The annual Sportsman Education Program meeting was recently held in Ballston Spa.

Each year at this meeting, all of the hunter safety instructors are handed a report supplied by the Department of Environmental Conservation providing the statistics for the pervious year.  Sort of like our report card. 

Our performance is based mostly on reported incidents relating to hunting, fishing and trapping with a great deal of emphasis on the number of fatalities reported statewide. In recent years, we have had anywhere from one to three fatalities which is way below not only previous years, but the national state average. We were really rocking along feeling good about ourselves and the results of our efforts.

This past year we had six. 

What a shocker that was and is for those of us who take our efforts very seriously. I personally feel responsible for every student that takes our course because it is us who authorize the placement of a gun in their hands.

A number of the DEC officials at the meeting attempted to downplay these six deaths to our recent one, two and three per year fatality years and to the total number of incidents reported which were 38, below average.  They also tried to make us feel good by dredging up more history as a point of comparison giving us numbers as far back as the 1960s when the yearly average was 137.

Okay, I can buy that to a certain extent. Thirty-eight versus 137. That’s a lot of progress.  But six dead hunters is six dead hunters no matter how you look at it and I have a great sense of failure as a result of this recent history. Sure, sure, I can go further and tell you that only one incident up in Warren County was even close to being in our training area. But I don’t work as a county or area volunteer. I work as a state volunteer and for me to isolate our local efforts away from the overall state effort would be unfair to my brother instructors in all of the other affected areas.

Last year when I wrote about this report, I poked fun at the fact that eight of the reported incidences were related to hunters who shot themselves, one way or another, in the foot. I can’t find any humor in this year’s report.  To do so would trivialize six lives. Sure, I could make a joke about the southern zone hunters versus those in the northern zone, or those from the Metro New York area versus those from Upstate. I could do a lot with my normal sarcastic wit, but I won’t!  Not with six fellow hunters lost in a single season.

Something needs looking at.  Some self examination needs to take place - maybe we are missing something in our training efforts. Maybe we are taking it too casually.

The report further tells us that of the 38 incidences, only one was related to a handgun and only two to muzzleloaders (black powder) and none to the use of bow and arrow. What surprised me most is that of the remaining 35, 28 were related to shotguns use and only 12 to rifles.

Over 73 percent were related to shotguns including two of the fatalities. Twenty-four of the 38 were small game hunting related, more than 63 percent of the total.  I’m sure that most of the public would expect that the vast majority of hunting incidences would be related to deer hunting with rifles. On the bright side, if there is one, only five of the total 38 involved teenage hunters, none of these relating to a fatality.

So, the report is in. It ain’t pretty, but it is what it is. We can’t change it or take back the facts.

What it is, is a wake up call. We’ve got to do better both as instructors and as hunters. We will work hard to improve our classes and I can only ask and hope that all of you who venture out into the field with gun or bow in hand do the same. Handle your hunting implement with care and respect. And remember, you can’t pull back that bullet once you pull the trigger. See you outdoors!