Safety

“Do You Know Your Hunting Buddy?”

By Kevin “RED” Curran

ABA Game & Fish Liaison

This past elk season I drew a cow elk tag for Camp Navajo Army Depot.  It was my fourth archery elk hunt and I hadn’t yet harvested an elk with my bow.  I knew this year was going to be different.

The first couple days of the hunt temperatures were into the 90's and the elk weren’t moving.  During my scouting trips I had seen some elk coming into a tank at about the same time every afternoon.  I found a trail coming down off a ridge west of the tank which ran along the west side from North to South then went west back up the ridge.  I set my treestand about 20 yards off the trail which would’ve given me about a 40 yard shot to the water.  The elk came in right on schedule, but came in from the south which put them about 80 yards from my stand.

The next day I put a ground blind on the south end of the tank with the idea of myself sitting in the blind and my, “HUNTING BUDDY”, sitting in the treestand thus providing a shot from either end of the tank.  That afternoon we were ready, however, a fisherman came in and started fishing about 4:30.  I walked over to him and explained to him we were hunting the tank, and we had seen game coming in a 45 minutes to an hour before dark.  He responded with, “Well I’ll be fishing until dark.”.  Thanks for the cooperation!

The next afternoon we were set up at about 3:30.  Once again a fisherman came in.  I walked over and let him know we were hunting the tank, hoping to have better results than the previous day, he apologized and left within 15 minutes.  Within the next hour a flock of turkey, a mule deer doe and three bucks all came within about 10 yards of my blind.  I knew today was going to be the day!

About 5:30 I heard movement on the ridge behind me.  I looked and saw an elk coming down the ridge which would put her between our stands if she continued on her course.  I was concerned about taking the shot because she was between myself and my, “HUNTING BUDDY”.  Even though he was in a tree stand about 25 yards away I knew it wasn’t a safe shot.  If the elk were to continue in the same direction I would have a safe and ethical quartering away shot.  When the elk was about 5 yards away behind me off my left shoulder I heard the shot.  I thought I was hearing things because I couldn’t believe my “HUNTING BUDDY” would take such an unsafe shot.  Lucky for me he hit her high in the shoulder and didn’t get much penetration.  When the elk spun to go back up the ridge the arrow fell out.  We attempted to find a blood trail with no luck.

Needless to say I was extremely mad and disappointed.  I still couldn’t believe he’d taken the shot.  When he asked me what I was mad about I explained why he shouldn’t have taken the shot, and we wouldn’t hunt together again until he took another hunter safety course.  The situation made me ask myself a very important question.  “Did I know my hunting buddy?”  My question to you is, “Do you know your hunting buddy?”