doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com How many wear blaze orange

You should be subjected to all the horror if you don't check you target any better than that.

It isn't as simple as whether the target was checked. In the two incidents in AZ I cited earlier the shooters were firing on legal elk. The victims were hidden by their camo and the surroundings so the shooters had no clue they were in the line of fire beyond the elk. I agree we have to be certain of our target and what is beyond it, but few hunters will refrain from shooting just for a lack of a berm behind the target. Add in the adrenaline filled desire to take the game. It is actually an argument for tree stands which are even more dangerous due to falls. Part of why I hunt with a flintlock and patched roundball is to limit the distance my firearm carries.

Relying on hunters to warn other hunters of their presence by wearing flourescent orange completely ignores the fact that there may be non-hunting folks such as loggers, hikers, birdwatchers, campers, etc. using the same woods. Is it ok to shoot at some movement I haven't positively identified as game just because I see a flash of brown?

I wear the amount of blaze orange Pennsylvania requires, but little more. I am currently enjoying our flintlock deer season which allows me to hunt with no orange at all. I do carry an orange vest in my bag which I may put on after shooting a deer. But most days in this late season, I hunt all day without even seeing another person. We know that deer are not color blind, but that they have poor color perception. One of the colors they can see best is flourescent orange which supposedly appears to them much as a white shirt appears to us under a black light. This is due to the ratio of rods to cones in their eyes, and having more receptors for UV light allows them to see better in pre-dawn and after dusk.

We still see hunters in full orange outfits getting shot. I had a cousin who was killed in a hunting "accident"... shot by a hunter "shooting at a turkey in a low bush". The [censored] was using a .30-06 and hit him in the heart. I've never mistaken a man for a turkey, deer, squirrel, or groundhog. I think people that can't tell the difference and shoot somebody belong in prison. I bet that would reduce the number of these "accidents". That may be harsh but my cousin had a 2 year old son who grew up without a Dad.

I've avoided orange about as much as most over the years, but have softened on the avooidance lately.

However, If I suggested to you that you bring your wife, children or grand children into the field. would you have the same standard for them?

The fact is that Blaze orange makes you much more visable in the woods and lessens the chances that someone will shoot towards you.
I think any hunter under certain conditions could mistake another person for a game animal. You may never have, and you may think that its not possible. Why would you want to take that chance?
Laws that require you to wear blaze orange are only a slight inconvenience, and if there is a chance no matter how slim, that they may save a life, I think we should wear it.
Surely wearing blaze orange isn't that offensive.

Pete

Aside from sportsmen who are in the woods after game, it is also incumbent upon those who choose to be in the woods for other reasons to be aware of the different seasons and to wear blaze orange accordingly.

I don't hunt deer during the shotgun season here in Massachusetts, nor does my wife. But we still choose to often be in a favorite patch of woods belongng to a wildlife management area to walk (run) our Brittany dring this time. You'd better believe we ALL wear blaze orange, including Gabe, our Brit. Sometimes I'll even go as far as to put a bell on his collar.

There was a horrible situation that happened in a neighboring state 5 or so years ago. It was either Vermont or New Hamnpshire. Anyway, a middle-aged gent thought it a fine afternoon to go pick some wild blueberries in one of his favored spots in the woods. It was bear season. He wore no Blaze orange, and went about picking his berries.

Now, on the other side of this patch were a couple of brothers from my state of Massachusetts who were in the woods solely to hunt bear. It was late in the afternoon, they hadn't gotten anything from their long day's hunt, and all of a sudden they saw a lot of movement from BEHIND a blueberry bush. Movement.

As you've no doubt guessed, one of the brothers open fired at that "movement". When they ran over to check on the imaginary bear they saw a dying man instead. They did nothing to try to save him, and basically ran away scared. Back home in Massachusetts the story came out in closed quarters, and all the shooter's family members basically helped the guilty guy to go to the police and admit his deed.

Who was to blame here? Undoubtedly, the impatient hunter who chose to shoot at movement in bushes instead of an actual bear that was clearly sighted. Add to that their reprehensible behavior in turning tail and skedaddling instead of trying to get some medical treatment for this man and the shooting takes on an even more sordid aspect.

Would this story have had a different ending had the berry picker been more aware of his calendar and put on some blaze orange before entering the woods? Quite possibly.

Please understand that I am not suggesting he was the one at fault here. Still, I do think it wise and prudent for non-hunters to know exactly when other people with guns will be in the woods at the same time as them and choose their attire more carefully.

After reading through this again, laws mandating Hunters wearing Orange might even increase the odd of a fool shooting another human. "Well couldn't see any Blaze Orange on them - so I thought they were a Bear or Deer". Especially in the North East it seems.

These arguments that mandatory wearing of blaze might actually increase accidental shootings remind me of the arguments against the wearing of car seatbelts that were circulating 25 years ago.

I guess things become mandatory when they go around in circles, justified or otherwise, as they do here. A very experienced American hunter was acquitted last year of murdering her husband in Newfoundland. She said she thought he was a bear. On the evidence, there was enough going on other than what her husband was wearing to make it almost irrelevant. Regulations are made to protect with the knowledge nothing is safe or certain, nothing can protect us from fools. Blaze orange has strong public support.

Didn't we start out talking about bird hunting? Has anyone here ever been mistaken for a quail? I like to know where all the other people are around me when hunting small game, that is why I like orange for man and dog alike.
CHAZ