Deer season deadliest in years

WAUSAU - Wisconsin's 2015 gun-deer season is the deadliest in the past five years, with two shooting fatalities already recorded as hunters head into the woods for closing weekend.

The fatalities brought to an end a three-year series of nine-day rifle seasons that had been free of firearm deaths; the total surpasses the number of gun deaths to happen over the last five seasons of deer hunting combined, and four other hunters also have been shot and injured in separate incidents.

All of the incidents thus far have been accidents in which hunters violated some of the fundamental rules of gun safety, according to the Department of Natural Resources. A 39-year-old Fairbanks man was killed when he was shot just below his armpit Sunday while passing a loaded rifle to a 35-year-old Wisconsin woman in a tree stand, according to the Associated Press. The woman, wearing mittens, grabbed the gun near the trigger and it went off. On Monday, a 56-year-old hunter in Waushara County was killed by a stray bullet fired from a public hunting area, Waushara Sheriff's authorities said.

One of four gun injuries reported so far involved a 26-year-old Edgar man who was shot in his upper body by a 14-year-old boy trying to de-cock his gun. Another happened midday Saturday in Rock County when a 16-year-old boy shot himself in the leg after falling asleep, according to AP. The third came after a 17-year-old boy in Manitowoc shot an 18-year-old hunter in the leg during a deer drive, DNR Hunter Education Administrator Jon King said. And on Friday, King had reports of a Black River Falls who had suffered a gun-related injury, but had no details.

Those incidents were not unusual, a Gannett Central Wisconsin Media review of DNR hunting data found. Just about every time someone is shot, it happens when a hunter violates basic safety rules. That should come as no surprise, though some other facts from the data are more unexpected:

1. More than one-third of gun-related hunting accidents happen during the nine-day deer hunting season when 840,000 hunters are in the woods. Wisconsin recorded 131 gun-related hunting incidents involving injury or death over the past five years. Forty-five of those, or 34 percent, occurred during the deer hunt. In the last 10 years, Wisconsin averaged 28 gun-related accidents per year, which King said has been a little above the consistent total of about 18 injuries a year for the past six or seven years; two fatal accidents is not a common occurrence, he said.

2. In the five years before 2015, only one person was killed during deer hunting season. It happened in 2012 in Douglas County when a hunter fired before realizing what he was aiming at. The 31-year-old man shot his 27-year-old hunting partner in the head. Prior to the two killed hunters this year, over half of the 45 deer season injuries in the last five years were caused by a hunter who fired without being sure of his target or of another hunter who was in the line of fire.

Most injuries occurred when hunters shot before identifying a target or when a person was out of a shooter's sight, according to the DNR. Other contributing factors included careless use or handling of firearms, having a loaded firearm in a car and ricocheting bullets.

3. Friends often shoot friends. Nearly half of the hunting injuries were caused by people hunting together in the same group, while 14, about 35 percent, were self-inflicted, for example when a hunter left a firearm's safety off, tried to move a loaded gun between a tree stand, or lost track of an intended target. Deer drives are especially risky. Twelve of 13 deer drive-related injuries came from a party member.

4. The average shooter in 2014 was a 29-year-old male, but the typical injured Wisconsin deer hunter was a 49-year-old man. Men dominate the woods during hunting season, so it's no surprise they represent most of the shooters and victims of gun injuries. But women do have a presence — about 9,400 women make up 10 percent of licensed Wisconsin deer hunters.

5. Nearly one-quarter of deer hunting accidents happen during deer “drives,” when members of the same hunting group walk through the woods attempting to flush deer out and make them run toward other hunters. Drives only accounted for about 30 percent of deer-hunting incidents in the past half-decade, 10 of which were from taking a shot without knowing a target.

6. Top counties: Douglas County had two recorded injuries over the 2015 deer season, but it was the only county which had a documented fatal injury related to the hunting season. The counties with most injuries in the last five years were Manitowoc and Monroe counties with three each. Douglas, Marathon, Portage, Oconto and Iowa each had two. Leg injuries were most common with deer hunters overall, but hunters were just as likely to shoot themselves in the leg as they were their hands.

Reporter Raina Beutel can be reached at raina.beutel@gannettwisconsin.com or 715-845-0658. Find her on Twitter as @rainabeutel.