Thread: Blaze or no Blaze

While I use Hi vis, it is primarily because I can keep track of where my mates are far easier when they are wearing bright orange. but on the compulsory wearing, I disagree.

I liken it to the compulsory headlights on motorbikes. Yes it is a very good idea to ride with your light on. It makes you MORE visible. However, by making it compulsory now drivers can claim " I did not see him, he didn't have his light on" and it is now up to the victim to prove he was obeying the law. Leave the light as an option and the driver can only caim "I didn't see him" to which the response is "Were you looking" as the victim was not invisible. I do not claim every motorbike is the victim as there are toher ways to improve your safety on bikes. Ride safely and be aware some people wont see you.

Drivers get hit by trains!!!! How did this happen? Trains are on tracks so we know where to look. Trains have BIG lights on so we can see them. That wont matter when DRIVERS DONT LOOK!!!!. If they dont look and see a train, what chance do you have in your tiny Hilux / town car / motorbike / scooter / push bike?

I ride like everyone is going to hit me. Most aren't but one day someone will try by not giving way etc. One day I will be right and it will hopefully mean I am ready to avoid them.

In order to see, first you must look. there is one rule here.....Always identify your target. Not by colour, not by shape and not by sound. But by actually clearly 100% identifying what it is you are about to shoot at. Just like driving, everyone deserves to get home safe.

Originally Posted by 7mmwsm

What are the stats on hunter fatalities in states where blaze is mandatory?

Hunting in the US is hard to compare to NZ as the environment and other factors (like having to get a "tag" for an animal) are totally different. Their regulations mean you are shooting not just at a deer, but at a particular type of deer (buck, doe, trophy) so target ID is much more particular than just shooting a "deer".
You wouldn't want to waste your expensive tag on shooting your buddy.

Originally Posted by 7mmwsm

The point I was hoping someone else would mention was that people still get shot wearing "regulation blaze".

Yeah. I heard a guy over there shot his wife on a hunting trip. Not sure if it was an accident though...

I don't wear blaze but my mate does , I thought quite highly of it certainly very visible in the bush was thinking of getting a beanie this roar.

mrmax...... you make valid points and are obviously quite pashionate about this issue yet my good man you have gone and shot yourself in the foot (were you wearing blaze hi vis socks???)
blaze blue works for two reasons
there ISNT anything blue in the bush so it sticks out like doggy danglies
guys who are red/green colour blind CAN see it......and there are a hell of alot of guys like that around

yes deer can see it too but my job is to see them first.
my latest TEE shirt for hunting is a concept Ive been saying for ages...put different pieces of different blaze camo together eg sleeves different colour/body panels in sections,my hunting mates tell me it stands out very well. my best stalking hat is a cap from TEPARI products in Oamaru it is smurf blue and boy does it stand out both in the bush and even moreso out in tussock country...and I for one HAVE seen a bright orange deer at 50-70 yards in bush....could only see horizontal strip about 2 foot long by 3 inches high and couldnt for life of me identify it even through optics with open bolt till head came up and spiker bolted,that put me off straight orange as a safety colour.

The Mrmaz character is correct, in saying that in low light conditions (often the case in the bush) colour perception is the first thing that goes. This is why all the housecats regardless of colour, are still perfectly camouflaged. Gingers, turqouse, black and white, whatever. A cat regardless of colour, in low light is simply a mixed shadow.
I call it the housecat effect.

The reason why more people have been shot wearing camo is because hardly anyone wears orange. It's like saying all the people that got run over on pedestrian crossings were wearing clothes, so if you're naked you should be quite safe. Only in the last ten years or so have a noticed a few more people wearing it.

It doesn't matter what people are wearing. If people identified their target and stopped shooting through bushes at movement and sound, and then pretending afterwards that 'they saw a deer' we wouldn't have any shootings at all.

(This is why that little academic study being done on why Kiwi hunters are still shooting each other - is a waste of time. Because it depends entirely on the shooters being truthful in their claims that they actually saw a deer. Which is both impossible, and a self serving and deliberate lie. It's the only thing the shooters can say afterwards. They thought it was a deer, becomes they saw a deer. And then we have people wondering what 'phenomenon' could be happening that makes people see deer that are actually people. There isn't one. They are lying so they can still look their wives in the face and pretend they are not guilty of manslaughter.)


Anyway, lets not get too overexcited. More people died just last year scuba diving than have been shot while hunting in all New Zealand's history. I would say it a remarkable safe sport.

In the real world you can get killed watching t v by a boy racer driving through your house. As some have to go hunting in the long weekend due to work it`s best to head way back into the hills, away from all the drive in "BLAZERS trying out their new ak 223 `s on the road side trees. I just wear a orange cap with my camo hunttek poloflease .

ok lowlight conditions..... going back 30ish years we were mustering out back of our farm... my father was one ridge over from me leading a creamy coloured horse,he was wearing a BRIGHT orange woolly hat, check shirt and denim stubby shorts (as we did back then) from distance of about 500 yards from where I was in misty conditions the ONLY THING I could see was those darn stubby shorts as the blue stood out in the murk.
but yes you are right CH .....we all need to be better at identification of what we are looking at,the poll that ran on forum last year on what we each used to say it was a shootable deer was interesting and certainly made me for one stop and think/re-evaluate how I do that.
really good blaze actually stands out BETTER in low light than in bright conditions.....sometimes too much so and the reflected light on scope can be pain in arse a bit like the reflections of my workshirts in windscreen on sunny day,the reflecter strip is really bad but just the yellow/green in enough to be distracting.we first noticed this with the orange patterned fleece tees when we first got them...oh and guys please SUGGEST NICELY to your better halves they turn shirts inside out when hanging on clothsline as it helps keep UV from dulling fabric down so quickly.

And old family friend related a story about his dad going out hunting with the dads uncle who was colour-blind. This would've been in the 60's 70's. the dad put on one of those red chequer swanni's. he was told it was the exact colour as a red deer to the colour-blind uncle. He got told to take it off as he didn't want to take any chances. Not meant to shoot at colour but it certainly didn't hurt.
As an aside the study show that HiVIS only really works when its new and sharp and colourful. Once they've got a bit of age in them and a bit faded/duller, in the darker light in the bush they aren't much good at all.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

ok lowlight conditions..... going back 30ish years we were mustering out back of our farm... my father was one ridge over from me leading a creamy coloured horse,he was wearing a BRIGHT orange woolly hat, check shirt and denim stubby shorts (as we did back then) from distance of about 500 yards from where I was in misty conditions the ONLY THING I could see was those darn stubby shorts as the blue stood out in the murk.
but yes you are right CH .....we all need to be better at identification of what we are looking at,the poll that ran on forum last year on what we each used to say it was a shootable deer was interesting and certainly made me for one stop and think/re-evaluate how I do that.
really good blaze actually stands out BETTER in low light than in bright conditions.....sometimes too much so and the reflected light on scope can be pain in arse a bit like the reflections of my workshirts in windscreen on sunny day,the reflecter strip is really bad but just the yellow/green in enough to be distracting.we first noticed this with the orange patterned fleece tees when we first got them...oh and guys please SUGGEST NICELY to your better halves they turn shirts inside out when hanging on clothsline as it helps keep UV from dulling fabric down so quickly.

I wash my own. Missus dont like the blood.....I'm lucky I can work the washer otherwise it might be by hand....

Think pink might be the way to go don’t see many pink deer unless you count the ones on the ground with the big through and through hole in em not so keen on blue as deer can see this.
Ok so pink is well um year dug hole here but used to wear pink Velcro arm bands that Dad had for rapping around cows feet to identify the ones treated with penicillin. Used to stick out in low light like a Witche’s tit on a cold night.
Hi vis pink yep sounds good to me
I also carried a yellow fly that I wrap around me deer to carry out.

Can we close this round about thread now, I'm pretty sure it's done it's dash

sideshow....funny thing about pink blaze..... we had it first....the very first blaze polarfleece I saw was a pinky orange it stood out really well but guys wouldnt wear it....lol

Originally Posted by Blisters

Can we close this round about thread now, I'm pretty sure it's done it's dash

@Blisters

So, let the thread die in a blaze of glory.

Id be tempted to wear pink, in my thinking if you are wearing the only bright pink thing that a hunter sees all day they are more likely to think twice.

Actually thinking about it, wearing a big rainbow colour clown afro wig would be the go, anyone who caught a glimpse would think WTF is that and have to take a closer look.