Usually the best stories about opening deer hunting weekend involve a hunter bagging a big buck. Danny Salmon's story is about a shot that just missed, but is still quite a doozy. It all started Sunday morning near Loon Lake.
Salmon says, "I got out, got the gun loaded, started walking out, heard a few shots."
This is where the story gets a little blurry, he doesn't actually remember what happened, but by the looks of the hat he was wearing, he had a close call with a bullet.
Salmon looks at the hat and says, "In one side out the other."
Giving him just a couple scrapes and haircut in the process.
Officers investigating the incident say it's hard to say exactly what happened but they think it was an accident
Jackson County Sheriff Roger Hawkinson says, "Slugs can travel 1,200–1,400 feet, maybe even further."
...and that he is lucky to be alive.
Hawkinson say, "He can be thankful to God for walking another day, and living another day."
While Salmon says the incident won't dissuade him from hunting,
Salmon says, "It won't make me quite, nothing will make me quite."
He hopes other hunters can learn a lesson from this.
Salmon says, "Just try to look behind what you are shooting at."
Hawkinson says, "Prepare yourself a little bit, look beyond your target, know what you're shooting at, know what you're aiming at."
Because next time, the story may not have a happy ending.
One additional coincidence...Danny Salmon did bag a deer.
Though he doesn't remember it, that deer was shot in the head, almost exactly where Salmon was almost hit.
