Is Wild Turkey Hunting Safe?
Hunting the wild turkey is one of the safest sports there is much safer than riding your bike to the corner store or playing a few sets of tennis. In fact, turkey hunting is four times safer than playing Ping-Pong, and you are 50 times more likely to take a trip to the emergency room if you play golf. Why is turkey hunting so safe? All evidence points toward great success in educating turkey hunters on safe hunting due to the efforts of the NWTF, the International Hunter Education Association (IHEA) and state agencies. Statistics show a tremendous drop in turkey hunting incidents during the 1990s, while turkey hunter numbers continued to grow. The latest available national report from the IHEA (year 2001) shows only one turkey hunting fatality for that year. However, one fatality is too many. The NWTF and the IHEA, in a continuing effort to improve turkey-hunting safety, are gathering data from state hunter education coordinators on recent turkey hunting incidents in their states. The
