Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire No, hunters don't drink and hunt

Dennis Anderson wrote a very good article in the Star & Sickle about a myth going around by the anti hunters.
No, hunters don't drink and hunt

How exactly people in this country vented their exasperations before the advent of online commentary isn’t clear. Time was when a person read a newspaper, and regardless of their opinion of the scribblings, shrugged and said, “Huh.” Or maybe in the extreme they handed the paper across the dinner table and said, “Get a load of this.”

Now, obviously, given the internet’s reach, everyone’s points and counterpoints receive a much more complete airing. Which perhaps is fair. Notwithstanding the low accuracy bar set for these vexations, many of which are real whoppers, and never mind as well the cloak of anonymity from which they emerge, a greater societal good might be served.

As U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Brennan once said, “Debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open, and … may well include vehement, caustic, and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks. …”

Again, fair enough. But given available facts, some things should be beyond debate. The sun rises in the east, for instance. Neil Armstrong’ moon walk wasn’t staged in a TV studio. And there wasn’t a second shooter on the grassy knoll.

Also this: Hunters don’t hunt drunk.

A bold statement, I know. And a surprise bulletin, perhaps, to some readers who commented on a story published last week in this newspaper about a new Wisconsin law that removes the minimum age for deer hunting in that state.

Wisconsin legislators decided parents, not the government, should determine when little Susie or little Johnnie is ready to shinny up a tree and waylay a whitetail.

Of the 59 commenters who penned opinions to the online version of that tale, some added value to the discussion.

“Having younger kids hunt is fine, but it won’t help all that much with new hunter recruitment,” said one. “The larger issue with recruitment is that young people have so many more choices to occupy their time.”

But it wasn’t long before the old Booze, Bucks and Guns fairy tale was trotted out.

“I live in Wisconsin now in a popular destination for deer hunters,” one commenter said. “I walk the woods frequently with my dog and come across hunters often. Frankly for most hunters it’s an excuse to party. Rifle in one hand and a bottle, flask or a beer in the other. These guys are supposed to (be) mentoring young hunters? Who’s going to mentor them? Tired of cleaning up beer cans over the years. Sometimes a dozen or more below a deer stand occupied by one person.”

Wrote another: “It is too bad a lot drink and hunt, I agree. A lot of dumb people drink and do things they shouldn’t.”

Over the years, these and similar contentions have been aired so regularly they now seem part of the folklore that surrounds hunting, particularly deer hunting. In Minnesota as well as Wisconsin.

So, let’s separate myth from fact.

First, what’s the law?

In Minnesota, it’s a gross misdemeanor to hunt with a bow or gun while under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Nor can a gun or bow be loaned or given to someone under the influence. Simply possessing a loaded and uncased firearm or bow while under the influence of alcohol or drugs is illegal.

Additionally, if a hunter’s blood alcohol concentration is .08 percent or higher, some ramifications for the offending hunter might be the same as if he or she were under the influence while driving a vehicle or, in Minnesota, a boat. Meaning possible jail time and increased vehicle and other insurance costs.

Hunters under the influence in Minnesota also can and likely will have their guns or bows confiscated and possibly other equipment as well, including boats and ATVs.

And if they’re caught killing an animal under the influence, cash restitution would be owed the state for the animal. What’s more, a convicted hunter (actually “poacher’’) would lose his privilege to hunt for five years in Minnesota, Wisconsin and nearly all other states.

Next question:

How often do Minnesota Department of Natural Resources conservation officers cite hunters for being drunk or high — keeping in mind the agency’s more than 140 field agents make multiple thousands of hunter contacts each year?

And keeping in mind Minnesota has more than 600,000 hunters.

“Almost never,” said DNR enforcement division assistant director Lt. Col. Greg Salo. “It’s very rare. We go some years with no citations of hunters under the influence. Other years we average between two and four.”

Hunters aren’t saints. They probably break the law in the same proportion to their numbers that the overall population does. And many who are of age aren’t averse to imbibing a cocktail or beer come evening, around a campfire or at a dinner table.

But imagining that hunters in any number guzzle beer or booze while afield is as far-fetched as imagining runners taking a long hit of Old Grand-Dad at the midway point of a marathon.

Both exercises are too physically demanding for participants to indulge such silliness.

That said, Justice Brennan had it right. Debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open.

and truthful

As a Wisconsinite I can say without a doubt that statement is absolutely false for a lot of hunters in this state.

The Budweiser welcomes Hunters signs posted every fall don't help with this issue

Some people are drinking if they are awake so whatever they do they are drinking and doing. Bad way to live, but to say no hunters drink is naive.

While likely few hit the bottle, grab a gun and stumble out in the field, more than a few hunters are guys that use hunting as a pretext to hang out with their buddies and drink. I can see the general public confusing the former with the latter.

As you have all types of drinkers and all types of hunters, you likely have all types of combinations as well. It's not uncommon at all for guys I know to bring a beer or two with them to a box stand for a 3-4hr hunt on a Saturday afternoon. They'd likely do the same if they were fishing, or cutting grass, or working on a truck. Then again, a couple of light beers over a few hours doesn't hit you like the hard stuff does. A stout buzz and firearms is not a good combination in my book, even on private land.

This,
I'll admit, I have been stupid drunk at the hunting camp and at bars in the little towns in the area but I have never drank in the field or in a stand and don't know anyone that has.

Soon there will be hunter HUI (hunt under the influence) checkpoints with tickets or arrests over .08, gun confiscation, and loss of firearm privileges, with jail terms for repeat offenders.

Yeah, last thing I want to do when it's 18' out with snow flurries and 35mph blowing winds is to "pop a cold one."

Over the years I have known PLENTY of guys who guzzle beer all day long while driving around "hunting". I remember one who was hunting pronghorns with a muzzleloader, put up a blind out in the desert somewhere, got drunk and wandered off and never did find his blind again, his rifle and gear are still out there somewhere rusting away. Many years ago I went over to a guys house to ride with him out hunting pronghorns, got to his house about 0430, he was in the kitchen finishing off his eggs and washing it down with a beer, he went through over a 12 pack during the day and I wound up driving home. I know, these are extremes, but things like this happen just the same. Local likker stores do a booming business a few days before hunting season, that's for sure.

My wife and I were elk hunting once in the vicinity of Atlantic City, WY. We had been sneaking and peeking through an area of junipers and sat down to rest about 30 feet off a little faint two-track that runs along the side of the ridge. As we were sipping our coffee, we heard a lot of crashing and thrashing in the brush, with the sound of a loud pickup approaching. Soon, the truck came into view and passed right in front of us. Clearly visible in the cab of the beat-up looking vehicle were two guys, each holding a Coors and enjoying the very loud Hank Williams tape they were playing. Standing up in the back were another two guys, both hanging onto a headache rack, one with a bow and arrow in his hand, the other blowing on an elk bugle. They didnt even see us, and went on down the trail. I seriously doubt any of them could pass a sobriety test.

We don’t drink until the evening.

I like to drink but only after work is done or the guns are put away. I will admit to opening one can of beer and then shooting at it 10 minutes later with a 22lr, or shotgun.

Good thing too. Listening around the evening campfire, if even half those deer were actually taken, there wouldn't be any left.

We only drink when we have some.


The first deer lease I was on, every guy but me was a smoker. Ten guys on this lease, only one smokes. Things change.

I have only hunted in 2 states where drinking and hunting seemed to be the norm, Washington and Alabama.

I was stationed in Washington back in the 80's, seemed like guys liked to glass and drink beer.

The lease I was on in Alabama, every stand you would crawl up in was littered with beer cans and cigarette butts.