Hunter Safety Today

[OldMaineWoodsman]

Good morning:

After too long of an absence, I plan to hit the deer woods again this fall. For the last 20 years or so, my efforts have been mainly waterfowling and bird hunting. How are the muzzleloading seasons safety wise, today? I know when I started back in 1980 you never saw another hunter. I used to wear a green and black plaid shirt and camo hat. I see that you now have to wear a blaze orange article here in Virginia. I'm sure with all the optical-sighted, in-line stuff, more guys are out now for the extra season less the history/challenge. Anyway, I have a leather bag trimmed with white leather and white Cross of Lorraine on the flap. I got to looking at it and now wonder if some yahoo is going to see it as a deer flag....

 

[longcruise]

Would not be concerned. Here in CO bow hunters and ml hunters are overlapping 9 days with ml hunters required to wear orange and bow hunter are always in camo.

There have been a very few accidents over many years, with most being bow hunters shooting their hunting partners due to arrows deflecting off limbs. The only case of an ml hunter shooting another hunter was when an ml hunter and bow hunter were together and the ml hunter shot and killed the bow hunter. It happened early in the morning over an hour before legal light. The local count sherrif was investigating the possibility that it was intentional. I don't know what the final disposition was.

 

[robert reed]

I would not carry anything white in the deer woods, not even a handkerchief. Where I hunt, the only people I see are lost. They don't even see blaze orange. Aside from people that should not even be in the woods, deer are cued in on white as their danger signal. Why spook 'em?!

 

[BrownBear]

I'm looking over my shoulder (and all around me!) during the regular gun seasons when there are more idiots in the woods than deer. As a result, I'm hunting less and less during those seasons. I won't hunt weekends, and I avoid the "best" hunting areas that everyone else flocks to.

I relish the special muzzleloader seasons specifically because there are lots less folks about. There are still idiots in the mix, but I find it easier to avoid them and find places where I have the woods to myself.

A lot depends too, on your choice of hunting pardners. My list of folks that make that cut is very, very short.

 

[azmntman]

I have a few spots where I can hunt all day for a week and see maybe two others, involves altitude and steepness so most the guys would never come up. I see most "accidents" around here are road hunters jumping outta a tuck and shooting all at the same time. A concrete CO lost a kid that way years back.

 

[sidelock]

I have flagged many deer into shooting range with a white handkerchief. Anyone else done this?

 

[Eric Krewson]

There was a supervisor who worked at my power plant that was hunting a public hunting area when he had to answer natures call. He dropped his pants, a bozo hunter over 100 yards away saw the flash of his white drawers and took a shot at what he thought was a deer's rear. The bullet hit the guy in the upper thigh severing his femoral artery, he died before help could get to him.

I never where white in the woods during hunting season for this reason.

 

[Spikebuck]

I agree with you 100%. On heavily hunted public areas or private lands I never have anything white and also wear head to toe orange vs just an orange vest, etc. I won't even carry a white or light cream colored powder horn.

Now, on our hunting lease I feel comfortable scaling back the orange, but still won't have anything white during gun deer seasons.

Sidelock: Regarding "flagging" deer with a white handkerchief...I saw this done once on a video with just the light and occasional wave of a bare hand vs a white cloth. Seemed to work just as well, if the deer was susceptible to it anyway.

 

[Patocazador]

I hunt public lands, mostly WMAs. Other hunters are everywhere so I try to go to places that are not easy to get to, hoping the others won't bother.
I take a mind set that everyone out there is a homicidal maniac and are trying to kill me. That has kept me alive until now. Always expect the other armed people to do something dangerous and/or stupid and you will not be wrong very often. :cursing:

 

[azmntman]

OIT for antelope is just sit still in the field and every 20 min or so take off hat and wave it. Old Indian told me the bucks just HAVE to see what the hecks is out there and come into range. So I guess a white hanky would fool a deer :idunno: .

 

[robert reed]

So I guess a white hanky would fool a deer .

It will also fool gun toters! The white hanky prohibition goes back to my grandfather. Apparently things were no safer in the deer woods of Michigan in the 1930's-1960's.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

It has been documented that a hunter shot in his head in the State of Maryland, many years ago, was shot when he used a white handkerchief to blow his nose and a nearby hunter shot at the white. The deceased removed the handkerchief from his pocket, popped it open (this movement was thought to have caught the shooter's attention), and when placed upon the deceased's face, the other man fired. :shocked2:

In another case, more recent, a hunter, not wearing orange, but sporting a lovely gray ponytail as part of his head of hair, was shot in the head with a .22, and survived...the shooter thought the gray ponytail the tail of a squirrel. :shocked2:

I like a blaze orange hat, as the first thing seen on the other side of a hill is my head coming over the hill. I also like orange mits... as when I'm standing still my hands move the most, while walking there is a better chance somebody will see my hands moving on my arms than my lets, and so mits have the best chance of being seen, and blaze orange moving should be a clue that I'm not a deer...or that I'm in the background behind the deer that somebody is shooting at.

LD

 

[Spikebuck]

when placed upon the deceased's face, the other man fired. :shocked2:

So not only is the shooter a complete moron for shooting at something he cannot clearly identify, even if in his own mind he was shooting at a deer, he was apparently OK with shooting it in the hind end and hoping for the best. :shake:

A lot of this stuff also happens on both ends of the daylight spectrum...very early or very late...or even before or after legal hours in the dark. In Minnesota this year a guy shot a big adult bull moose well after legal shooting hours when he "thought" he was shooting at a whitetail doe. Bull moose...Whitetail doe... :hmm: :youcrazy:

For this reason, I wear a flashing orange light and use a flashlight even though I need neither to find my stand. I would rather chance spooking a few deer than raise the odds some moron who will shoot in the dark is out there waiting to shoot at the first shadow that moves...and it's me.

 

[Patocazador]

About 15 years ago a "hunter" was told to stay on his stand until the guide came to get him after dark. The guide had a white t-shirt under his camo shirt and the jerk with the gun saw the "V" at his neck and put a bullet right there.
This was at a well-known 'pay for slay' place west of Montgomery, AL.

Two lessons: no white stuff and know the people you hunt with if possible.

 

[robert reed]

Along with the white hanky, leave the noise makers at home. I Have been "hunted" by others while bleating and grunting. No more for me. My experience has shown that the deer where I hunt don't pay much attention to it. Draws greenhorns like cops to a donut shop!!!!

 

[FishDFly]

Years ago I would go to town on opening morning of deer season to have breakfast about 10AM or so and listen to the deer hunters and their tales of the day.

Never heard such tales of ignorance as in the local diner.

 

[Robert Egler]

So I guess a white hanky would fool a deer .

It will also fool gun toters! The white hanky prohibition goes back to my grandfather. Apparently things were no safer in the deer woods of Michigan in the 1930's-1960's.

I take nothing white with me during deer season, although colored tissues are actually hard to come by. I also do not hunt during the first week of regular dear season when all the people who haven't been in the woods for the last 51 weeks go out, nor on the last day when people can be desperate to get a deer this year.

 

[azmntman]

Had an old buddy who would tell those we met in the field (when asked if we'd seen anything) "nah ain't seen nothin....gotta couple sound shots this morning, couldn't find no blood"

He advised it would clear the area of knowledgeable hunters and we would have much less competition. :idunno:

 

[Patocazador]

My friend and I were duck hunting at the Potholes in WA. We heard spaced out shots every 6-10 minutes. Finally 3 ?illegals? with one gun came walking along and shot into a clump of grass. We loudly asked, "What the He!! are you idiots doing?" They couldn't speak English and bugged when we confronted them.

 

[Bob C of WI]

If I had to hunt on public property in central Wisconsin, I would quit hunting. Every piece of public hunting land is covered with idiots. I hunt on my own 120 acre, hill covered property with heavy timber cover. We allow only immediate family members, that is currently 4 or 5 people on the property.