Done it. In VA. Don't want anyone else telling me how to hunt, or making it illegal. Don't believe in seat belt laws or motorcycle helmet laws either. It's my choice if I want to risk my life, not your choice, unless I'm endangering your life. Laws should not restrict an individual's freedoms unless that individual is violating someone else's freedoms. Victimless crimes shouldn't be crimes. Want to make it illegal on public ground? Fine, that's the state's domain, but don't touch my private land. It's not yours. I paid for it, and I pay taxes each year to keep it.
That said, I try to be careful, fanning or otherwise. I hunt private. I don't fan on a regular basis, and I use the fanning method only when I feel I can be safe. It is fun when it works. Having a gobbler at 2 steps wanting to kick the crap out of the decoy over your head is exhilarating. But I have had perfect opportunities that I passed on because I had a "feeling" someone else might be around, even though in retrospect I don't think anyone was, it's better safe than sorry. Never have had a problem when fanning so far, but I did have a trespasser stalk my strutter when I was set up on a field edge calling a bird one time. As he ran away I fired three rounds into the tree tops over his head and I don't believe he has been back on that farm. Please don't bother saying that bird shot into the tree tops is reckless or dangerous. If you believe that, stay in the city.
My vision is good. I don't think I would ever shoot a strutter decoy, unless someone was crawling under a taxidermy mount, then I suppose it could happen. Some said earlier that that attitude of "wouldn't happen to me" is what will cause an accident, but I truly don't think a decoy could fool me into thinking it's a real bird. That being said though, I have taken guys goose hunting and landed geese, told them to stand up and flush the goose, only to watch them stand up and ground pound a bigfoot goose decoy and watch the real goose fly off. Those goose decoys aren't half as real looking as many turkey decoys on the market. So it needs to be remembered that some of the guys hunting in the woods can't see for shite, and you have to survive them while in the woods.
I would rather see them ban people with poor vision and poor animal species recognition from hunting than ban fanning, but unfortunately that's not how our system works. They're taking legally blind people out and letting them shoot stuff now, so it unfortunately comes down to personal responsibility, both to the fanner and the shooter. Do what you want, if you feel it is safe. And if you're wrong, well you might end up dead. Oh well. Darwin award it is! No one said you get to live forever.
But to the half-blind guy who shoots a decoy thinking it's a bird, yeah, that's on you bud. If you can't tell the difference, stay out of the woods, or wait for the bird to drop strut and spin in a circle and strecth his wings and confirm it is not a decoy before pulling the trigger. The ultimate responsibility is on the shooter, wherever that projectile lands. If you shoot at a squirrel in a tree with a .22 and the projectile tears off through the sky and it kills a kid a mile away, that's on you. And if you shoot at a skylined deer on a hill in a field and that bullet smashes through a house or a car on the other side of the field, that's on you too. Know your target, and beyond.
There's risk in everything we do. I bet several people died in car accidents on their way to work today. That doesn't mean I want to outlaw cars.
