Thread: Blaze or no Blaze

Originally Posted by hotsoup

Very interesting thread, great discussion. Never considered wearing blaze would potentially put you in more danger.. Will put more thought into this!

2 or 3 roars ago, i had an experience where i roared in a couple of hunters in fairly thick bush. Before i knew they were hunters i had seen what i was sure was deer colour moving across behind scrub, i could hear it, and was waiting for it to come out further and present a shot. then a bush started to shake, and i was expecting to see the stag emerge from the scrub - I got a hell of a shock when a father and son hunters popped out, they wearing full blaze orange head to toe. My rifle was not raised into the shooting position once, but my thumb was resting on the safety all ready to flick it off.

I am certain that there would have been some people would have fired at the first colour and movement that i had seen (heaven forbid). The colour i saw looked exactly like deer colour to me when it was under a dark bush canopy and partially hidden behind scrub.

It scared the shit out of me, I was sitting hidden behind a bush higher than where they emerged wearing full camo/green, they hadnt seen me until i made my presence known to them, fair to say they shat themselves too. We all hunted together for the rest of the day.

I believe its not until you have witnessed this that you will have a good appreciation for how bad blaze orange can be, in my opinion it is darn right dangerous in this situation. Whilst there is still no excuses for shooting someone that is wearing blaze orange (or anything else) why wear something that actually can make the situation worse and make you look more like deer colour in some situations.

Green and/or camo for me, would rather not be seen rather than make myself a target. Blaze orange IMO is dangerous and should be banned! There has been a couple incidents of recent years from memory where the poor bastards were trying to do the right thing, wearing blaze orange beanies/caps and got shot in the head!!

I use blue tramping gear, not really a fan of cammo and after checking out a "deer" through my scope to find it was a hunter in dirty blaze I'm iffy on the orange stuff

I wear an orange blaze roadworkers vest with high viz strips....I think I look more YMCA than deer

There are some very interesting comments. Keep them coming. I personally wear Camo and will until a law is passed that says i can't wear it.

Some real life statistics would be nice. Surely they have been taking note of the hunting incidents and weather they were wearing blaze or not

Blue blaze hat for me, had orange but could be mistaken for a red deer for the inexperienced, no blue in the bush so a hunter would have to be shooting at movement if they saw blue.
Didn't shoot untill later in the roar last year for the very reason people seem to be trigger happy earlier on,, was thinking of getting out this weekend but the latest incident has me thinking.......

I believe that the Nato blue was not chosen cos it looks pretty.
As for Deer seeing blue...so what?

Originally Posted by Pengy

I believe that the Nato blue was not chosen cos it looks pretty.
As for Deer seeing blue...so what?

My issue with blue is wasps love of it.

If you havent already you will hunt parts of Nelson infested with the angry little cunts.

Orange high vis is awesome on the tops in light.
I dont wear it in the bush. Black and green for bush for me.

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I wear as much Blaze Orange as I can, and make sure it's not faded - has to be bright orange. Apparently investigations have shown that most people who shot someone else in the bush, were absolutely certain that they saw a deer - the brain recalled images from the past, and convinced them that what they were seeing was a deer. Most were very experienced hunters. Blaze Blue or Orange is designed to give the brain a jolt before the trigger is pulled, and break the message from the brain. Unfortunately, maybe there was not enough blaze, or bright enough blaze to save these victins?
In my opinion, to say it is better not to wear blaze because some people have been shot wearing blaze, is like saying you will not wear a seat belt because you know of someone who was killed whilst wearing a seatbelt. I wonder how many people have been saved by wearing Blaze? I guess we will never know.
Orange over blue, due to deer being able to see the blue spectrum, but not the red spectrum so well.

I was stalking with a good mate in thick bush on public land new years day a couple of years back...had a great day,spooked a few animals and sat down for snack, not long after continueing I looked down through the bush about 50 yards and spotted a BRIGHT orange horizontal line...approx. 24" long and 3" high...fair jumped out at me...looked hard,wound up scope to 9x (bolt open) still couldn't make it out,neither could my mate standing beside me,we must have stared hard for 30-40 secs but just couldn't work it out,until deers head came up and spiker took off,we had been looking at his back over a slight rise
ever since then I am doubly cautious of anything orange...because my brain has had "its a deer" message I need to be extra cautious
the blaze orange Tshirt will go onto my canvas back pack while I wear blaze blue
and the Te Pari products Oamaru caps are same smurf blue and really stand out.

I voted for blaze, but think it is irrelevant in NZ, I would never hunt during the roar, to many idiots out there, no colour will help if people are shooting on movement of a branch or shrub.

Originally Posted by veitnamcam

My issue with blue is wasps love of it.

If you havent already you will hunt parts of Nelson infested with the angry little cunts.

Orange high vis is awesome on the tops in light.
I dont wear it in the bush. Black and green for bush for me

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Yep, I have met the local wasps, and so did my dog unfortunately
Bees love the blue as well, but I still prefer to wear it due to not knowing of any blue animals.
I also wear a bright orange blaze cap, and have been told that I stand out like the proverbial poochs ballbag from a fair distance, even in tight bush

Originally Posted by Pengy

Yep, I have met the local wasps, and so did my dog unfortunately
Bees love the blue as well, but I still prefer to wear it due to not knowing of any blue animals.
I also wear a bright orange blaze cap, and have been told that I stand out like the proverbial poochs ballbag from a fair distance, even in tight bush

You even look like a pooch's ballbag Pengy.

Originally Posted by Pengy

Yep, I have met the local wasps, and so did my dog unfortunately
Bees love the blue as well, but I still prefer to wear it due to not knowing of any blue animals.
I also wear a bright orange blaze cap, and have been told that I stand out like the proverbial poochs ballbag from a fair distance, even in tight bush

Maybe we should get some "Blue Blaze stuff " for VC and take him along as a "safety beacon / wasp decoy"!!

Originally Posted by Rushy

You even look like a pooch's ballbag Pengy.

Well he cant look like my pooches ball bag cause someone stole his balls a long long time ago........................ and hes still looking for them too