Teen hunter run over by corn chopper after falling asleep in field, Michigan cops say

Robert59

Robert59

Well-known Member
Location
Now I live in Tennesee. Did live in Michigan.
A 14-year-old hunter apparently fell asleep in a Michigan field before he was run over and killed by a corn chopper, police say.

The boy was dropped off in a field in Chandler Township early Saturday so he could hunt, the Huron County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. Once he arrived, police believe he may have fallen asleep.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/teen-hunter-run-over-corn-131506966.html
 

When I worked on the farm while in high school, we didn't have a corn chopper. After I saw this thing in operation, I can understand why the young man was killed.

 
WOW. How could anyone sleep through that? I remembered how loud they are so searched to see if I remember correctly. Yes a corn chopper is extremely loud. If I were the parent I would be demanding an investigation.

 
Rosemarie said:
I have no sympathy at all for hunters.....
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Wow. That's cold. Hunters keep the deer population in check, here, and therefore the deer do not starve. It brings in extra income for landowners and for small towns. It puts meat on tables. I'm against hunting of endangered species or for trophies, but deer hunting is beneficial. And to not feel sorry about the death of a teenager is heartless.
 
Aunt Marg said:
The thought of foul play has plagued me since coming across this.
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Coming from the perspective of working in healthcare, my first thoughts are medical. There are several forms of epilepsy that begin in the teens. Not going to to try to figure out numbers, but my guess that it's statistically much more likely to be medical than murder.
 
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CarolfromTX said:
Wow. That's cold. Hunters keep the deer population in check, here, and therefore the deer do not starve.
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Deer suffer badly here this time of year. This is our driest part of the year and their food sources are scarce. If they weren't culled each year according to wildlife management authorities analysis based on sustainable herd population, their situation would be truly awful.
 
Two of my cousins were killed by tractors, one before I was born. Another one, years later, was my age. It was his tractor. I never did hear the details, only that he had died. He was in his 50s at the time. Both of them were driving the tractors.
 
The part that doesn't add up for me is, dropped off in a corn field to hunt?

Who hunts in a corn field? An area where one can't see more than 2-3 feet in front of them? Where, if one misses their shot, they have not a clue where the bullet is going to end up.

Farm land... corn field... people working in and around the corn field... machinery being operated in and around the corn field.

Whenever I go hunting with my husband, ideally, he likes to find an open area where there's a clearing or a cut in the mountain-side/landscape, where he has a clear view of what he's hunting. Not only does he have a clear view, he has a clear shot, and if he so happens to miss the shot, he knows exactly where the bullet will travel.
 
The farm that I worked for was huge. There were maybe 10-15 men working the farm during the spring, summer and fall. We used corn pickers that picked 8 rows at a time. The farm's owner had a contract with Dekalb and so he sold to them exclusively, except maybe to some local people that wanted some to feed birds or whatever. We had 3 or 4 different hybrids. Some of the corn came in earlier than others. We harvested right up through Thanksgiving.

Randy, the foreman, let me drive the tractor with the corn-picker on one time. It looked so easy and I was a pretty strong dude in school, but I found out the hard way that you really have to hold onto the wheel. otherwise, the tractor tends to go wherever it wants to. Instead, I drove the tractor with the trailer or what we called the loader.

What the picker didn't pick up and left the ears laying in the field was eaten by the cattle that we would move over after harvesting. They loved to eat the corn right on the cob. I was amused when I would give a cow a whole ear of corn and the cow would just chew it like us eating a hot dog. You could just hear the crushing sound when they bit down on the ear.

Dekalb would pick up the corn on the cobs and take it to one of their processing plants here in the area. There they would run it through a huge machine that shelled the corn from the cob. Interesting to watch. I remember watching the workers in Hawaii at the Dole Pineapple factory feeding the pineapples down a chute into a machine that would shell the outer shell from the pineapple. I had to wonder, "How does that do that?"
 
Aunt Marg said:
The part that doesn't add up for me is, dropped off in a corn field to hunt?

Who hunts in a corn field? An area where one can't see more than 2-3 feet in front of them? Where, if one misses their shot, they have not a clue where the bullet is going to end up.

Farm land... corn field... people working in and around the corn field... machinery being operated in and around the corn field.

Whenever I go hunting with my husband, ideally, he likes to find an open area where there's a clearing or a cut in the mountain-side/landscape, where he has a clear view of what he's hunting. Not only does he have a clear view, he has a clear shot, and if he so happens to miss the shot, he knows exactly where the bullet will travel.
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Cornfields are harvested and stalks cut before deer season here so I dunno. I do know deer bed down in cornfields so maybe the kid planned to hunt them as they moved away from the picker?

Lots and lots of questions including did the owner and employee know he was hunting. Part of my dad's land is ag and part is in developed wetlands habitat bordered by a river, natural swamp and dense woodland that is great for hunting. Only the guy that rents the ag part has a standing invitation to hunt which he does frequently. My dad hasn't hunted in years, but when my brother visits or someone asks for permission over the weekend, they always call the renter the day before they plan to hunt so everyone knows exactly where the others will be.
 
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AnnieA said:
Cornfields are harvested and stalks cut before deer season here so I dunno. I do know deer bed down in cornfields so maybe the kid planned to hunt them as they moved away from the picker?

Lots and lots of questions including did the owner and employee know he was hunting. Part of my dad's land is ag and part is in wetlands habitat bordered by a river, swamp and woods. Only the guy that rents the ag part has a standing invitation to hunt which he does frequently. My dad hasn't hunted in years, but when my brother visits or someone asks for permission over the weekend, they always call the renter the day before they plan to hunt so everyone knows exactly where the others will be.
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I agree, Annie, lost of questions.

Just as a mention, my husband never hunts alone, and I believe no hunter ever should, hence the case in question. Had the boy had a hunting partner, chances are good, this incident would not have happened.
 
Aunt Marg said:
I agree, Annie, lost of questions.

Just as a mention, my husband never hunts by himself, and I believe no hunter ever should, hence the case in question. Had the boy had a hunting partner, chances are good, this incident would not have happened.
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Solo hunting is common here in tree blinds. But this case esp given the kid's age, I certainly agree that he shouldn't have been dropped off to hunt alone.
 


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