For DNR, education is the key to safety
Despite injury reports, official says hunting is ‘extremely safe’
While unloading his rifle out of the back of a pickup truck, a 60-year-old Carroll County deer hunter accidentally shoots his buddy in the leg, striking his femoral artery. The man survives.
A teenager in Western Maryland fires a shotgun at what he believes is a wild turkey. It’s not. The nonfatal blast strikes a 70-year-old camouflaged hunter in the face.
On the Eastern Shore, a 69-yearold deer hunter perched in a tree stand dozes off, falls to the ground and suffers three broken vertebrae.
The woods are full of such tales over the past three years: hunters in Maryland who stalk prey but who themselves end up in the emergency room, or worse. On Nov. 26, the first day of the firearm season for deer, a California man hunting in Frederick County was shot in the head and died. Police believe Vincent Cavallo, 32, a first-time hunter, might have stumbled on rocky terrain and his weapon discharged, killing him on the spot.
That same day, in Cecil County, a hunter shot a deer, and then himself, having slipped while trying to retrieve his kill. Scott Carroll, 44, of Delaware was struck in the leg when his rifle discharged.
If it sounds as if the forests are fraught with danger, they aren’t, said Bob Ford, supervisor of safety education for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.
“Out of 80,000 hunters in Maryland, we have about 15 accidents a year, and as many as 85 percent of those are falls from tree stands,” Ford said. “As for knowing their stuff, I’d give hunters here a 9 out of 10. It’s an extremely safe sport, probably more so than football.”
While there have been rare cases of hunters shooting other hunters by mistake, Ford said, “Maryland has never had a [nonhunter] civilian shot and killed by a hunter.”
Moreover, hunting fatalities have fallen by half in the past 40 years, he said. Before 1977, Maryland averaged about six deaths a year. Since then, there have been no more than three — and some of those were only marginally hunting-related, Ford said.
“Last year, we had a fatality where a 70-year-old [Wicomico County] deer hunter was found dead, lying under a tree. He’d had some kind of medical emergency, maybe a heart condition, which might also have happened anywhere,” Ford said.
Most fatalities involve firearms, though in 2003, while hunting with his father in Queen Anne’s County, 10-year-old Tyler Mattison of Perry Hall accidentally shot himself in the chest with a crossbow. There is no minimum age for hunting in the state.
Hunting in some form occurs almost year-round in Maryland. The two-week modern firearms season for deer ended Saturday, but returns for three days next month (Jan. 6-8). Muzzleloader season will start Saturday and run to Dec. 31.
All Maryland hunters must be licensed and, if born after 1977, obtain a hunter education certificate. Participants must attend either a minimum of 10 hours of classroom training or take part in online schooling, followed by a field day practicum. Last year, nearly 8,000 aspiring hunters received training from the state’s 1,100 volunteer instructors. A four- to six-hour examination follows.
That intensive learning has paid off, Ford said.
“It’s all about education. We take them out for a workshop where they put their knowledge to practice on a field walk with live fire. They’ve got to make the gun go ‘bang,’ ” he said.
All gun hunters are taught three basic safety tenets, Ford said.
“First, when you pick up any firearm, treat it like it’s loaded and ready to go off any second — even if you’ve checked it five times. Second, always control the muzzle; don’t flip a gun in the air to someone. Third, never put your finger on the trigger, or even inside the trigger guard, until you’ve identified your target and what’s beyond.
“If a deer is standing in a field 100 yards away, and 100 yards beyond that is a house, you don’t shoot. That’s where hunters err; they see the animal but they get excited and don’t look beyond.”
It’s when hunters get that rush of adrenaline that accidents happen, Ford said.
“And if there’s no rush, you’re not going to be a hunter. You’re going to take up golf.”