Two youths accidentally shoot guardians during Minnesota’s youth hunting season

Ouch, One guy got shot in the butt. Who lets a 10year old unload a shotgun with out some help?

BECKER, Minn. — Two children accidentally shot their mentors Sunday during Minnesota’s youth deer season weekend, according to law enforcement.

A 12-year-old girl accidentally shot her 45-year-old father as she was participating in a youth hunting event in Becker, according to the Sherburne County Sheriff’s Office. She shot a deer, then accidentally fired a second shot that hit her father’s leg around 8 a.m. A family member helped put a tourniquet on his leg until emergency responders arrived.
Becker firefighters responded to the scene to get him out of the deer stand, and the victim was taken to North Memorial Health Hospital in Robbinsdale for treatment.

Sunday’s second incident came about two hours later when a 10-year-old accidentally shot their 50-year-old mentor through both buttocks in Helga Township, according to the Hubbard County Sheriff’s Office. Investigators reported that Gary Peters had taken the 10-year-old out that morning for the youth deer hunting season.

When they returned to the truck, Peters instructed the youngster to unload the rifle, and while attempting to do so the child accidentally squeezed the trigger while Peters was standing in the line of fire. Sheriff’s officials say the bullet went through both of his buttocks. Peters was transported to Sanford Hospital in Bemidji before being airlifted to a Fargo hospital due to the seriousness of his injuries.

Minnesota’s youth deer season was open from Oct. 19-22. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources said that children ages 10 to 17 are allowed participate, though ages 10 to 13 must be accompanied by a guardian who is not hunting.

I posted about this in the youth hunt thread. Be safe out there.

bigcrappie wrote:

Who lets a 10year old unload a shotgun with out some help?

If anyone (child or adult) needs help loading or unloading their weapon while hunting, they have no business handling that weapon.

Any child who would be hunting with me, would be trained to load and unload their firearm alone and unaided BEFORE they were ever in a hunting situation. I use dummy rounds for training. The child would have to demonstrate proper, safe, muzzle control and handling skills.

I also will never assume an adult that is unknown to me, has any better firearm handling skills than an untrained child.

Huntindave wrote:

If anyone (child or adult) needs help loading or unloading their weapon while hunting, they have no business handling that weapon.

Agreed. They need to be taught safe handling and be able to do these things. Scary deal for sure, but this could have been avoided.
When I took my kids on the youth hunt a few years ago we got stopped by the warden and they made the boys get their guns out of the cases and make sure they were unloaded, etc.

I don’t hunt but isn’t it common practice by now to unload at the stand and walk with an unloaded rifle? That butt shot must have been pretty bad to get airlifted, and I’m sure that kid will have a fear of guns in their future.

Riverrat wrote:

I don’t hunt but isn’t it common practice by now to unload at the stand and walk with an unloaded rifle?

I always load/unload my weapon in the stand. And I use a hoist to raise and lower it.

Perhaps they were hunting in a ground blind. The article doesn’t specifically state they were in an elevated stand.

In the first case, I’d assume the kid was using a semi auto. I wouldn’t give a youth a semi automatic to hunt. Second case, stand behind the kid and watch him/her unload even if trained. Both cases failed the don’t point a gun where you don’t intend to shoot rule and don’t put your finger on the trigger until ready to shoot. Both kids had poor training and mentoring on firearm safety.

I don’t care if you are loading, unloading, targeting an animal, packing, hauling, sighting in, or cleaning a firearm…it should not ever be pointed even in the relative direction of a human. Period.

I do not understand how these situations happen.

Huntindave wrote:

Any child who would be hunting with me, would be trained to load and unload their firearm alone and unaided BEFORE they were ever in a hunting situation.

buckybadger wrote:

I do not understand how these situations happen.

They are called accidents for a reason. Sucks that it happens every year, thankfully no one died. And I agree everyone needs proper training and to treat a gun always like it’s loaded and never point even in the general vicinity of anyone etc. etc. Still accidents happen.

I’ve never understood why the youth hunt allows 10 year olds but firearms safety classes can’t be started until 11 and then become valid at 12.

Reef W wrote:

I’ve never understood why the youth hunt allows 10 year olds

Because they are required to be under adult supervision when they are under the age of 12.

Obviously some adults are not capable of supervising firearm usage of a youth. Both are clearly preventable. Just wait until the general firearms season opens. You will see a lot more accidents than just two. There are a lot of people that just aren’t very safe while hunting. I know some. When I was younger I used to climb into my stand and carry everything at the same time without a harness. Looking back on those days, it was stupid and lazy to be doing that. I never got hurt and never had an accident, but the point is that I should have been safer.

The simple task of climbing into an elevated stand in the dark carries some risk too.

Two years with a bb-gun. Work up from there.
My Dad was a veteran of 2 wars and his gun handling safety was strict.
It paid off.

gim wrote:

There are a lot of people that just aren’t very safe while hunting. I know some.

My buddy almost shot my dad in the head when he was unloading his rifle. Scared the living hell out of us.

CaptainMusky wrote:

My buddy almost shot my dad in the head when he was unloading his rifle. Scared the living hell out of us.

wowzers. hopefully that was the last time he hunted in your group.

Riverrat wrote:

I don’t hunt but isn’t it common practice by now to unload at the stand and walk with an unloaded rifle?

I can only speak for myself and my practices with my kids.

What I tell them and repeat constantly is that when we are hunting, we are hunting. That means the rifle or shotgun is loaded and they are safely handling the weapon AND ready to take a shot at all times with the exception of when specific safety requirements or hunting laws dictate that the gun be unloaded.

So if it is during legal shooting hours, absolutely the gun is loaded walking to/from the stand/blind, whatever. AND it is unloaded EVERY SINGLE TIME that safety requires it, ie crossing a fence, climbing up in a stand, etc.

I know 2 hunters who have missed buck-of-a-lifetime chances because they were ditty-bopping around during legal shooting hours with unloaded guns. I tell my kids, don’t be that guy.

Every cycle of loading and unloading a gun is good practice not just in terms of safely operating a firearm. It’s good practice in terms of reinforcing never to get sloppy and do something unsafe even just one time. This is how good habits are formed.

and now I’m going to get a lot of flack for this, but here it is: 10-year-olds are too young to hunt.

I’m talking about hunting, not shooting. Safe hunting–even while accompanied by an adult–involves judgment, decision-making, forethought, reasoning, and fine motor skills that a 10-year-old, on average, simply does not possess.

When you add into this the fact that HUNTING will involve young hunters being exposed to situations that they will not have previously experienced, it’s even more important that they possess enough maturity to handle the situation. Hunting involves many more variables that test both mental and physical skills and the average 10-year-old just isn’t there yet.

The point of mentored youth hunting is to develop young men/women into hunters. 10-year-olds can SHOOT a deer, but who’s really doing the hunting or really learning about how to be a hunter, if the adult is doing absolutely everything except aiming and pulling the trigger?

Gitchi Gummi wrote:

wowzers. hopefully that was the last time he hunted in your group.

It was!

bigcrappie wrote:

When they returned to the truck, Peters instructed the youngster to unload the rifle, and while attempting to do so the child accidentally squeezed the trigger while Peters was standing in the line of fire.

BigWerm wrote:

They are called accidents for a reason.

Accident or carelessness?
Was it an accident Peters was standing in the line of fire or was it the carelessness of either or both parties?
Was it an accident the child had her finger within the trigger guard and also squeezed the trigger or was it poor training?

I only let jr have 1 shell at a time aint no way he would get second shot off anyway.

You know two hunters that missed buck of a lifetimes, but now we all know of at least one guy whos been shot in the ass. I think 10 is a good age to give them a pellet gun and send them after rodents. I shot striped gophers, and starlings, and whatever other rodents where causing trouble. The old timers hanging out by the sheds out back would gladly point out mistakes and errors in handling and target choice. 12 is a good age to start with supervised big game and bird, and unsupervised rimfire rodent hunts. Hard to use age as a line though some kids are as mature as I was at that age, and some still carry safety blankets. Accidents happen to all ages though.

Riverrat wrote:

12 is a good age to start with supervised big game

12 year olds can legally hunt on their own. That’s when I started. Started going to deer camp on opener just like everyone else and sat in my own stand. Obviously needed firearms safety training before going.

Youth hunts did not exist when I was a kid.

Start them young. They should have years of experience handling guns and learning gun safety before ever getting into a hunting situation. My 4, almost 5 year old daughter got her first bb gun recently. She’s pretty deadly on pop cans.
Unfortunate accidents happen. All we can do it teach gun safety and lead by example.

Firearms safety training didn’t exist when I was a kid. Unless you were in boy scouts or some special hunting program. If I did start hunting I might actually have to take it now since I’m pretty sure the cut off dates have changed. Note: Never mind just checked still wouldn’t need it technically, but pretty sure it guarantees I’m old now. I don’t think my idea of supervised would cut it either since I basically just mean in the same field or area.

When you add into this the fact that HUNTING will involve young hunters being exposed to situations that they will not have previously experienced, it’s even more important that they possess enough maturity to handle the situation. Hunting involves many more variables that test both mental and physical skills and the average 10-year-old just isn’t there yet.

The point of mentored youth hunting is to develop young men/women into hunters. 10-year-olds can SHOOT a deer, but who’s really doing the hunting or really learning about how to be a hunter, if the adult is doing absolutely everything except aiming and pulling the trigger?

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My son has been in the woods with me since 6 years old. He walks every trail, looks at every scrape and has since he was young. He helps pick the location of where we should set up and shoot from, understands all the back drops in all directions and so on. At 10 he shot his first deer 11 he shot 2 and this year at 12 he has done the same. I have been very strict on taleaching not only firearm saftey as well as hunter saftey to the kids since they could walk and talk. I think that is very important.
Just throwing a ten year old behind a gun is wild to me and doesn’t make sense.

gim wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Riverrat wrote:</div>
12 is a good age to start with supervised big game

12 year olds can legally hunt on their own. That’s when I started. Started going to deer camp on opener just like everyone else and sat in my own stand. Obviously needed firearms safety training before going.

Youth hunts did not exist when I was a kid.

12 year Olds can not sit alone. 14 is the age for that

Sucks that these things happen. The fact is you cant watch everyone in the field and how much or little they teach their kids. This is why during firearm/muzzleloader season im super cautious about running a headlamp and generally staying pretty far away from where most the people stack up.

Bearcat89 wrote:

12 year Olds can not sit alone. 14 is the age for that

Good call. That’s correct, it must have changed since I started when I was 12. Its clear as day on pages 35-36

grubson wrote:

Start them young. They should have years of experience handling guns and learning gun safety before ever getting into a hunting situation. My 4, almost 5 year old daughter got her first bb gun recently. She’s pretty deadly on pop cans.
Unfortunate accidents happen. All we can do it teach gun safety and lead by example.

This is the way.

Call it whatever you want Dave, I just choose to give people some grace, especially when they’ve been shot by a child or loved one as I feel pretty confident in saying it wasn’t on purpose.

Most 10 year old kids are not mature enough to be trusted to do the right thing . Their attention span is limited . Are there the exceptions of course there is . I knew a Hunters Education instructor who was vehemently against letting kids at 10 years old hunt even with supervision . He said they are just to young . Plenty of unsafe adults to add to the mix !

I have very strong feelings against kids (of certain ages) hunting or handling high powered guns. I see people bragging about their little kids shooting or taking game and it disturbs me.

I agree getting them used to handling guns young is a very good thing even if they arent real. Even when they are tiny a little toy gun and walking around the house you can reinforce safe handling practices. BB guns and Pellet guns are fantastic too. I never had any concern about my boys holding a rifle at 10 as long as I was with them the entire time which is required anyway. A 14 year old sitting alone may be a different story for some, but mine have all been mature enough and responsible enough that I trusted them. Mistakes do happen however. My oldest nodded off in the stand and when he jerked awake bumped the stock of his gun and it fell from the stand. I have since told him he needs to place the gun differently so this couldnt happen again by putting it across the shooting rails instead of upright.