Oct 1 to Nov 30 is the general rifle hunting season locally (deer, antelope, elk, moose). I'm not as concerned with the bow-hunters and muzzle loaders as they have a shorter range and thus are more likely to see you as a person instead of as dinner. But the rifles in the hands of some idiot (and believe me there are a lot of them out there!) do concern me. A friend of mine was shot in the chest and was hospitalized with collapsed lungs for a few weeks - very lucky to be alive.

Even if you don't hunt (like me), do you ensure your safety by wearing the colours during the season? As a fan of the outdoors and activities of many types, while out hiking even in protected wildlife areas, I normally am wearing my red rain jacket. But in areas of known hunting grounds, I also bring/wear a hi-visibility vest and orange toque.

My motto: I would rather "look a bit silly than to look dead."

Avoid this:

I worked for years in National Parks, but when vacation time came, I usually headed to various National Forests, usually wilderness areas, where hunting is allowed. I made an exception during hunting season. I stayed out of those particular woods and would go to a park.

If I were in an area during hunting season, I would wear the brightest colors possible. But there have been reports that even that isn't enough.

Down here in Florida the hunters are mostly after deer and their technique is usually either stand hunting, pretty safe for others and pretty much exclusively dawn and dusk operations, or dog hunting, not so safe. The later is done by letting dogs go on one side of a piece of land and sitting on the other waiting in ambush for the dogs to chase the deer across the road. The waiting is often accompanied by the drinking great quantities of beer and much lying.

Better to stay out of the woods entirely when such hunters are around but if you insist on going out wearing a buttload of day-glow orange, making human noises, bells or whistles, and loudly singing dirty limericks, might help.

A forest service naturalist I know, who has to be out during hunting season, has mounted a pair of fiberglass poles with day-glow orange flags at the top, like you see on some bikes, on his backpack. He also wears a day-glow orange vest, like you see on road crews. He also carries a .38 revolver and has been known to fire it into the air to let people know he is both human and willing to shoot back if shot at.

We have the same situation Art described with dog hunters in this area. They are usually camped out beside their truck on a public road waiting for a deer to cross. The fact that shooting within 100 yards of a public road is illegal doesn't seem to bother them in the least. I don't think anything short of an up armored Humvee can protect you from these morons.

Hunting regulations vary a lot from state to state. In NY, it's illegal to hunt deer or other big game with dogs. Nobody does it that I've heard of here.

The road thing, on the other hand, is OK. You can shoot near a road in those areas where it's legal to hunt with a firearm. You just have to be off the road and shoulder, can't shoot across any road, or have a loaded rifle or shotgun in or on a motor vehicle. You also can't shoot within 500 feet of houses or most other buildings without the owner's permission.

Gees Art, given the size of the deer in Florida (dog sized), I wonder how many of them latter type hunters mistakenly shoot their dogs instead?

If them dogs get on a swamp hog out there in the bush, I wonder if any of them Florida hunters will go in after the pack to get them some relief. I seen some of them tuskers get upwards of 500 lbs. The vet bill can get mighty high stichin' ole blue back up after he's been run over and raked by one of them boars.

It depends on the hunting season/game and where I am hunting.

We were just up in ME hiking around looking at land and we were very careful to always have blazer orange on.

A few years back we made some orange vests from some cloth we got at the material store but we don't use them anymore because they don't stand out like the real deal. The home made ones turn sort of brownish in low light but the store bought ones almost glow.

While the Key deer is quite small the normal white tail deer are pretty large compared to a dog. A friend shot a six point that, as I remember it, weighed in at 170 pounds. That would be a good-sized Florida deer.

A guy I used to work for would hunt wild hog with dogs. I never went along but his accounts seemed to indicate that they got torn up in the hunt pretty regularly. The hogs would turn when cornered and could shred the dog pack. Mostly small gouges and lacerations that needed to be cleaned and stitched but every year or two he would lose a dog. Either killed outright or maimed to the point he felt he needed to put it down. He was pretty shook up for a few days after he had to shoot his favorite dog when it was laid open and gutted by a hog.