Bow Hunters

[Longblades]

Tis the season and if it is where you live and walk your dog I think I will post this alert, based on a conversation today. It seems some people think bow hunters are using the old fashioned bow and arrow you may have played with as a kid or tried out in gym class or summer camp.

Some folks may indeed be hunting with these. A relative is a champion competitive archer and devoted hunter and he does. But more likely the bow hunter is using a compound bow or a crossbow. These latter are much more deadly, have a greater range and the hunter does not have to be nearly as close to you as he would with the old type. This greater distance might come into play if you and your dog, or the deer, were walking across the edge of a bean field or a harvested corn field. Both places where deer and hunter might be.

Today someone pooh poohed the likliehood of being shot by a bow hunter.
Bow hunting is legal on Sunday where I am. Anybody is free to assess risk themselves and act as they deem fit but acting on eroneous information is foolish. If you knew this, great. If not please take heed. Wear a reflective vest and or hat. I wear a hat as well since I'm quite grey and I look like the backside of a deer. If you don't want to take these simple, easy precautions for your own safety please, at least, don't make a target of yourself by wearing a white hat. I put a bell on my dog and some put vests on them too.

[hazelrunpack]

Thanks for the reminder, Longblades.

We wear blaze orange and put blaze orange vests on the dogs if we're in the woods when any season is open. It just makes sense to be safe. And during the gun deer season we stay out of the woods entirely--there's a huge influx of hunters to the public land around here and it's just not wise to be out there with dogs.

[Etown_Chick]

Good point. Those things are not silent as well as deadly.
I walk in city parks, mostly, but sometimes go on Crown land.
Thanks for the reminder.
It's also duck season here, and there's nothing like shot falling out of the sky and landing on your head...sigh.

[Longblades]

Originally Posted by Etown_Chick

Good point. Those things are not silent as well as deadly.
I walk in city parks, mostly, but sometimes go on Crown land.
Thanks for the reminder.
It's also duck season here, and there's nothing like shot falling out of the sky and landing on your head...sigh.

This also a very good point, thanks. You might be surprized to learn, In ONtario anyway, that it is legal to shoot across a trail. I learned this when a load of shot went across the trail, mostly down on the trail, just ahead of me one day. It's the craziest rule ever. They can't shoot ON the trail and they can't shoot FROM the trail but they can shoot across the trail.

In my case it was the Trans Canada Trail. Big enough to drive a truck down, which is done for trail maintenance. And therein lies a key; if the roadway, trail is open to everyday vehicular traffic they can't shoot across it. Snowmobiles, dirt bikes, ATVS don't count as vehicular traffic. Let alone people on bicycles or horses or walking their dog.

And, everyplace I used the word "can't" please substitute "aren't supposed to."

In our experience the man who owned the land on one side of the trail shot across to different ownership on the other side. He did NOT have permission to hunt on the other side, he simply did not realize how far his shot was travelling. He is my neighour. Due to heavy scrub bush on his land I never even saw him that day.

[Etown_Chick]

Longblades that's terrifying! That's why I stopped deer hunting - I didn't want to die.
Too many nuts and people who don't know how far their shot/arrows go out there. To me, there's no excuse. If you don't know what you're doing, don't do it! Safeway sells BBQ chickens, no one's going to starve.
I was out duck hunting from a hay bale blind. We watched another group come onto the property and set up just across teh slough from us. I don't think they had any idea we were there. I stood up so they could see us, but they shot directly towards us anyway. Shot was, literally, falling on our heads. Needless to say, we left.

[erykah1310]

Some of the hunter warning posts I have been seeing lately both on forums and facebook really have me thinking "What is going on with hunters" We're hunters and it is NOTHING like is described. Perhaps because we hunt on private property? I don't know.
Either way, as a hunter I cant wrap my head around these hunters that have been described as of lately

As for cross bow... I totally MUST try one of those one day

[Barkingdog]

Originally Posted by Longblades

Tis the season and if it is where you live and walk your dog I think I will post this alert, based on a conversation today. It seems some people think bow hunters are using the old fashioned bow and arrow you may have played with as a kid or tried out in gym class or summer camp.

Some folks may indeed be hunting with these. A relative is a champion competitive archer and devoted hunter and he does. But more likely the bow hunter is using a compound bow or a crossbow. These latter are much more deadly, have a greater range and the hunter does not have to be nearly as close to you as he would with the old type. This greater distance might come into play if you and your dog, or the deer, were walking across the edge of a bean field or a harvested corn field. Both places where deer and hunter might be.

Today someone pooh poohed the likliehood of being shot by a bow hunter.
Bow hunting is legal on Sunday where I am. Anybody is free to assess risk themselves and act as they deem fit but acting on eroneous information is foolish. If you knew this, great. If not please take heed. Wear a reflective vest and or hat. I wear a hat as well since I'm quite grey and I look like the backside of a deer. If you don't want to take these simple, easy precautions for your own safety please, at least, don't make a target of yourself by wearing a white hat. I put a bell on my dog and some put vests on them too.

A woman was in her back yard and had on white gloves and a hunter shot and killed the woman. I think this happen in Maine. I hunter was found not to be guilty! I wear a white hat when I walk in the woods . I better buy a new hat.

[hazelrunpack]

Any time a hunting season is open we bring out the blaze orange wardrobe...