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Well, come visit northern MN and WI. I'm an eye witness. Not my friends anymore.
Also, just walk in the woods after season and you'll see beer cans under some stands.
But does it mean that the person drinking the beer was hunting at the moment? Also, just because a person drinks a beer does not mean that he or she is drunk. Also, a "pot head" could smoke a couple of joints while hunting and not leave a beer can behind
My point is that you are assuming that hunters are drinking while hunting because you see a beer can (or two) left behind, and on the same token you aren't considering that not all the people in the woods aren hunting. You have people hiking, camping, and the rest; not just hunting.
That said, I agree we those of you who consider hunting and being under the influence a real bad thing to do. But that goes for everything we do in life: driving, cleaning guns, using power tools (or tools with sharp edges or points), skiing, swimming, mountain climbing, skydiving, and so on.
Wow- I had no idea this many states DID NOT require blaze orange. CA, NY included!
I've never hunted public land, but I have hunted on leases with multiple points of access; and I've hiked on public land where hunting was allowed. And as stated earlier, even on my own land (or rather my parents' land) I would be concerned about random trespassers.
I would never think about entering any wooded area during rifle season without wearing adequate "orange". Hat and vest at a minimum, whether I was hunting or not. Maybe "camo orange", in TN or GA; it has to be solid orange in MS.
Like you, I honestly thought it was a standard law nationwide!
Even with the small amount of grouse hunting I do, the unacceptable firearms handling I see appalls me - which is why I only do a small amount of it. Every time I go out with my 16-year-old son, I have to take him aside and explain the things he just saw that he should not do.
My husband goes out once or twice a year to a pheasant club hunt with a neighbor, who is an experienced hunter. About 5 years ago, the neighbor brought an acquaintance of some sort or the other, and right from the start, DH wasn't comfortable with this fellow's fireams handling, but he didn't say anything. Right before they were going to go in for lunch, one of the dogs flushed a bird, and this fellow swung his shotgun around and shot at the bird, which was about 3' off the ground, and ended up shooting my husband. Luckily, A) it was pheasant loads, B) they were about 15-20' apart C) the DH wears glasses, which kept his eyes protected and D) he was wearing thick duck overalls which now have about 2 dozen pheasant load sized holes in them.
That was the end of that hunt for that fellow.
DH really should have said that he wasn't comfortable from the beginning, he should have made it clear that there were safety issues. When one's safety is on the line, that isn't the time to not make waves.
Try hunting BLM land for deer and you spot movement. You glass the area with your binoculars and see a guy across the draw. He is looking at you through his scoped bolt action rifle. Nothing more unsettling than seeing someone with the crosshairs on you. Yeah it happened to me in Arizona.
Never use your rifle scope to glass for game!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I sometimes wear orange, like on opening weekend but otherwise, no. It just makes it easier for LE to harass you for no good reason. With just camo on when we hear a vehicle coming you can just melt into the trees. We have a new tree cop that has a serious attitude problem and thinks he's on a swat team or something.
I'm no scientist, but I haven't noticed a difference deer hunting dressed in orange vs camo.
For deer, Blaze orange is great camo. It looks green to them since they do not see red as red. They see it as green but because red has a longer wavelength than green, it would be a duller green. Color blind people (red blind) would be able to describe what a deer sees. These people see red traffic lights as green. Dogs are also red blind and it is known that a dog cannot find a red ball in the green grass.
Quote:
Most color-blind people can't tell the difference between red or green,
Back to topic, in my parts we have some serious incidents with firearms. Like the two hunters hunting at night (on private land) who decide to approach the deer spot from opposite sides of the valley. Need I say more? Then we had the case in which a group of "hunters" were illegally spotlighting and doing so near a camp site. This tourist lady with her boyfriend wearing a head light, brushing her teeth at the stream ... Need I say more? Apparently her head light looked like a deer's eye in the spotlight. Then there were these two hunters during the roar who were roaring each other. The one wearing a blaze orange cap got mistaken for dear hair. His blaze orange cap got mistaken for deer hair! The shooter did not say what patch of deer hair he thought was seeing - could have bee the deer's butt? Funny thing is he was chairman of the deer stalkers association! He's still in jail. Two of these incidents occurred on the same Easter weekend (this last one and the first one).
I would suggest that the accident rate is actually higher for hunters than drivers considering the time spent on each activity. The death toll for hunters is about the same as for drivers on the Easter weekend. This past Easter weekend we had a total of three deaths on the road!
The rate of deer hunters getting shot in the United States is actually very, very low. Its been a couple years since I read an article on it, but it was something like 1 out of 140k.
There is so much wrong with the previous post, when compared to Wyoming. For instance, can't hunt at night, no matter if its private land or not. Archery is the only exempt from wearing blaze orange. Spotlights are illegal while hunting (I actually had to do some fast talking while using a spotlight to check the cattle. Of course I had a rifle in the rack, everybody has one 365 days of the year).
We have tens of thousands of hunters every fall with zero incidences.
By the way, my dog plays with a red ball in the grass, all the time. Its her favorite. She does have trouble with a blue racket ball ball.
I've had whitetails walk within 5 yards of me while I was sitting or standing next to trees wearing blaze orange. They have no idea you are there unless you move or the scent gives you away.
It was quite comical on one occasion- I had a lever action .35 caliber pointed less than 10 feet from a doe as I was sitting against a tree. She was standing broadside to me and all I had to do was pull the trigger. She was so unaware of my presence- just staring through me. Finally in a low hushed voice I said "Booooooo!". She screamed, jumped 15 ft sideways and took off huffing and snorting like the devil had poked her himself.
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