Fur hats and hunting?

[bigbore442001]

I know this will garner some responses. Today I went out with the bow wearing my big coyote fur hat. I didn't expect it to happen but three does came close enough to shoot at them. They were browsing about ten yards from me while I sat with a camo shirt and a coyote fur hat. Some of the deer were looking right at me without any sort of reaction. I knew that if I moved my bow they'd take off.

Anyways. I checked a digital camera shot of me with the fur hat and found out that the hat really broke up my outline and blended in with the background.

Are there any circumstances you would hunt wearing a fur hat?

 

[roundball]

Are there any circumstances you would hunt wearing a fur hat?

Can't think of any right now...I did have a question about "hunter orange" since you didn't mention it...is it required where you hunt?

 

[dgold]

I know this will garner some responses. Today I went out with the bow wearing my big coyote fur hat. I didn't expect it to happen but three does came close enough to shoot at them. They were browsing about ten yards from me while I sat with a camo shirt and a coyote fur hat. Some of the deer were looking right at me without any sort of reaction. I knew that if I moved my bow they'd take off.

Anyways. I checked a digital camera shot of me with the fur hat and found out that the hat really broke up my outline and blended in with the background.

Are there any circumstances you would hunt wearing a fur hat?

My probem with it would be that there are, like in any human activity,fools that would mistake you for a coyote.

 

[cptleo1]

I draw the PC line when it comes to fur hats and or bags.

I just don't care to get shot trying to look cool.

Now that I think about it I am not real fond of buckskin for hunting either.

 

[Stumpkiller]

I'd hate to be sitting out resting while hunting and have some coyote hunter put a 22-250 bullet in my brain pan thinking he saw a coyote.

Even worse during deer season. Anything brown and moving . . . anything moving not orange is a likely target for these guys who step on dirt two weeks of the year. No thank you!

 

[Kentuckywindage]

My favorite line..

If its brown its down :rotf:

Keep that in mind the next time you feel like wearing buckskin or fur.

 

[juancho]

Deer hunting some years ago with a good friend of mine,we had an incident that I don't want to experience again.
It was during the shotgun control season.That day we saw quite a few deers but were out of range.As we aproched a swampy area we both saw something brown move betwen some cedars.He was in a better position to take a shot so he readied the gun as I tryed to move to cover a possible escape route.
Somethig though wasn't quite rite ,so he yeled to make the deer jump and it was then when he saw something white and brown move.His reaction was to wait for a better shot ,and luky him he did.
It turn out to be an idiot picking mushrooms playing dead so that no one would find his "secret spot".The white flash He saw was a 5 galons pale this very inteligent guy was useing to put the mushrooms in.
Two hours and half a pack of smokes latter my friend was still shaking.
That guy doesn't know how luky he was that neither of us was triger happy.

 

[paulvallandigham]

One of the basic rules of safety is:

Never fire at game until you can properly identify your target, and what is beyond it.

Its obvious from this story that neither you or your buddy could identify anything but movement. If you can't recognize the straight lines of a 5 gallon bucket, you had no business being any more than curious. You certainly should not have been preparing to shoot at it.

You and your buddy did the right thing, in spite of yourselves.

I hate it, too, when non-hunters go wandering in the woods without wearing Blaze Orange clothing during deer season. They are breaking the law, but I can't think of the last one that was ever prosecuted for this stupidity. And really, Doesn't it sound just a little pathetic for a grown man to say he could not differentiate between a human being and a deer?

There was a man shot in Arkansas, years ago, because some hunter thought he was a " turkey " and blasted away at the sound of the turkey call the hunter was using. He blinded the victim, who went on to be the head of the State Game Department. We had a similar incident here in Illinois a decade or so ago. A Large judgment ( not large enough, of course) was taken in a civil suit against the shooter who shot a turkey hunter in the back and leg when he shot at " sound ". His defense was that he thought it was a turkey he was shooting, and he wanted the appellate court to overturn the judgment. The Justices commented on how much larger a 6 foot man is, even sitting down at the base of a tree, than a turkey, in affirming the trial court.

DON'T Shoot at movement, or at sound. Period.

Just a couple of years ago, a man shot and killed his hunting partner, with a deer slug clean through his chest, when, before daybreak, the victim, who had left the shooter to go to his treestand 50 yards away, returned to tell his buddy that someone else was in his stand, and that he was going to go someplace else. The shooter fired at sound IN THE DARK, technically, before deer season opened, and before legal shooting hours.

You get the idea that someone has to work pretty hard to injure or kill someone else negligently---- and for what?

 

[juancho]

At the position we were at you could have not seen the straigth lines of a bucket or anything as it was all broken up ,as i said, by dense cedars.Maybe I should have said that we were hoping to get that "deer" out of heavy cover.
The point of the story is that this guy saw us,and instead,he decided to play dead.We had many times in the past passed up opportunities to take better shots,even knowing that we may not have a second chance.
Like i said we are not trigger happy ,but I can't speak for every else out there.If we were that guy could have been dead for real!

 

[mikee51848]

You should carry binoculars. Don't you hate it when some hunter is checking you out with his scope?

 

[dgold]

One of the basic rules of safety is:

Never fire at game until you can properly identify your target, and what is beyond it.

Its obvious from this story that neither you or your buddy could identify anything but movement. If you can't recognize the straight lines of a 5 gallon bucket, you had no business being any more than curious. You certainly should not have been preparing to shoot at it.

You and your buddy did the right thing, in spite of yourselves.

I hate it, too, when non-hunters go wandering in the woods without wearing Blaze Orange clothing during deer season. They are breaking the law, but I can't think of the last one that was ever prosecuted for this stupidity. And really, Doesn't it sound just a little pathetic for a grown man to say he could not differentiate between a human being and a deer?

There was a man shot in Arkansas, years ago, because some hunter thought he was a " turkey " and blasted away at the sound of the turkey call the hunter was using. He blinded the victim, who went on to be the head of the State Game Department. We had a similar incident here in Illinois a decade or so ago. A Large judgment ( not large enough, of course) was taken in a civil suit against the shooter who shot a turkey hunter in the back and leg when he shot at " sound ". His defense was that he thought it was a turkey he was shooting, and he wanted the appellate court to overturn the judgment. The Justices commented on how much larger a 6 foot man is, even sitting down at the base of a tree, than a turkey, in affirming the trial court.

DON'T Shoot at movement, or at sound. Period.

Just a couple of years ago, a man shot and killed his hunting partner, with a deer slug clean through his chest, when, before daybreak, the victim, who had left the shooter to go to his treestand 50 yards away, returned to tell his buddy that someone else was in his stand, and that he was going to go someplace else. The shooter fired at sound IN THE DARK, technically, before deer season opened, and before legal shooting hours.

You get the idea that someone has to work pretty hard to injure or kill someone else negligently---- and for what?

:applause: :thumbsup: Well spoken!

 

[XXX]

I have the same safety concerns everyone else has raised. This goes for leather and any other brown or near black garments that could be mistaken for game. Simple truth is there are still way too many reckless slobs in the woods despite decades of mandatory hunter education. You yourself posted a news article about someone shooting a domestic dog in Dracut while hunting last month. As for myself, I would only consider it in an early bow season. In gun season, never. If it were winter after rifle season I would only think about it if I had an all red capote or wool coat. There is still a risk, especially toward dark with the increased popularity of predator hunting.

 

[Osprey]

I can sympathize, came way to close to something like that last spring turkey hunting. Was set up on public on the last day, in a popup blind, decoys out on an old logging trail. Spent over and hour calling to some hens that were yelping in the distance, hoping they had a gobbler in tow and they'd come in. Sounded like turkeys, acted like turkeys. Once I switched calls to give them something different, they shut up, then started calling again when I went back to the original call, just like turkeys. Eventually they seemed to work back and forth across the logging road, just out of sight, coming my way. Could hear them scratching in the leaves 40 yards away. Then, maybe 25-30 yards, in the saplings on my side of the trail, I saw a bright blue head flash through a small opening. Gun was up, safety off, waiting for it to stop in the tiny gap in the green leaves. It flashed through the opening again, but no shot, plus I was waiting to see the whole bird since he was coming, and I wanted to make sure a hen wasn't in line with the Tom. The leaves rustled as the bird moved toward a bigger gap, I was ready - and - two blue jean covered knees appeared in the opening. :shocked2:

Stupid guy was wearing blue while turkey hunting - a no-no, stalking calling/decoys - another no-no, and was just very lucky I knew enough to wait. If it had been somebody overly anxious to kill a bird he'd have been toast. When I hollered at him he got out of there quick. I got the shakes later too, but more that I was so PO'd some idiot almost put me in that situation.

It's easy to sit on a high horse, but it's even easier for a 6' man to look like a flash of game in thick cover, something I'm even more cognizant of now when sneaking through the woods. Be safe out there.

 

[Osprey]

I hate it, too, when non-hunters go wandering in the woods without wearing Blaze Orange clothing during deer season. They are breaking the law, but I can't think of the last one that was ever prosecuted for this stupidity.

Don't know about your state, but that's not the case in the states I've hunted. Only law here is to wear orange while hunting or involved in the hunt, and not even that for waterfowl, turkeys, bow or landowners on private property. Would be smarted if they did, but they aren't breaking any laws.

 

[paulvallandigham]

I was in a treestand hunting deer, with blaze orange hat, and vest on, only about 12 feet up, and another hunter came right down the lane I was watching at a trail crossing, and walked right under my stand. He didn't see the stand, or me, and had no idea he was busting my hunt by his conduct. That is the way it goes. By the time he got under me and passed me, I was afraid to call out to him or talk to him for fear he would turn around blasting at my voice. I now hail anyone approaching my stand, whether I am visible or not, when they get within 30 yards. Most are lost, hunting property next door, and wandering on to the property I am hunting because they don't know the property boundaries. Some do that on purpose.

 

[XXX]

I can sympathize, came way to close to something like that last spring turkey hunting. ... two blue jean covered knees appeared in the opening........ stalking calling/decoys - another no-no, and was just very lucky I knew enough to wait.

My experience with spring turkeys is that ALL hen yelps are hunters. This was building slowly for a few years and my suspicions were not confirmed by hard evidence. Last year though every calling hen turned out to be a hunter. I never move in the direction of a calling hen. At some level. I like the fact that other hunters who are not blind hunting make hen yelps, it helps me keep track of where they are and if they have heard the same gobblers I have or not.

 

[rabjr]

I hate it, too, when non-hunters go wandering in the woods without wearing Blaze Orange clothing during deer season. They are breaking the law, but I can't think of the last one that was ever prosecuted for this stupidity.

Don't know about your state, but that's not the case in the states I've hunted. Only law here is to wear orange while hunting or involved in the hunt, and not even that for waterfowl, turkeys, bow or landowners on private property. Would be smarted if they did, but they aren't breaking any laws.

Although it seems to be rarely enforced here, Any non hunter must wear orange here on any State lands during the hunting seasons.

 

[Osprey]

My experience with spring turkeys is that ALL hen yelps are hunters. This was building slowly for a few years and my suspicions were not confirmed by hard evidence. Last year though every calling hen turned out to be a hunter. I never move in the direction of a calling hen. At some level. I like the fact that other hunters who are not blind hunting make hen yelps, it helps me keep track of where they are and if they have heard the same gobblers I have or not.

Funny thing was that I was convinced they were hens, the guy sounded good. Had already called in real hens twice that spring and both of those times I thought it was hunters the birds sounded so bad. :surrender:

 

[Wildpony]

When it gets real cold I often wear a fur hat (shapka) I picked up when I was in Russia. I actually have two, one mink, the other muckrat.

This isnt the kind of thing that really breaks up the profile though. But I did get within spitting distance of several does while wearing it.

I hunt on private land where everyone shares information about where they intend to hunt before heading out. This assures that nobody else is even shooting in the same feild. Therefore I don't have to worry as much about being mistaken for an animal and shot at.

My Brother-in-law and my best friend from college alwayse make fun of me and tell me I look like danged bear. But this season my college buddy and I went hunting and I lent him my extra hat when it got really cold. Within about 15 minutes of sitting still in 20 degree tempuratures he was singing its praises. He wore it for three outings then my brother-in-law saw him wearing it and started ribbing him for looking like a bear. He then started wearing his thermal face mask again and proceded to shiver as before.

Guess Utility is a whole lot more important than style to me.

 

[tnlonghunter]

Well, they make rabbit-fur lined Mad Bomber hats with blaze orange on the outside. I could definitely see using one of those if I was hunting in really cold weather. I just use a regular blaze stocking cap. I don't figure that wearing skins or furs or other more "PC" clothes will make me shoot any straighter, so I don't sweat wearing orange or camo (during bow season).