Ol' Hoss wrote:Wasn't this on here a while back or something?
Not sure what you saw earlier, but I had posted an article from the Birmingham News where an official from the Alabama Wildlife Agency had stated that accidents regarding sliced off fingers, thumb nails, etc from the crossbow's bow string was 'alarming'.
It's apparently a point of concern with the weapon's use. Hopefully, people will be made aware of this in the future. You hate to see that sort of thing happen, though I understand it's a user error more than a reflection on the weapon itself. Hopefully, a young child doesn't get to experiance the same type of event.
I still have a copy of the article...interesting reading.
Fingers crossed
Sunday, November 07, 2004
MIKE BOLTON
News staff writer
Scotty Hawkins' friends say he's the last person they'd expect to cause a hunting accident.
The 38-year-old body shop worker from Montevallo has hunted since age 6 and friends say he is a stickler for hunting safety.
But Hawkins did have a hunting accident recently and he has become a member of a growing legion of hunting accident victims like the state has never seen before.
Hawkins shot the tip of one of his fingers off with a crossbow.
A crossbow resembles a bow mounted sideways on a rifle stock. Crossbows typically have a draw weight much higher than compound bows. Some models have draw weights as high as 180 pounds. When that string is released and the fingers holding the stock get in the way of that string, it can slice off a finger like a machete.
Although there are no firm numbers of how many Alabama hunters have lost fingers since crossbows became a legal hunting weapon this year, there are enough reports of such accidents to become alarming, said State Hunting Safety Coordinator Ray Metzler.
Alabaster's Bryant Cofer recently ripped a thumbnail off when the string of his crossbow struck him while he practiced in the backyard. He said at least two of his co-workers at ACIPCO have had similar accidents. He said he has heard stories of six or seven others who have also suffered crossbow injuries.
"It happened so fast it didn't have time to hurt," he said. "Somebody needs to make a DVD or something about how these things can hurt you."
Hawkins said he has already heard of more than 25 such accidents. Metzler said he doesn't doubt that.
"I was talking to a person who runs a bow shop in Autauga County and he said there have already been four such accidents in that county since September," Metzler said.
Opponents of the legalization of crossbows said one reason they opposed the measure was that the state lacked information on crossbow safety in its hunter education program. Opponents predicted accidents. Those predictions quickly proved true and the state is scrambling to get information on crossbow safety added to its hunter safety program.
"We had a workshop with all of our employees and volunteer instructors on Tuesday and it was to implement crossbow safety into our hunter education classes," Metzler said. "We're developing a two-page section to add to the class and we're going to put something on our Web site about crossbow safety.
"We're telling instructors that they have to tell people that they must keep their fingers below the rails that the bolt rides on. People are used to shooting rifles and letting the stock sit in the palm of their hand. A lot of people wrap their fingers around the top of the stock to cradle it. If you do that with a crossbow and your fingers are long enough, you'll slice them off."
That is what happened to Hawkins.
"I had placed my left elbow on my left knee to release the pressure from my forearm," Hawkins said describing the accident. "When I fired I knew the string hit my finger and I looked down and blood was squirting out of my finger. I stuck it down between my legs to ease the pain and when I looked at it again I saw the end of my finger was gone.
"I went inside and ran water on my finger and I wrapped it up so my wife could take me to the hospital. We ran out to look for the finger and we couldn't find it. We still haven't found it."
At the hospital Hawkins discovered he had broken his middle finger and sliced off his ring finger at the first knuckle.
"I have always prided myself in being super safe," Hawkins said. "Now, I will climb a tree higher than anyone else and if I got hurt like that I would say I had it coming. But I cut my finger off because of a poor design. They need to put an aluminum plate on these things so your fingers won't slip past it. They could probably add a plate like that for about a dime."
Hawkins, like Metzler, says crossbow sellers should make buyers away of the danger.
"I think people who gun hunt are more receptive to letting their fingers get up there in the way. Somebody needs to warn them."
Metzler says crossbows have such warnings in their instructions, but many hunters likely don't read the instructions. He also worries many are buying crossbows by mail order and there is no store employee to warn them.
"The UPS guy pulls up with it and they take the instructions out and never look at them and run out in the backyard to shoot it," Metzler said.
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http://www.al.com/outdoo...ts/1099822536151300.xml