Blaze Orange- A good thing?

[Death from Afar]

Here, you are not required to wear balze orange when hunting. Having said that, I have just bought some blaze gear, as I am getting tired of stray shotgun pellets going my way on a morning rabbit shoot. Do you guys wear it? Does it really help? I have heard that light blue is a bit better, but I find that hard to believe...

[Trip20]

I wear it. Unfortunately, I do most of my hunting on public land. I can't help but think that all the idiots I see at the range are now in the woods walking around with a loaded rifle. That's all the incentive I need.

I read somewhere that blue is more easily recognizable by wildlife. Not sure if that's true but it's kept me from wearing blue of any shade in the woods, unless I'm small game hunting.

[PSE]

trust me. MOST of them dont see it. a few, i have had questions about. i have been 40 feet up a tree downwind and had a deer look right up at me like i had a beacon on my head. MOST of them dont see it. Arkasas says we can wear chartruse but i cant find any cloths that color for hunting.

[jhgreasemonkey]

I wear a blaze orange vest and hat. I might look like a dork but I would preffer not to get shot accidentaly . Up here a farmer was working in his field in a faded jump suit when a sorry excuse for a hunter stumbled out of the woods drunk and shot him. Said he shot a sasquach. True story happened several years back out by Redmond Wa.
I'm a firm believer in blaze orange because I can sure see other hunters locations even way far out there.

[PSE]

im a firm beliver that people get shot because other glass w/ the scope instead of binos.

[jhgreasemonkey]

Good point. If you were to see some jackass that had you in his crosshairs then things could get a little hairy. Binocs are a MUST.

[FirstFreedom]

Definitely wear it for most any and all hunting situations. Deer-like critters do not see colors. They can see patterns, though, so a blaze-orange with black streaks on it (blaze-camo) is a good choice, rather than a large vest with single-shade uniform orange patches the size of a sailboat sail on it.

However, no orange for ducks or turkeys, as they can see colors very well. I'll take my chances with them, since shotgun pellets don't carry as far. Everything else, yes, for the most part. On public lands, I'd even wear a small orange patch during ducks or turkeys.

[Guyon]

Even if people do glass with scopes (I'm not saying it's a practice I recommend), that's a sorry excuse for shooting someone. If you're shooting at blurs of moving color and not a postively identified animal, then you need to be locked up.

For turkey, I don't wear orange until the kill. My vest has blaze-orange flip outs. I've thought about a blaze-orange bag for carrying birds out.

[308SORRELS]

I wear the orange and have for several years .I can say it saved a guys life that was hunting on my property. I was siting in I caught a glimpse just past the deer .It was a nice 10 pointer but not worth a life. I went over to wear the 16 year old was sitting (asleep ) and politely (YEAH RIGHT ) and asked him to leave and he got rude and said he could hunt any where he wanted as he was the son of the sheriff. I called the game warden and he was relieved of his rifle and car and went to jail . So YES it does save lives.

[Guyon]

I thought the son of the sheriff could hunt wherever he wanted.

[stevelyn]

I don't wear it. It's not required in AK although in some areas it might be a good idea to wear a hat or a patch of blaze.

I wear either ASAT camo, German milsurp snow camo or earth tone colors i.e. Carhartts.

Most of the hunting accidents in Alaska happen in camp.

[riverrat66]

Actually I thought it was required in New York but it's not. I'm thinking maybe it used to be but isn't anymore but then again maybe I'm wrong.

Anyway, I think wearing "some" blaze orange is a good thing. Consider this:
From 1994 through 2003 four out of five deer hunters wore hunter orange. Not even one who wore hunter orange was mistaken for game and killed. But fifteen hunters who did not wear orange were killed when mistaken for game.

I wear a blaze orange vest and hat over my camo clothing as does just about everyone hunting in my neck of the woods.

[whiskey]

I wear it when required. I always wear it on public land. I always wear it while walking around the woods. I usually don't wear it while sitting 20 feet up in a tree.

[Csspecs]

Yeah wearing orange is a good idea. I don't wear it bow hunting, but I don't have much to fear from people more than 50 yards away.

[MeekAndMild]

I wear it. You'd be surprised just what you don't see in the woods. Back when nobody wore it I've had hunters walk right by me less than six feet away and never see me. I've had squirrels come down from the tree and sit on my arm or the top of myhead, scared them when I moved! Had two turkeys walk up on me and watch as I unloaded the buckshot and loaded number six.

Had a buddy shoot between us on a deer drive.

[HangFire83]

With the issues we have on our lease property with tresspassers being in our stands, I always wear at least a orange hat. It's visible from 360 degrees and the deer don't really see the pattern.

[mikejonestkd]

Wear orange whenever possible.

I even wear it when on stand so other hunters can still see me at a great distance and not infringe on my hunting.

I also respect others that wear it on stand and don't go anywhere near them.

The camo/orange pattern works just as well and breaks up your body outline. I have had deer within 20 feet of me when I was wearing orange camo pattern and they never noticed me.

Wear orange, and stay alive!!!

[CowboyEngr]

I definately wear it when required. Is it a good idea? I think, if you have to ask, then YES! I think it depends on the situation. Hunting in Wyoming (certain areas - middle of the week, etc), I don't think it's all that much of a safety issue. But, in Oklahoma on opening weekend of rifle season - I wouldn't be caught without it - even if it wasn't required.

Let me ask you? If you are hunting with your 14 yr. old son, would you want him to wear it? Ahh, that's what I thought!

[bclark1]

i would like to think blaze orange is unnecessary, but there are some dopes out there. i've also heard that blue stands out more to animals with limited color vision, than does orange. it does not bother deer though, i started my gun season out with a scent-control emphasis, but still had to wear a solid blaze vest. just sat still, the path i was over was just a highway for the first couple days of the season, deer walking past, stopping, coming back, i even had one look at me, decide to ignore and then stop to relieve itself directly under my stand. wouldn't work the same with turkey i'm sure, but it was no problem with the mammals so far.

[mete]

It's not a sure thing because each year we see hunters getting killed while wearing orange . I do think that hunting "accidents" should be vigorously prosecuted as crimes !

[GUNSMOKE45441]

Orange is a must as far as I'm concerned, camo hides you from people as well as ducks & turkeys.
You may not see the guy 50f eet beyond that big buck.

[riverrat66]

It's not a sure thing because each year we see hunters getting killed while wearing orange

mete,

That's not exactly correct. I copied this from the NYS DEC website concerning "hunting injuries" word for word.

Wearing Hunter Orange Saves Lives! From 1994 through 2003 four out of five deer hunters wore hunter orange. Not even one who wore hunter orange was mistaken for game and killed. But fifteen hunters who did not wear orange were killed when mistaken for game.

You can read it for yourself right here: http://www.dec.state.ny.us/website/d...iflyer2002.pdf

Nationwide more people are killed by deer-car collisions then by hunting related shooting incidents.

I do think that hunting "accidents" should be vigorously prosecuted as crimes !

No way! Why you might ask? I once saw some bozo deer hunting in a brown "carhart" jacket wearing a white hat! He was walking across an open field toward me and all I could see was the brown jacket and every so often a flicker of white! Now, to a inexperienced hunter or some trigger happy moron this guy, from a distance, could have been mistaken for a deer because I looked real hard at first before I realized it was a man. I waited for this guy to approach me and asked him if he was nuts or just plain suicidal. His answer was that he lived in the area and had been hunting there all his life! (Whatever that's got to do with it!) I told him he looked just like a deer walking threw the field but he didn't seem to care.
Now can you imagine this same fool sitting in the woods somewhere and you shoot at a deer and miss but hit this jerk instead and kill him because you never knew he was there because of the way he was dressed. Do you think you should be "vigorously prosecuted" and maybe sent to jail? I don't think so.
Anyone who hunts deer on my land wears "some" blaze orange or they are not welcome.

[22-rimfire]

Blaze orange works. Every hunter, with the exception of turkey hunters) should wear at a minimum a blaze orange cap. Personally I think you should wear more on your person. When the laws were first passed, I sort of resented being "required" to wear anything deer hunting. Now I'm older and I would not go out with a rifle or in rifle season without blaze orange on. The camo-blaze should be better to break up your outline a bit from a color blind deer perspective.

[chemist308]

I have an orange vest and always wear it hunting. Shotshell holders and game sack that doubles as a back-pack. I'd feel weird without it. It hasn't prevented me from getting game that I can tell, and I'm still alive to write this
However one day about 15 years ago during deer season I did have to take cover with wearing it. I was on a hill with about 50 - 75 yards of good clear shooting lanes. Some SOB on the bottom proceeded to send lead in my direction--I jumped into a depression when I heard one pass and then another tore bark off the tree I was sitting under Multiple rounds--must have had a 44mag lever gun or something. Then after I jump to cover the m*)&)%#%# starts yelling 'I GOT HIM! Hey I GOT HIM!' Truth be told I wasn't sure if he was talking about me or a deer. Probably shouldn't admit this but I scoped the area for an opportunity to return fire and see how he like cleaning his shorts but never did see him and didn't want to fire blindly and risk actually hitting someone.
On the flip side of that a tree almost got peppered when it wave at me Yeah, that guy was wearing a ghillie suit and I swear it looked like an odd lump on a tree. Thought nothing of it until it outstreched an arm from about 15 yard away. Then I jump, backpedalled quickly and laughed when a second later i realized i'd been gotten really good by a buy in camo.

So does it help? Depends on who else is out there.

[PATH]

I go out dressed like the great pumpkin. I think it announces my presence in the woods in a rather succinct way. Then again maybe that makes no difference to yahoos that shoot the deer crossing signs. In any case I never hunt public land orange outfit or no.