France: One dead and two injured during recreational hunting within two days

On Friday and Saturday, three people in France were hit by gunshots during recreational hunting, and one of them died. The incidents involved hunting parties in the Sologne, the Cantal and the Calvados. Investigations are under way in all three cases, in some with the involvement of the Office français de la biodiversité (OFB), the French environmental police.

Sologne: Death after a shot to the leg

On Friday, 6 November 2026, a 56-year-old lawyer from Verona took part, together with five other recreational hunters from the Veneto, in a driven hunt in Presly in the north of the Cher département. In the morning he was hit by a shot in the leg. He was initially conscious, was taken to the Jacques-Cœur hospital in Bourges and died in the evening after an operation. Italian media report that he fell and that a shot went off from his own weapon; this version has not been officially confirmed. The public prosecutor in Bourges confirmed the death, and the OFB and the gendarmerie are investigating the origin of the shot and the sequence of events (So Chasse, Titrespresse).

Cantal: 23-year-old shot in the chest

On Saturday, 7 November, at around 2 p.m., a 23-year-old recreational hunter was hit by a shot in the chest during a hunting outing in Leucamp in the Cantal département. Owing to his serious injuries, he was flown by rescue helicopter to the Gabriel-Montpied university hospital in Clermont-Ferrand. The Brigade de recherches of Aurillac is investigating together with the Montsalvy brigade, and two OFB agents examined the angles of fire on site. The suspected shooter was due to be taken into police custody that evening; a breathalyser test came back negative (Police & Réalités).

Calvados: Fellow hunter hit in the hip

Also on Saturday afternoon, in the forest of Pontécoulant near Condé-en-Normandie, a recreational hunter aged around 60 shot a fellow hunter of about the same age in the hip during a driven hunt for foxes. Because of the difficult terrain, the injured man was flown by a Sécurité civile helicopter to Caen University Hospital. According to the report, his injury was classed as not serious (Tendance Ouest). According to So Chasse the weapon was seized.

Not an isolated case in the drive hunt season

The three incidents fall in the peak season for driven hunts and drive hunts, when many armed people move simultaneously through difficult-to-survey terrain. Only on 3 November, during a large driven hunt near Johanniskreuz in the Palatinate Forest, a 48-year-old recreational hunter was found dead on a high seat. WBW has described how patchy the collection of accident figures for recreational hunting in Europe is in the analysis "The Great Hunting Lie". WBW documents another fatal case in the article on Harchies in Belgium.

Commentary: Safety is more than an accident tally

Two days, three people hit by gunfire, one dead. The precise sequence of events must be established by the investigations. The reports speak of an “accident” or an “inadvertent” shot. Yet this label does not answer the question of what risks society should accept from a leisure pursuit involving lethal weapons in forests that also serve for recreation.

The reports do not reveal how many wild animals were killed, wounded or never found during these hunts. Yet the killing of non-human animals is not an unintended side effect of the driven hunt, but its declared purpose.

In France, the state OFB records hunting accidents and carries out safety checks. The political question remains whether the current rules and checks are sufficient. Wild beim Wild calls for transparent recording of harm to humans and non-human animals, verifiable safety requirements such as regular eye tests as well as practical examinations of shooting skill and safe weapon handling, and a ban on driven hunts at weekends and on public holidays.