February 5, 2012
By John Harrigan, UnionLeader.com
A New Hampshire hunter was penalized for a freak accident in which his shotgun pellet ricocheted off a frozen tree and struck a nearby hunter. He was forthright about the incident, but did he deserve a penalty? Such outcomes can have a chilling effect on other incidents in which people would otherwise come forward. This very thing once happened to our hunting group.
A pellet glanced off a frozen tree and struck a fellow hunter on the wrist.
It was just one of those things that can happen in a thick stand of trees and brush. Almost nothing we could have done differently could have prevented it. (We all wore hunter orange and were doing our best to maintain a straight line).