Letts, IA man shoots his arm while hunting coyotes

cngerms

cngerms

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I hope this guy is OK, especially if he is one of ours.

Letts man shoots his arm while hunting coyotes
Sunday, February 22, 2009

A Letts, Iowa, man was injured Sunday afternoon when his gun accidentally discharged while hunting coyotes in Louisa County.

Dennis Hiller, 47, was putting his rifle over his shoulder about 1:30 p.m. Sunday when the sling became unhooked from the forearm part of the gun. The gun discharged when it hit the ground striking him in the upper portion of his right arm.

Hiller was flown by helicopter to University Hospitals in Iowa City, where he was undergoing surgery Sunday afternoon.

The incident was investigated by the Louisa County Sheriff’s Department and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
 
dang... imagine what a v-max or another bullet out of a .204, .223, .22-250, ect would do to your arm?

hope hes ok
 
I remember noticing a defective swivel on a Claw sling once that could have ended in catastrophe.

Imagine how lucky he is NOT to have taken a torso or head shot. Darn scary!
 
I hope he's OK. Before others start in, a gun shouldn't discharge if the safety is on, right? Guess it doesn't matter if you are hunting coyotes or elephants. Someone will use it as an excuse to say "see we should ban hunting". One person hurt while hunting and thousands hurt driving to work. But they will latch on to that one thing to validate their ideas.
 
Thats to bad . But thats why I only put one in the chamber after I sit down and before I stand up from a stand .I never sling a gun on my shoulder with a round in the chamber. We all need to be safe out there and learn from others mistakes and not our own.
 
I have had my shotgun do this before ,the strap come undone and hit the ground. I tied the extra into a knot were this wont happen again.
 
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Thats to bad . But thats why I only put one in the chamber after I sit down and before I stand up from a stand .I never sling a gun on my shoulder with a round in the chamber. We all need to be safe out there and learn from others mistakes and not our own.



Same here. I never fully trust the safety.
 
Thats what happen to my cousin several years ago.The sling came off the front of the forearm,the rifle hit the ground and the bullet hit him in the chest.Im sorry to say he didnt make it.I hope this guy is going to be okay and if you could keep us posted.Chad
 
I noticed a few times that one of my latches on my sling unhooks, but it has to press in and slide to the left to leave the stud. Its kinda freaky when you look over your shoulder and your sling is almost detached... Dab of super glue fixed it.
 
I'd like to reiterate something for safety's sake:

The Hush Stalker plastic swivels on Claw slings and others are dangerous. They have a threaded brass insert which accepts the threaded pin. That brass insert will slip out of the plastic frame and the pin will drop out and the sling detaches. I was fortunate to notice mine in time. I changed them right away.

Darm shame to hear that story, MCWALK. Sad beyond words!
 
I gots one for ya... Back in the 80s, and I won't name
names. A guy in the Riverside Ca club on a daylight
stand shot himself in the foot! He's was a long lanky kid, he was sitting back into some brush with his feet straight out in front of him. The wind was blowing. The weight of pull on the trigger of his rifle (I believe it was a 243) was so light that a branch blowing around in the wind struck the trigger and his weapon discharged. Do you remember that one Danny? His heavy boot kinda held things together until he was seen by a Surgeon! I don't recall if he lost any toes or not ouch! Grizz
 
Letts Ia is a small town about 8 miles south of me. The gentleman who was injured will be ok. He and his family are good people and he is a taxidermist and does beautiful work. Hopefully he will be able to continue both the work and the hunting. I will do my best to keep you all posted
 
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I hope he's OK. Before others start in, a gun shouldn't discharge if the safety is on, right? Guess it doesn't matter if you are hunting coyotes or elephants. Someone will use it as an excuse to say "see we should ban hunting". One person hurt while hunting and thousands hurt driving to work. But they will latch on to that one thing to validate their ideas.



Basic Hunter Ed--a safety is a mechanical device that is prone to failure!!!

Hunting is still the safest outdoor endeavor you can pursue, but we need to 'load our brains before we load our guns'!

Regards,
Tim
 
I never like to hear of someone hurt or killed while hunting/shooting. It is sad and could have been avoided.

The question that begs to be asked is how a sling/swivel on a rifle gun was capable of loading, removing from safety and firing the gun in a way to shoot one in the arm. Was this the fault of the rifle sling ?

Hunting and shooting requires basic safety and common sense...not everyone is blessed with that.
 
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What I was told was the guy was getting out of the truck. Loaded the gun and went to put it over his shoulder when the sling let go. He went to catch or grab the gun. His finger got into the trigger and the but of the gun hit the running board and the gun discharged. The gun they belived was not on safety. He was shot in the shoulder/arm. They first thought that they may not beable to save the arm. But they were able to graff an vein from his leg to the arm. They think that he will be ok. Don't know if he was out calling or if he was truck hunting.
 
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I'd like to reiterate something for safety's sake:

The Hush Stalker plastic swivels on Claw slings and others are dangerous. They have a threaded brass insert which accepts the threaded pin. That brass insert will slip out of the plastic frame and the pin will drop out and the sling detaches. I was fortunate to notice mine in time. I changed them right away.

Darm shame to hear that story, MCWALK. Sad beyond words!



Same here. I like the claw slings, but the plastic swivels are junk. I replaced mine as well on the two i have with metal swivels.
 
The metal ones can stress and break too. Years back I was hustling to get on my deer stand just about gray dawn when the metal pin on the upper sling sheared off and allowed my Remington Classic M700 to fall barrel first behind me into the mud of the creek bank I was traveling. My sling was a 1” wide leather job on Uncle Mikes metal swivels. The little metal pin that goes through the studs on the rifle sheared clean at the point it attaches to the main body of the unit. Just an FYI…
 
Not sure if the sling had any fault in it but it will give us all a chance to inspect them. I have put black electrical tape on some of mine to keep them from backing out and to stop them from squeaking. Hope he is all right, could have been a whole lot worse.
 
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