I'm posting this in hopes that hunters, new and old will take what happened to my son and myself as a lesson and teach others or learn for themselves.
On the evening of the 23rd I left hunting camp with my young son in tow headed off to our favorite hunting spot. We've seen many deer and taken a few from this spot so we were both ready for action. This particular spot has two lock on stands side by side in a red oak that splits out of one stump and grows two trunks about 2 feet apart. My son sits to my right, in arm's reach and watches "his side" with no help from dad (as far as he knows) so he learns the lessons of the woods for himself while hunting.
We get to the stand and I realize that I have forgotten his fall restraint harness so instead of heading all the way back to camp I decided to have him sit in the lock on that I usually sit in because it's hammock like stand. I then took the strap that I had in my pack and locked him in like a seat belt. We settled in for the hunt, taking in the sounds and watching the wood come back alive from our walk in.
We were in the stand about an hour when we heard a shot from what sounded like a 22LR from the land that boarders ours about 200 yards away. I've always taught my son that you shouldn't hunt on the property lines unless you know who is hunting the land next to you and what kind of hunter they are. The extra distance from an unknown hunter can save your life.
After the shot was fired my son and I look at each other and I whispered "22" and he nodded. With the second nod of his head we heard a "ZIIIIP, WHACK!", a bullet had just hit the tree 3 feet above my son's head. Having heard that sound before I quickly took the safety strap off of my son and sent him down the tree while yelling "HEY!" in the direction of the shot. Another shot rang out just as my son was half way down the tree and again another "ZIIIP", this time the bullet just passed by. At this point my safety is off and I'm scanning the woods in the direction of the gun fire while yelling "Stop shooting!".
We never discovered who it was shooting in our direction, but I do have a theory. The woods that we hunt is a mixture of hard wood valleys and planted pines with 2-3" sweet gum trees mixed in the pines. In others words it is thick between where we hunt and the property line. Just across the property line the pines thin out and make way for a hardwood bottom where I think the teenage son of the property owner next to us was shooting at a squirrel in a tree. I think that the bullet missed the squirrel and hit our tree. I say "I think" because by the time I got to where I thought the shot rang out from the woods were empty with only foot prints in the road beed that leads to the owners house.....and they were running.
This weekend I plan to knock on my neighbor's door and tell him what happened, maybe he will the time and talk to his son about the dangers of not knowing your target and beyond.
Be careful out there, it can happen to you just as easy as it happened to us.
On the evening of the 23rd I left hunting camp with my young son in tow headed off to our favorite hunting spot. We've seen many deer and taken a few from this spot so we were both ready for action. This particular spot has two lock on stands side by side in a red oak that splits out of one stump and grows two trunks about 2 feet apart. My son sits to my right, in arm's reach and watches "his side" with no help from dad (as far as he knows) so he learns the lessons of the woods for himself while hunting.
We get to the stand and I realize that I have forgotten his fall restraint harness so instead of heading all the way back to camp I decided to have him sit in the lock on that I usually sit in because it's hammock like stand. I then took the strap that I had in my pack and locked him in like a seat belt. We settled in for the hunt, taking in the sounds and watching the wood come back alive from our walk in.
We were in the stand about an hour when we heard a shot from what sounded like a 22LR from the land that boarders ours about 200 yards away. I've always taught my son that you shouldn't hunt on the property lines unless you know who is hunting the land next to you and what kind of hunter they are. The extra distance from an unknown hunter can save your life.
After the shot was fired my son and I look at each other and I whispered "22" and he nodded. With the second nod of his head we heard a "ZIIIIP, WHACK!", a bullet had just hit the tree 3 feet above my son's head. Having heard that sound before I quickly took the safety strap off of my son and sent him down the tree while yelling "HEY!" in the direction of the shot. Another shot rang out just as my son was half way down the tree and again another "ZIIIP", this time the bullet just passed by. At this point my safety is off and I'm scanning the woods in the direction of the gun fire while yelling "Stop shooting!".
We never discovered who it was shooting in our direction, but I do have a theory. The woods that we hunt is a mixture of hard wood valleys and planted pines with 2-3" sweet gum trees mixed in the pines. In others words it is thick between where we hunt and the property line. Just across the property line the pines thin out and make way for a hardwood bottom where I think the teenage son of the property owner next to us was shooting at a squirrel in a tree. I think that the bullet missed the squirrel and hit our tree. I say "I think" because by the time I got to where I thought the shot rang out from the woods were empty with only foot prints in the road beed that leads to the owners house.....and they were running.
This weekend I plan to knock on my neighbor's door and tell him what happened, maybe he will the time and talk to his son about the dangers of not knowing your target and beyond.
Be careful out there, it can happen to you just as easy as it happened to us.
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