imported post
+1 on the side of blaze orange and yes there are loonies who should not have the right to be in the field at all.
Some years ago, I went with a fellow I considered a friend and had some respect for his hunting prowess as evidenced by the mounts throughout his home.
He invited me to go squirrel hunting. I was in my mid twenties at the time. We got to the spot and set a spell. The squirrels apparently had heard we were coming and were not in attendance.
Finally one showed up and my friend raised his 410, took a bead on dinner, more of a snack, truth be told. He fired. Missed and the frightened target took off as if on fire. My hunting partner jumped up and gave chase. He ran full out with a loaded 410, safety off, for several yards, leaped over a barbed wire fence, down bank, over a stream filled with rocks, up the opposing bank bounding over several fallen trees, stood and fired again and ultimately, the speedy rodent ran into a small clearing where this mighty hunter finally cornered the escaping rodent in the crook of the lone tree about 12' up.
At this point, he fired again and winged the little fella who dropped 6 inches and then scrambled to the opposite side of the tree where he was hit again but to no avail. The wounded creature; now noticeably slowed down, scurried into a hole in the tree. My friend now unreasonably angry, shot at the hole. No luck.
We waited, the air turned blue for a bit, the squirrel finally showed it's head and then crawled out a bit more, my now somewhat less respected hunting buddy fired one last time and felled the squirrel. It dropped to the ground, however it still clung to life. The fellow now took the butt of his 410 and smashed it down on the poor squirrel's head, ending what can only be described as a courageous struggle for survival by the squirrel.
To have this creatures life end so ignobly was truly an eye opener. Tragic and sad. At that point I vowed that it would be one shot, one kill. If I could not or should not make the attempt, there would be no Hail Mary shots attempted.
Needless to say, I never went into the field with this moron again and our friendship trailed off to nil eventually. This was way beyond stupid.
The icing on that cake is that on the way home, I hit an unfortunate squirrel with the car. It was bigger than the one my ex-hunting partner shot.
The next time I went into the woods was fall the next year and I carried a bow for the first time. I was again with a "friend" who "knew the woods" and was a "big hunter" (his own words). We were camo'd out and in deep woods. He set me up near a deer trail and I sat by a tree and waited bow in hand, arrow nockt, while he went to 'drive the deer'.
About 15 minutes later, I saw the brush moving and heard rustling at about 2 O'clock, some 15 yards away. I drew back my bow, turned and raised it in that direction, waited, waited, finally the brush parted to reveal the complete idiot I had gone bow hunting with. He stuck his head out with a big grin on his face and laughed like he had really pulled one over on me.
OMG. Again an oxygen waster that I departed from as fast as my feet could carry me.
The only luck that day is that I knew to never shoot at what I could not see.
OMG.
I know that in both of those cases, Blaze orange is not required but the tales were told to illustrate dumb and dumber. Those same people are out there during deer season.
So, Blaze orange is good. Still have had a slug or two wiz by even with blaze orange on but better safe than sorry.
