Graduate student dies in freak hunting accident in Oklahoma lake

An Oklahoma graduate student has died after a freak hunting accident in the small town of Red Rock.

The 24-year-old man, who has not yet been identified, drowned at the weekend while duck hunting on Sooner Lake, officials said.

Oklahoma Game Wardens said that the man had stepped out into the water to retrieve a duck when he hit a drop off and drowned.

“Water overcame his waders and he did not return to the surface,” the agency said.

Game wardens used side imaging technology to search for the hunter, finding his body on the lake floor.

Oklahoma Highway Patrol’s lake unit then helped to recover his body.

“Our thoughts and prayers go out to this young man’s friends and family,” Oklahoma Game Wardens said. “The hunting community is small and close knit, he will be missed.”

Officials said that the man was a graduate student at Oklahoma State University, Stillwater – located around 30 miles south of Sooner Lake.

The 24-year-old isn’t the first death during a hunting trip this year.

In Iowa, two hunters died in separate incidents in October and November.

The first was a 53-year-old man who was struck by a single rifle shot while hunting coyotes with friends.

The second victim was a 26-year-old man who was shot in the face by someone in his party while hunting waterfowl in the Bays Branch Wildlife Area.

Meanwhile, there has also been a number of non-fatal hunting accidents.

In November, a woman was shot in the stomach in Wisconsin after a hunter mistook her dog for a deer. The 47-year-old was taken to hospital but survived the shooting.

In the same month, a man was accidentally shot while hunting in the neighbouring state of Minnesota. Officials said that the man’s hunting partner had been checking to see if his firearm was unloaded, when he accidentally fired a round into the victim’s leg. Luckily, the victim survived.