Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Do you feel safe while hunting ?

Same here, I got roped into it for a couple of years and quit, just plumb crazy, 90% of the yoyo's showing up had obviously never had so much as 30 seconds of firearms safety training.

I have been hit with shot from quail hunters and had shot land all around me from pheasant hunters, but I have never been fearful.
We had ricocheted bullets sound like it went right over us from guys with Calif. plates whistle pig shooting.. We chewed them out good, but I think it fell on deaf ears
I try to avoid crowded areas hunting big game.

Not completely safe but I prefer to hunt private land.

I have been hunting same club 40 years and feel very safe.

I have a cousin from Minnesota. He told me a story over 30 years ago about hunting in Minnesota. F that. I am sure it hasn’t gotten any better. He said he found a fallen tree and laid by it until the shooting stopped.

My dad quit hunting in the late 50s because of his experience with idiots taking "sound shots" so It wouldn't be surprising to me if all are actual hunting accidents.

Yes, I hunt where the people aren't.

When I taught Hunter Ed, my best lesson was:

That rustle in the bushes? It's Russell.

There was time when I would sit on the stand until at least 30 min after last legal shot time. Was afraid of the azzholes sitting on the road watching the edge of the treeline for anything. And then I always came out singing and swinging a flashlight. Had one of the idiots shoot a doe right under my stand with me in it once. That was a real eyeopener for me.

Nothing like glassing the edge of a 1K yd field and see somebody looking at you thru a rifle scope.
Lots of folks stopped squirrel hunting after the deer numbers shot up in my area, too afraid of the idiots.
It has gotten a lot better with newer laws regulating dog hunting and some county's forcing the use of elevated stands if using a rifle. Also I think a lot of the younger folks don't give a chit about hunting as much anymore so there are just fewer people in the woods.

Having said all that, one of the guys I hunted with, his grandfather shot my grandfather thru the hand with a 30-30 back in the late 40's. Running deer with dogs and probably drunk as well. He and I both were and are very careful and use the story as a what not to do scenario.

If there are other folks around I don't feel safe. I don't fret and worry over it but I do take care.

Still hunting has become something I only do when I'm fairly certain no one else is around and I do my "Great Pumpkin" imitation with vest and hat. Pouring rain days work well for it and few people are hunting (outside of shooting houses).

I would say that I do feel safe, but I also feel that I am the one responsible for my own safety. I don't hunt in big groups or with people that I don't know. I don't care to hunt on opening day of just about any season, and usually try to avoid weekends if I can.

I only questioned my safety and that was my first public land hunt up in Ohio 30 years ago. I was in the federal forest that I was never in and the shooting started a few minutes before daylight. Shots every few minutes all morning. I came in through a bottom and I could here the slugs smacking the tree limbs Up above me on the ridge. I got my big arse behind a huge tree and stayed there until noon. When the shooting slowed down I moved up over the ridge and dropped down into the next drainage. I found me another big tree and sat down. About ten minutes later a nice 8 point came trotting around a bend on a ledge across the drainage. He Got about 30 yards away and I let the air out of him. That was my first buck. I really didn't have a clue where I was in relation to where my buddy was supposed to,park the truck.
I remember thinking “ now what?”. LOL. But I was so excited I didn't give a crap.

I was shot at by a 18yoish kid home from college. Kids dad put a ladder stand across from me but down the powerline just on the line, about 250 yards. I guess the kids saw me moving. I never want to hear bullets wizzing past me again. Kid claims there was a deer between us...and the kids was shooting well over the line if it was where he said he was. I'm just glad my son wasn't in the stand with me.

This has kept me safe for 60 yrs of hunting! My Dad was also a vet (WW2) and country boy- so I had a good role model for this. Later, it kept me from getting my guts cut out by Rascist Angry Negros as a soldier in Germany.

My last brush with that sort of thing, I muffed a shot on a doe during 2004 ML season and went onto the large hillside on our western boarder to scout for sign. This was right at sundown and I was carrying a Coleman lantern. All of a sudden, I started taking incoming from the opposite side of the ravine. I swung the lantern and yelled, and the next few shots were closer. I dowsed the light and hid behind the nearest large tree and when I could, I skeedaddled.

It turned out the neighbors had been having a ML shoot behind the house (about a 1/4 mile) and the ricochets were flying out over the ravine. I didn't quite get an apology. I haven't hunted that part of the farm since.

To the actual question: Yes, I feel safe while hunting., but we are all careful. We hear 1-3 shotstrings a minute through the first half-day of rifle season. It's an impressive fusillade, but I feel safe. I'm up in a stand on The Opener with about as much orange as you can manage. There are parts of the farm we don't go during season, just because we don't know where the neighbors are hunting. We also have set plans on who is hunting where, set lines of ingress and egress, and we use walkie-talkies to let everyone know when we're going in. None of us walk around with a hot chamber, we don't load until we're settled into our blind and we unload before we get to the truck or back to the house.

I usually feel safe while hunting but on rare occasions you will find women there too.

Twenty five years ago I left the nut case filled NE part of the state to drive 350 miles across the state to get away from people. The deer got bigger and the bigger woods got way less crowded. Early on hunting with dad’s older lodge buddies made some memories, but not all good ones concerning safe gun handling. Having a big black bear trail me to the base of my tree had me thinking about not being at the top of the food chain. And having a wolf come up behind me from down wind gave me a thrill. Now as I’ve gotten older, having a coronary event or a fall from a tree stand are my main concern. Can’t fall off the ground has been on my mind lately since the deer aren’t quite as important as they once were.

Holy Crap!

you live in eastern arizona. my understanding for years that after vietnam a number of people seaking refuge were living in the canyons on the southern eastern side of the state. drugs, and other stuff kep my interest level in going there low.
i have found camo bunkers out in the mts when there was no real purpose for them being there.
and i have seen people glassing me with rifle scopes.

I have trained my grandsons i hope well enough if they are out walking around, treat it like its a war zone.
and i have known several people that have drilled their vehicles while drunk and shooting at night from the vehicle, or trying to unload the gun in the cab of the vehicle. i own a number of WWII jeeps. people have suggested to me perfect to shoot from on the run at night. yeah right,
arizone isn't 1944 belgium.

i remember years ago a news paper listing for a vietnam memorial event. went out in the desert around buckeye, these guys in camo had created a firebase, with guard towers, fire pits,underground hootches. etc. I left real quick.

I gave up deer hunting public land long ago, in Michigan and Ohio. Far from safe. I hunt only private clubs now with the exception of spring turkey on public.