What a shame.
Goes without saying, don't shoot at sound, color or movement, ever, period!
With unit 71 there's no either sex muzzled loader tags i could find and there's antler point restrictions in place so you can't shoot a spike. So how did he know it was a legal bull or cow if he had both a bull and a cow tag and that it wasn't a spike or a non legal bull?
Can forgive an honest mistake or accident, or at least have some empathy. But this wasn't a mistake or accident, it was a choice to shoot at a color. He assumed what was coming was a legal elk, when he had no clue it was a legal elk with a firearm under his supervision and control. He saw white, and shot? Not good enough of a reason to make the decision to then make the choice to pull the trigger. Everyone should know that you just don't shoot at sound, color or movement. But unfortunately and obviously not everyone does.
Shot a cow in Wyoming years ago with my oldest kid who was 12 at the time. After shooting it a legal bull stood up. We were in some timber and my kid had sat down on a log because I had smelt elk close and told him to sit on the log. An elk stood up behind the way he was facing and I shot her at 20ish yards. She dropped and a bull stood up and was gone before I could get the kid turned around. As we were sitting there over the cow getting ready to butcher her 15 minutes later, a cow call came from the direction the bull had gone. Kid swiveled around and had him load a round. I cow called back. And the cow answered and was getting closer. Something in my gut told me something wasn't right, even though it sounded great. It sounded like a cow, but there was just something a little off and it was close. Getting a little jittery, let out a simple whistle that almost sounds like a bird. My brother, dad and I have done it for years, never spooked an animal doing it and it really sounds like a bird. From about 30 yards down a lip in heavy timber the whistle was mimicked and followed by a friendly voice. It was 2 guys with a kid just not old enough to hunt. Guys asked if they could come up and said yeah. Two great guys and a nice kid. They'd seen the bull and the way the hill and ridge laid out they thought the shot came from farther away and had seen that bull we spooked. Great guys and everyone of us had a good amount of blaze orange on and never saw each other because of how the terrain and foliage laid out. Guys said they really appreciated the whistle and they use pretty much the same whistle and have been taught the same deal from their dads. We talked about how a situation like that can turn bad if there's not some spacial awareness and it was a great teachable moment for the kids we had with. The guys son asked if his kid could touch the cow, thought to myself what a great dad teaching his kid to have enough respect to ask. Said sure and talked to the kid and showed him the elk had an ear tag. Everyone talked in hushed tones and we were all still in hunt mode. Even in hunt mode the gun safety awareness was in full display from these guys. After chatting for a while they asked if we minded if they go after that bull. Laughed and said yeah, we got our work cut out for us for the rest of the day being 3 miles back in. Wished everyone good luck and was a great learning experience for everyone. The kid even thanked us for letting him play around with the cow. Is a very fond memory that could have been very different if one of us would have gotten to excited or made bad choices. We always assume it's a person making noises or sounds in the woods until it's been visually proven factually it is not. It seems so simple.
Can not image how bad the guy feels and how his life, the life of his family and the family of the person he killed is changed forever by making a choice to squeeze that trigger because he saw the color white, and that was enough to discharge a lethal tool that's soul purpose is to kill an animal, not a human. But is fully capable of killing a human and ruining so many people's lives. Understand things get heated in the excitement of the moment and judgment can get blurry. But there is no excuse for this and it's a crying shame on so many levels because he couldn't wait that extra couple seconds to verify if it was a legal bull, cow or human being. I feel empathy for the families that'll be affected forever by such a horrible decision to shoot at the color white.
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