Turkey hunters stalk each other; then one of them fires

Soon after his shotgun’s blast, the hunter sprinted toward what he thought was a coveted prize: the wild turkey gobbler he’d been calling to and watching.

But Kenneth Dienst found he actually had shot his brother and a friend.

“Right after he shot, he thought he saw a turkey flopping on the ground, but when he hurried up there, he saw two guys rolling on the ground. He’d shot (both) in the face,” said Jim Bussone, a Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism game warden who investigated the April 12 incident.

“The shooter swore he’d seen strutting toms and some other turkeys right up until then.”

But in reality, he’d been looking at a gobbler’s preserved tail fan, behind which Gary Dienst and Justin Wiles had been hiding and sneaking. The shooter was behind another fan. Bussone said the hunters ended up hunting each other.

According to Dan Peak, Crawford County sheriff, the victims – who’ve spent time in three hospitals – are expected to survive.

Their story that day is one of bad decisions made by all, a potentially dangerous hunting tactic and the tricks that excitement can play on the human mind.

“When I teach hunter ed classes, I tell them even some good people can become undone by a big deer or a turkey and make mistakes,” Bussone said. “You always have to be thinking, be careful and stay under control.”

April 12 was Opening Day of the Kansas spring turkey season, an exciting time when hunters usually replicate the sounds of hen turkeys to bring amorous toms into shotgun range.

Kenneth Dienst is from West Plains, Missouri. Gary Dienst and Wiles are from Arkansas. They were hunting on leased lands in southeast Kansas.

Bussone said Kenneth Dienst had been dropped off at one property, while his buddies went to hunt at another. As well as turkey calls, the hunters were using a tactic known as fanning, in which the preserved tail fan of a wild turkey is used to attract, or sneak up on, a wild gobbler.

Bussone said problems began when Gary Dienst and Wiles returned to the property where Kenneth Dienst was hunting without telling him they were there.

Bussone referred to changing locations without alerting others as “one of the cardinal sins we teach against in hunter ed.”

“They were calling to each other and sneaking up on each other like two toms coming at each other,” Bussone said. “Both swore they were sneaking on real turkeys.”

Hunter education courses are credited for lowering the accident rates. Turkey hunters are warned against wearing anything that’s red, blue or white – the colors of a tom turkey’s head – and against trying to sneak in on the sounds of turkey calls.

Tom Hughes of the National Wild Turkey Federation fears accident rates may climb again since fanning has become popular with turkey hunters. He said he has heard of several accidents nationwide.

Fanning is an effective tactic, and toms that have often ignored a hunter’s calls have run to a turkey fan, thinking it could be a rival tom. Some turkeys have actually collided with fans held by hunters.

Other times, hunters have hidden behind a fan and crawled across open ground to a flock of turkeys that think it’s just another bird coming to tag along.

“We often see what we want to see; our perception becomes our reality,” said John Simmering of Hesston, Kansas, a psychologist and hunter of more than 50 years.

Bussone, Hughes and Miller all said Kenneth Dienst broke several hunting safety rules by not being 100 percent sure of his target and shooting at movement.

“The error is always with the shooters on these kinds of things. They pulled the trigger,“ said Hughes. “The problem is with some techniques, like fanning, it makes it all too easy for the shooter to make that mistake.”