Thread: Blaze or no Blaze

Originally Posted by Rushy

You even look like a pooch's ballbag Pengy.

Well thanks Rushy. I love you too

Originally Posted by Pengy

Well thanks Rushy. I love you too

Anytime dog nutsacks

Fully camo for me, blue blaze hat and around this time of year (about to do this all the time) blue blaze attached to my pack. So you see blue when I got my pack on from behind.


Won't touch blaze orange, nothing in the bush is blue so that's what I choose

Originally Posted by turtle

But what if your sitting with the fairies in a mushroom ring ?Attachment 47739

There is heaps of these things in the Mamakus this time of year. Never seen anything blue in the bush before either .

Did a Google check and the friggen things are on our $50 note.

Yeah, but who do you know that shoots mushrooms?

Originally Posted by GWH

Yeah, but who do you know that shoots mushrooms?

How else do you ensure a quick and humane death?

I'm surprised blue blaze isn't leading ahead of orange blaze given how many comments are made on how ineffective blaze orange is. That study I put up before hits the nail on the head I thought with 63% of fatal incidents involving people wearing blaze orange overseas and hunters being shot wearing it in NZ.

how would you know that the ones that were shot wearing blaze wouldn't have been shot wearing flashing lights? Most public hunting zones in the states are compulsory blaze so the number % of blaze wearers being shot will be higher. I think the faded orange blaze would be the worst thing you could wear. I think an orange and blue camo pastern would be the go.

When I was a firearms safety instructor (22 years) we received from Police each year, the reports on hunter fatalities in NZ. From memory, something like 95% of dead hunters were shot by a member of their own party, and wore green or camo. clothing. Fact. A small percentage of the shooters were "experienced" hunters, that had picked up poor habits early in their hunting careers. Fact. "Deer .243" is correct in stating that the offending shooters are not identifying their target, which is why it is so important to be identifiable. As an accident investigator I spoke to several shooters who had seen a movement, in an area where they thought deer would be found, and pulled the trigger, and shot their mate, sometimes at ranges of no more than 16 meters! Twice in my hunting career, in the days when I wore green clothing, I came across a hunter who had me in their sights and were squeezing the trigger on a movement, when they saw my "white legs" moving through the scrub. Otherwise, they were preparing to shoot solely at an object moving through the scrub. To stay alive these days, I don't hunt in the roar, and hunt on private blocks (where there should be no other hunters , but once encountered a senior member of NZDA poaching on my balloted block). And I wear brightly coloured clothing-deer and other animals are totally colour blind, so what is the point of wearing camo? Deer have very poor eyesight, but their hearing and sense of smell is hundreds of times better than ours. Fact. Wearing bright clothing certainly hasn't affected my tallies.

I wore blue last nite and the son wore orange, I got stung by wasp he didn't, Nothing else was hurt last nite.

Originally Posted by Gapped axe

I wore blue last nite and the son wore orange, I got stung by wasp he didn't, Nothing else was hurt last nite.

Yeah those pricks (get it) love blue aye

Originally Posted by Gapped axe

I wore blue last nite and the son wore orange, I got stung by wasp he didn't, Nothing else was hurt last nite.

"And that is the defence counsel's summary your honour"

I hate to inject myself in this issue but my customer was shot and killed by a Wellington MSC Firearms instructor under Nicole McKee which I taught for in the MSC Firearms course for almost 3 years. In getting my warrant to teach one of the questions slapped me on the face . Question #14 what should you do to avoid being mistaken as a game animal in "DIM LIGHT" conditions of the 4 questions they wanted the students to tick "wear bright color clothing" . Humm its interesting that I took the course that this test was copied off of in Colorado that I took in 1973 and the instructor Shorty Davis clearly stated that there will be a question on the test about seeing color in 'dim light ' conditions, and the correct answer is YOU DO NOT SEE COLORS IN DIM LIGHT CONDITIONS. He went into the physiology of the Rods and Cone nerves in the retina , I was the only gunsmiting student to make a 100% on that test . So why is it I come over to NZ and I miss that question , just because NZ'ers can see colors in Dim light , gee should have known better , Kiwi's have different retina's , yea right, NOT . As an instructor I have a responsibility to see that what is taught is correct. The information booklet that I presented to the head of the Wellington MSC Firearms section had no effect, as it would affect her social standing by raising a flag over the issue so that was when I passed on to Mike Spray head of MSC and Joe Green of the Firearms section of the police . In a 3 way conversation the scientific reports having been read by the all in relation to question 14 was deemed sufficient by both the police and MSC to correct the question in the test and the training if the MSC course , the one provision from the Police was that since they had to pay $5-7k for a new test, that they wait till the NEXT printing to correct the flawed answer, to which we all were in agreement to. Well hate to tell you that was 2006 its 2018 and by my calculations thats 12 years and the test question is still the same, and guess who the Woman was that took over a few months later after Mike Spray stepped down , you only get one guess ... In the interim I had a bright and intelligent young man 29 years old come into my gunsmiting shop with his hunting buddy and was wanting a rifle built which I agreed to, running short of time he stated he would be back in 6 weeks . Unfortunately Cam McDonald couldn't come back in a couple of weeks I opened the news paper up and there he was with his hat that was burnt red/ orange , NOT HI VIZ, which is commonly sold in hunting shops ! In the caption Hunter Shot in the head by Wellington Deerstalkers President and Wellington MSC firearms instructor. Here's my point I had taken the time and effort to inform the head of the Wellington MSC Firearms section , she did nothing , I then informed the head of the MSC and Police who said I was correct and did NOTHING when they said they would, then my young customer was killed by a man I had taught Firearms licensing with , and to kick ass because I raised the issue, the woman in cahrge of the Wellington MSC Firearms group refused to renew my MSC Warrant for teaching ! There have been several others killed that would have been alive NOW if HI VIZ Orange was mandatory as it was in 1969 in Kentucky which virtual eliminated all hunters shooting other hunters in a very short order . I was finally able to find a reporter to take up my cause Rebeca Quiliam who wrote for the NZ Herald. All of the issues I raised were included plus Rebeca calling the NZ school of ophthalmology in Auckland and asking the same questions I had asked before. Now heads up and ears open to what the instructor said ; as you lose the ability to see color as light dims BLUE as in HI VIS BLUE is the first color that is lost , got that ? The HI VIZ Orange is the ONLY color that was recommended in the bush, got that ? In addition I called the Search and Rescue helicopter in Wellington and asked them was was the best color to find in the bush , ORANGE , and definitely NOT BLUE. I know that this will upset some people but when doing the research in 2005-6 I called safety clothing companies and asked why Orange and Blue . The response was Orange shows up best in the bush and the Green / Blue shows up best around machinery, and that coincides with the H&S issues in the laws in the US. Now every thing I've said in these statements are based on interviews , scientific reports of experts , NOT hunters that have NOT done their scientific research and not able to point out the technical issues I've stated . Now lets add one more point when taking the color test for an eye exam what is the most failed colors ,,,,, Green and Blue . Now back to issues in NZ , I've had some hard fought discussions with the President of the Deerstalkers on this subject. His response was that they now use High Vis Orange in their Hunts course for which I commended him and thanked him. Unfortunately the next Deerstalkers magazine I got it showed two hunts course groups ...... one with Hi Viz Orange on the young folks and the other group with out a stitch of any high vis nor colored clothing . Then it got worse I was looking at all the pictures of the animals shot by their hunters ,,,, and was disappointed that NONE had a stitch of High Vis clothing on ! While doing research in 2005-6 I also came across another fact , of the 49 states that required Hi Vis hunter clothing all required Orange , only one state ALLOWED Hi Vis Green / Blue and that was Arkansas, yep the state that has the 3ed lowest IQ of the 50 states ... I'm sorry guys but even we in Kentucky thought that wearing Hi Vis Orange was akin to wearing pink panty hose while hunting and there were protest and statements of Mother may I and all the rest . But as soon as every one wore pink panty hose it didn't make any difference we all looked the same . You see the problem that most can not get their heads around is that color in nature is a means of communication between two members of a species , its used for identification , so wearing Hi Vis Orange is a communication to someone else as it is when THEY wear it also .... Its time that it be legally required for NON Water foul hunters , I'm sorry but some one that is ignorant can be taught the truth and accept it, that is the purpose of education , which as I pointed out is lacking , on the other hand the term "stupid' is some one that faced with the correct knowledge refuses to accept the truth. Its past time that this issue be settled by research and technical expertise which the un-educated will learn from. as for 'Stupid' there is only one way to fix him , require by law Hi Vis Orange. As for clothing manufacturers the sales of hunting clothing will remain at the same numbers if not increased when mandatory Hi Vis is required and there will still be the need for camo in water foul hunting so even the hunters that have it are not at a loss . Guys this is a win win for all of us when we can reduce the number of deaths in hunting. As a well known institute that promotes shooting sport states in one of their fliers , the majority of new hunters are coming from urban backgrounds not agrarian where some one has taught a degree of safe gun handling , that trend will not change it will continue to escalate as more people move to the cities . Its time to take a different approach and require by law Hi Vis Orange !

I know of two people that have been shot and killed in NZ while wearing hi-vis orange (one through his blaze cap).
It is not a safe guard.
Also noted that last night was the first time I have seen Hi-vis on NZ Hunter Adventures - a beanie worn by the Swarovski guy (probably to match his binos).
PS. Orange is definitely not easy to see in the bush if you are red/green colour blind, which a significant portion of males are.

That is a mistake, Cam McDonald did NOT have a Hi Vis Orange beanie on , look at the picture 2 hours before he was shot . You have NO standards for what is Hi Vis in NZ for hunters ! What he had on would NOT pass any test in the US as a High Vis piece of clothing , I'll guarantee that.

No blaze...orange it seems to be dangerous in some lights....I followed my grandson hunting last week [he had the gun] he was wearing a fairly bright blue shirt with 3/4 blue sleeves but even with an orange hat the blue still was more visible....