Another fatal hunting accident: hobby hunter shot dead on high seat

A hobby hunter has died during a night-time hunt in the Westerwald.

In the early hours of 30 August, at around 00.25, a 58-year-old hunting leaseholder fired a shot in a maize field near Dürrholz in the district of Neuwied. The shot hit a 50-year-old colleague who was sitting on a high seat some three metres above the ground. Any help came too late for him. The Koblenz public prosecutor confirmed the incident and is investigating the shooter on initial suspicion of negligent homicide.

Both men are regarded as experienced hobby hunters. According to information available so far, a thermal imaging camera was present at the scene. Whether the device was being used at the moment the shot was fired remains unclear and is part of the investigation. The night-time operation in the maize field points to a hunt for wild boar, of the kind that takes place in many areas during the warm season.

Technology's promise of «safety»

This is precisely where the problem lies, one that hobby hunting cannot argue away. Thermal imaging technology is sold to the public as a guarantee of «safe target identification», as an instrument that rules out mix-ups and prevents accidents. The reality looks rather different. As our dossier on night hunting and high-tech hunting shows, this technology shifts the killing into the darkness and removes it from any real-time oversight. Game wardens are thin on the ground, the hunting grounds are vast, and the night above all protects the shooters. On this night, high tech failed to protect a human being.

The constellation is remarkable. The victim was not mistaken for a supposed wild boar out in the field, but was hit while on an elevated high seat, at a fixed and well-known location. Two experienced hobby hunters, modern equipment, one dead person: the common argument that practice and technology would prevent such cases does not stand up to reality.

Not an isolated case

The case is one link in a long chain. In Germany, hunting accidents and criminal offences involving hunters' weapons are on the rise. Only in August 2025, a Polish hobby hunter shot his neighbour dead, having taken him for a wild boar at night in a maize field. In January 2026, a young hobby hunter in eastern Westphalia fatally shot a fellow hunter on the neighbouring high seat. In Switzerland, too, hobby hunts repeatedly end with fatalities and serious injuries. And it is by no means only hobby hunters who are hit, but also beaters, family members, walkers, cyclists and children.

Each of these incidents is classified in isolation as a «tragic isolated case». Taken together, a different picture emerges: hobby hunting is a leisure activity involving firearms in public spaces, and it regularly costs human lives. Wild animals are not targets. And the safety of humans and animals can most reliably be guaranteed by not shooting in the first place.