Paul A. Smith

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

With three non-fatal shooting injuries, the 2018 Wisconsin gun deer season set a record for hunter safety, according to the Department of Natural Resources.

"We're going to call it the state's safest gun deer season ever," said Jon King, DNR conservation warden and hunter safety coordinator.

The 2018 gun deer season ran Nov. 17 to 25. Although the agency has not released a final tally of gun deer license sales, it is expected about 570,000 hunters were authorized to participate.

Prior to this season, the DNR considered 2014, with four non-fatal shooting injuries, the safest.

In 2017 there were six non-fatal shooting injuries.

There hasn't been a shooting fatality during a Wisconsin gun deer season since 2015, when there were three.

There has been a long-term trend toward fewer shooting incidents in Wisconsin gun deer hunting seasons, especially since blaze orange clothing was required in 1980 and hunter safety education was made mandatory in 1985.

Additionally, a shift in tactics such as the increased use of tree stands, which tend to produce a downward trajectory for bullets, and reduced use of deer drives has proven safer to hunters.

In step with these changes, the shooting accident rate in the gun deer season was 10.6 incidents per 100,000 participants in 1985, 4.8 in 1995 and about 0.5 in 2018.

Finally, fewer hunters are participating in the gun deer season, helping to lower the absolute number of injuries.

The DNR is investigating the three incidents that occurred this year.

The first took place 1:30 p.m. Nov. 18 in Marcellon Township of Columbia County where a 24-year-old shooter participating in a deer drive shot at a running deer but struck the victim, a 23-year-old male, in the foot. The men were members of the same hunting party. The victim was treated at a local hospital.

The second occurred about 5 p.m. Nov. 18 in the Village of Colfax in Dunn County. In this case, a 21-year-old male who was not wearing blaze orange was working on his downed deer when he was hit in the arm by a bullet from a 17-year-old shooter who thought the victim was a deer. The victim was transported to a hospital and released.

The last was recorded at noon Nov. 25 in Sauk County. A 39-year-old male had stopped hunting and was unloading his firearm, a handgun, when it discharged and the bullet struck him in the palm, King said. The victim was treated for the wound and released.

The DNR is planning to make a full report of the season's safety statistics at the Dec. 12 Natural Resources Board meeting in Madison.

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