Saturday marks the start of deer season and officials with Nebraska Game and Parks hope opening weekend ends more safely than the start of pheasant season.

35-year-old Jason Evans of Lincoln was pheasant hunting with friends when he was accidentally shot. Evans lost his eye and is now waiting for a prosthetic one.

In hopes of avoiding a similar situation Aaron Hershberger with Nebraska Game and Parks offers these tips for hunting safety.

"Identify your target and what lies behind or beyond it. You want to know what you're shooting at as well as what is down range of that. And in some cases you're going to have to not take a shot because you have your target identified, but there might be someone in your hunting group in the way or down range and obviously that is not a safe shot by any means," said Aaron Hershberger, a Nebraska Game and Parks outdoor education specialist focusing on hunter education.

Hershberger says he doesn't believe hunting to be a dangerous activity, but says it can become that way when people let the excitement of the situation take over and forget basic firearm safety rules.