NZGAC Hunter Education. Enabling better education and safer hunting practices.
NZ Hunter Education: Module 5:
Rule 7: Avoid Alcohol & Drugs
ALWAYS AVOID ALCOHOL & DRUGS WHEN HANDLING FIREARMS
Because firearms are potentially dangerous, it is important that when you handle a firearm you are able to think clearly. In this respect alcohol, and some drugs, even prescribed ones, can dull and slow your mental and physical reactions.
Alcohol affects your body's mental and physical abilities and impairs your sense of judgement. It also increases your risk of exposure while in the outdoors.
Key issues:
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Never consume alcohol or mind altering drugs while hunting or when handling firearms.
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Do not hunt or shoot with anyone who has.
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Hunting while intoxicated is extremely dangerous to yourself and others. Prescription and non-prescription drugs also affect your body's senses. Medicines that cause drowsiness, for example, can be especially dangerous when you are handling firearms, or operating motorized vehicles. Always stay fully alert when around firearms!
Examples of hunting skills impaired by alcohol and drugs include:
Ability Hunting skills negatively affected
Judgment Ability to determine when to shoot and when not to shoot; safe zones of fire
Coordination Ability to safely handle firearms; cross obstacles or rough terrain; marksmanship; reaction time
Speech Ability to communicate clearly with other members of hunting part
Hearing Game location and discernment of sounds
Vision Game identification or correct identification
Never take alcohol or drugs before you hunt and if you are aware that the prescription drugs that you are taking may affect your ability to think straight, make the safe choice and don’t use a firearm.
Always wait until firearms are locked away before you consume alcohol and drugs.
Excerpts from a book about hunting on Stewart Island. (Definitely not recommended!)
“Rex gave me the old rifle to use after I mentioned there was a tree that always had wood pigeons on it ..... I cleared away the foliage from my rifle sights, cocked the .22, and was poised waiting for that plump, oversized budgie to waddle along the branch he was on and into my sights.”
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“Camp was sorted out in pretty quick time and a couple of the guys grabbed a six pack each and settled in to ploughing through some more of the daily quota. I got onto the hunting side of things early before lending the boys a hand with the bivvies. One also opted for the bush, but only after he’d had one beer.”
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“Anyone want a beer? And out of his Swanndri he pulled three cans. “It’s better than using a watch and a compass, he said, “You hunt two cans drinking time in one direction and two cans the other way, and it should bring you back to camp.”
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“We kicked back for a last great evening ..... The boys had built up a small bonfire on the beach for what was now our bi-annual gas bottle blow up ..... That bottle became the pyrotechnic highlight of the evening. When the .270 round pierced a hole in it the lightly glowing fire down the end of the beach became a raging inferno with a boom that was probably heard in Bluff.”
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And now for a bit of humour! This could only happen in the USA!
This actually happened with some guys from Maine...
They had been drinking...
They dressed the truck up with the guy dummy spread eagle on the roof of the truck...
The driver and passenger put on Moose Heads...
Down the Maine Toll interstate they went causing about 16 accidents.
They went to jail.