Blind hunters say technology could help them shoot safely. Idaho rules forbid it
BOISE – Crouched in the bed of his stepdad’s truck, Jade Harlow steadied himself, waiting for the right moment to take his shot. Caleb Linck, Harlow’s stepdad, was beside him watching on a 5-inch screen as the crosshairs of Harlow’s rifle hovered over a white-tailed doe.
“Fire,” Linck whispered. A split-second later, a gunshot cracked through the silence. “We got her,” Linck said.
It was Harlow’s first time hunting since he was blinded in a firearm accident in 2018, and the 16-year-old beamed with excitement and pride. His mother, Rebecca Linck, recorded the entire experience and later posted it on social media, explaining that Jade’s lack of sight hadn’t stopped him from doing what he loved.
Soon, comments began to pop up online, warning the family that, despite Harlow’s disabled hunting license and valid deer tag, they had broken the rules. The Idaho Department of Fish and Game prohibits the small camera that allowed Caleb Linck to see what was in Harlow’s rifle sights.
Idaho hunters who have visual impairments or other disabilities can apply for disability hunting licenses and bring a companion who aids them, like Harlow’s stepdad did. But Fish and Game rules aimed at preserving fair chase, or ethical means of hunting, forbid the use of nearly all electronics attached to firearms.
Harlow and his mother were crushed to learn that the one option they thought Harlow had for hunting wasn’t viable. Now the Sandpoint family and another blind Idaho hunter hope to change those rules.
‘A can of worms’ with tech exceptions?
A variety of scope cameras or phone mounts are on the market, all with the same basic setup: a phone or scope camera is mounted on the gun and displays a live feed of the scope view. That allows a sighted person to see exactly what the firearm is aimed at without having to maneuver their eye to the scope of the visually impaired person’s firearm.
All Idaho hunters, including people with visual impairments, must abide by big game hunting rules that prohibit people from using “any electronic device attached to, or incorporated in, the firearm or scope.” A few exceptions apply only to special weapon seasons for archery or muzzleloaders, which are known as primitive weapons. In those instances, hunters can request permission to use a scope or sight magnification to compensate for visual impairment.
At least two of Idaho’s neighboring states – Utah and Wyoming – allow visually impaired people to hunt using this technology, though sighted hunters are still barred from using it.
Idaho law doesn’t bar people with visual impairments from hunting, and it doesn’t require hunters to take a visual proficiency test. The rules do, however, bar them from using technology blind hunters say would make the practice safer.
When Harlow shoots a firearm, he said he starts with some help from his hunting or target-shooting companion. Harlow holds his rifle and angles the scope camera screen toward his sighted companion. The sighted person will adjust Harlow’s positioning so he’s aimed in the correct direction and his target appears on the screen.
From there, Harlow’s companion directs him with words, watching the screen to see precisely where his rifle is aimed. They signal him when his sights are on his target and it’s safe to shoot, then Harlow pulls the trigger.
Harlow will always need a sighted companion to hunt. The addition of a scope camera gives him more precision and more autonomy, something he worried was lost when he became blind.
“When I found out I could still hunt with a scope camera, it was like (realizing) I can live a somewhat normal life,” Harlow said. “Even with all the adaptive technology, it’s still not going to be exactly the same, but I can live a life that’s still somewhat like what I used to have.”
Harlow and his family began to plan his November white-tailed deer hunt last spring, by obtaining a disabled hunting license and submitting a doctor’s note to Fish and Game to verify the teen’s disability. Rebecca Linck said she also sent the agency a request for a special weapon reasonable modification permit that detailed the equipment they planned to use, including the scope camera.
Linck said she never heard back from the agency, which had approved all their other requests. She said she thought that meant the technology was allowed.
Greg Wooten, chief of Idaho Fish and Game’s enforcement bureau, said rule-making regarding technology is tricky. The Fish and Game Commission proposes the agency’s regulations, but it’s the enforcement bureau’s conservation officers – who are certified peace officers like other law enforcement – who ensure Idahoans are obeying those regulations.
“Electronics is just one thing the commission has been very strongly opposed to with all the new advancements in technology because that’s happening so quickly,” Wooten said. “They’re not wanting to open that can of worms.”
Inconsistent advice from Idaho Fish and Game
Dale Stamper, a Hayden resident who lost his vision because of injuries sustained in the Vietnam War, also used a phone scope to hunt. In 2016, he harvested a bull elk during a disabled veterans hunt put on by the Idaho Division of Veterans Services. Stamper said no one questioned whether his adaptive technology (a mount that attached a smartphone to his scope) was within Fish and Game rules.
“I would assume that somebody with Fish and Game had some idea that this blind guy is out shooting at elk,” Stamper said, explaining that the details of the hunt were handled by the veterans group. “I would think they would have to have some knowledge.”
Josh Callihan, spokesperson for the Boise Veterans Affairs Medical Center, said Fish and Game officials told him at the time that Stamper’s scope was acceptable under a special weapon reasonable modification permit.
Stamper said he’d love to have another opportunity to hunt, though he’s ineligible for another disabled veterans elk hunt.
“For the past five years, I’m naively thinking I can just go (hunt) again,” Stamper said. “And I can’t. Or I can … as long as I don’t use the technology.”
Facebook had connected Jade Harlow and his mother with the family of another avid hunter, Tj Cartwright, who lost his sight after being struck in the cheek with an arrow. Cartwright, who moved to Idaho Falls with his family in 2020, runs a website called The Blind Hunter and advocates for disabled hunters. Cartwright had used scope cameras in Utah, before he relocated and discovered they violated Idaho’s rules.
Jim Fredericks, Fish and Game’s deputy director of programs and policy, told Cartwright and his wife, Kylie, that there was a potential workaround for the rule. Because the rule stipulates that electronics can’t be attached to a firearm, Fredericks said they could hold a smartphone against the scope of Cartwright’s rifle to create an external view of where the firearm was aimed.
“It was an alternative, but it wasn’t a great alternative,” Fredericks said. “I had to say, ‘Be advised, you can’t use duct tape or anything else. It can’t be attached.’ ”
Harlow and his family said their advice from Fish and Game officials wasn’t as clear. Rebecca Linck said she followed up with Fish and Game’s Boise headquarters after talking with Cartwright in November “to make sure we didn’t just harvest this deer illegally.”
In the spring, a Panhandle Region conservation officer had suggested that Linck “fill out a form asking for a disability exemption to allow her blind son to use advanced technology attached to a rifle scope to allow him to go hunting,” according to an email sent by region supervisor Chip Corsi. Corsi said his office heard from Linck in November and was “unable to determine if a form made it to the HQ office or not.”
Though the family was never penalized for using the technology, Linck didn’t discover that Fish and Game would have denied their scope camera request until after Jade’s hunt. Cartwright and Linck were denied the same permit Fish and Game had allowed for Stamper.
Fredericks said he knows how important it is for Fish and Game to have a uniform response for requests like these, though the answer may not be favorable.
“I think that is a challenge with any of these types of rules and interpretations, making sure that we’re consistent,” Fredericks said. “It’s pretty clear that while (scope cameras for visually impaired hunters) might be an accommodation that we’d like to make, the rule really doesn’t allow it as written.”
Blind Idaho hunters petition for rule change
Before Jade Harlow was blinded by a shotgun, he had dreams of one day becoming an outfitter along with his brother. He was an avid angler and went on hunting trips with his dad often. The realization that he could potentially return to hunting after his life-changing injury was a big morale boost for the boy.
If the rules don’t allow for adaptive technology, Harlow and Cartwright’s families are ready to change the rules.
Rebecca Linck reached out to Rep. Sage Dixon, a Ponderay Republican, and asked the legislator to take action. Dixon said he hopes to see the Fish and Game Commission, which handles hunting and fishing rule changes in Idaho, address the issue first.
“If we don’t see any movement in the rule arena (from the commission), we can write legislation,” Dixon said.
Kylie Cartwright sent an appeal for a rule change to Fredericks and Fish and Game Director Ed Schriever. She explained her family doesn’t want the rule change to extend to “smart scopes that tell a hunter windage, range or bullet trajectory on a scope,” just to simple devices that allow a companion to help a visually impaired hunter line up a shot.
The Fish and Game Commission unanimously approved a rule that could allow scoped camera use.
Tj Cartwright is hopeful Fish and Game’s rules will change in time for him to use a scope camera to hunt deer in Idaho this fall. But even with the commission’s support, the rule change would need to be presented for public comment and go before the Idaho Legislature.
“Whether or not that could all be completed by this coming hunting season, I can’t say for sure,” Fredericks said.
Linck said she plans to submit a similar appeal.
“Really, what we want to have happen is that the language is changed,” Linck said. “So that next year Jade – or anyone else who is trying to hunt and needs adaptive technology – gets an approval so they’re not doing it illegally. Then the blind can continue to hunt, because the adaptive tech really makes it a whole lot safer.”
For Harlow, a rule change would allow him to experience something like the life he’d once imagined for himself – the life he had a taste of last fall before learning his scope camera was forbidden. He said he knows hunting will never be the same as it was, but adaptive technology brought him closer than he’s been in years.
“It doesn’t give me an advantage,” Harlow said. “It gives me a chance.”
Gloss