Agent Delbert Hubbard died as a result of complications from an accidental self-inflicted shooting.

On January 9, 1938, Agent Hubbard was working Dorena Landing in Mississippi County with another agent where they arrested a man and a boy for the illegal hunting of ducks on January 9, 1938. As he climbed the embankment his .32 caliber automatic pistol in his shoulder holster accidentally discharged inflicting a gunshot wound to his hip ranging downward and lodged in his knee. He was taken to Poplar Bluff Hospital where the bullet was removed the next morning. His injuries did not appear life threatening but a clot formed in the blood stream causing him to lapse into a coma and die during the evening on September 11, 1938.

Agent Hubbard had been an agent for three years. He was the first game Warden in the five state area. He helped set up the game laws for Missouri and hand trained the first 15 game wardens.
Interred: Dexter Cemetery, Dexter, Missouri. He was survived by his wife, Ellen.

On July 1, 1934, the Division of Game Management was originally established in the Bureau of Biological Survey, Department of Agriculture, which became the entity within the Bureau responsible for law enforcement. On July 1, 1939, the Bureau of Biological Survey, Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Fisheries was transferred to the Department of the Interior.