It's Not MY Responsibility, I don't Know Why I Bother - Hunting Season

Long rant.

It's wonder a slew of mushroom pickers aren't shot each year. I've never seen any of them wear high visiblity clothing. Actually, based on some conversations, I think they wear dark clothing on purpose because they think they are trespassing. Can't count how many have asked if they are on my property.

Met a lady and man today, dark clothes, bent over picking. I said good morning and pointing to my bright pink reflective hat and my safety vest suggested they should have the same on. So the lady took her dark brown hat off. Her English was poor, I don't know what she thought. At least her hair was red.

Then met my neighbour's daughter with their Great Dane. The dogs are friends but I've never met her before. We chatted while the dogs played. She had NO reflective clothing on. She didn't know it was hunting season. She never heard of the lady who was shot and killed about 5 years ago, or the gun turkey hunter who shot his bow turkey hunter friend in the face in the very same bush we were in the spring following the killed lady. She never heard of Maryann Harshbarger killing her husband in mistake for a bear and that is on all the news right now. She didn't hear the shotgun blasts (and it's only bow on Sunday so there should not have been guns going off) because she was wearing a stupid, cursed *&&^^%%$$$##!!!!! ipod in her ear.

If I went home and later heard that girl had been shot by a hunter I'd be sick if I hadn't spoken to her about it. But it's not my responsibility. Advice is worth what you pay for it and I know my comments are often not well received. My dog walking friend will not go to air shows because she's heard of planes falling out of the sky onto spectators. Yet she will not wear any high visiblity clothing when we go into the bush with the dogs. Where's the logic in that? She laughs at me because I do and I put a bell on the dog.

How would you feel if I met you and spoke to you about wearing high visiblity clothing in hunting season? Which lasts all year by the way, but is probably most dangerous in turkey and deer seasons and the week before each opens.

I would appreciate it. Many city people are not aware of how much hunting goes on in Canada. All you can do is advice, it is up to the people to heed it or not, that's all you can do :grouphug:.

How would you feel if I met you and spoke to you about wearing high visiblity clothing in hunting season? Which lasts all year by the way, but is probably most dangerous in turkey and deer seasons and the week before each opens.

Extremely grateful. Although hunting is prohibited in our area, I occasionally hear gunshots. Because it's not so often, I don't really think about it much unless it sounds like it's in the woods behind our house.

My younger son likes to walk through the woods to the fields beyond. We always ensure he takes a dog with him and either a cell phone or two-way radio. I never thought to make sure he wears high visibility clothing :o. He will from now on, thank you.

I'd be grateful. I'm a city girl, and thus out of touch with when hunting season starts, I'd appreciate a warning.
I have a delivery job, and I have similar feelings about the people I see out at night walking or jogging (on the road! when sidewalks are available!) in dark clothing. They are the next best thing to invisible, and if you turn a blind corner, you can't see them. Bikers without lights or reflectors are almost as bad.

I would appreciate it. Many city people are not aware of how much hunting goes on in Canada. All you can do is advice, it is up to the people to heed it or not, that's all you can do :grouphug:.

Exactly right, i'd be grateful:thumbs up

But after you give the advice, move on like Love4himies suggests...no need to carry stress if people are too pigheaded to listen.

Everybody hunts where we live now in SK, there's a hunting camp just outside our little town. I have a bright orange hoodie that I wear at this time of year, and pretty much stay close to town with Bayley. I don't know if there are as many accidental shootings here, there is some cover but not as thick as in Eastern Ontario.

Although hunting is prohibited in our areaHunting is prohibited some places here too. Like the provincial parks near me where I never fail to find shotgun shell casings. Friends with a house in a subdivision bordering a park I hike and ski in have a collection of arrows that landed in their yard from bow hunters.

Last spring I met a neighbour boy with his bow a week ahead of turkey opening. He said he'd been out for two weeks already. :eek: Plus, the year before I met him on private property trails he graciously gave me permission to walk on. !!!! He does not own that property, which I already had permission to use.

I've reported turkey hunting out of season on property my other neighbours own (which I have permission to use). They do not hunt and do not allow others to hunt yet I heard calling and shots. Across the Trans Canada Trail yet, which IS LEGAL in Ontario, but only if you own or have permission in writing to hunt both sides. It's legal to shoot across a trail. Not a road that receives vehicular traffic, but a trail? Yeah you can shoot across it.

I'm afraid it does stress me. It's my friends and neighbours and I care about them. Sorry, guess I'm still ranting. Take care, all of you.

You did the right thing !!

My walking partner called me one day and told me to check my front porch for a birthday present. She had given me a reflective vest for the early morning walks. She said it was so I could have many more birthdays. People made fun of us. By the time we were returning home our friends were out taking their kids to school and it was light out. They would see us and make jokes but you know what...better safe than sorry.

I HATE hunting. I call the police when people park at the end of this street to go into the woods here. Even the police are unclear as to whether the wooded area is big enough for hunting to be legal in there so I continue to call about "suspicious" cars on my street.

My brother had a friend in high school who went out hunting with his brothers and they shot the youngest brother by accident. He survived and was okay but it was a pretty serious gun shot wound and he could have died. Can you imagine having to live with that?

There was an aticle in (Sunday's?) New York Times, there's a new fad in hunting. The hunters go out competeing to see who is best, but they only have blank cartidges in their guns. They stalk the deer, "shoot" them and a digital imaging? system on the gun records the "shot" and the most accurate hunter wins. Nobody gets hurt, not even the deer. IF this catches on, things will be a lot safer in the woods come hunting season.

There was an aticle in (Sunday's?) New York Times, there's a new fad in hunting. The hunters go out competeing to see who is best, but they only have blank cartidges in their guns. They stalk the deer, "shoot" them and a digital imaging? system on the gun records the "shot" and the most accurate hunter wins. Nobody gets hurt, not even the deer. IF this catches on, things will be a lot safer in the woods come hunting season.I haven't read it and I will try to find it. However I disagree with the part I've bolded. The deer are still harassed. Part of the reason wildlife and car collisions are higher in Fall is because of hunters and hikers and bicyclists and everyone who flocks to the beautiful Fall scenery frighten wildlife and push them around; often they stray onto roads. Blanks still make a lot of noise which will disturb animals and people. Sensitive lands are still trampled. I daresay trespassing continues as well. I wonder if such activity is enforceable by wildlife authorities?

My comeback to many we know who hunt is that they can enjoy just about all the same aspects of hunting if they would be photographers instead. Except bring home meat, if filling the freezer is a goal, as I know it is for many.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/sports/17hunting.html

Is this it? Did you read it all? Several of the comments in the article make it appear that this is in no way a substitute for real hunting but rather as a means of practice to improve success at real hunting. If this is the case it means my comments above on harassment etc. will affect wildlife and lands more, not less. I think.

No, I didn't read it all, I started, got interrupted, and couldn't find it again.