Posted on 12/05/2010 8:18:07 AM PST by marktwain
MASSILLON —
The Ohio Division of Wildlife’s law-enforcement division is investigating a series of events that led to a Massillon man shooting and killing a 225-pound black bear Monday evening in Harrison County.
Bears are protected wildlife in Ohio.
The shooting occurred east of Clendening Lake in the Tippecanoe area, according to Nick Turner, wildlife officer for the Harrison County post of the Division of Wildlife. The man used a shotgun to kill the bear during the first day of Ohio’s deer gun hunting season. The man’s name has not been released.
“A Massillon man was deer hunting when, over a series of events, he shot the bear and reported it to us,” Turner said. “We do have an open investigation to find out under what circumstances the bear was shot.”
Turner would not confirm reports that the man claimed he acted in self-defense. He immediately notified the Harrison County Sheriff’s Department that he shot the bear.
“Another officer and I recovered it,” Turner said. “It’s at one of our headquarters until the investigation is complete.”
The case will be turned over to county prosecutors when the investigation is finished, but Turner said he had no timeline on when that would happen.
He said Wildlife officials spoke with the man after the bear shooting was reported, but have not conducted a formal interview.
(Excerpt) Read more at cantonrep.com ...
I don't like poachers. They give law-abiding hunters a bad name. But, the story says he's the guy who called authorities, which is probably something a poacher wouldn't do.
The more I think about it, maybe they wouldn’t be able to determine the distance. I’m sure all the relevant forensic data on gun-shots is based on a human target, not Ursidae targets. They probably have no idea how far specific loads/calibers travel in a bear’s body.
Reply from the NAACP: Another racist hunter shooting a bear just because he’s black! This would not have happened to a polar bear!
Given that the guy was using a shotgun slug, it’s almost a foregone conclusion that the shot was taken from within 100 yards.
He probably thought it was a deer and then after he shot it he realized it was a bear. People shoot cows all the time. The first year they put the Elk herd up at Cataloochee in NC some guy shot one and said it was the biggest deer he ever saw. Duh! My money is on poor animal identification.
Poachers, maybe not. People shooting a mistaken target, more common. If he shot it thinking it was a deer, and not a bear, he wasn’t very close. Guy shoots what he thinks is s dear, realizes it’s a bear, and phones it in as a “self-defense” shooting.
What's so special about 100 yards? It seems a long way out to me. I would think a bear charging would be much closer.
What's so special about 100 yards? It seems a long way out to me. I would think a bear charging would be much closer.
A far more probable scenario. While I was growing up in PA, I remember a couple incidents where some poor farmer would lose a cow that had been mistaken for a deer.
Nothing really. I was just picking 100-yard as long-estimate. As I said, I don't think it's possible to argue self-defense at that distance, or anything further. 50-75 yards is probably a little more arguable, and anything less than 50 is probably likely. Bears can move at a pretty good clip. I would think a 200lb+ black bear could cover 75-yards in a hurry - much faster than a dog.
The hunter needed to observe the Northern California State Motto for interactions with unfriendly ursine or feline wildlife - “Shoot, Shovel and SHUT UP!”
Of the nearly 500,000 hunters who took part in the rifle portion of the Missouri deer season only one fatality was reported.
A man fell out of a tree stand and died.
...things like this happen every deer season...last year a Georgia deer hunter shot a mountain lion...several years back an Iowa deer hunter shot a moose...the strangest was a couple of years ago a W.VA deer hunter spotted a black maned African lion from his tree stand....he got on the cell phone and was advised to hold his fire....my guess is that there will be more and more of these incidents as camo/scent blockers/tree stands get better all the time.
Here’s the latest camo pattern....try to find the hunter in this picture...(please make sure that your sound is enabled)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjKe9WEpRcY
I have never been hunting but is it possible to “mistake” a bear or cow for deer? I am thinking no but I will leave it to those more experienced than me. Just a thought.
A poacher, eh? Poachers always notify the authorities don’t they?
SSS, in this case a large shovel.
Attention deficit disorder? I can't imagine what would have kept you from reading my last sentence in that post. Maybe that's it. Not to worry, I hear that they have medication that helps, eh?
Well the problem with hunting is that every year there are a lot of inexperienced people out in the woods with a hunting license. You would think that it would be hard to mistake a Bear for a Deer but sometimes people are just looking at a flash of movement in the underbrush and they get itchy and fire one off. It happens.
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