MuleyMadness Hunting Forums

A Wanaka hunter who shot and killed his best friend after mistaking him for a deer on December 19 last year has been sentenced to seven months' home detention.

"Is this enough?"

I suppose I would have to know the facts. 7 months at home doesn't sound like much but you still have to live with it the rest of your life.

To me the circumstances mean everything.

seven months is very lite. it is called knowing your target and whats behind it before shooting.

Tough to know for sure, but if we assume it was unintentional then I don't know what value a prison sentence provides. The poor guy has to live the rest of his life knowing he shot and killed his best friend. I can't imagine any worse punishment than that. Especially with the knowledge that had he just followed one of the cardinal rules of handling a firearm it all could have been avoided.

My wife served on jury duty on a similar case several years ago. She still cries over it. It's not so cut and dry when you've lived it. Sad any way you look at it.

I'm agreeing with the majority here.
I gotta know the circumstance before I make a judgement.
What happened?
if the guy was being a drunk idiot then NO, thats not near enough!
"BUT" was this a freak accident that although avoidable I'm sure, was just a HORRIBLE trip gone bad? yea, that might be enough- topping that off with knowing you killed your best friend, AND LIVING WITH THAT FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE- that's still a pretty steep imprisonment for a person .

They both were drunked.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/artic ... d=10805799

http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/ ... -detention

Drunk or not, I still don't think I could ever confuse a human being for a deer.

He shot at a reflection of his friend eye's thinking it was a deer which means he was hunting deer at night drunk, more than one bad decision there.