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The BASC (British Association for Shooting and Conservation)insure members to the tune of 5 million third party public, 10 million employer liability and £5 million product liability for all shooting activities.

It costs £57 per year and I do not know any shoot who will have a shooter who is not a BASC member on the turf.

If I have people to shoot with me, membership of BASC is a non-negotiable part of the deal.

Stats are great aren't they - UK shooters are more likely to get injured or die in the bath than in the shooting field!

I agree with Eug that compulsory training can be used an an excuse to curb shooters' freedoms but I also believe thet most people benefit from training - even those who think they know it all.

I would say that wouldn't I? I'm a teacher!

I'm a member of NSSF, the National Shooting Sports Foundation. They send reports to the membership frequently. In a recent mailing were accident statistics of various sporting activities. You are far, far more likely to have a life-changing injury accident from almost any other sport than you are from hunting. That includes billiards, tennis, golf, and cheerleading. The most complete annual data is from 2002. That year there were an estimated 20.6 million active hunters in the U.S. with 805 non-fatal injury accidents reported. For the same year, 24.5 million golfers reported 37,131 injury accidents and 4.1 million cheerleaders reported 28,414 injury accidents. Amazingly, 34.2 million pool players had 5,672 injury accidents. Basketball and bicycling lead the statistics with over 500,000 injury accidents each in 2002.

Care for a game of pool? Heck no! That's too dangerous, I'm going hunting.

Best regards,
David

Even with orange requirements 1-3 hunters are unfortunately shot and killed every year in Minnesota, almost always during deer hunting season. I'm not sure what these figures are for the entire US. One thing is certain, the numbers would be much higher without the orange. I gave up bird hunting during deer season, just too dangerous. As far as education is concerned, a few dogs, cows and horses are also shot. You'd think somewhere along the line people would learn what a deer looks like.

Of the 805 non-fatal injury accidents in 2002, 351 were single party accidents and did not involve another person. These included non-firearm accidents such as failure to wear a safety belt or falling while climbing to or from a tree-stand. The 2002 data included the accident data from all sports reporting injury accidents. The 2004 data shows 433 non-fatal injury accidents and 46 fatalities for a drop of 31% and 12% respectively over the last ten years. My state has required a certified hunter safety course for hunters born after July 1957 since 1973. I don't know about all states, but many, perhaps most also have similar requirements. The class that I took in July of 1973 was comprehensive and required 12 hours of classroom and hands-on work. Still, nationwide, 15% of hunting accidents are caused by failure to identify target. 55% involved a shotgun, 29% rifle, with the remaining divided about equally among bow, handgun, and crossbow. 47% of accidents happened during big-game hunting while the majority happened during small-game hunting such as bird, rabbit, and squirrel. Overall, firearms account for 1% of accidental deaths in the United States while drowning in the bath accounts for 2%, choking on food stands at 5%.

Richard, I'm sorry, I re-read your post and had not answered your question. In 2002 there were 93 fatal hunting accidents nationwide. In 2004, the number had fallen to 46. The Midwest has seen a decline of 59% in all accidental firearm fatalities in the period 1993-2003, the greatest decline of any region. The Northeast had the smallest decline with 39% for the same period. During the period 1994-2004 in which firearms accident decreased at these rates, all types of accidental fatalities rose by 21%. My data came from the NSSF Industry Report Vol. 1, No. 12/2006.

Are the accident prone hunters thining themselves out or are the Hunter Safty programs working ?
L.F.

David,
Those stats are great. I would, however, trust only the fatal accident stats and leave the others to 'highly suspicious'.

All of the non-fatal accidents I've seen during hunting were either not treated at a hospital/doctor or not reported as a hunting related accident.

Talk to a southwest chukar hunter and you'll likely find he's had plenty of spills and sprains, sheading blood and nursing a limp for weeks. Nearly none would be formally treated at a professional care facility.

A friend blew a .300 Weatherby case open like a flower and one of the petals cut his finger pretty bad, rang his ears and mine. No formal treatment. (how this happened is a story for another thread, but I'll never buy a Mark 5 Weatherby on a bet)

My point is; hunting is likely a source of a high number of injuries per hour of hunting. Sure, most of the injuries are minor, but some are a little more significant.

But if you want an activity that's really dangerous, bicycling I think is the king. Find someone that's ridden a bike that doesn't have an injury story...or 10 or 15. I've known of several fatalities to either people I've known or their family members.

My own "sporting injuries" record over 45 ish years....
Fishing...nothing.
Shooting ...a scratched eye from a hawthorn. Ouch, but no worse.
Soccer...one broken ankle.
Amateur Boxing...nothing.
Cricket...three broken fingers and a head cut.

So to paraphrase David "Cricket on the village green? No way, that's just too risky, pass me the 12 bore".

Chuck,

I agree many accidents are under reported. This goes for almost all sports including soccer, football, golf (yes golf!).

What is clear, is hunting has improved it's death and serious injury rate dramatically. I believe Hunter Safety Education is a real boon, but also just getting the word out has helped. Question is how much more we can improve.

BTW, I was one of the idiots who fell out of a wooden tree stand (frost on the rungs) many years ago...no safety strap. I now stay out of treestands without a safety harness and keep several extra ones for those that may not have one. Sure hurts to fall from 18 feet! Luckliy I broke nothing and damaged little but my pride.

Jim

Gentlemen,

I can't say how the statistics were gathered, although I do trust the source. One thing is certain. Gunshot wounds, whether fatal or not are always reported. A police report is always filed when anyone seeks treatment for a gunshot wound of any kind, so these statistics are well documented.

As for the fall in accidents, it's easy to speculate that the decline in accidents follows the trend towards hunter safety education. Other factors may also have a bearing.