Thread: Ever been shot at? Blaze vs Camo

What a load of croc about colours such as red etc. Yet likey a majority on this forum have run a red light with their car a few times whether colour blind or not? And had injured someone else if not killed them. Stop making excuses - identify your target.

I say this as people are thinking just about being in the bush and forget the basics, many blaming the clothing colour of red or similar being close to red deer/sika etc. But out of the bush forget what they preach and ....run red lights, sometimes potentially hurting people. Life isn't so simple sometimes. Unless you don't identify your target.

I've been taking a couple of young fellas hunting, I bought them some blaze orange gear.

One thing I have been drilling into them was something I read a few years ago - any movement etc, is a person (or dog) until you can prove otherwise.

Kawekakid....Redemption time for you?

Perhaps you should go to that article in the magazine that you mentioned / take a photo of the article and put it up on the forum ?

Originally Posted by kawekakid

When blaze orange came out ,i wrote to hunting mags stating people will be getting shot with blaze orange gear .

I know of 4 different guys been shot ,most with families .
Sad but true .
I got shit from the NZ outdoors magazine in the late 90s for speaking out .

Kawekakid.....Redemption time for you?

Why don't you go to that article in that magazine take a photo of the article and post it on the forum?

Originally Posted by Hunteast

I say this as people are thinking just about being in the bush and forget the basics, many blaming the clothing colour of red or similar being close to red deer/sika etc. But out of the bush forget what they preach and ....run red lights, sometimes potentially hurting people. Life isn't so simple sometimes. Unless you don't identify your target.

your forgetting one important point.........its the other fella,the unknown quantity yo uare trying to protect YOURSELF against..... Ive seen a red deer on new years day,in dark spot with sunlight on its back line and both my mate and myself,even with 9x optics COULD NOT POSITIVELY IDENTIFY it as not blaze orange or human or a deer UNTIL deers head popped up...that shoot the shit out of me,and made me aware that in future my brain could now see bright orange and click the ID button to deer...I wear blue during busy times and sing out of tune,badly when carrying large bits of animal out.
faded blaze orange is just about a perfect match for a red deers coat......a new bright fabric,not so much...a Tshirt with 4-5 different bits of fabric in differnt colours sticks out like dogs balls and even my red/green colour blind mate can see it...
yes 100% you are right..YOU MUST positively ID your target...but did the other fella get the memo???

oops repeated myself...but buggeritall its worth repeating so it can stay.
the pink collar on dog sticks out,her carry/saddle bags are pink too....yip she might be a big black bitch but she sticks out like dogs balls wearing it LOL....

Originally Posted by Cigar

I've been taking a couple of young fellas hunting, I bought them some blaze orange gear.

One thing I have been drilling into them was something I read a few years ago - any movement etc, is a person (or dog) until you can prove otherwise.

That make perfect sense. When people get excited or nervous, the brain seems ignore some signals such as pain, and tend to capture imaginary image and process it with low matching rate than the real one. Long time ago, we went for wolf and gazelle hunting, we traveled at middle of night, everybody was excited and looked out of window for any signs of animals. There was cow, big one just near the "road" side, and I heard one shot, but the cow was lucky. So, a cow to a gazelle or wolf should be very distinctive, right? Maybe I was totally wrong, but I still prefer to wear these colors: gray, mud, GI green, light blue

If you want to where camo , hunting and not be seen the old Hawaiian shirt is the best camo you can get .

Those Flourescent hunting caps are the bollocks, can see an orange dot a long way off

unless you are red/green colorblind.....LOL why I wear a nato blue tepari products one.....

I went into the ruahines least a dozen years back, get away from rat race for a while. As I got to where I was entering I noticed a group of 4 guys getting ready to head in hunting. Something bugged me about them and it took half a minute to figure out that everything they had was new. From boots to guns. Personally I don't know one serious hunter who doesn't have at least one piece of worn/used Bush kit.
I walked up said hi, asked where they were from and what they were upto. Answer was a major city further north and off hunting for a couple of days. I asked what area they hunting, got a generalized area, told them to enjoy their couple of days hunting and trekked off in the totally opposite direction. I wouldn't have cared if I had flashing neon lights, I wouldn't have considered that area safe. I personally believe it doesn't matter what the colour is, some ppl will shoot at movement, or shape. Bright orange might save your life, it might also be the spot of colour amongst the scrub that someone further out takes a snap shot at.
plain camo the same, a random movement that must be a deer moving that Bush.
Its not the gear but more the shooters who either inexperienced, over eager, not versed in hunting or what ever, that is the issue. Identify your target, simple but not always followed.
Had a mate who had good head strapped to his pack, mistaken for a deer. The venison in his pack stopped the bullet. Its scary to know ppl who nearly died because someone overlooked the most basic rule of hunting.

Originally Posted by kruza

I went into the ruahines least a dozen years back, get away from rat race for a while. As I got to where I was entering I noticed a group of 4 guys getting ready to head in hunting. Something bugged me about them and it took half a minute to figure out that everything they had was new. From boots to guns. Personally I don't know one serious hunter who doesn't have at least one piece of worn/used Bush kit.
I walked up said hi, asked where they were from and what they were upto. Answer was a major city further north and off hunting for a couple of days. I asked what area they hunting, got a generalized area, told them to enjoy their couple of days hunting and trekked off in the totally opposite direction. I wouldn't have cared if I had flashing neon lights, I wouldn't have considered that area safe. I personally believe it doesn't matter what the colour is, some ppl will shoot at movement, or shape. Bright orange might save your life, it might also be the spot of colour amongst the scrub that someone further out takes a snap shot at.
plain camo the same, a random movement that must be a deer moving that Bush.
Its not the gear but more the shooters who either inexperienced, over eager, not versed in hunting or what ever, that is the issue. Identify your target, simple but not always followed.
Had a mate who had good head strapped to his pack, mistaken for a deer. The venison in his pack stopped the bullet. Its scary to know ppl who nearly died because someone overlooked the most basic rule of hunting.

Definitely understand where you are coming from. I think it’s important to remember that history shows us mistakes come from the experienced aswell. The brain can work in funny ways - it pays to be aware of yourself irregardless of how sensible you think you are.

I was searching for a report I read recently that had some info on reasons for hunting shootings. I didn't find the one I wanted, but did find another one that said hunters of one generation (born 1950 to 1969) are responsible for 75% of accidental shootings.

Haven't been shot at, but have been under the path of bomb ups ridge to ridge and that sort of stupidity.

I did have a bit of a learning with the fern areas like the Pureora and Kaimais where the dried ferns turn a really crackly orange colour - a mate was wandering ahead of me in an older blaze mesh shirt (quite faded). In the sunlight breaking up into bars of light and shadow in the bush, and the predominantly orange dried fern around he basically disappeared - couldn't ask for more effective camo to be honest. Matey was about 10-20m in front of me and his pack hat and trousers in green forest camo were visible, floating around this invisible torso and arms. Unreal how good a camo it was...

About 30-40mins later, I briefly saw a red moving away to our left, mate never saw it but did smell it. In summer coat, it was almost exactly the same shade of orange as the ferns and me mate. No crap neither, the deer was doing the same 'disembodied' thing as it was moving through the bars of light and shadow - bloody uncanny how accurate a colour match it was. If I wasn't aware of what the mate looked like from a few moments earlier the brain could have definitely played the 'it's a deer' trick on me when I next looked at him. I got me mate to take his shirt off and showed him how much it blended in, he was surprised as!

The lesson for me is if you are wearing blaze, make sure it's still effective blaze i.e. it bloody stands out no B.S. or possibility of blending in with background natural colours otherwise its possible two things can happen, first is you have a false sense of confidence and second, you are not nearly as visible as you expect.