uh, yeah…
“About 50% of the people in the woods during any hunting season are “wanna be” hunters (they might spend a week in the wood per year/probably less); they have been drinking prior to hunting/some are drunk, and they haven’t had much sleep prior to hunting.”
About 50% of paddlers only do it to be able to go camping (in the car) with buddies, get drunk drinking beer in “camp” all day before paddling, then don’t get much sleep at night cause they’re drinking some more most of the night. Then, they drive home drunk and hung over, endangering hundreds of innocent children riding in the family sedan with their parents.
Fair comparison?
Just keeps getting better…
“I quit hunting when it got too weird out there. I was wearing a blaze orange jacket and hat but still got shot at. One hunter shot his own horse which was wearing a blaze orange saddle blanket. Another hunter had his horse shot out from under him. He was wearing blaze orange and the horse had a blaze orange saddle blanket. Two “hunters” were arrested for armed robbery when they tried to steal someones elk at gunpoint. A group of “hunters” parked their rigs across from my camp which was pretty far in. I had scouted the area for a month ahead of the hunt. They had one tent just to store the beer and stayed drunk the whole time. Beer for breakfast. These were the idiots that almost shot me and ran off 2 different elk out from under me.”
How deep can it get around here??
You had more happen to you in one season that every hunter I know combined has had in all of their lifetimes of hunting!
multiuse area
Wear orange stay in mid chanel so you can be seen. Try one of those wire/orange flags on your boat if you feel insecure. Go Sunday paddling where/when hunting is not allowed. Paddle later in the day on Saturday when most small game hunters are gone. Might want to bring a shotgun and license and get the birds that fly over the water.
Like bikes on curvy, dippy, double yellow line no shoulder roads with 45mph speed limits. Not a safe situation. Talk about no sleep, drugged or distracted!!! I will not fight a 2 ton vehicle for right of way even if the law says the road must be shared. Choose your battles.
Irresponsibility is a way of life for many drivers, co workers, hunters, medicos, bicyclists and paddlers, etc. How safe do you want to be and what are YOU doing to survive everyday?
70,000 medical errors a year and there is a concern about safety in the middle of state hunting grounds at the peak hunting times???
Better odds paddling among hunters than going to a hospital. If you do get shot and end up in hospital your really having a bad day.
Thanks All
Like I said I bought the Orange hat on the way home.
Sounds like I’ll want a vest as well. That coat was getting hot!
Interesting story about the white paddle blades looking like a whitetail.
Might paint my Werners orange too!
I figure I’m more at risk driving too and from the river. But, same as when I’m on the road, I do want to be seen.
consider yourself fortunate
We need to compare notes sometime.
come to MI and we’ll go for a spin on opening day. Probably will adjust your perception a bit.
get one of these in orange
http://www.buycostumes.com/Category/0/Product/27316/ProductDetail.aspx?REF=AFC-datafeed&AID=10273928&PID=2100672&SID=-sc7533325
White hair and bad behavior
Been told my now almost fully white head can look an awful lot like a deer’s tail flicking up, took a look and theyare right. Try to remember to wear something red up high now to break that up if I am on a sindy river or creek in hunting season now.
As to the stories of bad/stupid things happening frequently in the woods out there - I’d surmise that anyone who thinks they are rare events hasn’t hunted in some more populated areas on the east coast like northern NJ or southeastern NY state. Near misses and accidental hits were an almost daily event during the season when I was a kid in north Jersey. We had to stay well away from any border of woods, especially after a bullet missed my brother on a bike by maybe 5 feet with the hunter who had fired it standing 30 feet away. And that was decades ago - it’s probably much worse now.
I don’t think all hunters are like this, probably not a huge percentage. But the ones that are fools, like the ones that a friend saw driving down the highway with a brown foal strapped to their roof once, really mess it up for the rest.
I said it got too wierd.
– Last Updated: Nov-06-07 10:15 AM EST –
I had been hunting for quite a while and seen some stupid things done (mostly buck fever) but that trip freaked me out. Especially when I found out those drunks did this every year and there were more out there like them. I had no problems on the previous elk hunts but was trying a different area. That was a mistake.
Yep!
– Last Updated: Nov-06-07 10:42 AM EST –
Yep! I would agree that is a fair comparison.
Way too many drunks in rental canoes (aka "river dorks") on the rivers in the Summer. For them it's all about the party, not the paddling.
Many families; especially those with young kids, avoid the rivers in this area like the plague during the Summer. Also avoiding the rivers are young couples; for the same reasons as the families. The "river dorks" are too drunk, too loud, too obnoxious, and too obscene.
Do I have a problem with someone having a few drinks, or a good time. Nope!
When you have to bring multiple cases of beer, fifths, and quarts of liquor along with you to have a "good time"; you have a problem, whether you be "wanna be" hunter or paddler!
I have a problem with drunk hunters in the woods & drunk "river dorks" on the river. I will never change, or apologize for having that opinion.
Drunks on the rivers in no way justifies drunks in the woods, or vice versa. However, I think it is noteworthy that most of the river drunks "aren't" carrying 30-30s, 30.06s, .243s, or 12 gauges.
BOB