A couple points.
1. I always wear a full vest and cap in unmitigated blaze orange. And I wear it while practicing on clay birds, too. Not because I feel I need to be protected or stand out in the crowd, but rather so I have the same sight picture under the brim of the cap and feel of the vest between my clothes and the gun.
2. I grew up in Pennsylvania, where orange became mandatory couple years after I started hunting. I started off with a bright red Jones cap and a cheap, plastic orange vest. I switched to an orange hat after I got a couple #6 pellets to the head from some guy on the other side of some standing corn. Luckily, all I got were welts and in those days still had the hair to hide them when I got home, but more than that would have been the end of my hunting. I got a free lesson.
3. When a relative died a few years back I was unwrapping some old stuff out of her storage - had to see what it was. She'd wrapped it in newspapers. The one caught my eye: it was a news article from November 1958 about a kid, hunting deer in western Pa., who'd put three shots into what he thought was a deer in a thicket. Sound and motion shots. It turned out to be his hunting buddy - a fellow kid who never got the chance to grow up.
In that vein, please view the videos starting with this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lS0k8MvPQE No actors - these are the actual people involved.
4. The Pennsylvania Game Commission used to collect statistical information on hunting accidents, including the color of the clothes worn, and would publicize it every year in connection with their (pre-mandate) push to encourage wearing orange. I recall people were about 10 times more likely to be shot wearing red (or yellow) than they were while wearing orange.
5. While hunting any land, if I see another hunter, I will make my presence known. I carry an empty 30-30 cartridge as a whistle - louder and carries better than the plastic ones - and will use it if I have to get his/her attention. I'll raise my cap to start and resort to the whistle later, but I will stop hunting until I see him/her return the recognition. I consider it an act of courtesy that one hunter let another hunter know of his presence. It allows each hunter to revise their internal map of the situation so they know what are and are not safe shots, and also allows each hunter to continue their hunt in directions that will not conflict with the other hunter. Another act of courtesy, in my opinion.
And, if another hunter wants to hunt with me, he/she's going to be wearing orange. Period. (Waterfowl would be an exception, at least while in a blind. Moving around outside a blind, I'd feel more comfortable with a little orange donned for the time being.
Moreover, Maine being Maine, it is easy to get turned around or worse in remote areas and orange is quite visible from the air, an aid to any search people who might possibly come looking.
6. Before my dog decided to stay in the car to keep away from the noise of my shotguns, she wore an orange vest with reflective strips and a bell. It saved her life this year. She had decided to head back and lay down on the trail in the woods. After getting her to follow me to the car, we ran into a group of hunters eating lunch. The one said "I wondered what that black thing with orange on it was, lying on the trail." From the relieved tone of the speaker's voice, it was evident that she had scoped my dog (rather than carry some binoculars). My dog is a Gordon - a big one - and bear season was open and I'm sure that woman would have shot my dog, mistaking it for a bear, had I not put the orange on her.
7. A week or so before, while hunting on land open to the public for hunting, I had two tom turkeys run across my front about 30 yards away. I didn't shoot - the season had closed the day before. It turned out they had run equidisant between me and a woman and a 4 y/o kid walking two dogs, all dressed in muted earth tones of blue, brown, white and green. The woman, kid and dogs were screened by some brush and totally invisible until a couple minutes later.
And she had the temerity to be angry with me for telling her (a) she was on land open to hunting and (b) she should wear some orange lest she get accidentally shot.
If you don't want to be seen while hunting, maybe you're doing something you shouldn't be and should revise your plans/actions.
