This year’s deer hunt was a comparatively safe one. “We had zero fatalities. We had six nonfatal incidents,” said Todd Schaller, a conservation warden and chief of the DNR recreational safety section. Schaller said those numbers for the second lowest number of incidents during the nine-day gun deer season. There were six firearms incidents in 2007, but that year three hunters died. There were just four incidents in 2004, with two fatalities.
AUDIO: Bob Hague reports (:60)
This marks the second year in a row there were no firearms fatalities, thanks in large part to hunter safety courses. “The requirement is that anyone born after January 1st, 1973 take hunter education,” explained Schaller. “We’re at 40 years of people taking hunter education. The more people we get educated in the safe way to handle guns and hunt, the safer our season’s going to be.” Schaller credited the thousands of volunteers who teach hunter education courses.