Dear Mr. turkey hunter: You're doing it wrong.

Conn. man injured in NY hunting mishap

Associated Press - May 23, 2009 12:25 PM ET

FORESTBURGH, N.Y. (AP) - A Connecticut man is recovering from shotgun wounds sustained in a hunting mishap in southern New York.

Authorities say Henry Gasiorowski, of Greenwich, Conn., was hit in the arm and back by shotgun pellets in the Friday morning accident at a hunting club in Forestburgh.

The Sullivan County Sheriff's office says the 60-year-old was sitting behind a decoy turkey making turkey calls when a hunting companion from Greenwich mistakenly opened fire.

Gasiorowski was hospitalized, but his injuries were not life-threatening. Police are investigating.

http://www.wten.com/Global/story.asp?S=10413925

are you say the pair were turkey hunting, or that there was a pair of turkeys hunting.

'Cuz it sounds more like the latter to me.

Since they were hunting turkeys, and one of them got shot...can we say "successful hunting trip" then?

It's the type of hunting where hunters are most likely to forget the cardinal rule of know your target and what is beyond, and just shoot at movement.

The other hunter probably fired at the decoy. Sad outcome, however it could have been much worse than it was. With the high casualty rate in turkey hunting, I'm almost thinking states should require turkey hunters to wear blaze orange just like they are required to do in most states for deer hunting.

and would be able to see a blaze-orange-wearing hunter at a greater distance than a human would. Bird eyes are damn good.

Requiring blaze orange for turkey hunting would be like requiring deer hunters to wear cowbells around their necks. It would sort of negatively impact the success rate.

but they see colors in a different spectrum. They apparently can distinguish colors from yellow, thru green, blue, purple, and on into the low end ultraviolet. So red or orange just look like shades of grey, and ultraviolet "colors" stand out, even though we can't see them. That's one argument for washing the hunting gear with detergent that doesn't have "whiteners". We would not notice the difference, but to a deer, the whiteners are like neon lights. Or so I've read.

Dunno about other areas, but in MI, turkey hunters have to wear the blaze orange color when walking to or from their hunting spot. Then have to switch to more muted garb to try to hide from the turkeys.

In this case, I think the shooter has trouble with short-term memory. As in "Oh crap, I forgot I was hunting with a partner".

:hi:

I knew deer couldn't distinguish orange, but I didn't know they could see other colors. Fascinating1

:shrug:

aA

:dunce:

he was sitting behind the decoy making turkey calls and he was surprised he got shot?

and to shoot at the live turkeys lured out by the decoy. Fairly common practice, I suspect, but it breaks down if you're hunting with a Dick Cheney protoge.

1. Explains the idiocy immediately.

2. Poetic justice.