to this 60 degree cone of fire, you never run the risk of swinging too far toward another hunter, who may have stepped slightly forward.
It's all safety, along with giving all members of the party a good chance to take game.
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