Last Updated on January 18, 2019 by Terry
Yes, it’s true. In the past, we have had a few unfortunate shooting incidents. When you hunt as much as we did, these things can happen. We sort of learned on our own.
Remember that hunter education classes were not offered at that time. (We would have probably skipped the class anyway, as we already knew everything.)
Three of the incidents were hunting accidents and one was perpetrated from the home environment. (That would be the one I was involved with.)
1-The bullet hole in the top of the truck
One morning back in the late 70s, Allan and I were walking down the right of way toward the corner that separates the public and private properties. The area was located near the Arkansas River in SE Arkansas. We were known to hunt both sides, so it made no difference to us.
It was about a half mile, so when a big black truck came driving up to us, we said “yes” when he asked if we needed a ride. Hunting from trucks was a natural thing to do back then so we stood in the bed and held our rifles in the ready position while looking out over the top of the cab.
Allan got my attention and pointed to the center of the roof of the cab. A perfectly round piece of metal from the roof was sticking straight up. It was the diameter of a rifle bullet. It gave the appearance of a can of sauerkraut after you open it about three quarters of the way and pull the lid straight up. (You may substitute your favorite can of vegetables if you need to understand this illustration more clearly.)
It was obvious that in his excitement of seeing a deer recently, and as he reached for his gun, he became a little too excited and accidentally fired his gun while it was aiming skyward.
Great hunters who knew the tricks of the trade would rest the butt of the gun in the floor with the barrel pointing straight up. It was the quickest way to get the gun pointed out the window to shoot. You could grab your gun and pull the barrel out of the window without taking your eye off the deer you had seen.
But if you were not careful, not looking at what you were grabbing, you just might grab the trigger. It shouldn’t matter as you should always have your safety on. He had failed to remember that step and fired off his rifle inside the cab, thus shooting a hole in his roof.
As we realized his failures, we moved away from the center of his cab in case he forgot again.
2-Our friend shot his own truck, on purpose
On one of our deer hunting trips to south Arkansas, a friend of ours joined us. The hunting trip was a special muzzle loading hunt between Christmas and New Year’s. Allan and I had left the day after Christmas and this friend of ours drove down the next day.
The fellow had a special truck. It was a half-ton pickup with a work body. It had doors and drawers on the outside of the bed on both sides. I think it might have been an old phone company used up truck that they had discarded.
He had been driving it for a while and so far, had no troubles. But, after he left us from the two days he was going to hunt, he had a flat on the way home that night. He was somewhere between Pine Bluff and Little Rock. “No worries” he thought, “I have a spare in the back.”
He did. He also remembered that when he bought the truck, they told him the jack was in one of tool box compartments.
He pulled over, retrieved the spare from the back, and began searching through the various doors on the side of the bed for the jack. That did not work out too well as all the doors that were not locked did not contain the jack. The two largest doors were locked and he realized that he had not been given any keys to the doors.
He searched the inside of the cab with no success. So, there he sat. Stranded with no exit for miles, and it was about 9pm.
After a few minutes, the little lightbulb went off in his head. The two doors that were locked were secured with a hasp and a pad lock. He pulled his muzzle loader rifle from the cab and lined it up aiming straight down the side of his truck bed and fired.
Perfect, only one shot and the lock was shattered. He even had luck on his side as he had picked the door that contained the jack on his first shot. He then changed his tire and made it home safely.
3-One of our friends shot my brother
Once upon a time in the past, we went hunting. It seemed the normal thing to do being it was hunting season. I think there were five of us: Me, Allan, my brother JB, and a guy that will remain nameless. I think it’s called; “to protect the guilty”. Dave may have been with us, but I can’t remember for sure.
We were going to make a human drive. We scattered on the side of the gravel road and began slipping into the woods and brush. We were about fifty yards apart as we departed.
This method can be very successful as the deer in the area in front of us will begin to scatter around and may run in front of one of the hunters. This method can also be unsuccessful because as we leave the road, you never know how quick the guys on each side of you are advancing, and we may not be walking straight which means you could end up in front of another hunter and far enough ahead of him that he can’t see you.
In other words, it’s stupid thing to do. We were not deterred. And by the way, since this story is included, one can assume that it did not turn out well.
We were so scattered and zig-zagged into this patch of woods that sure enough, we had a small doe running in circles between us. We had almost formed a perfect circle ourselves with the deer in the middle of the circle.
Remember, we cannot see each other. The first one to get a shot had a great probability to shoot one of the other hunters. Come to think of it, I do believe Jesus may have been the fifth hunter. At the least he was there protecting the group of simple-minded hunters.
Our nameless friend was the one that got the shot. He was also the only one shooting buckshot. The rest of us had rifles that were much more powerful at cutting through brush. The nameless nut fired and JB screamed as one of the pieces of buckshot hit him in the leg. The projectile probably passed through about forty pieces of brush before it hit him. This of course slowed the lead ball enough to not penetrate his leg. But wow, what a giant blue/black bruise!
As JB screamed, our friend that fired the shot shouted: “Oh no, I’ve killed JB!” When the scare had passed, we joked about it, and continued hunting. Thanks Jesus.
4-Yes I shot my wife’s car! (no, she was not in it)
I’m going to hold off on this one until next week. It’s a pretty involved adventure and we already have enough content for one week.
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A few of my friends that have read my third book The 99 Truths of Life have been emailing and texting me that they enjoyed it and they agree with me that it should be required reading in all middle schools. It will definitely help you learn how to have fun and enjoy life during everyday living.
