More NC hunters killed in gun-related accidents this season than past 3 years
ASHEVILLE — Gregory “Chase” Colas was hiking back from a hunting trip in Northampton County in the northeastern part of the state on Oct. 21, at an area he frequented over the years, according to his family.
Colas had just radioed to the other hunters around to let them know his location when he was struck by a buckshot, which is a shotgun shell filled with a few large pellets. From what his family was told, Colas, 35, died instantly, according to sister-in-law Dana Colas, who had known Chase for 14 years.
“All it takes is one person,” Colas told the Citizen Times, mentioning how the hunter who accidently shot her brother-in-law didn’t have a radio.
Colas called Chase, of Dunn, a “huge outdoorsman and a stickler for the rules,” who would donate some of the deer he caught to families in need.
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This hunting season has seen more fatalities involving firearms than the past three seasons combined, with five people having lost their lives to gun accidents while hunting in 2023, according to the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission. The youngest was 15. The next youngest was 24-year-old Ethan Hahn from Burke County, and the oldest was 56.
The counties where these fatal accidents occurred were Burke, Halifax, Northampton, Lincoln and Perquimans.
“It can happen to anybody at any time,” Chase Hartis told the Citizen Times. His dad, William “Billy” Hartis, 56, died due to an accident April 16 while hunting on his own property in Lincoln County, where he’d lived since 2014.
Despite the investigation into his dad’s death having ended, Hartis said “nobody really knows what happened,” as his dad was hunting alone in the woods on the opening day of turkey season.
“He was a huge safety nut when it came to guns, so for something like this to happen is mind boggling, to say the least,” Hartis said, who described his dad as “not an ordinary man” and an avid outdoorsman, who was “hardheaded” but “loving to the people he knew.”
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Hunting-related incidents on the rise
A total of 14 hunting-related incidents occurred so far this year, 11 that included a firearm, five of which were fatal, according to the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission. Hunting incidents qualify as an injury too severe for first aid and that occurred during hunting activities.
For comparison, of the 114 firearm-related hunting incidents in North Carolina during the past decade, from 2013 to 2022, seven were fatal.
One of the lives lost this year was Hahn, a 24-year-old son from Hildebran in Burke County who had taken the day off work to go hunting in Pisgah National Forest with his father, Mark Hahn. According to the incident report, Ethan’s gun accidentally discharged while they were hiking through the woods Nov. 20, shooting himself in the upper right arm.
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“We want everyone participating in hunting activities to keep safety as their number one priority and continue to make memories for many years to come,” Capt. Braden Jones of the commission’s law enforcement division said in a news release. “Let someone know your whereabouts and approximate return time.”
According to the commission, many firearm injuries occur when hunters fail to properly identify their target and mistake another hunter for game, or carelessly handle a firearm resulting in self-inflicted injuries.
North Carolina has the seventh-most licensed hunters in the nation at 603,995, according to the International Hunter Education Association. The wildlife commission is offering basic hunter education certification courses, both in-person and online, to help reduce hunting-related incidents. More information can be found at: ncwildlife.org/Learning/Courses-Seminars-Workshops/Getting-Started-Outdoors.
“Through increased education, access to shooting ranges, and advanced educational opportunities, students and hunters become more skilled and proficient in the use of hunting equipment,” Education Manager Carissa Daniels of the wildlife resource commission said in the release.
Important rules for firearm safety include:
Positively identify target before pulling the trigger.
Always point a firearm in a safe direction.
Treat every firearm as if it were loaded and never assume it’s unloaded.
Use binoculars, rather than a rifle scope, to identify the target.
Keep finger out of the trigger guard and off the trigger until ready to shoot.
Be sure of the target and that there are no houses, vehicles, powerlines, livestock or people in front of or behind it.
Avoid the use of alcohol and drugs as they may affect judgement when hunting.
Comply with blaze orange laws as required.
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Ryley Ober is the Public Safety Reporter for Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Email her at rober@gannett.com and follow her on Twitter @ryleyober
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Gun-related hunting deaths rising in NC, what hunters need to know
