doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com How many wear blaze orange

For years I only wore Orange when I did big group pheasant hunts, Other than that when I hunted alone I wore no orange and in small groups I normally wear a red Filson Hat or a Red Shirt. I know intellectually the wearing of orange is safer than not, but I have to admit the color offends me.

How many out there avoid orange and how many religiously wear it?

Like you I wear orange when in a large pheasant hunt. I also wear it when going with hunters new to me.

Have to wear it, by law, most places I hunt. I can see hunting pheasants alone and not wearing blaze, if legal. Ditto prairie grouse. But there are too many other overlapping seasons--deer, turkey, etc--to wander around in the woods hunting grouse and woodcock without wearing blaze, even if it weren't the law.

Here in Pa. it is mandatory when small game hunting to wear 200 square inches of flourescent orange and a flourescent hat. For the hat I use a hat band.
There are other laws for turkey, and dear,bear hunting.

I wear it (hat and/or Filson Upland Vest) and like when others that I'm hunting with wear it. It's the only color I've found that is visable - be it a mile across the desert or buried in the midwest thicket. For me, there is a safety aspect, sure, but it's also just plain easier to locate someone when they're in orange.

Having said that, the day I get across the pond to shoot, there will be no orange and no cammo - only Barbour ;-)

There was a time that I rarely wore blaze orange when hunting grouse here in Utah.

Over the years the Utah Division of Wildlife has created more and more big game hunts during the Fall. Now if your in the mountains during the Fall your sharing the forest with big game hunters. The dog and I wear orange when grouse hunting; even though it is not required by law here in Utah.

It's mandatory in Nova Scotia, the law---and a good one. "All persons hunting or attempting to hunt wildlife and any person accompanying them shall wear a cap or hat and a shirt, vest or coat of hunter orange or camouflage orange that is plainly visible from all sides. This includes all rabbit hunters. This also applies to persons snaring or trapping but does not apply to persons" (and here I paraphrase) in a tree stand or blind while bow hunting, hunting waterfowl, hunting crows on cultivated lands, hunting bear while standing or sitting near a stationary bait site, licensed fur harvesters after general open season for hunting deer, attending a dog trial or training a dog while carrying a firearm except if done on forested land during an open big or small game season etc etc.

For most of October there's no requirement for orange here in ME. But Larry's point is very good. There's the first weekend of deer season in Oct, of course, but there are also zone-specific, variable weeks of moose season to consider. Bird hunters are required to wear one piece of orange during these (vs 2 during deer season........whatever). I wear my orange Filson hat throughout Oct mainly b/c I want my buddy to see me in dense stuff. He wears orange, too, and I appreciate it.

Sam

A friend, awarded DFC flying Mosquito pathfinder missions into Germany, gave up hunting because of a fatality that may not have occurred with blaze orange. He was hunting deer with friends he had been hunting with for years. Short-taken, one lowered his pants, exposing his white underwear. A .300 Savage split him open. My friend, who did not fire the shot, never entered the woods again. It had a profound effect on him. I worked with him for years.

Here in Mi I ALWAYS were my columbia upland vest with blaze and a blaze hat.

Always.

Gary