Hunting Deaths A Reminder To Be Careful When Doing Late-Season Deer Drives

On Jan. 2, South Carolina DNR released a statement on Twitter stating that two hunters had succumbed to hunting injuries. As if the news wasn’t sad enough, the two victims were 9-year-old Lauren Drawdy and her 30-year-old dad Kim Drawdy.

According to WCBD News 2 in Charleston, Lauren, her daddy and two other hunters were participating in a Jan. 1 deer-drive on the last day of deer season in Colleton County when the incident occurred.

The article states, “The accident happened in the woods behind Kim’s house, woods he had hunted many times before. Family members say his daughter, Lauren, was following in his footsteps and just shot her first deer a few weeks ago.”

Kim’s brother Benny was quoted in the WCBD News 2 article as saying, ““He was a real outdoorsman, he loved the outdoors like we all do, he loved to hunt and stuff.”

As Georgia’s deer season winds down with a closing date of Jan. 12 for most of the state, this terrible incident should serve as a reminder to be extra safe when doing deer drives, which usually occur more frequently at the end of deer season.

Deer drives on private lands are often a great way to cap off the freezer, remove a few more deer from managed properties and provide great fellowship with friends and family. However, a few tips to make sure your deer drive is a safe one:

• Every driver and stander should be wearing the minimum legal limit of 500 square inches of daylight fluorescent orange above the waist.
• Shotguns with buckshot are much safer than using rifles.
• Before any drive takes place, host a meeting with every participant and assign where all standers and drivers will be located.
• When drivers reach a pre-determined safe location, have them yell out so that the standers know the drive is over and can unload their guns.
• Drive smaller patches of cover in order to alleviate a driver getting turned around and crossing into an area where they are not supposed to be.
• Never shoot into the drive. Allow the deer to come out so that you are shooting away from the direction the drivers are moving.