The only good bit in that article is the bit stating that a man was gored to death by a cornered deer!

**** pissing about firing guns in open areas where normal people are hanging out and actually taking part in other activities is just utterly **** stupid and I genuinely can’t believe it goes on but it clearly does!

The young hunter, who reportedly went into “deep shock” after realising what had happened, is now being investigated for ‘aggravated manslaughter’.

“[The biker] is thought to have died instantly after being hit by a bullet fired by a 22-year-old hunter,” said an investigating source.

“The accident happened on Saturday evening in thick woods close to the ski resort of Montriond, at about 6pm.

“The shooter went into deep shock when he realised what he had done. He now faces trial and prison.”

The source added that the incident occurred close to a 6.50pm sundown, with dozens of paramilitary police officers descending on the area.

Note the first 2 lines are quoted from an “investigating source” which is probably the police.

His death is the latest in a series of shooting tragedies involving passersby being killed or severely wounded during France’s hunting season, which started last month.

On this occasion, up to 18 hunters were taking part in a shooting event when the rider sped down a wooded path, according to the investigating source.

The hunter – who has also not been named – apparently failed to notice the man, who is said to have been wearing bright clothes.

“He was on a popular and well used track, although it was hard to get to and would not have been very busy as darkness approached,” said the source.

“It may be that he was mistaken for a fast moving animal.”

Again quoting directly from the source, so may have some translation issues but it’s clear they guy should not have shot him

Tragically, the hunter fired at the biker, killing him. Following the incident, the suspect was admitted to hospital suffering from “severe shock”.

This meant he could not immediately be interviewed or charged.

Prosecutors in Thonon have now opened an enquiry into ‘aggravated manslaughter’, with a full investigation into the incident “in progress”.

If convicted of the charge, the suspect faces prison, a judicial source confirmed.

I’m nor sure why you think this is doing anything other than laying out the facts, and giving what info they have. Given most of it is direct quoting it’s fairly procedural, somebody has tried to pull together a summary for the opening.

It explains that it was close to dark – fact, that the guy was moving quickly, was dressed in bright clothes, that the area was quiet. But nowhere that it was his fault for being there.

Also as I said above this is going to have been either translated by the paper or an English version of the french statement done by the one who speaks the best English on Duty on a Sunday night in Morzine.

Let me see –

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/14/british-man-shot-dead-by-hunter-in-france

The Grauniad managed to report it without mentioning speeding cyclists….even the Daily Heil managed to stop short of banging on about speeding cyclists this time, as far as they go is to directly quote a source that mentions low light.

The Grauniad managed to report it without mentioning speeding cyclists…

…the first line of the guardian article is…

A 34-year-old Briton has been shot dead by a hunter as he sped down a wooded track on a mountain bike in the French Alps, officials have said.

…Compared to the mirror…

A British mountain biker has been shot dead by a hunter in the French Alps as he sped through “thick” woodland in fading light.

…so not much difference aside fading light. I don’t know why you’re digging in on some stupid “suggestive” article point.

RIP to the mountain biker… sad news indeed

My mistake I guess –

I still **** hate the wording used in some of these articles.

It is 100 % the hunter fault  They must not shoot if they can’t see.

In my area they must put signs up at the start of each tracks to say they are hunting there.

Lots of accidents every year . Last year a grandfather shot dead his grandson.

Does their love of blazing away with shooters from Sept explain why they close the lifts early?

What a mess though, it’s not like the Alps is a small place, can’t they hunt away from people?

A few years ago, riding in Finale Ligure our run down to the accommodation above Calice we passed through a line of hunters most nights on the Roller Coaster trail.  Apparently, they were after wild boar. It was a bit disconcerting right enough when you here of this.

They heard me with the hope pro 2 hubs right enough 🙂

I guess we could mass spam the Morzine tourism office, to enquire whether we should be wearing bullet resistant body armour from now on – instead of downhill armour. The threat of a loss in tourism income is probably the best way to sort this.

You sound like a defensive gun nut

You have formed that opinion based on what exactly?? The fact I thought the article was stating fact in exactly the same way as the guardian did in your link?

Or was it the fact I went on to state clearly the shooter should go to prison

Do you actually read stuff before forming an opinion?

FYI.. I personally think that it’s ridiculous that you can shoot a gun in a publicly accessible place, guns should be banned for public use. You don’t need to hunt to eat in France.. It’s a blood sport, nothing more. Feel free to interpret that however you want as well

I’ve been to morzine several times and never realised this was even a risk.

Yeah, sorry Tpbiker – you aren’t.

All good fella.. I think we are both on the same side of the argument on this one

It will make me think twice about the French alps as a biking destination again tbh. Is this confined to a set period of the year, of is drunken Frenchies blasting anything that moves a year round pastime?

Guardian article mentions that it is 2 weeks since another hunter was jailed for shooting a trail runner dead with a single shot to the head.

Around 20 deaths per year in France, apparently, which included people in their gardens.

From thelocal.fr

<i>ARCHIVE Photo: AFP Picture dated 29 August 1996 of 90-year-old Anna Chaillard, still an active boar hunter walking with her dog Titi in the surroundings of Huanne, central France.</i>

I think it’s a bad idea to allow any non professional leisure use of firearms in public spaces. If you want to shoot guns, go and do it in a closed, indoor range.

The words ‘ hunting tradition’ keeps coming up in articles, which is the standard excuse for continuing the practice of something which belongs in the past..

In fact is there any tradition which is worthwhile? Im struggling to think of one…?

The words hunting tradition  should be preceded with a c not a h! I still can’t believe it goes on!

I’ve no problem with hunting for food or controlling numbers, if there is a level of satisfaction/enjoyment taken in that pursuit, then that’s fine with me also. Just like fishing for me.

However something is very wrong with the rules and regulations if this sort of thing happens regularly, looks like there has been plenty chances in the past where something could have been done to avoid this death. Tragic.

Eddie, you should be setting your shot up, so that it doesn’t pass over tracks that other people may be using and you should ALWAYS know exactly where your round is going to land and if it misses the target, it should not continue on for hundreds of meters. You use your surrounding geography as a backstop.

If that means you can’t bag your deer, then so be it.

The cyclist won’t be in the wrong here, hunters have a duty of care.

@ryanwomble – You’ve not been to France in hunting season then!

edit – I agree with you about the wording of the Mirror article, it does seem to make you infer a certain point of view.

Around 20 deaths per year in France, apparently, which included people in their gardens.

I awoke early one morning at my in laws in the Perigord to find a man in the back garden about to shoot a cat.

I asked him what he was doing (it was obvious, so I deserved the reply), which was ” i’m shooting a cat”.

Upon further inquiries in pigeon french, I think he said that he hadn’t asked permission because he didn’t want to wake anyone up. He was holding a shotgun!!!

In the two years I’ve lived here I have only once seen warning signs for the chasse.

They do have rules about when and where they can hunt, but like a lot of laws in France, a lot of French people don’t think they apply to them.

You would think that during the height of summer and in an area recognised as being used by folk on bikes, you should be ok. But I always wear something bright and if I can, I check the area out first for small white vans and the sound of dogs barking.

We’re recently back from a week with the guys at Riviera-which coincided with the start of the hunting season. It was a total eye opener. While we were there a 19year old boy was killed whilst walking his dog by a guy hunting for wild boar. The most extraordinary thing is no one seemed to be that bothered about it-just like it was an everyday occurrence. Delving into just how many people are killed in France and Italy every year made me realise one thing….I’m so glad we had guides who, knowing the locals were keeping us well out of the shoot areas. There’s no way I’d be riding those forested trails solo during hunting season, no matter how awesome they are.

We’re recently back from a week with the guys at Riviera-which coincided with the start of the hunting season.

We went out there a few years ago and I thought it was shocking how many spirit bottles where surrounding every hunt shelter/vantage point we passed.

Thankfully they steered us well clear of any areas where they were shooting.

We’re recently back from a week with the guys at Riviera-which coincided with the start of the hunting season

Not being hunting season doesn’t seem to bother them. Out riding in the woods near the in laws, I came across a group of armed and drunk gentlemen who all stopped talking and stared at me. I said Bon matin and rode off as fast as my fil’s early 90s Giant (coldrock?) would go, in a zig zag pattern just to be on the safe side? You know they aren’t going to do anything to you because you have seen them hunting out of season but your imagination goes into overdrive,  in a kind of ‘Le Deliverance’ kind of way!

Full osprey vests and kevlar lids for the interseason riding then.

My brother used to live in the Charente region and used to ride with the local school teacher. The school teacher used to ride around singing in woodlands because he said the Chasse would shoot anything that moves.

‘Soyons Tous Prudent’ is often the mantra and on the signs it’s ‘Soyez Prudent’ : It’s always interested me how I am told to be careful by an old guy with a gun…..but that’s how it is.

Unfortunately they have just halved the cost of the licence…a move to keep voters on board….did I say that?…..

Anyway, the mayor of Montriond has just banned hunting…momentarily…..which is interesting…

Article in the Dauphine Libere reports all this then has an editorial type comment at the end which could be construed as saying it wasn’t the hunters fault: “No exact advice but just a question of common sense whilst the hunt is open”

From the Dauphine Libere website: a poll

A tragic accident occurred on Saturday in the town of Montriond, while a fight was organized by a handful of members ACCA (Association communal hunting official) of Montriond. mountain biker down a track at the edge of a wood was fatally shot by a 22-year-old hunter. Should we ban hunting on weekends? share your opinion

78% said yes to the ban.

(Google translate by the way…)

It’s not as if they manage to shoot many boar either!!  Friends husband goes twice a week (most teachers are only at school 4 days a week in France) during the season and judging by how little meat is in their freezer spends all day drinking and walking the dogs with his mates.

I’ve come across hunters in the woods, in the Charente a couple of years ago – bloody scary it was.

I’d entered the woods on little piece of singletrack and was about 1km in before I spotted them. Weirdly they were all wearing high viz! I was in all in black on my black Rumblefish so not as visible as them.

I made a serious amount of noise – (good job I have a bell), much to their disgust and went hell for leather out of there, down through the main track. At the exit on the main track there was guy sitting in his car blocking the track with signs advising the hunters were in the woods.

Apparently round by us they can’t hunt on a Wednesday afternoon as that is school half-day.

Kinda curtails the riding from Oct to Feb a little bit.

The a previous case that sets precedent for this is a 1 year jail sentence that was just handed out to a hunter in similar circumstance, whether or not that is fair or not I am not sure as it sounds like the shooter is going to have a much harsher sentence in his own head for the rest of his life on top of any custodial one.

RIP to the rider, hopefully this might be the straw that breaks the camels back and brings about some change. It’s a stupid thing to have happening and probably many lives ruined from a single shot.

If the French love their guns so much, how come they were so eager to drop them and surrender in 1939?

Essentially they didn’t want another war being fought on their soil, therefore interrupting their baguette and gitane production. So they rolled over and hoped that the Germans would play nice and just get bored and leave.

A lot of them also hated Jews and thought Hitler was alright anyway.

After the war they seemed more pissed that we bombed the **** out of them and sunk their navy, than they were with Germany. – and spent years trying to block our entry into the common market.

The French only like fighting when it involves shooting unarmed peasants in far east Asia and North Africa. And even when they do that, they pay foreigners to do it for them.

Guys,

Let’s keep comments on track. I feel we are verging into unecessary, insulting and inappropriate terrain.

Has the guy been named?

Is he “one of us”?

I feel we are verging into unecessary, insulting and inappropriate terrain.

AKA France

Hunting goes on all over the Med; my agent in Cyprus proudly showed me his photos of all the songbirds he had blasted out of the trees, lined up on the ground.

Wasn’t there a French or Italian pro cyclist who was also shot while hunting some years ago?

Is he “one of us”?

He was was named on Welsh news last night.

I’m finding this thread to be STW at its distasteful worst. There are likely to be people on here who knew him – have some respect.

I feel we are verging into unecessary, insulting and inappropriate terrain.

Where’s the harm in a little casual racism??  Mind you, if these comments were made about coloured people there would be outrage………………

Where’s the harm in a little casual robust historical analysis?

Fixed that for you :p

But yes,  inappropriate now.

Doesn’t just happen in France. I stopped at road junction in the Chilterns once, and was mildly alarmed when I found out I was one field away from an advancing shoot driving pheasants my way! No signs anywhere*Got moving pretty bloody quickly when shot started to land on my helmet!

Fixed that for you :p

No you haven’t you are still a racist little sh1t promoting pathetic stereotypes……

No signs anywhere*Got moving pretty bloody quickly when shot started to land on my helmet!

By the time the shot is coming down like that it’s fairly harmless, they will also be aiming skywards not along the floor or into woods.

Brexit will keep us safe.