Firearm fatalities and injuries from hunting accidents in Germany

Abstract

Accidental hunting firearm injuries and fatalities (257 cases from 1961 to 1992) were evaluated in detail. Most persons responsible for the accident were more than 40 years old and experienced in hunting, and 26% of the gunshot wounds were fatal. In 77% of cases the victim was shot by another person and in 23% the wound was self-inflicted. The firearms/ammunition used were pellets from shotguns (63%), bullets from rifles (31%), shotgun slugs (3.5%) and bullets from handguns (2.5%). In 22% of all accidents from pellets severe eyeball injuries were involved, and 38% of the wounds were caused from a distance of 5 m or less, including all self-inflicted injuries. The most frequent factors responsible for the accident were: improper handling of the firearm (37%), failure to notice the victim (24.1%), covering the victim while swinging on the game (14.8%), ricocheting projectiles (13.6%), inadequate storage of the firearm (11.7%) and mistaking the victim for game (9.3%). In some cases more than one factor contributed to the accident. Defective firearm/ammunition, as the only non-human factor, was involved in only 1.6% of accidents. Some aspects of the prevention and the forensic investigation of hunting accidents are discussed.

A case of hunting death due to an overpenetrated bullet

“…The intrasomatic bullet direction that was detected by CT scanning has been reported by previous authors in both suicide and homicide circumstances [3][4][5][6][7]. In addition, the paucity and the heterogeneity of the data in literature on accidental shooting [14][15][16][17][18][19][20] failed to add any convincing information to aid the reconstruction.…”

Identificarea armelor de vanatoare lise in functie de caracteristicile impactului dintre cuiul percutor si capsa de initiere

“…Cele mai multe accidente se produc la acțiunile colective de vânătoare la care pot fi răniți atât vânătorii, cât și alți participanți "non-vânători" (gonași, invitați etc.) (Cole și Patetta 1988, Karger et al 1996. În acest caz, identificarea armelor de vânătoare cu țevi lise este mai nesigură, după cunoștința noastră studiul de față fiind unul de pionierat, nefiind publicate analize cu privire la dinamica fenomenelor mecanice care au loc în basculă în momentul în care se produce explozia în camera cartușului.…”

Multiple suicidal injuries with shotgun slugs

“…The accuracy of shotgun slugs is reduced due to the absence of rifling in the interior part of the shotgun barrel, thus there is only slight stabilization of the projectile. The effective shooting accuracy is limited to a distance of approximately 45-50 m [4,8]. The average dispersion of shotgun slugs at a distance of 50 m is approximately 10-30 cm.…”

“…The single shotgun slugs are predominantly used for shooting from smooth bore barrels for specific hunting purposes [1][2][3][4]. In middle and eastern Europe, shotgun slugs are used only for hunting wild boar during a battue [3].…”