Two people were shot on Eagle Tower Rd, just out of town, while riding an ATV after hunters had mistaken them for a moose.
Local hunters spotted a moose and one person was said to have acted impulsively and shot before really looking.
The driver of the ATV was shot in the right bicep and the bullet went through the first person hitting the passenger as well.
The people who were shot are from Edmonton and one was sent to the University of Alberta hospital. The other was treated at the Royal Alexandra hospital.
Both people are in good condition at the present time after undergoing surgery. The incident is currently under investigation and the suspect may be charged with careless use of a firearm.

The shooter is facing numerous charges, but it shows not all hunters should be allowed in the woods, how in the hell do ya mistake 2 people on a quad, one wearing an orange hat for a moose.
There is a bit more to this as well but it will have to wait till court to come out.
Jetboater

quote:

hunters had mistaken them for a moose.

Bull.

The "hunter" was probably scoping them and pulled the trigger "by accident"

What an idiot. He deserves some pretty serious jail time. Sounds like attempted murder. The fact that he could misidentify them means that he did see them so it wasn't an accident.

This happened before in northern Alberta when some hunters were with an outfitter. The hunter shot and killed the 2 other hunters (red / orange clothing)(with the outfitter) that were riding a atv. They were all the same group.

I hope the wounded guys fully recover, and that the shooter gets prosecuted to the full extent and SUED!!! There is no excuse for this. And as you said Jetboater - not all hunters should be allowed in the woods. I guess some people just do not have "COMMON SENSE"

On my annual moose hunting trip, I never seen so many hunters in the area where we go (been there 17 years) as this season. It was bad - new high grade road means easy access now.

Anyhow on my first morning with one of my firends with me, on our quads, working the cutblocks / cutlines. I set up in the same spot each morning everyday and start my calling. If no response with in about half hour to hour, we get back on our quads, go a few miles and start calling again, and do this over and over, then back track back to camp for lunch.

As we were on our quads, I seen something brown (too small for a moose-maybe calf) down the cutline approx 500m. I glass with my binos (strapped about my body) and see it is a hunter, but what did I see, the flash of the barrel go down and then reshoulder his gun. He SCOPED ME!!! I raced up with my quad to the are the person was standing - no quad-must of been walking. Pissed off, we continue around the corner about 1 km, when we come across a quad and hunter. I told him what took place. After some more conversation, he told me he dropped his father off just back a bit and he was walking. I told him that if I see his dad, I will not be very pleseant with my language. At this time another quad come down the line with a different hunter. My buddy and I back tracked to camp, and called it a morning. This is the second time I have been scoped in my years of hunting. The first time was a guy in a tree stand, and I was with my (future TO-BE Father-in-law). I was even wearing a HWY safety vest over my camo clothing thinking there maybe other elk hunters in the same area. I nearly rattled the guy out of the stand. If it wasnt for my F-I-L, I may of hurt that guy. And we were walking thru the timber on game trails.

My opinion is you dont need to have expensive Binos, but binos are a must. If you can afford to hunt- you can afford a $50 binos. Me I use Leupold binos (I can afford the others, but my Leupolds are great) and always glass with them to confirm what I see before I bring up the rifle, unless its "the BIG ONE" with the naked eye.


Another black mark for the activists to put on their ANTI_HUNTING wagon.

This kind of thing infuriates me. I do hope the guy that made the mistake gets prosecuted to the full extent of the law and sentenced accordingly. We need to show that careless and/or illegal use of firearms is taken very seriously in this country.

I heard of the other incident in Northern AB too. It also happened to a friend of mine...he was shot at while riding down a cutline in northern BC on his 3-wheeler back in the late '80s. The shooter had shot from his truck and took off when he realized his mistake.

There was also a kid shot by his father (who mistook him for a bear) about the same time, in the same area. My Pa (ex-RCMP) attended the scene. It was rediculous.

On the topic of "scoping", it has happened to me a couple times and gets me pretty hot under the collar too. But, and this is a big but, I have to admit to having scoped someone myself by accident. I spotted some mule deer entering a small opening early one am. They came in single file and crossed the opening very quickly. I knew there was a buck with that herd as I had seen them there the night before. While the deer were filing into and across the opening, I dropped prone and put my rifle up and watched the deer anticipating the buck would be pulling up the rear and knowing I'd have to shoot fast to get him before he was across that opening. Low and behold, less than 30 seconds after the last doe went through, out walks a hunter, right into the FOV of my scope. Freaked me right out! I put my gun down so friggen fast...and it had me rattled for a while after. Don't like the feeling from either end of a "scoping".

Cheers,
Canuck

reminds me of why i quit deer hunting on my place. i live about 50 miles south of mpls. mn. so see plenty of city hunters appearing during deer season. I live in a double section os land and the day I quit I drove around the exterior road and counted 64 hunters that i could see from the road. same day one of them tried to kick me off my own land. stupidity knows no bounds

I remember that incident in Alberta as well. I knew the outfitter-he said the guy-(the shooter) yelled "moose" and before the outfitter could find anything in his bino's the shot and killed the two guys that were brothers. The shooter as I recall got off very easy-(lawfully anyway).

We'll have to wait and see what charges are laid, then I'll comment, should be this next week, but this is more of a case of complete negligence on the shooters part (not calling him a hunter).
This also got me to thinking of that other case where the 2 men were killed, no charges were laid in that case, as it was proven that the guy actually shot at a moose near the top of a rise, the bullet traveled over the moose, over the rise, and hit the 2 guys who were coming over the next hill a mile down the cutline. From the shooters spot he could not even see the quad coming. They were all business partners from the States, so it was investigated pretty hard.
2nd case was in Ft McMurry maybe 10 yrs ago, a guy waiting in a blind for bears was shot from the top of the cutline, the shooter walked up to him, then took off back up the hill to a vehicle and left. Never called it in, never tried to help the guy, nothing. That one has never been solved, they even put an article in the paper saying it was not criminal but believed an accident, no one ever came forward. The guy died, I think he was from Germany or somewhere.
Accidents can happen, but stupidity and negligence should not.

There has been several times when I have been in a tree stand in a shelterbelt when I have had "HUNTERS" in an ATV drive down the shelterbelt trying to scare deer out.

Too bad it's not legal to shoot them or I would have. As far as I'm concerned if they had their ATV's up their butt and I had a feather we'd both be tickled.

I'm 70+ years old and I manage to hunt on foot, ATV'ers ought to be able to do the same.

Bill

According to the newspaper, one of the guys that was with the shooter, yelled, "Moose!" He obviously had not identified what he was looking at and the shooter then fired without bothering to verify his target.

Idiots...

"This also got me to thinking of that other case where the 2 men were killed, no charges were laid in that case, as it was proven that the guy actually shot at a moose near the top of a rise, the bullet traveled over the moose, over the rise, and hit the 2 guys who were coming over the next hill a mile down the cutline. From the shooters spot he could not even see the quad coming."

So therte was an excuse or "reson" in that incident. (as I recall the early reports in that case were "Hunter Mistakes Two On Quad For A Moose")Maybe if we had the full story in this case it would make more sence.

Robin in Rocky

Stinger I'm with you on that one. Last year I had my hunt spoiled 2 evenings by quaders.

quote:

Posted 25 October 2007 05:56 Hide Post
"This also got me to thinking of that other case where the 2 men were killed, no charges were laid in that case, as it was proven that the guy actually shot at a moose near the top of a rise,

I would like to know how it was proven that the guy actually shot at a moose.Unless anyone else actually saw the moose when the shot was taken,it is simply an "alleged" moose.Of course you can bet that anyone hunting with this guy would likely swear to seeing the moose to help out his companion.And of course moose tracks on a cutline do not prove that the moose was actually there when the shot was taken,however they might make the moose story more believable.Then again there are moos tracks on most cutlines.

In that case I was not there, but recall reading the report on it, it was proven that the distance and terrain made it impossible for the shooter to see and plan for his bullet to hit the 2 guys riding the quad. The bullet traveled quite a distance, the arch of the bullet carried it over the hill. The 2 guys had just came over another rise in the trail over mile away and the bullet hit them both. Hard to imagine all the things that had to line up for it to happen, but it was enough no charges were laid. I believe a witness had watched the moose come out on the cutline, and fresh tracks supported that part of it. The investigation was even taken to his home where the relationship between the 3 men was checked, and no reason to was found to make it any more suspicios.

A posting on AO from a fellow who's buddy's sister was one of injured hunters tells a bit more and hoped to answer some of the questions.

quote:

Originally posted by Mighty Peace:
A posting on AO from a fellow who's buddy's sister was one of injured hunters tells a bit more and hoped to answer some of the questions.

Here it is for those interested...

http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/showthread.php?t=7425

Thanks for the tip, Mighty Peace...I don't get over to AO very often.

Cheers,
Canuck

This reminds me of a "near miss" I had some years back, while hunting near Fort Assiniboine, Alberta. It was around Nov. 23 and snowing heavily. I was sitting on a sideroad in a remote area, no residences anywhere nearby. Deer cross this sideroad a lot in the middle of the day. I was dressed head to toe in white.
I heard a pickup turn the corner to the west of me and begin driving up the road towards me.
I was watching the truck and see it stop at about 300 yards and the door opens slowly, a guy gets out and a rifle is coming up.
I immediately pulled a flourescent orange hat from my backpack and started waving it around. Gun goes down, guy gets in the truck.

He drives up to me and says this... "Oh, I didn't know what I was looking at. I was just getting ready to shoot... do ya' want a beer?" And points at a 12 pack on the seat.

I was shocked at the stupidity of that ass-clown. I found out he was from Edmonton and had little to say to him, but I was white-hot angry!

To this day I regret that I did not have a cell phone and the sense to get the guys license number to report him. Which is one example of a practical use for cell phones.

A few years back the B.C. Government was going to make it mandatory to wear red or orange in the bush. They put it in the "proposed changes" section of the regs for the following year.
I fired off a letter to them, copying the Vancouver Sun newspaper, and I guess that letter touched off a real hornets nest. The point I made to them in that letter was that if some idiot is prone to making stupid shots like that he'd be idiot enough to think that the deer or moose was in disguise wearing red and presented a much better shot.

I got scoped once when I was sitting in the bottom of a pasture one morning a few years back. I saw a guy coming out of the woods above me, and he put his rifle up and scoped me. I was completely covered in orange (have to wear 250 square inches here in PA deer season), and quickly waved my arms at him. He took his rifle down, looked a little harder at me with his bare eyes, and then scoped me again! I waited for him to take his rifle down and approached him, because I wanted an explanation. He said he was looking to see if I was his buddy...shortly there after, he had all 145 pounds of me in his face and I think he walked away more shaken than I was. Stupid, stupid people.