That is so frightening. Wonder how many close calls happen every year.
I think close calls happen way more than we'd like to think about. It's one of the reasons that I'm not a really active rifle season hunter anymore.
Now I've been hunting a really long time so I expect that I've statistically had more opportunities but I've definitely had some scary encounters. I've directly witnessed myself being scoped on two separate occasions while on stand and wearing very visible hunter orange clothing. Goodness knows how many times its happened that I didn't see it. Both times I, like
@ImThere , screamed obscenities while trying to find some cover.
I've had rifles discharged in my direction on two occasions as well. The first someone from my family hunting camp (I don't know who, they never fessed up) was shooting at a running deer on the opposite side of a ravine I was hunting on and their bullets whizzed through the trees above my head. Again I screamed obscenities and ducked. That was the last year I hunted on the family property.
The second time I was set up in a stick built ground blind on a saddle in a small valley and had a guy hurry down through the valley about 20 minutes after legal shooting light noisily dragging a 5 gallon bucket. He walked just out of my sight and I heard him sit down about 75 yds away basically looking at the same ground I was. In the stillness I could hear him chambering and rechambering his rifle several times. Best I could figure he was trying to figure how to have a round chambered and still maintain a full magazine. I decided I was going to wait until he finished screwing with his gun before having an interaction about sitting so close to me. It was a good thing I did. Suddenly I heard a bullet strike the tree 15 yds in front of me and then heard the rifle report. Again, as you can imagine I filled the air with a string of obscenities that would make any sailor proud. I was so mad I all but stomped over to him ready to kick his butt. He looked at me very sheepishly and I said something to the effect of "There's a lot of woods out here and I was here first. Do you think you could find some where else to sit?" (Edited for
@redsquirrel). He apologized profusely and started packing his stuff back in his bucket. As I turned to walk away he said "Did you hear that shot from over the hill?" Again I about lost it, there's no way anyone but him fired that round that hit the tree directly in front of me. I told him at that point that the next time he decides to go hunting he should learn how the rifle he's using works before going out. I'm sure that he was finally happy with his loading and decided to check his safety and the accidental discharge almost got me.
While we're here, I have one more close call story to relay that didn't involve me but was told to me by a fellow co-worker when he explained why he didn't rifle hunt anymore. He said he was set up well before legal shooting light and while sitting there he saw a buck on the opposite ridge walk in and bed down. He was using his binoculars and was absolutely sure it was a legal buck against the snowy backdrop regardless of the dim light. He picked up his rifle and sighted the buck in. He says he considered shooting it early but decided to wait for the legal hour. While he had the scope on it the "buck" lit a cigarette. He said the incident scared him so bad he never rifle hunted again. I'm not defending the guy but sometimes our eyes see what they want to see and not what's really there.
For this reason, when I am afield during gun season I always and wearing orange and have a bright headlamp on. It's not time to worry about scaring deer. The season brings too many opportunities for long range mistakes.
One more while I'm working on this novel . . . A few years back I was hunting the late Michigan bow season on public land. As public was only open to archery at the time I was not wearing orange. However, there is a late season private land antlerless season that runs during that time. I was walking in for the afternoon hunt and my outer walking layer was a brown sweatshirt. I came across a young dude carrying a rifle. I asked him if he was coyote hunting and he replied "No, I'm hunting the late season antlerless rifle season." It turned out he didn't know that it was private land only. I could just as easily have been brown and down as talking to the young man. That scarred me enough that I wear orange anytime I'm afield during any open rifle season now even though its not required by law.