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DownEaster
08-29-2017, 03:09
Are there any hunting times which overlap with AT hiking (through October in Maine)? It would be embarrassing to get shafted by a bow hunter because you didn't know to wear orange.

rickb
08-29-2017, 04:21
Are there any hunting times which overlap with AT hiking (through October in Maine)? It would be embarrassing to get shafted by a bow hunter because you didn't know to wear orange.

Wearing Blaze orange during hunting season is always a good idea, and is even required in some areas.

The ATC publishes some safety tips, and a summary of hunting seasons on its web sites.

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I don't know of many hunting accidents along the AT, but here is a link to one report which reinforces the importance of wearing blaze orange: http://www.chattanoogan.com/2002/11/25/29527/Hunter-Shoots-Hiker.aspx

DownEaster
08-29-2017, 04:47
I picked the color of this one shirt just to be safe:

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I just didn't know the details (still don't) of when my hike might coincide with the 2018 hunting seasons.

egilbe
08-29-2017, 06:27
You have to be pretty damn close to be shafted by a bow hunter. Not something to worry about.

I hike in Maine and NH during hunting season in October and November. Never, ever worried about hunters. Id worry more about ticks, lyme disease, being bitten by a snake or bear, getting lost and dying of hypothermia and what I'm going to do with my powerball winnings long before I'd worry about being shot by a hunter.

Don H
08-29-2017, 06:49
Has there ever been a documented case of a hunter accidentally shooting an AT hiker?

In 2015, of the 235,000 licensed hunters in the entire state of Maine there were 4 hunting related accidental shootings. Two of them were self inflicted.

http://www.pressherald.com/2015/12/14/more-hunters-in-maine-but-fewer-deaths-and-accidents/

rickb
08-29-2017, 07:14
Has there ever been a documented case of a hunter accidentally shooting an AT hiker?

I found this case, while looking for another that I remember:

http://www.chattanoogan.com/2002/11/25/29527/Hunter-Shoots-Hiker.aspx

Sarcasm the elf
08-29-2017, 08:33
Has there ever been a documented case of a hunter accidentally shooting an AT hiker?

In 2015, of the 235,000 licensed hunters in the entire state of Maine there were 4 hunting related accidental shootings. Two of them were self inflicted.

http://www.pressherald.com/2015/12/14/more-hunters-in-maine-but-fewer-deaths-and-accidents/
IIRC there has definitely been one, and possibly two hunting accidents involving hikers. That is over the entire 2200 mile A.T. during it's 75 mile history.

Sarcasm the elf
08-29-2017, 08:38
Are there any hunting times which overlap with AT hiking (through October in Maine)? It would be embarrassing to get shafted by a bow hunter because you didn't know to wear orange.
I don't know Maine's hunting laws, but October is prime deer season in the northeast. Don't be too worried about safety, but do wear blaze orange, it's more of a courtesy to the hunter so that they can be altered to your presence from a distance than anything else.

MuddyWaters
08-29-2017, 08:38
Are there any hunting times which overlap with AT hiking (through October in Maine)? It would be embarrassing to get shafted by a bow hunter because you didn't know to wear orange.

Not so much bow hunting thats a safety issue

Having someone aim a scoped high powered rifle at you and view you thru their scope to see what you are , is

At that point your a finger twitch from dead

your choice

It dont matter if your in the right, when your dead.

Slo-go'en
08-29-2017, 08:45
I've seen turkey hunters down south on the AT in the spring. How often do you see game along the AT, except in parks where hunting is not allowed? Not very often. Hunters go where the game is and it's not along the AT.

saltysack
08-29-2017, 08:48
Not sure about NE but have ran into plenty of squirrel and bear hunters on southern AT from late September thru December. I bought a orange Houdini wind shirt for this reason alone...if not wearing it then it's on top of my pack...it's actually on sale at Patagonia.com for $59.00....love mine!


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Sarcasm the elf
08-29-2017, 08:52
I've seen turkey hunters down south on the AT in the spring. How often do you see game along the AT, except in parks where hunting is not allowed? Not very often. Hunters go where the game is and it's not along the AT.
By that reasoning we should be terrified of encountering mobs of squirrel hunters. ;) Dang noisy tree rats.

MuddyWaters
08-29-2017, 08:52
I've seen turkey hunters down south on the AT in the spring. How often do you see game along the AT, except in parks where hunting is not allowed? Not very often. Hunters go where the game is and it's not along the AT.


Animals in parks are far less wary of people, which is why you see them there, and dont see the animals outside the parks.

Hunting near a refuge like a park isnt a bad idear either...

Tipi Walter
08-29-2017, 09:05
I picked the color of this one shirt just to be safe:

40153

I just didn't know the details (still don't) of when my hike might coincide with the 2018 hunting seasons.

I too picked my rain jacket for the same reason---and it can either be worn or placed over the back of my pack---

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Orange Arcteryx in action.

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Placed over pack during hunting season.

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As DownEaster mentions, I like my backpacking t-shirts to also be bright.

Tennessee Viking
08-29-2017, 09:27
In the south it is usually mid Oct into the new year

http://www.ncwildlife.org/Portals/0/Regs/Documents/Bear-Seasons.pdf

Another Kevin
08-29-2017, 10:18
This year on the closing day of the Spring turkey season, I suddenly heard fire, close. "Yo!" I shouted. "Hiker here!"

The two hunters thanked me - they had no idea anyone was in there, or that they were shooting close to a blazed trail. The trail doesn't cross the road they drove in on. The road follows a stream and the trail runs parallel to it on a ridge. They held fire until I was long gone.

I was wearing my orange vest and pack cover. Not that it helped, they didn't see me and I didn't see them until after I halloaed.

This was on Long Path, not on AT. It was in a NY Wildlife Management Area (similar to the PA State Game Lands, so I suspect it could just as easily have happened on the AT in the Poconos rather than the LP in the Helderbergs).

I don't know whether they got their turkey.

I do occasionally worry about the idiot with the 12-gauge and the 12-pack - I know he's Out There - but the actual hunters that I meet are all unfailingly courteous and respectful. They are mostly just working stiffs out to fill their freezers. (I never met one particular exception - I was hiking through an old quarry and trashing out as I went, and I must have picked up two hundred spent shotgun shells. Right on the trail. Someone thought the quarry was a great place for target practice.)

saltysack
08-29-2017, 11:31
By that reasoning we should be terrified of encountering mobs of squirrel hunters. ;) Dang noisy tree rats.

Need to open up a shelter mice season....


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Sarcasm the elf
08-29-2017, 11:40
Need to open up a shelter mice season....


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You're the one with the Jack Russel, a couple of those ought to clear the rodents out of a shelter in no time. Heck, we could even go from shelter to shelter and do timed events. :D

saltysack
08-29-2017, 12:48
[QUOTE=Sarcasm the elf;2167405]You're the one with the Jack Russel, a couple of those ought to clear the rodents out of a shelter in no time. Heck, we could even go from shelter to shelter and do timed events. :D[/

Sure will but keeps everyone awake all night!


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ki0eh
08-29-2017, 13:37
I do occasionally worry about the idiot with the 12-gauge and the 12-pack - I know he's Out There - but the actual hunters that I meet are all unfailingly courteous and respectful.

This reminds me of a fellow I know who used to work the front desk at the state liquor store in a PA gateway to the "big woods" community. He grew up hunting, but became a hiker when he realized that the fellas from Philadelphia who bought two cases of Black Velvet two weeks a year were hunting in his neighborhood. :D

In PA, personally I think trying to engender mutual respect from the hiker's perspective, calls for orange hat/shirt/or vest mid-April through Memorial Day weekend; and beginning of October through MLK Jr. day weekend in January due to ever-extending turkey, muzzleloader, etc. seasons. I tend not to go out in the woods at all the two weeks after Thanksgiving (deer rifle season in most of PA).

I used to work with someone who wanted to go around the corner at lunchtime the first day of bear season and see what came in to the bear check station. There was always a bear from SGL 211, the tract that contains the A.T. from near Swatara Gap through Rausch Gap past Clarks Valley onto Peters Mountain.

One year, on the Sunday day before bear season, I encountered on my maintenance section a SOBO wearing all black fleece, a dark colored backpack, near Rausch Gap. I mentioned bear season starting the next day. He said, "oh, people don't hunt bears around here." When I begged to differ as tactfully as I could muster, he said he had orange gloves in his pack. I still wonder whether he survived.

D2maine
08-29-2017, 17:07
bear season is already open in maine

Huntmog
08-29-2017, 22:54
Hiked Signal Knob this past December. high was 14 that day i think... and it was s Monday. After coming off the knob itself, i still had on my black puffy and black down beanie. My buddy and I were not talking , not did we have poles making noise. Out of nowhere... we turned the corner on two dudes running dogs for bear... both were drawing their guns from their shoulders as I waved frantically and called out.
Ever hear a rattler .5 seconds too late and ur just hoping it won't bite? Same feeling. The hunters said they didn't realize people hiked in winter...

Takeaway? Wear orange. And talk.

jofjltncb6
08-30-2017, 18:24
Having experiencing a bullet whizzing just overhead while hunting as a teenager long ago, I still get a little nervous in the woods during certain hunting seasons. You can argue all of the statistics you want, but that distinct sound really sticks with you for quite a while.

When asked (and I paraphrase) "What exactly did you think you were shooting at?", the explanation from the so-called "hunters" who had made their way from the "big city" of Kansas City to rural Missouri:

"We thought we heard something."

And yes, I was wearing plenty of blaze orange...but that obviously doesn't help when people are willing to shoot without confirming their target,

TL;DR - People are terrifying. And stupid.

Sarcasm the elf
08-30-2017, 18:31
Having experiencing a bullet whizzing just overhead while hunting as a teenager long ago, I still get a little nervous in the woods during certain hunting seasons. You can argue all of the statistics you want, but that distinct sound really sticks with you for quite a while.

When asked (and I paraphrase) "What exactly did you think you were shooting at?", the explanation from the so-called "hunters" who had made their way from the "big city" of Kansas City to rural Missouri:

"We thought we heard something."

And yes, I was wearing plenty of blaze orange...but that obviously doesn't help when people are willing to shoot without confirming their target,

TL;DR - People are terrifying. And stupid.
That TL;DR was brilliant.

As a fellow hunter I have to say that the vast majority of us are safe and respectful, but I've met at least one who I nearly punched in the face.

fastfoxengineering
08-31-2017, 01:16
Not so much bow hunting thats a safety issue

Having someone aim a scoped high powered rifle at you and view you thru their scope to see what you are , is

At that point your a finger twitch from dead

your choice

It dont matter if your in the right, when your dead.Hunters are always encouraged to carry binoculars for this reason. Aiming a rifle or shotgun to use as a spotting scope is highly dangerous. Not saying all do. But we preach that here in New England. Furthermore, if someone aims a weapon at you, even if they're using it as a spotting scope, should be treated as a lethal threat towards you.

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SoFlo
08-31-2017, 08:11
From my experience on the AT & Florida Trail, you're more likely to run into a pack of hunt dogs than a hunter. But all my hunter encounters have been friendly. Most are just using hunting as an excuse to be outside like us and not really "hunting". I once had one hunter offer me an orange blaze jacket to wear when I forgot what time of the year it was. I offered to pay him something, but he refused to take a dime. Later that day while camping for the night beside a pond in Ocala NF, sitting on a log about to start dinner, a mama bear and cub walk out of the woods to have a drink of water about 50 yards from me. She did not care that I have an orange blaze draped over my back hanging on the tree. :) Oh, and yes, they do hunt on the trail (see photo).
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BlackCloud
08-31-2017, 12:17
Rounding the corner @ 0600 just north of Dick's Dome Shelter in VA in October I came face to face with a couple of bow hunters who heard me coming and got ready. He was at the low ready thankfully.

I thought hunting directly on the AT was a no-no, as was dragging out one's kill. I didn't say anything of course.

Sarcasm the elf
08-31-2017, 12:24
Rounding the corner @ 0600 just north of Dick's Dome Shelter in VA in October I came face to face with a couple of bow hunters who heard me coming and got ready. He was at the low ready thankfully.

I thought hunting directly on the AT was a no-no, as was dragging out one's kill. I didn't say anything of course.

Hunting is legal on about half the A.T. it depends on the land owner and designation. I'm not sure if there would be any laws against standing directly on the trail, if so it would probably be a state law.

Slo-go'en
08-31-2017, 13:14
Hunters generally don't like to go very far from their truck. If they do shoot something, getting it back to the truck can be a real problem if their more then 1/4 mile away. A lot of bear hunting is done by baiting. No sense trying to find a bear when you can get it to come to you.

So, the AT is generally pretty free of hunters. Lesser used trails off of some back woods dirt road would be more worry some, especially if you see a pickup with an empty gun rack in the rear window at the trail head. PA is a special case since the AT crosses state game lands.

egilbe
08-31-2017, 13:28
I remember when moose hunting was reopened here in Maine and all the horror stories of hunters trying to get a 1000 pound animal to the tagging stations. Skidder operators make a pretty good living haulung moose carcasses out of the woods during that one week in Sept.

perdidochas
08-31-2017, 14:29
Hunters are always encouraged to carry binoculars for this reason. Aiming a rifle or shotgun to use as a spotting scope is highly dangerous. Not saying all do. But we preach that here in New England. Furthermore, if someone aims a weapon at you, even if they're using it as a spotting scope, should be treated as a lethal threat towards you.

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Exactly. I thought the same. Nobody (except in wartime) should be using a rifle scope as a spotting scope. A rifle should only be pointed at something that you are willing to shoot. That, and binoculars are a lot better at spotting use anyway.

DownEaster
08-31-2017, 17:33
Nobody (except in wartime) should be using a rifle scope as a spotting scope.
Oh, it's perfectly OK for spotting use -- if it's detached from the rifle. Few people trust their mount to maintain zero in such a case though.