Hunting season and hikers

[Deer Hunter]

I doubt many hunting dogs are abandoned. They have to much time and money invested in them. Some hunting dogs are almost like children to them. Of course there are exceptions. Most, not all, hunting dogs will have a "tracking collar" on it. Sometimes people will take the "tracking collar" off just so the hunter cannot find their dog. I found mine in a river one time. If there is no way of tracking them, then it may take a while to find them. Many times they have more than one to find. If the dog follows somebody away from the area, that makes it worse.

[Bear Cables]

Taking the advice of everyone including the ranger at Chattahooche National Forest. I purchased a blaze orange baseball cap, a caution light yellow shirt and an orange pack cover. I WILL be visible. Thanks for all the input. Note to Kanga : I purchased the pack cover you posted a link to. Thanks.

[scope]

Was just sayin' I think the idea of wearing blaze orange is scary. However, the math adds up, and I'll be out hiking with my orange pack cover and the brightest tennis ball yellow shirt you've ever see. I have a whilte hat that I normally wear, but maybe white is not the best color, huh?

Have to agree with Tipi on the hunting dogs. They do get abandoned, at least for a while anyway.

[Blissful]

I doubt many hunting dogs are abandoned. They have to much time and money invested in them. Some hunting dogs are almost like children to them. Of course there are exceptions.

We got our blue tick hound from the shelter - she was abandoned and starving with hookworm. She hates gunshot sounds. Every fall the shelter here is loaded with hounds from hunting season - they do a reduced price on them to try and give them homes.

[Blissful]

Was just sayin' I think the idea of wearing blaze orange is scary. .

Absolutely esp for women as you are a walking target, easy to see and follow. I had one following me in NJ with my blaze orange on. I ripped the thing off, kept walking at a good clip, hid for a time and he passed by.
I hate them. But I also heard a gunshot go off right close to the trail in TN and was glad I was wearing it.
Which is the lessser of 2 evils?

[Snowleopard]

... I had one following me in NJ with my blaze orange on. I ripped the thing off, kept walking at a good clip, hid for a time and he passed by.
I hate them. But I also heard a gunshot go off right close to the trail in TN and was glad I was wearing it.
Which is the lessser of 2 evils?

My parents owned a farm in the northern Catskills, a very heavily hunted area. The silo on their barn was very visible from the mountain across the valley, from about 2000' to 7000' away. The barn had dozens of bullet holes from deer hunters firing at it. Locals would routinely wear blaze orange while hanging laundry or going to their barn.

Wearing blaze orange reduces, but does not eliminate, the chances of an accidental shooting from a hunter relatively close to you. It won't help with the occasional idiot with a gun or with the random bullet that's traveled a couple miles. Still, the odds are strongly in favor of wearing orange except in special circumstances like Blissful's.

I'd stay out of the woods on the first days of deer season.

[MuddyWaters]

Its tempting to just lump people as "hunters" , but most hunters are your neighbors, the people next door.

Just like a few bad people will rob you and kill you, a few of those ignorant bad apples happen to hunt too and do stupid unsafe things. Like shooting at road signs, etc.

Its really just the same people all year round you have to worry about. Not "hunters". Those people just might be hunting in hunting season too.

[swamprat]

Absolutely esp for women as you are a walking target, easy to see and follow. I had one following me in NJ with my blaze orange on. I ripped the thing off, kept walking at a good clip, hid for a time and he passed by.
I hate them. But I also heard a gunshot go off right close to the trail in TN and was glad I was wearing it.
Which is the lessser of 2 evils?

ONE WHAT? please don't go there~~

[Bear Cables]

Absolutely esp for women as you are a walking target, easy to see and follow. I had one following me in NJ with my blaze orange on. I ripped the thing off, kept walking at a good clip, hid for a time and he passed by. I hate them. But I also heard a gunshot go off right close to the trail in TN and was glad I was wearing it.Which is the lessser of 2 evils?

Rather be visible to a hunter. I never hike solo....safety in numbers and all that....also makes us noisier so we will be seen and heard

[HockeyGirl]

Sorry to be stupid about this but coming from a different country - when does your hunting season start and finish?

Thanks

[RGB]

Sorry to be stupid about this but coming from a different country - when does your hunting season start and finish?

Thanks

It's 'merica. There's always some type of hunting season going on. I'm sure there's a list of the different seasons online somewhere.

[4eyedbuzzard]

Sorry to be stupid about this but coming from a different country - when does your hunting season start and finish?

Thanks

"Most" hunting occurs Oct 1 through Dec 31 for all the various deer seasons, which tends to be the most dangerous time for humans in the woods. The dates differs in every state, based mostly on climate, and there are regular firearm, black powder / muzzleloader, archery seasons, special doe seasons, etc. There are as noted though, hunting seasons for other game that run at different times throughout the year. Generally fall is when hikers need to be especially careful.

[SawnieRobertson]

I know people who hunt ON the AT here in VA. It's the hunter's responsibility to identify their target, but there isn't an idiot filter in hunter education classes. If you have the money for a license and a firearm you can legally go hunting, regardless of IQ or decision making skills. Most hunters don't shoot at anything that moves but some do. They're the same people who text while driving.

Great post, Vamelungeon. It appears to be a problem with inexperiened people with guns who are eager for the frontier-life accomplishment of killing a deer. To be able to enjoy life as before, we must blaze orange away. Sadly, it is not "my color," but I wear it anyway. So did my dog. So does my pack.--Kinnickinic

[Colter]

Again, the real world number show the odds of a non-hunter being killed by a hunter are about 1 out of ONE HUNDRED MILLION per year.

Statistically, fellow hikers are FAR more dangerous. Seems to me it's safer hiking during hunting season than "hiking season."

Wear the bright colors. It's easy and will reduce the risk to nearly zero.

[nufsaid]

It's 'merica. There's always some type of hunting season going on. I'm sure there's a list of the different seasons online somewhere.

I find it interesting when people form opinions without any real knowledge.

[4eyedbuzzard]

Again, the real world number show the odds of a non-hunter being killed by a hunter are about 1 out of ONE HUNDRED MILLION per year.

Statistically, fellow hikers are FAR more dangerous. Seems to me it's safer hiking during hunting season than "hiking season."

Wear the bright colors. It's easy and will reduce the risk to nearly zero.

You are likely correct in some sense, as all but three of the 10 or 11 AT related murders occured in the months of April and May - the double murder of Molly Larue / Geoffrey Hood in Sept 1990, and Meredith Emerson in Jan 2008.

[4eyedbuzzard]

But I would add, the killers were not "fellow hikers". Just murdering psychos.

[Colter]

But I would add, the killers were not "fellow hikers". Just murdering psychos.

To the best of my knowledge, no one hiking the A.T. has been killed by a hunter.

A Wisconsin woman was hacked to death by a hiker with a hatchet in Tennessee in April 1975

Larue/Hood were killed by a fellow hiker. Eight days after the bodies were found, National Park rangers in Harper's Ferry, W. Va., arrested a bearded backwoodsman who matched the description of a man spotted by a dozen witnesses near the murder scene. He was wearing Hood's well-worn hiking boots and carrying his distinctive green backpack with purple side panels.

Meredith Emerson was also killed by a fellow hiker.

That's just the cases I can verify in a few minutes. Yup, the murderers were psychos but they were also fellow hikers.

• In reality, the A.T. is a very safe place to be. Millions of people safely hike on the trail.
• Hikers are more dangerous to hikers on the A.T. than hunters.
• Hunters are far more likely to rescue you than hurt you.

[LoneRidgeRunner]

Hunters should KNOW what they're shooting at whether or not you are wearing orange or a buck skin jacket and wearing antlers on your head..lol..BUT the sad fact is that many do NOT. I flipped out once after spending 5 days in Joyce Kilmer / Slickrock wilderness and on the fifth day saw people wearing orange vests and carrying rifles I realized I had been walking around there wearing black pants and carrying a black back pack during black bear and wild boar hunting season. Not a comfortable feeling. Both those critters are black. (usually)

[Tipi Walter]

To the best of my knowledge, no one hiking the A.T. has been killed by a hunter.

A Wisconsin woman was hacked to death by a hiker with a hatchet in Tennessee in April 1975

Larue/Hood were killed by a fellow hiker. Eight days after the bodies were found, National Park rangers in Harper's Ferry, W. Va., arrested a bearded backwoodsman who matched the description of a man spotted by a dozen witnesses near the murder scene. He was wearing Hood's well-worn hiking boots and carrying his distinctive green backpack with purple side panels.

Meredith Emerson was also killed by a fellow hiker.

That's just the cases I can verify in a few minutes. Yup, the murderers were psychos but they were also fellow hikers.

• In reality, the A.T. is a very safe place to be. Millions of people safely hike on the trail.
• Hikers are more dangerous to hikers on the A.T. than hunters.
• Hunters are far more likely to rescue you than hurt you.

This is a strange post. It seems to put the onus away from hunter-related shootings or accidental deaths, and put the infrequent AT deaths as caused by Hikers. But really, when you think about it, nearly all shootings in the US are caused by Hikers, since the shooters are usually on foot and in some manner walking. Except for drive by shootings, I'd say nearly every gun death is done by a person standing on his feet and probably moving in a walking motion. i.e. hikers.