<
As the peak of the deer hunting season approaches police are warning hunters that it is dangerous to rely on their scope when identifying their target.
"Using the scope on its own to identify a target can be misleading", said Inspector Joe Green, manager for arms control.
"The scope is designed for accurate placement of the shot, not for searching for and identifying the target as the one you want to shoot" he said.
People using a scope for this purpose lose their binocular vision. Binocular vision is necessary to determine depth and contrast, key requirements for identifying what the hunter is going to shoot at.
On average, since 1979 there has been one accidental shooting of a hunter by another hunter every nine months. Almost always the cause being failure to correctly identify the target shot.
"While the number of accidental shooting of hunters by other hunters is very low, given the large numbers who enjoy hunting as a sport, police are keen to see the number of these tragedies even lower", Mr Green said.
ENDS