Hunting. If deer only see B/W why wear camo?

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A young man(wearing camo) died in upstate NY today, because a moron with a gun mistook him for a deer. He was not wearing a deer suit. I am not anti-guns, or hunting. Just anti-morons in the woods with guns! My father was an avid sportsman, who taught me the right way and the wrong way, he ALWAYS wore bright orange, in the woods during hunting season, even if it was to walk the dog-who wore a saftey vest! If it's true that deer, like dogs, only see in BW, why wear camo and subject yourself to such danger!? (I understand the duck thing.) Help me understand this other, Rambo like mentality.

-- Kathy (catfish@bestweb.net), October 24, 2000

Answers

Sounds like TWO morons. At least one of them is out of the gene pool. One did not know what a deer looked like, or was a sound shooter. The other did not know the physical traits of the deer (sees b&w only).

-- JLS (stalkingbull007@AOL.com), October 24, 2000.

Kathy, actually it isn't true that deer just see in black and white. That has been the belief for a long time but new research shows deer see colors but just differently than we do. They see at another end of the color spectrum. Just read an article recently that stated that the best color to wear for hunting deer believe it or not is bright pink! They did state that they didn't expect to have much luck getting hunters to wear it though :o). The lines in the camo help to break up your outline is why some hunters wear it. A lot of hunters just like the look though. Funny thing is because of the way a deers eye works if you wash your clothes in detergent that contains phosphorants you look like a neon sign walking through the woods to them.....no matter what color you are wearing. When I used to have extra time on my hands I would make what I called deer hunters soap. It was just plain lye soap that I had put fresh green pine needles in the lard for a week before I made it. No phosphorants and you smelled a bit like a tree. Big hit with hunters. Most states require wearing hunters orange and I think it is a good idea. Most people get hurt while hunting because there is someone else hunting the same area and they don't know it. It is very important to wear proper clothing and to make sure your buddies know exactly where you are. You're right it is senseless and stupid.

-- Amanda S (aseley@airmail.net), October 24, 2000.

Thr shooter probably did nt mistake him for a deer bet probably shot at a sound or something else foolish like that and hit the other hunter.

The purpose of camoflague is to break up your outline. A human shaped block of color is not natural and would spook away the prey.

A person should wear blaze orange during gun season. There are blaze orange camoflague patterns that look ridiculous to you and I but break up your outline so that a creature that only sees in b/w cant see you but the other hunters can.

We dont know the whole background on this story but I would like to offer a possibility. Around here, the guy in the woods wearing standard camo during gun season is most likely a poacher. I see that this happened in upstate NY and the reason that that is important is that I would imagine that you have the same problems with the big city folk (here its the Chicagoans) coming out once a year who dont know how to properly use a firearm and shooting up the woods. Add on top of that the fact that for many of these guys its the only time they get away from the wife with there buddies so they drink it up and have a good time. There is also the added pressure in some groups f serious competition. So, if your story would have happened in WI then the story would go...

A drunken Chicagoan who didnt know how to handle firearms shot at a sound in the forest to try to win the $50 bet he had with his freinds on who could get the biggest buck. We will never know if he hit the sound but he did hit the drunken poacher who made it.

Almost all hunters are very responsible and safer to be around than taking a ride into town but when idiot meets moron in the forest then Darwins laws take over.

-- William in WI (thetoebes@webtv.net), October 24, 2000.


Reminds me of a man I saw on the opening day of deer season in Maine way back in the early 70s.....he emerged from his car wearing a FUR jacket which was BROWN, hoisted his deer rifle onto his shoulder and marched off into the woods..often wondered if he made it out alive.

-- Lesley (martchas@gateway.net), October 24, 2000.

We have brightly colored web collars on our goats for just this reason. Drunk guys out in the woods shooting anything that moves. Hopeing perhaps they will have enough time to figure out that most deer don't have on collars! And perhaps the fence you crawled over is to keep my stock in and you out? Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), October 25, 2000.


My husband and I attended a national outdoor recreation and conservation school recently--major fun, like summer camp for adults although there are classes for kids too or participation with parents. I took a deer hunting class and the instructor who works for one of the big hunters' supply companies taught well but I felt more of the class than necessary was spent in advertisement. His big issue after safety and ethics-hallelujah, someone teaching safety and ethics!-was making yourself undetectable to deer--breaking your outline and covering your scent. He mentioned the brighteners in regular detergents plus the business about the orange vests actually being visible to deer. I don't think there is a way in the world hunters would wear hot pink like they do their orange, at least not the guys, until it saves a few lives.

As to the scent part, being female, I was curious about how a woman's cycle affected her efforts to suppress odors. When I was a teenager, I dared not go around a friend's Shetland stallion during that time. The instructor said it was actually attractive to bucks and that some men had their wives save their ......at which point he nodded his head and made a gesture indicating for us to continue with that line of thinking. So much for scent supression. When I hunted last year-- my first time--I wore barn clothes, goat buck and all, under camo with my orange cap and vest, thank you, and I got a 6 point buck within minutes of legal shooting on opening day. Actually, I was prepared to let him walk away until I heard another hunter shoot. I'd forgotten my watch and never thought I'd need it much less get a deer, never mind one that big.

We hunt for meat and to reduce the herd because deer cause more deaths each year than any other large mammal in the states, they carry disease to humans and livestock (not just Lyme) and they are terrible on crops. During the class, I mentioned what county I lived in and that we hunted our farm only. Immediately the instructor emphatically said,"I LOVE YOU!" and a couple of the Missouri men popped up with "ME TOO!" There were some people from out of state who were just dumbfounded until the instructor explained that my county had the second highest deer harvest in the last few years. Those stinkers wanted to come "help" us hunt!

Just be safe even in your own back yard. Remember the farmer who painted the international symbol for stop or no on the side of his Holstein cows and got them shot? Or the lady somewhere in the northeast who was running toward a hunter to tell him he was aiming towards her house? She was wearing a brown coat and white mittens and waving to attract his attention. I'm sure in the midst of a seizure of buck fever, he thought she was a deer but that's no excuse for not knowing your target or for not knowing what's behind that target. Then there was the guy my husband worked with when we were first married. He was transferred from some place in Wisconsin to Arkansas and decided to hunt the first season. When he checked in his "deer," the game officer confiscated his rifle, wallet, keys and arrested him. He paid a huge fine. His deer was a small brown pony. May we all survive the season safely.

-- marilyn (rainbow@ktis.net), October 25, 2000.


Just for your info. Back in the 80s A hunter in MINN. Shot another hunter for a deer. He was wearing hunter orange head to toe and driving a snowmobile.

-- Nick (wildheart@ekyol.com), October 25, 2000.

A few weeks ago, we were trail riding our horses and ran into hunters on mountain bikes. We were not wearing orange because it was not deer season, they were not wearing orange because they were not hunting deer. They were hunting elk. Our meeting happened in a clearly mapped "NO HUNTING" zone, and I always thought our resident elk herd was protected.

Last week deer season opened. On the first day, a local man was shot in the brush by a "tourist" hunter not far from here. He is sitting in jail for manslaughter and negligence and every charge they can use.

Since our first encounter with the elk hunters we all wear orange and bear bells, stay out in the open and stay near paved roads. Apparently, being in a place set aside by the state for no hunting is no guarantee of safety.

-- Laura (gsend@hotmail.com), October 28, 2000.


I live in Oregon and poaching or shooting animals just for the fun of it is a big problem. We raise horses plus a few goats and sheep, but make sure all are off summer pasture and back on our place long before hunting season starts. Makes no difference if you dress your animals head to toe in neon orange, as often it is not a case of mistaken identitiy. The guy who owns the pastures where we summer our horses had his horse gut shot and killed. This was a 16.2 hand (translates as BIG, to non-horse people) Quarter Horse gelding who was a bright chestnut (red) color. NOT an animal likely to be mistaken for deer. Other rancher friends up the valley from us regularly have their cattle killed, by both gun and bow hunters. Frequently for "camp meat". I myself had my saddle horse shot at while I was only a few feet from him - we were both in a corral at the time and it wasn't even hunting season. A number of folks around here have had horses shot in the head or gut shot. One fellow shot a pregnant mare 18 times - she was still alive when her owner found her the next morning. We live in a rural area, but have lots of folks from the cities come over here to hunt. Altho I can't say it's all city people who are the problem either. We used to hunt, but no more. I'm afraid to be out in the woods with these idiots. I am not for gun control whatsoever but I am for controlling these drunken fools who deliberately or out of ignorance are shooting people and livestock. On a humorous note (but not really funny) my mother-in-law told me about one time when they were coming back from hunting and stopped for breakfast. A guy pulled up in a truck and came in and was wanting everyone to come out and see the mule deer he'd shot. My in-laws traipsed out with several other diners, and there in the back of the guy's pickup was a grey mule, complete with horseshoes still on! The guy told them it was his first hunt - no big surprise.

-- Lenette (kigervixen@webtv.net), October 31, 2000.

JLS, Sounds like YOU are the moron. Don't contribute derogatory remarks about someone that lost their life! This person may have within the limits of the law. He might have had cammo AND orange on or might have dropped his orange hat somewhere. Don't badtalk him unless you know all the facts.....or even if you do! His family might be patrons of this forum. Think about if it was your brother/son.

Kathy, Depending on which study you listen to, Deer see "blaze" orange too. Some believe they see other colors better than others as well. The main reason for cammo is to break up the solid pattern. If you subscribe to the black/white theory, then you could do just as well wearing a cammo pattern in brighter colors(but not black and white of course). As for me, I'll continue to wear a green, brown and grey (and orange when the law requires it) cammo because I believe it conceals you better, not because of a "Rambo-like" mentality.

-- smfine (smfine@yahoo.com), July 30, 2001.



Oy vey! Anyway...I live in an area which is heavily hunted in Fall. My hubby doesn't hunt, but most of our neighbors do. I feel perfectly safe as these hunters view a weapon as a tool, not a toy. The hunters that worry me are the city folk who don't know the lay of the land. That's one reason I wear a bright red jacket when I am outside during hunting season. I remember a story my ex-husband told of once sitting in his deer stand. He had the feeling that he was being watched, so he got out his binoculars. He looked around and found a "hunter" watching him through the sights on his gun! Can you imagine the creepy feeling!

-- Ardie from WI (ardie54965@hotmail.com), July 30, 2001.

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