GUN ACCIDENTS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1642, 4 October 1887, Page 3

GUN ACCIDENTS.

A serious accident, from which fatal results were anticipated, occurred at Footscray, "Victoria, recently, through the careless use of fire-arms. A young mnn named Oopplestone, 18 years of age, took up a rifle belonging to hie half-brother, and remarking that he had never fired a shot from a gun, put up a tin on the fence in the yard and fired three times, missing on each occasion. The occupants of Mr Fraser’s house, four doors off, seeing their pigeons fluttering about, went into the yard, when there was another report, and Mrs Fraser cal'ed out to her daughter, “ Oh, my God, I’m shot in the breast.” The daughter ran to her, and led her into the bouse, while another relative hastened off for Dr Anderson. Mrs Fraser went out into the street to try and find out who fired the shot, but became so weak that she had to return. At the time when she was wounded she had apparently had her right hand about the upper part of her body ; for the bullet had passed through the flesh of the lower part of her breast. The doctor traced it into and through the lung, but he could follow it no further, and ho expected that his patient would not recover. Young Oopplestone was greatly moved at the result of his carelessness, and took all the blame to himself. A peculiar accident with a carbine is thus reported by the Hawke’s Bay Herald: —“ Mr John Sidney, a visitor to the district from Dunedin, had a very narrow escape from a shattered leg recently. In company with some other gentlemen, he went out shooting on Anderson’s run at Kerns. Seeing a pig at about-100 yards’ distance, Mr Sidney laid on his back to take accurate aim, as he was using a very short carbine. When he fired the bullet struck bis left leg just below the knee, passing through a leather gaiter and other apparel beneath it, and glanced on the shin-bone, ploughed a furrow all down it to within an inch or two of the ankle, when the ball again glanced off, passed through the clothing and the lower end of the g»iter, *nd, penetrating the boot, took a slice off the side of the foot within It. It seems a miracle that the leg was not shattered, but Mr Sidney will carry an eight-inch scar as a memento, in addition to his baing minus a piece of his foot.”