Hunting Season
Last year, the Colorado Division of Wildlife (DOW) sold more than 560,000 hunting licenses, resulting in millions of hunter recreation days across the state. Wildlife officers said fewer and fewer hunting incidents occur each year, which is a strong indication that the state’s Hunter Education Program is working.
“While we hate to see any incidents at all, when you compare the number of hunters and the amount of time they spend in the field with the seven incidents, it tells us that we are getting through to hunters with our safety message,” said Mark Cousins, acting hunter education coordinator for the DOW. “Because of the quality of our program, we are confident that the trend of fewer incidents will continue into the future.”
Cousins noted that three of the five non-fatal incidents involved people who had not received hunter education.
In 1970, the Colorado Legislature mandated hunter education classes for all hunters born on or after January 1, 1949. Since then, the number of hunting accidents has decreased steadily. In the 1960s, before mandatory hunter education, Colorado averaged 10.1 fatal hunting accidents and 24.2 non-fatal accidents every year. However, those figures had dropped to 1.3 fatal accidents and 11.1 non-fatal accidents by the 1990s.
Six of last year’s incidents occurred while the parties were hunting for big game; the other involved small game hunters. One of the deaths and four of the injuries were self-inflicted, and the other two involved individuals in the same vehicle or hunting party. Some of the incidents were the result of illegal behavior, including possession of a loaded firearm in a vehicle or hunting in a careless manner.
Both fatalities occurred during big game hunts. In one instance, an archery hunter fell on one of his broadhead arrows, which cut his femoral artery and caused him to bleed to death. In the other, a hunter shot a member of his own hunting party with a muzzleloader, apparently mistaking him for an elk. Authorities said the incident was the result of the hunter failing to identify his target.
A third fatality was recorded last year, too, though it did not involve firearms or archery equipment and was not classified as a hunting mishap. A waterfowl hunter died after he fell through the ice and drowned while attempting to rescue his dog.
“When hunters head into the field, they need to remember that a moment of carelessness can result in a lifetime of consequences,” Cousins said.
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