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  1. #1
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    Default GA "bow hunting" season begins this weekend......Be Careful!!!!!

    I hiked frkom Amicalola Falls up to Long Creek Falls and back Wed thru Fri of this week. The late summer wildflowers were absolutely glorious, the Falls were magnificent, the weather was terrific, I had a marvelous time. However, as I was coming back down the Approach Trail late Thursday evening I noticed something I had not seen when I passed this spot on Wed. A deer hunter had erected a portable deer stand in a large white oak tree that stands right on the trail......complete with climbing spikes nailed into this magnificent tree. When I returned to Amicalola, I saw a park ranger so I asked him about it. He told me that the trails were under USFS jurisdiction and that they did allow hunting ......so wear lots of "red". I knew that the USFS allowed hunting along the trail but I always thought that there was a fifty ft. corridor on each side of the trail itself where no hunting was allowed. If someone knows what the regs are regarding hunting please let me know. Also, is anyone else as appalled as I am at the possibility of some "trigger happy " jerk with a high-powered bow sitting about fifteen feet above where I'm walking? Last year a hiker was shot on the AT in GA. It might be time to push for some laws to protect hikers.

  2. #2
    Registered User Jim Obermeyer's Avatar
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    Default

    I was hiking on the TN/NC section of the AT last Wed. and was accompanied by 5 Plot Hounds (bear hunting dogs). I recognized them immediately because I have a friend who has one. All 5 dogs had tracking antennas on their collars. I could hear their owner blowing a horn way off down the mountain. I continued hiking figuring the dogs would leave, but they didn't. They actually hiked with me in a formation, one on my left and one on my right, one in front and two in the rear all the way to the shelter. I was planning on hiking further out but I knew I wasn't going alone, so I decided to go find their owner. We hiked back for over an hour and started hearing the horn again and headed towards it. I came upon an old man with an tracking antenna in one had and a cows horn around his neck. He said he was training the dogs for bear season which starts Oct 16th in NC and in Dec. for TN. He thanked me for bringing him his dogs back and said he has a lot of work to do before the season opens. I have nothing against hunters but I do believe many of them have no idea that the AT is there and how much it is hiked.

  3. #3
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    Default Hunting season

    Stonewall, if I understand you correctly, that deer stand was close to the trail if not immediately adjacent. Did that ranger show any concern? My understanding is that there is no hunting allowed within 100 yards of the trail. Even if the stand was not within his jurisdiction, the ranger should have notified the USFS. It may not be his direct responsibility, but ignoring a threat like that is not a good idea, particularly in light of the incident last fall. Did you get the ranger's name by any chance? If so, as a taxpayer in the State of Georgia, I'd like to let his supervisor know what I think. I know we have to share the woods with the hunters, and I'm OK with that, but I don't like the idea of hunters placing stands where they don't belong and law enforcement ignoring the issue.

    The advice to wear lots of red is a good idea, but from my understanding of the incident last fall when that hiker was shot at Jarrard Gap, given the lighting conditions at the time the hiker was shot, I don't know that safety orange (or red) would have done any good. The main problem was that the hunter was too darn close to the trail and was taking a "sound shot" into a thicket before full daybreak. If that had been a deer in that thicket, the best the hunter would have done is to wound the animal, which makes taking the shot irresponsible at best and probably criminal in my opinion, although the Rabun County Sherriff seemed to think the whole incident was excusable. The thing that gets me steamed is that law enforcement doesn't seem to take these things too seriously. I personally am not too sure if we need new laws, but it sure would be nice if law enforcement would enforce the ones we have, particularly seeing as hikers theoretically have the right to use the woods just like hunters.

    Frankly, I'm surprised a bow hunter pulled a trick like that. Usually, the bow hunters and turkey hunters are far more skilled than that. If it's any reassurance, the bow hunters rarely are "trigger happy jerks," but we do seem to have at least one that needs a little freshening up on the regulations regarding deer hunting within the AT trail corridor.

  4. #4
    LT '79; AT '73-'14 in sections; Donating Member Kerosene's Avatar
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    I agree, hunters generally know surprisingly little about the area they're hunting, let along a little trail winding through the woods. More than once it's felt like I've had guns firing way too close for my comfort.

    However, I'm much less concerned about high-powered bows than I am high-powered rifles. A bow hunter at least will be much less likely to let it fly without first confirming the target.
    GA←↕→ME: 1973 to 2014

  5. #5

    Default Don't Fear Hunters

    I think it's important to keep things in perspective and not paint with too wide a brush. I thru-hiked the AT in 2001 and just returned from a Dall sheep hunt in the Brooks Range of Alaska. In both outdoor experiences, I was looking for, and found, many of the same things.

    The area I was hiking in the Brooks Range is frequented more often by hunters than by hikers. Clearly, the hunters valued the wilderness, because the whole time I was there, I saw virtually NO sign the humans had ever been in the area.

    According to Wingfoot, (who certainly knows quite a lot about the trail) there has been one hiker killed by a hunter in the history of the trail. During that time, there have been hundreds of fatalities by murder, falls, lightning, bee stings, hypothermia, drowning, road crossing accidents, etc. etc. To portray hunters as “trigger happy jerks” is simply unfair. You show me ANY large group and I’ll show you a few fools, and that includes AT hikers. Hikers are far, far more dangerous to hikers than hunters are to hikers.

    As far as saying “Hunters generally know surprisingly little about the area they're hunting,” that’s simply ridiculous. Hunters generally know the area they are hunting a heck of a lot more than most hikers know about the section of trail they are walking down. Hunters also tend to know a lot more about the plants and animals around them.

    I’m not sure of what the law is on hunting along the trail in that area, but clearly the laws should be enforced, whatever they are. In the meantime, hikers need to keep things in perspective. Among the things to remember are that just because you hear a gun-shot, it does not mean that “you were nearly hit” any more than hearing a car driving by you on the road means “you were nearly struck.” Like most of the fears people have of the trail, with bears being a good example, some hiker’s fear of hunters is simply a matter of not understanding hunting and the extremely low risk it poses to hikers.

  6. #6
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    So I am correct then that there is no hunting allowed within 100yds. of the trail....I don't know the ranger's name but he is stationed at Amicalola Park...so there probably aren't too many of them. I too am more concerned about gun hunters than bow hunters but oftentimes a hunter will hunt with a bow until gun season begins then switch over to a gun ...so I will guarantee you that if that stand location is successful ...come the third week in October there will indeed be a hunter up there with a high powered rifle.

  7. #7
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    Coulter, I do not fear hunters...I have a lot of friends that hunt and are very respectful of the woods ......but in this area of Georgia(which is very different from Alaska) you have ready access to the trail by the "good ole weekend boys" who consider hunting as a time to get together and get drunk.....I have seen the remains of their campsites littered with beer cans.... so the reason I characterized the person who put up that stand as a "trigger happy jerk" was because he disregarded stated regulations about not hunting on the trail...hunters that disobey the laws usually fall into "jerk" category. Safety is of tremendous concern to us in this area, this year especially, because of an incident that happened last year where a hiker was shot by a "trigger happy jerk" ....praise God she wasn't killed.

  8. #8

    Default

    Apparently I was wrong. After re-reading Wingfoots post, apparently no hiker had EVER been killed by a hunter in the history of the AT. After a brief search, I was unable to find a law that says you can't hunt within 100 yards of the AT. If so, that would make it unfair to assume the hunter was a "trigger happy jerk" just as it would be unfair to call a hiker a "selfish jerk" because he didn't want hunters near "his trail." Regardless of the written law, I wouldn't want to shoot from or across the AT, that's for sure. As a conscientious hunter, I can't help but be offended by the repeated references to hunters as "trigger happy jerks" and littering drunks. It's no more fair than considering hikers to be hippies on welfare.

    http://trailplace.com/portal/thread.php?postid=353

  9. #9
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    Default Hunting season

    Coulter & Stonewall

    After seaching the Georgia DNR and the USFS's websites, I am unable to find a regulation covering any kind of corridor along the AT. I was unable to find a reference to anything like that on the Georgia Appalachian Trail Club's site, either. From what I'm able to find to date, I seem to need some brushing up on the applicable regulations, and not the hunter in question. Stonewall, please accept my apology for misleading you.

    Still, I just can't bring myself to say that I'm happy to hear about a deer stand that close to the trail. Being an avid target shooter myself, I understand and support the concept that hunters have rights too, but a stand located that close to the trail itself sounds like a guaranteed conflict between a hunter and a hiker, sooner or later.

  10. #10
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    If then there are no laws creating a non-hunting corridor along the trail then I think there needs to be one ...100 yds each side of the trail sounds good to me. Hunters are allowed to hunt the entire rest of the massive USFS lands, I don't think a 200 yd. corridor would be that much of a burden to them. The original purpose for the creation of the AT was for hiking not as an easy access path for hunters. I intend to contact my U.S. Congressman and my U.S. Senators and request such a law. I suggest that others do the same. We already had one shooting last year, and it was only by the grace of God that she wasn't killed, although it appears that it will take a shooting death to convince Coulter that a non-hunting corridor is needed.

  11. #11
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    Talking Hunters pay their way!

    They pay through the Pittman Robertson act, founded in 1937 which levies an 8-11% tax on sportspeople through the products they purchase like guns, ammo, etc., the funds to be used exclusively (almost) for the propagation of wildlife. And we hikers benefit directly from their tax. So, while you may not want to just rush up and hug the next hunter you see near the trail, you should realize that they have paid billions for their right to hunt there-considerably more than we frugal hikers have had to do. In many respects we are riding their coattails, so....

    Let's just try and coexist peacefully

  12. #12

    Default

    It was my understanding that the Appalachian Trail was within the jurisdictional domain of the Park Service, as it is a national park (albeit a very long and thin one), and hunting was prohibited along it. However, in the initial post I read the incident as occurring along the approach trail, which is not the AT.

    Personally, I respect hunters for their outdoorsmanship and skill. I think we do an injustice to stereotype them as trigger-happy drunken fools, just as they shouldn't stereotype hikers as pot smoking liberal hippie bums.
    "I too am not a bit untamed, I too am untranslatable,
    I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world." - W. W.

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  13. #13

    Default

    The hunter who shot the hiker was not drunk. The hiker-a teen aged girl-was relieving herself in the bushes-off the trail- early in the morning. The hunter is very young and he made a terrible mistake. To his credit he did not flee the scene when he could have. The girl was accompanied by several adults..they were near a road and they immediatly called 911 on a cell phone. The hunter ran up..acknowledged that he was the shooter and rendered first aid to the victim that apparently made a huge difference. Because of his actions the victim did not press charges...The local law enforcement did but I am not sure of that outcome. I hate to see this incident catagorized the way it has been. There are those of us who love outdoors in different ways. I could never be a hunter but I will not take any cheepshots at them..I know who shows up to help when someone is lost or hurt in the woods.

  14. #14

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    I'm not sure what's more disturbing, to find out that the hunter was completely sober or drunk. Actually, that the young man was sober and conscientious is quite disturbing. If a sober and seemingly conscientious young man could mistake a woman as a deer and shoot her is frightening. If a stone sober hunter can make this mistake then i'm even more afraid of the drunk ones.

    I'm not saying all hunters are out on a drunken lark, but certainly such irresponsible hunters do exist and in the same numbers as drunken idiots in any group of people.

    I just don't understand why hunters, as a group, can't recognize that it's probably not a good idea to hunt anywhere in the general vicinity as popular hiking trails and just voluntarily, law or no law, hunt in less populated zones. Seems like common sense to me.

  15. #15

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    i don't think he up and shot her on purpose. a rumble in the bushes could be perceived as many a thing. he helped for his error and that should be that. you can bet there is a "hunters message board" somewhere where drunken hunters post about "those annoying hikers" stinking up "our" woods.

  16. #16
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    Default Hunters

    Hunters are usually the folks that bail us hikers out when we get into trouble. I suspect that most of the SAR folks are hunters that do rescue work mostly on there own time and expense. I just had one help me out last weekend when I aborted a 55 mile loop hike after 38 miles. He gave me a ride back to my truck and would not except a dime for his trouble. Sure was glad I met him.

    Youngblood

  17. #17

    Default

    I'm not saying he shot her on purpose and i'm not saying hunters are an evil group of people. What I'm saying is that I do not understand why hunters, as a group, cannot amongst themselves say "Hey, it's probably not a good idea for us to shoot at things that move in the woods when we know there are humans hiking near by. So let's all agree not to hunt anywhere near the appalachian trail."

    Why can't the hunting community all agree to follow this common sense rule? Please don't respond by saying "oh - you're a hunter hater" or "you're prejudiced against hunters" because doing so clearly misinterprets the legitimate question i am asking.

  18. #18

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    Hunters following a set of rules is not too differnent than hikers practicing LNT. Sure some people do it, but TONS do not.

  19. #19
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    Default GA bowhunting season

    There's a large difference between leaving garbage around and wounding or killing innocent people, which shooting at sound or movement in the woods can do, particularly around popular trails, like the Appalachian Trail. While neither is good manners, problems with garbage and other signs of human occupation can be remediated if not completely repaired; killing someone cannot. The hunter we're referring to committed one of the cardinal errors of shooting: he was not completely sure of his target, much less the backstop. His actions after the shooting are certainly creditable, but then he wouldn't have needed the credit if he hadn't shot that girl in the first place.

    Even if that had been a deer instead of a human in that thicket, it still was not a reccomended practice. Almost all hunters will not take "sound shots" because they are very likely to yield wounded animals instead of a clean kill. As just about everyone on this forum probably knows, even with the very powerful rifles and cartridges available today, the shot must be placed correctly to kill cleanly. Taking that shot, human or deer, was not a good idea, nor was an example of good hunting ethics.

    Feel free to think what you want to, but I don't think anyone can convince me that his actions after the shooting justified taking that shot.

    On the positive side, that incident cannot possibly be typical of interaction between hunters and hikers. If it was, there would be a whole lot of dead hikers, and I'd probably be one of them. I've run into my share of hunters in the woods in the Southeast, and every time I've run into a hunter, it's been a positive experience. As several folks have mentioned, sucessfull hunters have to woodsman, just like hikers.

    My question is this: Can anyone here make a rational justification for placing a deer stand in a location where you will almost certainly have to take your shot with a substantial probability that there will be an innocent person near the intended target? Please bear in mind that arrows from modern compound bows can and sometimes do pass completely through a white tail deer, and not always in a straight line. Let's not forget to consider that crossbows are also legal in Georgia.

    BTW, are we sure that's a bow hunter's stand? Has anyone checked to see if a biologist or a photographer might have put it there? Could be getting stirred up over nothing.

  20. #20
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    Default Orange

    I have never wore orange when hiking in hunting season in the past, but I think I will change that and wear an orange hat. I saw several sobo thru-hikers last november in Georgia who had blaze orange pack covers even though there was no threat of rain. Maybe what we should do is to do what we can postively do, like wear orange in hunting season and encourage other hikers to do likewise.

    Youngblood

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