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- Jun 28, 2019
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This concept has been studied to some extent by the hunter ed community and the NWTF. There was awhile where turkey hunting shooting incidents were going up quite rapidly. Stalking to a calling turkey are a bad mix. We tell our students to never stalk a turkey, always set up and try to call it to you. This simple decision I would estimate has mitigated the risk exponentially as it "saves" both the stalker and the stalkee if you will. The NWTF came up with a concept called "premature closure" where a person puts stimuli together and comes to an erroneous conclusion. That's why we pound in our students.... Know your target and what's beyond it before you pull the trigger. Knowing your target is a deer, turkey, bear, not anything else. It boggles my mind too.It does seem that way, and it IS negligent.
I think sometimes the mind assembles the fragmented sensory inputs and makes split second conclusions that are invalid - and the person sees what they expected to see. There are plenty of instances where the shooter “was convinced they saw the game they were hunting”.
Turkey hunting mistakes aren’t so hard for me to comprehend:
A sleep-deprived person getting up early enough to be in position well before daylight; Full camo / no hunter orange; Low light; Gobbler calling in close proximity - maybe even closing in; Thick cover; Inexperienced, excited hunter who hasn’t observed a lot of game in the woods previously; Adrenaline rush as the movement comes into view…