preparation of field trips, manning of field in- 

 formation centers, etc. 



Hunter and Boater Safety 



Hunter Safety 



Hunting is a relatively safe sport, but be- 

 cause hunting accidents, like automobile acci- 

 dents, are dramatic they get more than their 

 share of publicity. Home accidents such as 

 slipping on rugs, falling off of stepladders, etc.; 

 farm accidents, skiing, bicycling and many 

 other accidents make less spectacular reading 

 and therefore do not come so forcibly before 

 the scrutinizing eye of the public. Consequently 

 rather elaborate programs have been devised 

 to decrease firearm accidents. 



Many programs lend themselves very nicely 

 to statistical analysis. Progress can be accu- 

 rately charted or gains and losses accurately 

 plotted. Unfortunately, a tabulation of firearm 

 casualties cannot be used to assess the prog- 

 ress of hunter safety training. There are no 

 complete figures to show the incidents of hunter- 

 oriented firearm accidents prior to the enact- 

 ment of mandatory firearms training legislation 

 in Montana. Accordingly, accident rates and 

 related information can be compared only 

 among a few years. Even if complete statis- 

 tics were available, for say 15 years or more, 

 this alone would not give a complete picture. 

 The hunting public is changing, their psychol 

 ogy is changing, methods of hunting and hunt 

 ing equipment and many other pertinent factors 

 are changing. Some form of wizardry would 

 be needed to pull all of the causative factors 

 together into one meaningful picture. 



The bare statistics available on hunter acci- 

 dents aren't especially impressive. Looking 

 back over the past four years, the following 

 hunter accidents are recorded for Montana: 



Year 1962 1963 1964 1965 



Fatal 9 5 4 8 



Non-fatal 33 23 13 19 



Age of Hunter 



to 1 1 years 



12-17 19 



18-plus 15 



There have been a number of suggestions 

 OS to what additional steps should be taken 

 to bring the firearms accident rate down. One 

 popular suggestion is to demand eye exami- 

 nations of all hunters. Acuteness of vision ap- 

 pears to play a far less important role than 

 the manner in which a hunter sees- his psy- 

 chological vision, so to speak. There is no 

 adequate test for this type of vision, and cer- 

 tainly no corrective glasses. Moreover, mistak- 

 ing a man for a game animal is only one of 

 many kinds of firearm accidents. 



Another suggestion has been to require 

 hunter safety training for all adult hunters as 

 well as juveniles. It is in the adult age group 

 where most of the accidents occur. Men of 

 considerable experience, safety conscious, and 

 some with hunter safety training in one form 

 or another rank among accident victims and 

 accident causers. The snags and problems of 

 putting over a mandatory adult training pro- 

 gram are immediately apparent. 



A third suggestion, and one which propo- 

 nents of the archaic game laws pursue, is to 

 go back to the old buck law, thereby making 

 hunters more careful because they have to look 

 more carefully at their targets when hunting 

 deer. New Mexico has come up with some re- 

 cent results of a study which refutes this philos- 

 ophy overwhelmingly. Their figures show that 

 in areas under their study, there were actually 

 a higher rate of accidents in buck only areas 

 than in either sex hunts. The study showed 

 also that an increase in the density of hunters 

 does not increase the chance of one hunter 

 being shot by another. 



The whole matter seems to boil down to the 

 fact that there is still little known about the 

 basic causes of hunting accidents. Perhaps 

 many of them are related to the same basic 

 drives and desires that go into making care- 

 less drivers. It would be interesting to review 

 the life history of each person who was in- 

 volved in a firearms accident and see how 

 prone they are to accidents other than hunt- 

 ing. Hopefully, psychologists and educators 

 will eventually arrive at formulas that will 

 make every gun user a safe user. 



In the meantime, we must do the best we 

 can with our present knowledge. The Mon- 

 tana hunter safety program has received na- 

 tional recognition many times during the nine 

 years it has been in operation. Approxin;ately 

 850 volunteer instructors are giving freely of 

 their time and talents to make hunting a safer 

 sport in Montana. Although the hunter safety 

 course is required to be taken only by those 

 youngsters between 12 and 18 who wish to 

 purchase a hunting license, many other youths 

 and some adults are voluntarily taking this 

 instruction. Notably, the course is being given 

 to military personnel at many of the military 

 establishments in Montana. Also, many women 

 are voluntarily taking the course. 



In addition to the safe handling of firearms, 

 which is the basic core of the course, students 

 are being given instruction in such related 

 fields as survival training, first aid, game iden- 

 tification and landowner-sportsman relations. 



The program is supervised by the Boater 

 and Hunter Safety Section of the Information 

 and Education Division but much of the field 

 work with the volunteer instructors is done by 

 the warden force. 



