Thread: Safety Colours

Originally Posted by veitnamcam

There is a article in a mag round here on blaze, facts are your 80% less likely to be killed wearing blaze. and virtually 0 chance of being shot by a bowhunter because they have to identify which part of a animal they are shooting at just as a rifle hunter does but some rifle hunters are happy to shoot at hindquarters or any part of the animal

I read the article about the 80%. The 80% statistic is not a relevant statistic. It doesn't mean you are 80% less likely to be shot by wearing blaze orange. It just supports the fact that of the people mistakenly shot in the past, less were wearing blaze orange. That fact on its own is meaningless and does not correlate to less deaths because of wearing blaze.

I will explain in full later, as it is late and I am tired. Also I will need to look the exact numbers used in that article.

For now, consider this: There is 100 hunters hunting. 1 wears Blaze and 99 don't. 1 hunter wearing blaze and 1 hunter not wearing blaze get shot. 100% of hunters wearing blaze were shot, and essentially only 1% of hunters not wearing blaze were shot. Is it correct to conclude from the above events that you have a 100% chance of being shoot if you wear blaze? Of-course not. In the past less people wore blaze, so even if the risk of getting shot was the same, less people in blaze would be shot.

The only way to show if wearing blaze makes you less likely to be shot is to know not only what those who were shot were wearing, but also what those who were not shot were wearing.

PS: In the roar on public land I wear blaze. It helps people to see me and thus lets other hunters know were I am. Will it completely prevent another hunter from mistaking me for a deer, NO. Will it help to prevent another hunter from mistaking me for a deer, well maybe. The most helpful part would be that I stood out when he/she did not think they saw a deer. They would see me, come say hello, and we then we would arrange to hunt separate areas.

I am still not convinced that if proven target identification measures are followed, that blaze would be any better than no blaze. Blaze is no substitute for poor target identification. It will help you to be seen, yes, but that won't mean it will stop you from being shot by mistake, especially when you are not identified correctly.