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Thwarted by Hunters?


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We went on a "deep woods" caching expedition today, the cache was located a mile and a half into the state forest from the nearest "limited use" (i.e. DIRT!) road. Seeing as how it's deer hunting season in NY State, we were festooned in all kinds of Blaze Orange clothing so no one would mistake us for something warm, fuzzy and tasty. We hiked for about an hour into the forest and heard only a few gunshots, got to within .20 miles of the cache and whoops!...there was a deer hunter in a blind, right smack where the trail was leading. He didn't look none to happy, and neither were we...we were already and hour's hike into the forest, almost at the cache and now we had to turn around and hike out, empty handed. This isn't the first time our caching activities have been de-railed by hunting season, it's happened before. What do the rest of you do during "Duck Season, Wabbit Season, Duck Season!"?

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orange is key im in MN and theres a lot of hunting i havnt confronted a hunter but when i encounter any one near the cache i see if they have kids then i think hmm i guess ill go for it tell them what im doing because its likely they will pick up the activity once a kid hear TRESURE HUNTING they get desperate lol. but ya for a hunter i would make sure your not disturbing him and make sure he sees you before you approach then go for it quitly if hes in a stand but make sure he knows your there but if hes on the ground waiting then just approach him and tell him what your doing and a lot of hunters use gpsrs and will probubly get hooked

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Hmmm...there's no way I'm going to walk up to a fella who's been patiently waiting in the woods for 6 hours with a high powered rifle to shoot at something, and try to explain to him how I'm sorry that I scared away his quarry but it's only because I'm searching for a tupperware container full of Happy Meal toys... :mad::) I may wind up mounted over his fireplace :) !

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We went after a cache today (GCW3TF) that was in a pretty residential type area. Parked near a sign that said "Elmwood Park", walked 1/5 mile down a paved trail then started hearing all kinds of duck calls. Apparently the duck hunters didn't like us interrupting their hunt. I really did not expect to encounter any hunters in this park.

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If they are hunting right in the trail, they can't be that serious about their hobby. A trail is a trail for a reason.

I am not a hunter myself, but I do carry about 7 different animal calls in my caching bag. I use them for fun while i'm relaxing at ground zero, but I have used them in the past to mess around with hunters who show just how unhappy they are by my presence. By lakes and ponds I might take out a geese call, not to scare away the animals, but to make the hunters think there is pray in the area, when there probably isn't. The same with a buck grunt if in open woods. I even have a " dieing rabbit " call, which I havn't used yet.

I've only done that twice, and I don't even know if it had any effect on their hunt. Its not that I want to trash anybody's good time, its just that there is no reason to get pissed off because i'm hiking in " their " woods. pfffft

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not only will they be really unhappy to see you out there, it's just not safe. we had another kid killed in MN this year because some idiot hunter thought he was a deer.

 

Not worth it.

 

 

We drove an hour to one cache, and when we got there there was a hunter getting ready to go out, we of course turned around and went home.

 

stay out of the woods during hunting season.

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If they are hunting right in the trail, they can't be that serious about their hobby. A trail is a trail for a reason.

 

 

Yes, and deer are very much like people in one regard, they would rather walk down a trail than bushwhack through the brush.

I've yet to see a hunter who DOESN'T set up near a trail to wait for deer, be it a hiking trail or a game trail. An hours hike in it's doubtful anyone will hike by, unless they are Geocachers. :anitongue:

 

AS for your using game calls to mess with hunters, be aware there are three major ways that can backfire:

1, hunter shoots you, claims he thought you were an animal because he heard you.

2. Animal attacks you, thinking you are the animal you are imitatting.

3. Game warden arrests you for interfering with hunters, illegal in many states.

 

If I know an area is being hunted I stay out, period. Season only lasts a few weeks, you have the rest of the year to find caches there.

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"Hunting season" is pretty long, if you take into account all the different species and manner of hunting.

 

To avoid the outdoors for the whole thing would be months and months here in MN.

 

But, I do avoid the woods for the two weekends of firearms deer.

I worked one weekend, and the other I was busy anyways so it wasn't a big deal or nuisance to me.

 

For the rest of the late-fall and early-winter hunting season (small game, etc.) I either wear some article of blaze orange, or I walk around calling out "I'm not a squirrel, don't shoot please!" :laughing:

 

~K

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Trails are trails because they are trails. Deer use them. Porcupines use them. And oh yeah, cachers use them. If you do enough "deep woods" hiking, your eyes will eventually get used to picking up what my wife calls "Critter Superhighways" cutting right thru' the woods, all the bunnies and deer etc. all hopping along the same path. And that's where a smart hunter will likely make his stand. We went out caching again today and we kept to the smaller county owned parks this time...but I still wore blaze orange!

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Just do like I do:

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?LU...96-34a6c209b21f

 

Dress in blaze orange, grab a gun and a hunting license, your gps and join them!!

 

Nothing wrong with hunting game and playing a caching game!

 

You will be armed as well as they are and they won't bother you.

I found 2 of 3 caches while on that hunting trip. the snow got to deep to attempt the others.

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I pay attention to the opening and closing weekends of the General Gun hunts (deer) and the hog hunts (especially hog with dogs) and otherwise wear blaze orange and go ahead. Each different area (in Florida) has different hunting seasons.

 

Trails are an excellent place to shoot game, the deer like the trails too.

 

Hunting seasons in Florida start in October (archery, muzzleloading) and end with Spring Turkey late April. To stay out of the woods for the whole of hunting season would leave you with just the 5 hottest months of the year. No thanks.

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Well, here in Europe I don't even know when is the hunt season, but hunters are dangerous, they shoot over everything that moves. There's almost nothing to hunt, but there they go shooting everything, and that's quite dangerous, not only for geochaching but also to MTB ( I use to combine both ).

 

So, I won't stop my activities because hunters are on the field, well, try to chose caches in urban areas ......

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I'm told that most game animals are colourblind. Hunters could wear fluorescent orange, probably saving several lives per year, and not chase off the animals. So why do the ones I meet always dress as Rambo?

It is not the flourescent orange color that frightens game, it is the solid block of color, any color. Camouflage works by breaking up that solid block of color. That said, orange camouflage patterns are available, if you choose to use them. By the way, most birds are not color blind, including the wild turkey, which is a game species in the U.S.

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I'm told that most game animals are colourblind. Hunters could wear fluorescent orange, probably saving several lives per year, and not chase off the animals. So why do the ones I meet always dress as Rambo?

 

Depends on regulations (and how safe the hunters want to be I guess). Around here, hunters have to wear a blaze orange vest except during the bow hunting season.

 

As for animals being colourblind, that is not true for all game animals. Birds, for example, have a very good perception of colours. For the animals that are colourblind, it doesn't matter much what colour of clothes you wear, its all about the pattern. But if you go shopping for hunting clothes, you'll find very little choice in colours. That might explain why most hunters wear camo green :laughing:

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I pay attention to the opening and closing weekends of the General Gun hunts (deer) and the hog hunts (especially hog with dogs) and otherwise wear blaze orange and go ahead. Each different area (in Florida) has different hunting seasons.

 

Trails are an excellent place to shoot game, the deer like the trails too.

 

Hunting seasons in Florida start in October (archery, muzzleloading) and end with Spring Turkey late April. To stay out of the woods for the whole of hunting season would leave you with just the 5 hottest months of the year. No thanks.

 

I'm not advising staying out for the season, just stay out of the areas where you know hunters are currently at.

IE, you pull up to the trailhead and see an obvious hunting vehicle parked there, keep driving.

I've had people walk past me before, it's mildly annoying if it's just one person group, but I figure 10 minutes after they leave my chances of spotting a deer were right back up there.

The clown I regretted (jk) not shotting was the guy who walked by my stand, saw me up there, crossed the holler to the next ridge, less than 100 yards away, and then started shouting at the top of the lungs to his buddy god knows where. Lucky for him I was still a greenhorn at the time, I wouldn't stand for that kind of stupidity today. :laughing:

Course I haven't deer hunted in 6 years now so he's safe.

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As for animals being colourblind, that is not true for all game animals. Birds, for example, have a very good perception of colours. For the animals that are colourblind, it doesn't matter much what colour of clothes you wear, its all about the pattern. But if you go shopping for hunting clothes, you'll find very little choice in colours. That might explain why most hunters wear camo green :laughing:

 

Even deer are believed to see some shades of color, possibly as many as 7 variations.

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not only will they be really unhappy to see you out there, it's just not safe. we had another kid killed in MN this year because some idiot hunter thought he was a deer.

 

Not worth it.

 

 

We drove an hour to one cache, and when we got there there was a hunter getting ready to go out, we of course turned around and went home.

 

stay out of the woods during hunting season.

 

Do you have a link to this? Because the accidental shooting of non hunters by hunters is extremely rare in this country. I'm willing to bet that the victim was another hunter. The overwhelming majority of hunting accidents are hunters shooting their hunting partners or theirselves.

 

You are far more likely to die driving to the parking area than you are to be shot by a hunter. Wearing orange reduces the chances further.

Edited by briansnat
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I don't hesitate to go caching during hunting season, wear orange and be sensible. Being in the woods to hunt on public land with a gun gives you no more right to the public land than others. That is one of the drawbacks to hunting on public property. When I hunted alot in highschool, we always were on private property to avoid this. They can get offended all they want, they have no more claim to be there than anyone else.

 

I've run into one hunter while caching, he just asked me if I had seen anything, and having my gps, I was able to point him right in the direction I had seen the most sign. I was a free guide.

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not only will they be really unhappy to see you out there, it's just not safe. we had another kid killed in MN this year because some idiot hunter thought he was a deer.

 

Not worth it.

 

 

We drove an hour to one cache, and when we got there there was a hunter getting ready to go out, we of course turned around and went home.

 

stay out of the woods during hunting season.

 

Do you have a link to this? Because the accidental shooting of non hunters by hunters is extremely rare in this country. I'm willing to bet that the victim was another hunter. The overwhelming majority of hunting accidents are hunters shooting their hunting partners or theirselves.

 

You are far more likely to die driving to the parking area than you are to be shot by a hunter. Wearing orange reduces the chances further.

 

Minnesota teen killed while hunting

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Always sad when an accident like this happens. I have a cache in the National Forest near my home that I check while I am hunting. I frequently hunt in the National Forest. However, if I see a car on the road where I am planning on parking I will find another area. Its not worth the chance when you don't know where someone is hunting or how safe they are.

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A group went to attempt a night cache first thing before sunrise. Cache is located on public hunting grounds and it was bow season. There were a couple of hunters starting to head off into the woods. Talked with them a bit to see were they were headed and they asked us if we were going to look for that geo thing. They were nice enough to pack up and go hunt some where else.

 

Making game sounds is not a smart thing to do during hunting season. Some foolish or over zealous people are apt to shoot at sounds. Bobcats and coyotes have attacked turkey hunters while they were calling.

 

Hunting seasons here can run several months. Like with any cache, way the risk of attempting it against whatever the possible dangers.

 

This was no accident and did happen near Athens, Greece. Although the headline makes you wonder how the got to the field in the first place.

 

Greek farmer shoots dead hunters for trespassing on clover field

 

http://www.eitb24.com/portal/eitb24/notici...l&idioma=en

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As a Bow hunter myself I try and be as curtious as I can and not spoil some poor guys hunt who may be using a pressious vacation day to enjoy a legal activity and help manage game populations. I will go out more toward mid day or wait untill Sunday when no hunting is allowed in my state. The woods are there all year I can give up a few weeks for others to enjoy their sport.

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A friend and I went caching Schramm State Park in Nebraska a few days ago. Neither of us knew that hunting was allowed there, and we were both wearing green coats, so we didn't exactly stand out. After hearing several gunshots in the distance, we cautiously grabbed a few caches right off the main nature trails, but skipped the caches that required backwoods bushwhacking. Never saw any hunters, but we sure heard them, and bullets are nothing to argue with. They invariably win.

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Myself and Falcon Eddy on our most recent caching/hiking trip:

 

baafcec8-c8fd-46e8-b4bf-4314de692f95.jpg

 

As you can see, we were prepared. Still, even though this is redneck kill-em-all Oklahoma, we saw not one hunter. Granted, we were walking UP a mountain, which tends to discourage most rednecks, who prefer walking 25 feet from the truck to hunt.

It was a grand day. Don't let hunting season stop you, just go somewhere too remote for hunters.

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