Army Sniper can't hunt because he didn't take a hunter's safety course

I'm sure he could shoot the tick off the back of a deer from a half-mile away, he just can't shoot the deer.

He’s clearly not a kid anymore.

The 24-year-old soldier has been in the service for nearly seven years, survived two tours in Iraq and earned a spot in the U.S. Army sniper corps.

He’d be a star in any hunting blind.

But when his uncle recently invited him from Fort Lewis to Eastern Washington for a weekend of pursuing spring gobblers, a license dealer couldn’t sell him a state hunting license.

The soldier had not passed a certified hunter education course.

In one theater, he had a government license to kill human beings.

But he couldn’t get a license to kill a turkey in Stevens County.

Yeah that makes sense, meanwhile an anti-government crackpot can go around shooting at whatever bush shakes in the county. Trust me! I've ran into the same people.

Bad start to the hunting season

Since hunting season has started here in Montana, three hunters have died. I remember as a kid in Washington I would hear about the occasional shooting accident but not to this extreme. Apparently it's crazy out there hunting in the Treasure State. Then this happens...

BUTTE, Mont. — Three Montana hunters who suffered carbon monoxide poisoning while sleeping in a wall tent with a propane heater are recovering at a Salt Lake City hospital thanks to some young family members. Sheri Cook of Missoula said five teenage boys who were hunting with their fathers and grandfather in the Lima area pulled the men out of the tent Monday morning and called for help. Randy Cook, 44, of Missoula; Bret Butler, 50, of Frenchtown; and Carl Saunders, 65, of Frenchtown were upgraded from critical to serious condition Tuesday. The hunting party arrived at the camp site in southwestern Montana on Sunday evening, put up their tents and went to sleep. The men were in a wall tent with a propane heater, and the boys, ranging in age from 13 to 16, were in another tent with a wood stove for heat. When the boys woke up, they found the men unconscious, Hansen said.

Hunting season = dangerous.

Gray wolf hunting

I found this on OutdoorNews.com.

Montana is shutting down its first public hunt for gray wolves since their removal from the endangered species list, after state officials said they expected to meet the season's 75-wolf quota by Monday evening.

The order to halt the hunt came after state wildlife officials said the quota had been met across southwestern Montana and was expected to be met in northern Montana.

Wolf hunting in the southeastern portion of the state closed Oct. 26. The quota equaled about 15 percent of a statewide wolf population estimated at 500.

Whether the hunt will be repeated next year is uncertain. A lawsuit to return the predator to the endangered list is pending before Judge Donald Molloy U.S. District Court in Missoula.

Now the thing I find strange is that this animal is pending for being put back on the endangered list. Yet, they still killed 75 of them. 425 wolves doesn't seem like a lot for one animal.

Brandon wrote about this back in January of this year.

Epic Video: Redneck Hunting

Found this on Youtube. Here's the description:

This is a Xbox 360 commercial made for Asia in 2006.

Washington Lawmakers Consider New Hunting Law

I came across this article today off the AP.

Olympia, Wash. (AP) — Pamela Almli was less than an hour into a hike on the popular Sauk Mountain Trail in Skagit County when she was killed by a 14-year-old hunter who thought she was a bear.

The Aug. 2 accident was a rarity – Almli was the first non-hunter killed by a hunter in Washington in more than 25 years – but lawmakers are considering a handful of ways to increase outdoor safety.

One proposal would reinstate a law that hunters under 14 be accompanied by an experienced adult. The shooter in Almli’s death was hunting with his 16-year-old brother.

Now this proposal is great in my opinion, but I don't think that it is enough. I understand that hunters have the right to be in certain areas, but I do like the second proposal which states that all outdoors people in hunting areas have to wear hunters orange clothing. That includes hunters and non-hunters.

The third proposal is to make the minimum age for hunting 16.

Hikers groups, meanwhile, oppose any “hiker’s orange” requirement.

“Are you really going to require every single hiker and every tourist who visits Mt. Baker Snoqualmie Forrest to wear hunter orange?” asked Andrew Engelson, editor of Washington Trails magazine.

Now she does have a point. So now the question is, where does the problem start? And how do we prevent future, unnecessary deaths?

I think about the only way to make these events impossible is to close certain areas to hikers. That is if they don't want to wear the orange during hunting season. I know that when I would go camping in possible hunting areas I would always wear orange. It wasn't a big deal and the bright sweatshirts are under $20. Add a $5 hat to that and now I'm sure I won't get mistaken for a bear.

I also like the idea to make hunters that are minors go out with an experienced adult. I think that would help to increase the safety of the hunters themselves. A 14 and a 16 year old kids don't need to be hunting by themselves.

It's absolutely terrible what happened to Pamela Almli. I know that Just South of North gets visited by the occasional hunter and outdoors person thanks to our friends over at the Outdoor Bloggers Summit. Since you people are the ones with experience in hunting and hunting safety, what are your thoughts on this. How can law makers in Washington State prevent this type of event from occurring in the future? And what do you think should be the minimum hunting age?