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[HuntingNY]

The 2011 hunting season tied 2009 for New York State’s safest year of hunting on record based on the number of hunting-related shooting incidents, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation announced today.

“Hunting is a tradition in New York state that continues to be safely enjoyed by many” said DEC Commissioner Joe Martens. “New York has an extremely safety-conscious generation of hunters thanks largely to more than 60 years of dedicated efforts of 3,000 volunteer Sportsman Education Instructors. All first-time hunters are required to attend a comprehensive hunter safety course of a minimum of 10 hours taught by DEC’s highly-trained instructors. Their hard work is paying off.”

In the 2011 hunting seasons, 26 personal injury hunting-related shooting incidents were reported, including four fatalities. All of the fatalities occurred during the regular deer season, one of which was self-inflicted.

The hunter safety courses stress safe practices and ethics, along with information on New York’s game species and their management. All courses are offered free of charge, but students must successfully complete the course and pass the final exam before being eligible to purchase a hunting license.

The number of hunters in New York State is declining, but the hunting incident rate (incidents per 100,000 hunters) is falling at a much faster rate. Since the 1960s, the number of hunters has declined about 20 percent, while the incident rate has declined more than 70 percent. The past five-year average is 5.3 incidents per 100,000 hunters, compared to 19 per 100,000 in the 1960s.

While hunting is safer than ever, accidents do happen and it is important to remember that every hunting-related shooting incident is preventable. Many, if not all of these incidents could have been prevented, if only the shooter or victim had followed the primary rules of hunter safety:

· Treat every firearm as if it were loaded
· Keep your muzzle pointed in a safe direction
· Identify your target and what lies beyond
· Keep finger off the trigger until ready to fire
· Wear hunter orange

This post has been promoted to an article

[NFA-ADK]

http://www.myabc50.c..._iuUtn9cOQ.cspx

No so sure this report is accurate, sorry...  This guy died after regular season.  Not trying to be confrontational but this story does not make sense to me if this guy died after regular season, when this story states: "All of the fatalities occurred during the regular deer season, one of which was self-inflicted."

Is this story wrong???

Edwards -- The St. Lawrence County Sheriff's Office has completed its investigation into a fatal hunting accident that happened on the Fordham Hill Road in the Town of Russell on December 11th.
Just before 5:00pm, 911 dispatch received a call of an accidental shooting. Sheriff's Deputies arrived on the scene to find the victim, 49 year old Paul Hatch of Russell, approximately two hundred yards from the road, shot once in the chest. Their investigation revealed that Hatch and 20 year old Tyler Soper of Edwards, were tracking a wounded deer. Soper shot at what he thought was the deer and hit Hatch by mistake. Hatch was transported to Canton Potsdam Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Soper was charged with 2^nd degree Manslaughter and arraigned in the Town of Pierrepont Court and remanded to the St. Lawrence County Correctional Facility with no bail pending further proceedings.

[WNYBuckHunter]

NFA, this article was posted from a DEC feed, if you have questions about it, email the DEC.