[fabsroman]

Guys, we do not know all the facts here. I can see how something like this could happen.

For instance, lets say the guy who got shot, an attorney, leaves off the right side of the group to retrieve a downed bird, and the group continues to move forward and hunt. When the attorney goes to pick the bird up, the bird gets up again and flies all the way to the left backside of the hunting group. The attorney goes over there, picks up the now dead bird, and starts to return to the hunting group on the left side, not the right side from whence he came. Now, Cheney figures the attorney left the group on the right side. A quail gets up and starts flying to the left and then curves around and heads behind the group on the left side. Cheney is tracking the bird, never thinking that his buddy, the attorney is coming up from the left side and he pulls the trigger on the bird. Now, for those of us that bird hunt, we all know that when you pull the trigger, the shot will hit further on along the swing. Hence, Cheney might never have seen his buddy when he pulled the trigger.

You also have to ask yourself why the attorney didn't drop to the ground when he saw a bird flying between he and Cheney and Cheney swinging the gun after the bird. You can bet that I would be hitting the dirt in that circumstance. If you are in the dirt, there is very, very little chance of you getting hit by a fellow hunter tracking a flying target.