LAKES REGION – After several serious and deadly incidents involving deer hunters took place in rapid succession around the Lakes Region last weekend, state officials are urging outdoor enthusiasts to use caution for the remainder of the month-long season.

While few details are being released of the incidents, which took place in Casco, Sebago and Oxford last Friday and Saturday, a lack of gun safety and target identification are being blamed in each of the incidents, one of which left a Sebago man dead and two other hunters in the hospital.

“It’s been a busy week,” said Maine Warden Service Sgt. Tim Place, who is investigating the Oxford shooting. “Basically we had three incidents in a 24-hour period, so what we want people to know is, make sure you identify your target before you pull the trigger. That obviously didn’t happen in these instances. If you’re not 100 percent sure of your target, you shouldn’t even be raising your weapon.”

The first shooting occurred Friday, Nov. 4, at about 2:30 p.m. when Travis Wood, 29, of Windham, shot Mark Mattson, 60, of Portsmouth, N.H., while Mattson was target practicing on property he owns in Casco off Quaker Ridge Road. Mattson, who was not wearing hunter orange, authorities say, was shot in the stomach.

Edie Smith, spokeswoman for Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, said Mattson was target shooting by himself about 300 yards from a logging road. She wouldn’t say how far Wood was from Mattson when he fired. Wood was hunting with at least one hunting partner when the incident occurred, she said.

Mattson was transported by LifeFlight helicopter to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston and, on Monday, was listed in critical condition. According to hospital spokeswoman, Mattson was still at the hospital on Wednesday but his status is being withheld per the family’s wishes.

In Sebago on Saturday, 46-year-old Peter Kolofsky died after being shot at 5 p.m. in woods about a half-mile from Hogfat Hill Road.

Kolofsky, of Sebago, who was wearing hunter orange, was shot by William Briggs, 61, of Windham. Both men were deer hunting in Sebago, although they were not hunting in the same parties, Smith said.

Smith wasn’t willing to divulge many details of the incident since the matter, she said, is “under heavy investigation.”

Smith said no charges have been filed in either the Casco or Sebago shooting and that the Maine Warden Service – which, as the investigative arm of the Maine Attorney General’s Office, is in charge of investigating all fatalities in Maine woods and waters – can release few details since it may compromise the investigation.

Along with the two incidents around Sebago Lake, wardens are also investigating another hunting-related shooting that took place Saturday in Oxford. In that incident, two hunting partners were in the woods off Allen Hill Road when one of the partners, Steven Hutter, 26, of Hebron, was shot in the lower leg by Linton Thompson, 47, of Oxford. The two were tracking a deer they had shot earlier. Hutter underwent surgery at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston and was listed in fair condition as of Wednesday.

According to Smith, Kolofsky’s death is the first hunting fatality in the Maine woods since 2008, when a man hunting near Moosehead Lake died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Also in 2008, there were nine other hunting-related shooting incidents.

In 2009, there were eight shooting incidents (one deer hunting, one rabbit hunting, and six bird and turkey hunting). None were fatal. In 2010, there were seven shooting incidents (all bird and turkey hunting). None were fatal.

There are more than 200,000 licensed hunters in maine, Smith said.

Safety first

Dale Southard, avid hunter and longtime owner of Tailfeathers Upland Store in Raymond, echoed the comments by the game warden, Place, by saying target identification is the hunter’s No. 1 priority. Southard is a hunting safety course instructor and said accidents such as the ones that took place last weekend are “inexcusable.”

“It goes to target identification,” he said. “If you’re not sure of what your target is, don’t shoot. You can’t bring your bullet back once you’ve shot it.”

Southard said people in the hunting community are mourning Kolofsky’s death and trying to figure out what happened in all three shootings. He said the economy or over-enthusiasm on the first weekend of shotgun/rifle season on deer may have played a part in the three shootings.

“We can’t hunt Sundays, so people who work Monday through Friday have four days in the season (Saturdays) they can hunt,” he said. “Other than that, who knows, maybe unemployment has something to do with it. Trying to fill the freezer. There are so many things that could possibly factor into it.”

Because deer are less plentiful due to two harsh winters in a row, Southard said hunters can get excited to shoot what they think is a deer, not knowing when they will see another.

“It happens to everybody, you get excited, especially early on, and although it may seem you’ll never see another deer, you can’t shoot without identifying that target,” Southard said. “There’s always going to be another deer that’ll come along.”