Eight shooting incidents, including one fatality, occurred through the first seven days of the 2020 Wisconsin gun deer hunting season, according to the Department of Natural Resources.
This year's number is twice as many as were recorded in the entire 2019 season and represents an uptick from the five-year average of 5.2 incidents.
While many factors are at play, accident rates in boating and other forms of outdoor recreation have generally increased this year as more people utilize the state's woods and waters during the coronavirus pandemic.
"With every data trend and average there is a high and a low side," said Jon King, DNR hunter education administrator and conservation warden. "This year with the increase in outdoor activities we have seen an increase in users and incident rates."
Shooting incidents have generally fallen in recent decades due to mandatory hunter education, blaze orange clothing requirements and changes in hunting tactics, especially greater use of elevated stands from, which bullets are shot at a downward trajectory, and reduced use of deer drives.
Three quarters of the hunters are drunk at any given time. The only mystery here is how so few of them end up shot.
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