There was a great article in one of the hunting magazines a long time ago about crow hunting. The crows were considered to be able to count the number of hunters and recognize different clothing. And they would have a sentry or two posted while the others fed.
About 6 hunters participated and 4 went into the blind, switched clothing around and 3 came out. 2 others then went to the blind, clothing is switched, some of them come out, etc. This goes on for quite awhile until, “…leaving a single hunter in the blind.”
I’m more a fan of not being shot than I am of venison, so I’m good with maybe queering the woods with my blaze jacket & cap. I still bag my share. I just get where I want to be, lay still under cover, and do my slaying when something gets in range. I’m careful about what’s behind my target, but I’m confident everyone else out there is wearing blaze as well so if I don’t see you it’s because you ain’t there. Now, if blaze ISN’T the rule in your neck of the woods, I guess you just need to be confident in the “local” culture promoting extra vigilance, and not letting lazy blazers like myself show up and make assumptions about who is and isn’t out there with me. One person’s nanny state is another person’s protection from incautious hunters. The woods tend to be thick with hunters tho, and not all hunters have the wit to be safe about things.
In the areas we hunt deer (central MN), everyone wears blaze orange, often head-to-ankles. We sure do. And I’ve never heard of someone losing a corner off their “man card” for it. It’s the opposite - anyone stupid enough to not be visible to other hunters is commonly viewed as, well, stupid.
So it’s different depending on where you are.
Oh yeah, and we fill out all of our tags every year, usually opening weekend, so deer’s ability to detect people/movement isn’t always great. The populations probably differ from place to place.
Once read a study on color vision in deer, but now the link leads to a 404 error. I had the following note:
It appears that orange should be somewhat visible to deer, “but they are red-green color blind.” The problem with hunters wearing pink would be other hunters who are red/green color blind. That, plus they would feel silly.
Hello, I hunt and have studied human and animal vision.
You wear at minimum what the law requires. In most western states there are zero requirements, to the east where population densities are much, much higher there is often a minimum requirement (X square inches above the waist, etc.). I don’t wear anything special but probably should, but then I don’t see other people in the wilderness, 48 million acres plus tends to limit human contact.
All non-primate mammals are colorblind to some degree. This does not mean black and white but like what the most typical human colorblind see (b or c in this image vs. original image a). However, even so they don’t rely on their vision as much as hearing and scent, and react mostly to movement.
Most birds (besides nocturnal ones like owls) have color vision that is equal to or better than humans. Especially turkey hunting, heavy camouflage is recommended. For most other huntable birds (quail, pheasant, etc.) you aren’t really trying to avoid being spotted, you want to spook them up when you get close. People often wear tans or khaki type colors.
If you wear orange (or pink if legal) it is best to break up the pattern, big rectangles stand out.
Mammals have a good sense of smell, birds mostly have a terrible sense of smell.
As far as hunting, scent control is hugeon the east of the Mississippi whitetail treestand scene. Many western mule deer hunters don’t even think about buying scent control products, though there is generally a concept of approaching animals from downwind.
In other words, yes scent makes a difference, but that doesn’t mean you necessarily need to spend money on products.
You oughta try living on that back road. It’s a shooting gallery during modern gun deer season. I live on 90 acres and I wear orange when I walk my dogs. Supposed to be posted no hunting but there are always those that do it anyway.
I just can’t not picture you as 6’3" 95 pounds, freckles, pony tail, wide-brimmed straw hat, buttonless button down shirt strategically knotted shut, barefoot, cane fishing pole, one pocket of unhemmed denim capris full of nightcrawlers, the other stuffed with Daddy’s ancient large caliber revolver that he once used from horseback to drive off a boar that was threatening the chickens.
I agree with thelurkinghorror’s comments on wild turkeys’ vision. Blog post from Scientific American on the subject. 3.5x magnification and 270 degree field of vision, with color acuity into the UV are the highlights.
I hunted deer out west, both archery and rifle. Archery required full camouflage, including a mesh face mask and gloves. We also did things like store our clothing in ziplocs with baking soda. I’m not sure if it helped more than just keeping track of the wind direction, but it felt like it would help. Don’t move unless they were looking away, and preferably if you had a terrain feature between you and the deer. The way a deer’s eyes are, it’s difficult to tell if they were completely looking away or not. Typical range was preferably under 30 yards. I took a shot at 40, after I thought I was being told it was actually 25, and got to watch my arrow bounce off the ground under the deer. Oops.
Rifle clothing I generally had on a dayglo orange vest, and no special camouflage. My pack was camouflaged, but I think it’d have been fine if it wasn’t. Typical shooting ranges were between 225 and 375 yards, though we definitely tried to get closer if possible. At that range, I wasn’t terribly afraid about being seen, provided I wasn’t doing something like running directly at them. Or if I was upwind of them; that got them to spook most of the time.
New York did a study of hunting accidents from 1989 to 1995. There were 125 accidents where hunters were mistaken for game. Of those 119 were not wearing orange and 6 were. At the same time, 70% of hunters wore blaze orange. The numbers don’t lie. Blaze orange is much, much, much safer. And in deer hunting, i won’t say it makes no difference, but I’ve killed my share in blaze orange and states with orange laws still seem to produce good harvests, so…
My wife has a saying, “There are plenty of ways to die just minding your own business, don’t die doing something stupid.” It’s a saying that it is wise to take to heart.
^^^You can get them little orange jackets for your dogs. My 2 little dogs have them. Mr.Wrekkers beagle pack have orange collars. You could never see the collars in the field, because their heads are always down. Good thing they have white flag tails sticking straight up. A hunter with any sense can tell that white tail is not on a deer. Of course, a good hunter would never shoot at a white tail on anything. No one wants butt shot venison.
I mean, it sounds as though the fatality rates are quite low even for non-orange-wearers, so, that’s good? But the stats appear to definitively bear out the claim that wearing orange is significantly safer.
More states are allowing pink in addition to orange. One Four more
Blaze orange is about the dimmest light color I’ve seen. Sitting in a stand from pitch dark to daylight, one of the first colors I can see is orange. Dark green is one of the last. Think that is where the “Black” Hills may have come from.
From my link above, it’s not true that “Oregon is one of the few states left that does not require adult hunters to wear orange.” Granted, that’s one link and may not be updated, but it fits what I’ve independently seen. AK, AZ, CA, ID, NV, NH, NM*, SC*, TX*, VT don’t require it, mostly western states. Additionally in Canada, AB, BC, NF, NL, NWT, PE, YT don’t have requirements.
Well, I suppose it depends on how you define “few”. A subset of ten out of fifty (or seven if you don’t count the three that do have at least some orange-wear requirements) is definitely a smallish minority, even if you disallow the more absolute-sounding descriptor “few”.
In support of this, I’ll relate a common occurrence in falconry:
You’re holding a hawk on your arm. She’s* looking around, seemingly at random, when suddenly she fixes a stare upward and to the right. You peer carefully at the sky in that direction and eventually spot a raptor at about the limit of your vision. There will always be a bird where she’s looking (though you might need binoculars to see it). Clearly, her peripheral vision is better than your direct vision.
*Among raptors, females are larger than males, and thus preferred for falconry due to their superior ability to take game.
