Blaze Orange- A good thing?

I make my own orange camo gear. Last year, I sat under a tree and watched a sleeping deer for awhile. When he got up, he browsed a little and wandered off. He looked at me a couple of times but didn't see me. In addition to the blaze vest, I had a blaze hat, blaze chaps and sun glasses. (If they see your eyes, they are gone.)

Pops
 
Cammo & Blaze orange?

It's weird when you think about it ie. a person buys a cammo-stocked rifle and cammo pants and jacket and cammo boots - and then steps into a blaze orange jumpsuit to go hunting! It's sorta like a pretty woman with really ugly teeth or a big plate of hot buttered pancakes smothered in Diet Maple Syrup. It's sorta contradictory? Oh well, I guess I'll keep wearin my blaze orange vest over my cammo...and try to figure this out at some future date. :confused: It could be worse ie. by law guns might be required to have blaze orange synthetic stocks...
 
Not so weird.

It's weird when you think about it ie. a person buys a camo-stocked rifle and camo pants and jacket and camo boots - and then steps into a blaze orange jumpsuit to go hunting!
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Let me try to help you figure it out. I use my "camo" hunting clothing for turkey hunting and that same "camo" clothing for deer hunting but with a "blaze orange" vest and hat. Sort of a dual purpose thing, can you dig it?
 
I have always been big on camo; not that I would testify it has a lot to do with filling my game bag:o . Blaze orange is not required here in Arizona. Here it is relatively wide-open. Even in the trees (it's not all desert, gang) the underbrush is absolutely nothing compared to back East. Bottomline, I 've never felt I was taking a big risk wearing camo.

On the other hand, I do lot of hunting on the border. I do not want to take this topic of track, but the border is, shall we say, interesting? If I'm walking about in the desert, pulling up on a ridge to glass, or whatever, I'm pretty obvious to other hunters. But sometimes, I reserve the right to hunker down behind a bush and remain deliberately unseen to those who are not hunting, since it might be more conducive to my health not to be seen (Coyotes, drug smugglers, banditos, whatever).

But in the last year I've gotten a bird dog, and have been training up for bird hunting. While I haven't actually gone bird hunting yet, the training and AKC hunt tests have given me a different perspective on blaze orange. For bird hunting, in which the quarry is lying still and trying to avoid you, regardless of whether he knows you are there or not, orange makes sense. Unlike deer hunting, all your buddies are within 30 feet or so, there's dogs running around and jumping into view, and you are actively swinging a gun across your field of view tracking something at close range. I think that flash of orange that enters your peripheral vision at the last moment as you swing that shotgun could mean the difference between pulling a Dick Cheney or not. So in the last year, I have added a modest amount of blaze orange to my hunting wardrobe.

Hope that all makes sense.
 
It was always required in Montana when I was growing up. All they said was 400 square min. inches visible. HOW you wore it was up to you. So to split the middle the last few years I was there I tied marker ribbon into my tree-tucks---best of both worlds. Broken profile and a whole mess of blaze orange visible from all angles. Fish and Game didn't seem to mind, though I haven't done it for a few years since living in Utah. Might want to check before trying that one. Over-all, I'd say blaze is a good idea where bullets and the possibility of "sound hunters" are concerned. I've only been shot at once because I was blatently visible (that's another story entirely), but I've had a few uncomfortable close-encounters because of people shooting at sound rather than sight. The easier I am to see, the less likely I am to get picked off by an idiot----I HOPE.
 
It seems to come down to minimizing the risk when deciding whether or not to wear blaze orange. Deer and moose both have a far more keen eyesight than man, especially during the low light hours of dusk, when our eyesight is at it's worst. When weighing the two factors, I'd rather run the risk of being ocasionally spotted by the game than being shot by some eager/inexperienced hunter.

Does anyone have experience of the sucess rate of hunting deer while wearing a marine snipers outfit vs. a camo pattern blaze orange vest and hat?

A theory: Deer view the world differently than us. With their much larger eyes Deer can pick up on ultraviolet rays a 100 more times acurate than the human eye. Something that can be found in many of the pigments in dyes used on clothing. Wouldn't it be something if we lay there in our full camo outfit, and we look like a white shirt under a disco light to the deer? :p

I do believe, however, that a broken pattern would work better than a solid color since it breaks up our outline against the background. My choice will be blaze orange camo pattern with UV blocker this season. And then as I gain more experience with hunting, stalking, learning the hunting area and the habits of the game I believe my success rate will increase. My biggest fear is human error/inexperience.

Magnus
 
I greatly suspect the most sucessfull hunters on North America probably wear neither camo nor blaze orange. They probably go out in a plaid MacIntosh and blue jeans, bag their annual buck, and wonder what all the fuss about what everbody else is wearing is all about.

By the way, that description is not me.
 
No, it is not...

Imagine you are a deer...
You are effectively color blind...
You can see some color but to a very small degree...

Your eyes are best suited to night vision...

A blaize orange vest is "SHAPED" like nothing else in the woods...
To you it looks mostly light-grey and, in direct sunlight, it looks almost white...
AND it MOVES!!!

Since your eyes are mostly "keyed" to shapes and movement...

Camo would hide both, and blaize orange would get your attention... even if it is very still and motionless... it is out of place in the woods. ;)

Isn't it ironic that in many states... blaize orange WITH black camo marks is outlawed?? :mad:

And in many states the minimum number of square inches of orange required... (Usually more than 400 square inches) is too great to allow black camo marks without falling short of the minimum legal amount of orange?? :rolleyes:

All advantage to the "antis" who run the various bureaus that sponsor and push through such "law".
 
Magnus

I assume you're referring to a guille suit? Yup, I took a young buck (young=stupid) so close in mine that he had powder burns from the muzzle blast of my .32 winchester. Granted I never PLANNED he'd walk up and start grazing next to me, and I really wasn't trying to sneak that close, I doubt it would have happened if I'd been sitting there in a standard patterned orange.
 
Color Does Not Matter

Granted I never PLANNED he'd walk up and start grazing next to me, and I really wasn't trying to sneak that close, I doubt it would have happened if I'd been sitting there in a standard patterned orange.
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I was wearing an bright RED Jacket (no blaze orange back in those days) when the first deer I ever shot came up from behind me so close I had to step aside as he brushed me as he ran by! This is the absolute truth. He was so close I that I almost hit him with the barrel of my shotgun as I aimed to shoot him. He was a perfect 8 point buck and I shot him as he ran away from me at a distance of four feet. I hit him behind the right ear and he flipped head over heals. After he died I could not find the entrance wound until I looked closer and saw it behind his ear. I made such a quick shot at such short distance at this deer running directly away from me I almost shot over his head, in fact I almost shot off one of his perfect antlers. My hunting buddies joked that I shot the deer in self defense.

But my point is, he never saw me in my bright RED jacket and he ran right up to me in fact brushing along side me as he ran by! He made so much noise coming through the brush I thought it was another hunter coming and I just happened to turn my head as he came upon me other wise I may not have seen him at that last split second and not been able to react and lean aside as he passed by.

I don't think that color makes one bit of difference to a deer. It helps if you can break up your silhouette, limit your movement and eliminate you scent.
 
riverra66

That's GREAT! I wish I could have been there, I can see it easy enough. I think we make the point color isn't a real factor so much--it's the scent, movement, and silhouette that really set them off. Great story!
 
Pointer, you make a good point, but that's why they make (and I use) blaze-camo (orange with black markings). Deer cannot see blaze-camo any more than they can any other design/color, and it's more effective that a solid color jacket or pants that are not orange - it's about the outline/shape, not the color. 9 times out of 10 I doubt deer see even a full large blaze orange jacket with no markings, but the sharp/wary ones occasionally will, so it could possibly help to have blaze-camo.
 
I went to a hunting safety seminar a few days ago and apparently light blue is a very easy colour to see as well. I am in half a mind to wear my old UN beret into the bush, but that would look silly....
 
Double Naught Spy,

That's not entirely true, at least not in New York State. This is a quote from post #22 in this thread.

Quote:
Wearing Hunter Orange Saves Lives! From 1994 through 2003 four out of five deer hunters wore hunter orange. Not even one who wore hunter orange was mistaken for game and killed. But fifteen hunters who did not wear orange were killed when mistaken for game.

You can read it for yourself right here: http://www.dec.state.ny.us/website/d...iflyer2002.pdf

Nationwide more people are killed by deer-car collisions then by hunting related shooting incidents.
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Given that my original post was

Blaze orange is a good idea, but still 40-50% of folks shot (injured or killed) in the mid 1990s were wearing the proper blaze orange gear.
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I believe it was true. 2002 in New York state is not the mid 1990s anywhere.

See http://www.dfg.ca.gov/ihea/hea1995.html (which is still valid unlike the site for ...dec.state.ny...) where 362 (51%) cases blaze orange WAS NOT worn by the victim and 339 where blaze orange WAS worn.

Note that in 1998, things were better 44% not worn...
SECTION 7 Blaze Orange Worn by Victim 242
Blaze Orange Not Worn by Victim 298
 
Double Naught,

That's very interesting information you're provided but I must say even here in New York we considered 1994, 95 & 96 part of the mid 1990's but I guess I stand corrected although I did say "at least not in New York State" about my facts not to include Mexico and Canada.

Besides those facts were complied by the Department of Fish & Game in the State of California ??? :eek: The biggest anti-gun, anti-hunter state in the entire country. :barf: I wouldn't believe anything they have to say. Someone in Hollywood might have written those facts! :rolleyes:

I didn't mean to ruffle your feathers.
 
Isn't it ironic that in many states... blaize orange WITH black camo marks is outlawed??

And in many states the minimum number of square inches of orange required... (Usually more than 400 square inches) is too great to allow black camo marks without falling short of the minimum legal amount of orange??
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In other words the law precludes the use of camo-blaize by setting minimums of 400 square inches of orange...

Does that clarify it better? :confused:

Wearing Hunter Orange Saves Lives!
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Of course it does...
But I think it saves more deer and elk lives than it does hunter's lives. ;)
 
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