It’s that time of year again……hunting season

When I'm hiking during deer season in hunting areas I just wear a blaze orange baseball cap or beanie and pin a blaze orange bandana to my backpack. I wouldn't worry about making a pack cover.

Buy some reflective orange tape from a safety store like Sanderson's Safety Supply in Portland. For example http://www.sandersonsafety.com/store/product.cfm?pID=755140444C127A

You must have a similar store closer.

Ahh, great idea about the bandana. I was thinking of pinning something on easily, and well, that would be easy! And it would serve multipurpose!!!! Now to find one of those around.

Thanks!

I have a hard time finding hats that fit my head and I find comfy, so I tend to stick to my aqua running hat and not a blaze orange one.

Ripstop by the Roll has 1.1oz blaze silnylon in stock if you're still interested in making a pack cover.

http://ripstopbytheroll.com/products/1-1-oz-silnylon-blaze-orange

That ripstop is a great deal. Maybe I will get some to make a vest for my dog…..maybe some camo fleece underneath it….thinking reversible……..

$17.95 nylon running cap:

http://www.sierratradingpost.com/outdoor-research-revel-cap-for-men-and-women~p~6631m/?filterString=s~hat%2Fcolorfamily~orange%2F&colorFamily=01

$11.95 beanie hat:

http://www.sierratradingpost.com/jacob-ash-hot-shot-blue-collar-beanie-hat-windstopper-for-men-and-women~p~7972h/?filterString=s~hat%2Fcolorfamily~orange%2F&colorFamily=02

Home Depot, etc, have mesh vests and t-shirts in blaze orange. Alas, the t-shirts are cotton. I have seen some dogs wear human t-shirts and do okay.

Or snag an orange or bright yellow trash bag from along the highway (move the trash into another trash bag). Then it multi-purposes as a pack cover, poncho in a pinch, below-the-waist bivy, and even as a trash bag.

Many bicycling jackets and hats scream "I am here! Don't hit me!" in a way that also says, "I am not a deer!" And they are made from wicking materials and sometimes pretty lightweight.

I used a hi-vis safety vest from Grainger.com .
My backpack "wore" it while hiking and I wore it the rest of the time. The vest looked pretty ratty but had a good deal of color left in it after 980 miles of dusty roadside and rails-to-trails walking. 8 ounces on my scale.

I draped/wrapped a light weight orange vest around my pack & wore one as well. But, I like the orange bandana idea for the multipurpose function.

Thanks,

Tony

> blaze orange baseball cap or beanie

Yeah, that should be a good enough target to aim at.

Cheers

I just wanted to make the standard reminder in these types of threads to make sure you get real blaze orange. Regular orange and reds tend to look brown in shadows (not how you want to look), and a nice bright patch of white looks an awful lot like the white tail of a deer bouncing through the forest (definitely not what you want!).

So… get the real stuff and accept no substitutes!

Maybe I'm speaking out of ignorance here, but are hunters really that careless? I've never hunted before, but I presume I wouldn't pull the trigger unless I'm pretty damn sure the thing I'm shooting at is not a human. Do hunters really just shoot at whatever is brownish and moves?

I don't believe they're that careless. Of course there are accidents and freakish cases, but I don't personally worry about it.

That said, I think it's foolish to hike in hunting areas during season, especially off trail, without wearing blaze orange. Safer for everyone to have a chance of knowing who's where. It's not that hunters aim at anything that moves, it's so that it's obvious in the event you accidentally end up in someone's sight picture or down range of something they are shooting at.

I got one of those cheap blaze orange mesh vests and cut it into 3 pieces: 2 front (already joined by a velcro strap) and 1 back. I then hemmed the cut edges (not necessary really). I put plastic mitten hooks on the two upper corners of the back piece and one on each upper outside corner of the front pieces. (Actually I think I ended up just using safety pins on the front top.) The front pieces attach to the upper shoulder straps, and the back piece attaches to existing grosgrain loops on the back. They just hang and get snagged easily, but work well for visibility.

<– not needed when wearing my rain gear! :D

It helps to know what game is being sought as I actively avoid high- powered rifle seasons for deer, elk but landed in the middle of an earlier-than-expected squirrel/grouse season on the Pecos (guess .22 pellet/shotgun, respectively) while hiking this past holiday. The hunters wore a bit of blaze orange on shoulders and hats, and had I known, maybe I would have worn an orange boonie. Have some other layers in Denver Bronco blaze orange with a navy blue stripe from pata – always a plus around here.

FYI: " squirrel: chicken of the tree" as the old tuna ad goes …squirrel recipes at http://rule-303.blogspot.com/2010/06/squirrel-meat-chicken-of-tree.html?m=1

Tastes like a dark chicken apparently, so maybe into flautas?

>"Maybe I'm speaking out of ignorance here, but are hunters really that careless?'

I was driving through Colorado one Fall and heard a radio report that 7 people had been shot on Opening Day. In a state that required hunters to wear blaze orange! And that stuck with me ever after that, Wow!, How can hunters be THAT trigger happy?!? Years later, I mentioned that to a bunch of guys in Alaska, and was told, "Yeah, a lot of scores get settled on Opening Day." and then it clicked for me – right, your buddy? The one who's been diddling your wife? You know where his hunting stand is. And that he'll be there on Opening Day before first light. And if you get caught, you can attribute it "Buck Fever" and probably only get a 12-month sentence with 11 months suspended.

I'd be more concerned if someone was spotlighting – shining a bright light over the hillside to see any eyes reflecting back. I wouldn't look towards that light because I'd have trouble distinguishing deer-eye reflections from human-eye reflections in the dark. But I'm not terribly concerned while hiking on a trail during hunting season.

>>"Maybe I'm speaking out of ignorance here, but are hunters really that careless?'

>"Yeah, a lot of scores get settled on Opening Day."

I grew up in an area (UP of Michigan) that takes opening day pretty seriously. They let school out for opening day (If they held school nobody would show up), and I have seen people do some pretty dumb stuff in the grips of buck fever. Shooting fawns thinking it was the big buck, many people have had rifles pointed at them, a kid in my school blew his foot off – walking through the woods with the safety off. Opening morning it sounds like a war zone out there (and we were hunting on a square mile of private land so the next closest guy was over a half mile away). Based on those experiences, I take a preponderance of caution.

Having said that, in all those years the only person I remember getting killed on opening morning is exactly what Dave suggested. One guy diddling another guys wife and deciding to settle it opening morning.

I always thought my blue shirt and oddly-colored pack would make it obvious I'm not a deer. Do hunters aim at animals in the vicinity of a known trail? I figured the majority of hunters never ventured far from their car or ATV, and if they do get out and hike, then they would be experienced and cautious enough to avoid shooting a hiker.

I guess hunting season could be one reason to go with a bright orange pack in XPac or cuben

Not all the hunters are experienced or cautious. A blue jacket didn't protect this hiker…

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=37837021

Maybe it's something about bear hunters:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/24/sheriff-hiker-mistakenly-shot-by-hunter_n_1029105.html

Two very sad cases, neither of which appear to be intentional.

For spike or snoopy.

http://www.backcountry.com/buff-dog-buff?CMP_SKU=BUF000F&MER=0406&skid=BUF000F-BLAOR-ML&CMP_ID=PLA_GOc001&mv_pc=r101&mr:trackingCode=D8473DFC-9789-E311-9C6B-BC305BF82376&mr:referralID=NA&mr:device=c&mr:adType=pla&mr:ad=47794360501&mr:keyword=&mr:match=&mr:filter=76846957501&mkwid=soJUlDEBt_dc|pcrid|47794360501&gclid=CMzxnsajyMACFQ-DfgodmY4AVg

Thinking about visible colors, it seems bright or hot pink accents would stand out the most in the woods. Or does blaze orange still win?

Edit: the blaze orange dog buff is kind of neat. But I might go with this bright pink collar and similar leash: http://www.amazon.com/Rogz-Utility-4-Inch-Reflective-Fanbelt/dp/B002DX6QV4/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1409864149&sr=8-3&keywords=reflective+orange+dog+leash

Here in PA, brown/red/pink/blue are to be avoided during turkey season since that's what a gobbler is 'wearing'. Same goes for brown and white during deer season.

I've never come across a bear hunter, but I also never hike in all black :)