Several years ago I was seated on a bench in a mall watching a wide variety of humanity walk past — some of them very wide. My wife was shopping, and I was staying in touch via my cell phone .. what a concept! It’s right up there with remote controls and trolling motors.

One of the passersby particularly caught my attention. He was wearing a cap that had a set of antlers on top. I thought to myself, now there’s a guy who likes to live on the edge … dressing up like a deer during hunting season? Given the statistics for stupid hunting mishaps, this is dangerous even in a mall.

And so I offer my annual column on hunting safety, hopefully to encourage novice hunters to watch a few safety videos and for veteran hunters and the general public to beware of novice hunters.

Yet it never fails. Every year we read where someone was mistaken for a deer and got shot. It’s phenomenal. We never hear of someone being mistaken for a motorcycle or a popcorn machine …. it’s always a deer. I’ve never really been able to wrap my brain around that because a person doesn’t resemble a deer at all, even if he is wearing a cap with antlers, and his dirty T-shirt indicates he spends a lot of time in the woods. He may even smell like a wild creature, but that’s still not enough evidence to pull the trigger.

It was about this time last year that a woman in Arkansas was mistaken for a deer and was fatally shot. A week later, an Atlanta man visiting South Carolina died in similar fashion. There’s a long list of such tragedies.

I was a deer hunter when I was very young. But I gave it up long ago. I can take or leave venison, and my rule is I don’t take game I don’t eat. I will admit that I have eaten some tasty venison, but I didn’t kill it nor did I cook it. In fact it was so doctored up with marinades and other concoctions, I’m pretty sure road kill would have been as tasty with all those additives. I think the object in cooking wild game is to make it taste like something else.

In my short time of deer hunting, I don’t recall anyone ever being mistaken for a deer and being shot. Mostly I was associated with veteran hunters. I did hear of something called “buck fever” where a novice hunter would get so excited at the site of a deer that he would fire his gun wildly into the ground before getting it to his shoulder.

And I recall an incident where a novice hunter got so excited after shooting a deer that he stepped right out of his tree stand and fell 20 feet to the ground. Broke an ankle and some ribs.

In addition to people, livestock and dogs have also been been shot by hunters. There are some very bizarre accounts. Records show a horse with a rider was shot by a hunter some years back. Now how does one mistake a horse and rider for a deer? Deer seldom kidnap people and run off into the woods with them.

Now I can almost see a nearsighted novice shooting a holiday decoration in someone’s yard. But even then, the sleigh attached and the little elves scattered around the patio should have caused second thoughts on the part of the shooter.

There’s an old piece of advice that my dad offered me at a very early age … make sure you can clearly see your target.

And I might add, if it’s wearing orange don’t assume it’s a deer sporting one of those hideous holiday sweaters. I think they have better taste than that!

Now to illustrate my sincere concern about hunting safety in this regard, I will close with a line from my previous hunter safety columns. During hunting season, I don’t even want my wife to call me “dear.”

(Dwain Walden is editor/publisher of The Moultrie Observer, 985-4545. Email: dwain.walden@gaflnews.com)