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REGISTER STAFF WRITER
05/13/2004
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Avoiding accidents
1. Devise a hunting plan before the day of the hunt and stick with it, so a hunting partner will know where you are located.
2. Tell someone where you will be and when you plan to return.
3. Wear camouflage, but add blaze orange. Turkey hunters work hard to conceal themselves, either with a blind or by wearing camouflage from head to toe. Wearing blaze orange while walking into and out of the wooded area you are hunting increases safety.
4. Do not wear red, white or blue. When a tom turkey becomes excited and begins to gobble, his head turns colors, even red and blue. At times the head is white. Hunters look for these colors as identifiers when looking for the target.
5. Know your target. Because turkey hunters are dressed to blend in with their surroundings and because they often use turkey calls, other hunters may mistake them for a turkey. Before you shoot toward the sound of a gobble or a patch of color, make sure you have a clear view of the turkey, looking for the identifying marks.
6. Be aware of what is directly behind or beside the turkey and whether it is a clear shot.
Granger, Ia. - Dave Gray of Clive sat on the ground against his truck, holding his head in his hands early Wednesday as a wave of emotion washed over him.
Gray, 43, had just shot and wounded his hunting partner, William Crawford, 36, also of Clive. The two were hunting wild turkey in a wooded public hunting area about four miles north of Granger in Dallas County.
Crawford was struck in the chest and left side of his head with shotgun pellets, fired from about 45 yards away, said Conservation Officer Craig Lonneman.
The hunters called 911 from a cell phone, and Crawford was able to walk back out of the Saylorville Wildlife Unit to the road on his own. Crawford was taken to Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines. He was expected to be hospitalized overnight, said Lonneman.
"This is a situation that is not uncommon when it comes to turkey hunting accidents," said Lonneman.
The two men had planned to hunt on different sides of a narrow road that ran through the woods to the Des Moines River.
Gray thought he heard a turkey and headed back across the road to the side where Crawford was hunting, Lonneman said. He saw white through the trees and shot at the white, which was actually Crawford's shaved head. "One of the first things Gray said was, 'I should have identified my target,' " said Lonneman. "There's nothing wrong with splitting up to turkey hunt, but you have to have a plan and then stick to the plan so you know where the other hunter is located."
Rod Slings, recreation safety director for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, said it was the second turkey hunting accident this year.
"The state averages about one or two turkey hunting accidents a year," he said.
More than 40,000 turkey hunters take to the woods in four seasons, the last of which ends Sunday.
"When there is a hunting accident, it's usually a member of the family or a good friend because we hunt with friends and family most of the time," said Slings.