Elk calling and blaze orange...

[noahmercy]

What do y'all use? If you're using primitive firearms and clothing, do you use modern calls? I guess technically, all elk calls are "modern", but have any of you made calls or do you use techniques that might be considered "primitive"? And does anyone make blaze (safety) orange caps/hats and vests/jackets/coats in traditional styles? Since many states (this one included) require orange during rifle season, I would think there would be a market. If no one makes anything, I might have to get a white trade blanket, dye it OSHA safety orange, and make a capote, then get the wife to knit me an orange liberty cap. :hmm:

Y'all have a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous New Year! :thumbsup:

 

[Rat]

Oh man I hate Blaze-Orange...!!! Don't get me started!!

:curse:

That's one of the reasons (many) that I hunt ML, as there is no BO requirement in Washington state. I'd rather take 100 hours of huter safety classes, and give the death penalty to people who shoot other hunters than wear blaze orange. I really like to lose myself in the woods, not walk around with a blinking NEON blaze-orange sign that says "HERE I AM!!! HERE I AM!!! SHEEEEEEESH!!

Heck if it's so great for saving lives, we should require pedestrians to wear it, so drivers could see them better.
Now shall I tell you how I really feel????

:youcrazy:


Well I've never thought about using a primitive Elk call...which I think would be learning to imitate an Elk vocally. Now that would be FREAKIE!! Might drive your family nuts while you were learning, or get ya put in the State Hospital!! Would be a pretty cool party-trick too...when things get dull...just break into the old Elk call.

I'm kind of a weird mix of modern and primitive. I prefer flintlocks and round balls, but use modern calls and wear modern camo.

On that Blaze-Orange Capote...if you could put some dark or black splotches on it, might break up the outline a bit.

Good luck.

Rat

 

[noahmercy]

Unfortunately, we don't have a ML-only season here, so the orange is a requirement since I'd have to go afield during rifle season. And I was actually thinking about breaking up the monochrome look of the capote by using pine boughs to lay brown or black dye on. (So's to get a nice sillhouette.)

Not tryin' to step on your toes, Rat, but a fellow hunter and Game and Fish guy over in South Dakota got his head blown off a couple weeks ago while he was sitting in his goose blind because a guy shooting a rifle didn't see him. Now, the moron with the rifle was doing something illegal by trying to scare the geese (they were actually the dead hunter's decoys) off his father's pond, but just a speck of visible orange would have prevented this tragedy. Until they have a foolproof way to keep firearms out of the hands of stupid people, I will be an advocate of orange during hunting seasons.

 

[roundball]

There's nothing I would like better than to go ML hunting in a complete set of buckskins without any HO, but IMO it's just too risky.

Too many "instant hunters" walk out of a Walmart or someplace with a .30-30, a box of shells, and start their hunting debut.

If they discontinued the law tomorrow, I'd personally still wear HO...and even with it, I still don't feel as safe as I do when I get 10-15' up off the ground into a treestand

:m2c:

 

[Rat]

Well....'bout a week ago, guy got killed crossing a busy street Spokane. If it had been a requirement to wear reflective blaze orange, and some lights on his jacket I bet he'd still be alive. Why don't we require pedestrians to wear blaze orange??

I see nothing wrong with wearing blaze orange as a choice. If there isn't a BO requirement, you can still wear it.

I'd rather use my woods skills to see the jerk-hunters first, before they see, or don't see me. I've found that is very easy to do.

I'd like to see stricter penalties for "accidental" shootings during hunting seasons, and make it VERY clear to anyone buying a hunting license that if you shoot someone you are going to prison for a LONG time. Generally speaking people get off with VERY light sentences and charges. Heck I'd even have people sign a document that said that if you shot someone while hunting, not only would you go live in the big house with Bubba for ten years, but everything you owned now and for the rest of your life would go to your victem's family.

I bet people would take a little more care about identifying their targets, and throwing wild shots around. I bet it would be more effective than making people dress up in clown suits.

:yakyak: :youcrazy:

Ha ha I TOLD you not to get me started!!!

Rat

 

[WV-Rocklock]

My state also has a BO requirement for deer season. I also don't like the solid BO outfits, kinda sticks out like a sore thumb even if deer are supposed to be color blind. I wear a light camo BO jacket that I've had for about 20 some years. It is large enough to fit over winter clothes when it's cold. It seems to do the trick for deer but still allows me to be seen easily by other hunters. But I have been told that some states do not allow camo blaze orange.

 

[waksupi]

I use camo blaze orange, as the least offensive to my eyes.
Maybe you could tie die a capote, and put a big Grateful Dead logo on the back. That ought to make things real cool.

Noah, the F&G officer getting shot puzzles me. He was trespassing on private land, waterfowl hunting? I do know of farmers who will lob a shot into the middle of a flock on a pond to drive them away from thier grain fields. As long as it is a private pond, and they aren't sniping geese, I'm not so sure the shooters act was illegal.

 

[Rat]

Well if I HAD to wear BO, it would be a tie-dyed capote for sure! That actually sounds kind of cool.

Of course I'm afraid that as soon as I got 100 yards into the trees, it would come off and go in the back-pack.

Rat

 

[noahmercy]

Ric, it was private land open to public hunting (and posted thusly). The guy who fired the shot was the son of the landowner (and well aware that hunters might be on the premises) and he was trying to do just what you suggested...haze the geese off his dad's property to preserve the grain fields. But he was also doing some things illegal. In South Dakota, it is unlawful to shoot migratory waterfowl with rifles and also illegal to shoot in a situation where it is irresponsible to do so (skylined animals, towards homes, etc.). The shooter faces possible life imprisonment. This fella' even used a pair of binoculars to make sure he wasn't shooting at a bunch of decoys. He couldn't tell it was and didn't see the two hunters and popped off two shots with his SKS. When the "birds" didn't fly away, he got in his truck and drove towards them to scare them off. That's when the second hunter jumped out of the blind and started running. The shooter pulled up to the guy to appologize for shooting at him and found out he'd shot the other hunter in the head.

 

[waksupi]

That's a darn shame. I am shure the guy had no bad intentions, but will suffer the memory the rest of his life, as will the dead man's family.

Let's be careful out there.

 

[sneakon]

do you use techniques that might be considered "primitive"?

Well...the cow call I use is just a rubber band between two pieces of plastic. Not much different than a blade of grass between two thumbs. Last October I was out hiking and not hunting. Heard a bull bugling not too far away. I decided to try and call him in with the grass between the thumbs technique. I ended up making all kinds of strange noises trying to get the cow elk sound, but every once in a while, did get a sound close to what my modern cow call makes. In the end, the desperate satellite bull elk did come close to investigate what ever sound I was making. Close enough that I saw his 5 points and could have taken a shot with my Hawken if it had been in season. Great fun!

 

[roundball]

Well....'bout a week ago, guy got killed crossing a busy street Spokane. If it had been a requirement to wear reflective blaze orange, and some lights on his jacket I bet he'd still be alive. Why don't we require pedestrians to wear blaze orange??

I see nothing wrong with wearing blaze orange as a choice. If there isn't a BO requirement, you can still wear it.

I'd rather use my woods skills to see the jerk-hunters first, before they see, or don't see me. I've found that is very easy to do.

I'd like to see stricter penalties for "accidental" shootings during hunting seasons, and make it VERY clear to anyone buying a hunting license that if you shoot someone you are going to prison for a LONG time. Generally speaking people get off with VERY light sentences and charges. Heck I'd even have people sign a document that said that if you shot someone while hunting, not only would you go live in the big house with Bubba for ten years, but everything you owned now and for the rest of your life would go to your victem's family.

I bet people would take a little more care about identifying their targets, and throwing wild shots around. I bet it would be more effective than making people dress up in clown suits.

:yakyak: :youcrazy:

Ha ha I TOLD you not to get me started!!!

Rat

Don't misunderstand, I'm not debating the point, just expressing my opinion...to me personally, it's no different than looking both ways before stepping off the curb into a street.

Yes, drivers should not hit people in the street, but it probably happens every day, in every town, etc...so I look both way before stepping out...just like I wear HO when I'm in the woods during hunting seasons...even if I'm not actually hunting myself...I won't go into the woods of a hunting area during hunting season without at least having an orange ball cap on...but that's just me

 

[noahmercy]

Sneakon, I'll have to try that some time. I have never read about the "old timers" calling elk, but I figured this forum would be the best place to ask. :thumbsup:

 

[Rat]

Oh I hear ya RB. It just buggs me because when I enter the woods, it's kind of a "spiritual" experience for me, and I want to be one with the wilderness, the animals, etc. I want to blend in and be part of nature...and be invisible. Wearing BO ruins that for me...I'm not even sure why, but it does. It's a personal problem I admit.

But it's one of the reasons I love BP hunting, here in Washington State there is no BO requirement for ML hunters, unless the season is overlapping with a modern firearm season, which is unusual. I guess it just scares me to think that one of these years there will be an announcement from the Fish&Game that "starting this year...."!!!

Now to tell you the truth, I have more trust in BP hunters, even the zap-gun/bat-gun kids, then I do in the modern hunters, and would be more inclined to wear a vest during modern season. But to be really truthful, once I got deep enough in the woods to avoid the slob and road hunters, which is only about 100 yards, I'd probably take said vest off and put it in the pack, and then put it back on when coming back out of the woods.

Rat