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Hunting Season and Geocaching


Mike & Jess

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Just a quick friendly reminder, it's hunting season. :)

 

When out hunting for caches (non-lamp post caches), be sure to wear your bright orange clothing.

I also strongly encourage to carry a bear bell on yourself and your 4 legged caching partner if you have one.

 

This is what the one I carry looks like. It has a magnet in the mesh bag which does silent the bell when not needed.

BearBell.jpg

 

They are annoying, but remember, deer and other wild game don't wear a bell. Pretty hard to be mistaken for wild game if you're wearing one.

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Hunting season is part of the reason I archived one of my hides recently. Permission was the main issue but hunting was also a concern as the area supposedly is used for bowhunting tours/lessons.

 

I put a warning in the description but after thinking about it, I know of people who glance at descriptions on their GPSr without fully reading the listing.

 

I'd hate for someone to be mistakenly injured or killed even though we play this game at our own risk.

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Just a quick friendly reminder, it's hunting season. :)

 

When out hunting for caches (non-lamp post caches), be sure to wear your bright orange clothing.

I also strongly encourage to carry a bear bell on yourself and your 4 legged caching partner if you have one.

 

- weird double post thingey...

 

We temp disable our hides in game lands during the very busy rifle deer season and remind people to have a blaze vest (a requirement) when hiking/caching during other seasons.

- But a bell ringing as you're walking in the woods here will probably get you fined (or worse) for harassing the hunters.

Our Game Commission owned game lands are funded by hunters and leasing oil & timber rights, not by tax dollars. We are guests there.

Many hunters have a bell on their bird dog when hunting fields though.

Edited by cerberus1
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Just a quick friendly reminder, it's hunting season. :)

 

When out hunting for caches (non-lamp post caches), be sure to wear your bright orange clothing.

I also strongly encourage to carry a bear bell on yourself and your 4 legged caching partner if you have one.

Yes, please take appropriate precautions during hunting season.

 

And, yes, also be bear aware and know how to avoid them.

 

There's a mixture of opinions about the effectiveness of bear bells. Many tourists buy them. Many locals and back-country veterans ignore them. There's been a little testing. Wearing bear bells probably doesn't hurt, unless they give you a false sense of security and cause you to be less cautious in bear country.

 

Edit: I see that the OP recommends bear bells to alert hunters to your presence, which makes sense.

Edited by CanadianRockies
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Just a quick friendly reminder, it's hunting season. :)

 

When out hunting for caches (non-lamp post caches), be sure to wear your bright orange clothing.

I also strongly encourage to carry a bear bell on yourself and your 4 legged caching partner if you have one.

 

- weird double post thingey...

 

We temp disable our hides in game lands during the very busy rifle deer season and remind people to have a blaze vest (a requirement) when hiking/caching during other seasons.

- But a bell ringing as you're walking in the woods here will probably get you fined (or worse) for harassing the hunters.

Our Game Commission owned game lands are funded by hunters and leasing oil & timber rights, not by tax dollars. We are guests there.

Many hunters have a bell on their bird dog when hunting fields though.

Interesting. It is totally different up here.

The majority of hunting areas up here are generally crown land (government owned). The land, trails and forests we enjoy is shared usage and not restricted to one group or another.

You might upset a hunter if you happen to walk by his tree stand with a bell on, but he'd be much more upset if there was a mistake made and a shot fired.

 

Just a quick friendly reminder, it's hunting season. :)

 

When out hunting for caches (non-lamp post caches), be sure to wear your bright orange clothing.

I also strongly encourage to carry a bear bell on yourself and your 4 legged caching partner if you have one.

Yes, please take appropriate precautions during hunting season.

 

And, yes, also be bear aware and know how to avoid them.

 

There's a mixture of opinions about the effectiveness of bear bells. Many tourists buy them. Many locals and back-country veterans ignore them. There's been a little testing. Wearing bear bells probably doesn't hurt, unless they give you a false sense of security and cause you to be less cautious in bear country.

I rarely, if ever use a bear bell for avoiding bears. My two primary uses for them are for hunting season (avoid shots) and to attach to my food bag (bear bag) while back country backpack camping.

 

I have come up to bears on the mtn bike with a bear bell attached. An exit stratagy for them (there was two) and myself was quickly identified and we went out own ways. They are only as efficient as the distance their sound will travel.

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Funny that I saw this today. I was out cache stalking this morning (dove season started this month) and saw many shotgun shells. Mind you, this was in a public park where no one should be dove hunting, but clearly they were. Guess I better switch out my camo backpack. :-/

 

Since I don't live in bear country I've never heard of a bear bell - thanks for the tip.

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Funny that I saw this today. I was out cache stalking this morning (dove season started this month) and saw many shotgun shells. Mind you, this was in a public park where no one should be dove hunting, but clearly they were. Guess I better switch out my camo backpack. :-/

 

Since I don't live in bear country I've never heard of a bear bell - thanks for the tip.

 

They sell them in most major department stores or outfitter's store. They are give or take $5 here (Ontario Canada).

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Just a quick friendly reminder, it's hunting season. :)

 

Yes it is, that means less time for geocaching for many of us hunters. :laughing: It's time to use my GPS for a different sport, like marking tree stands and ground blinds. :ph34r: I'm all for safty first too, and you have as much of a right to hunt a geocache in the woods as I do a Possum. That's the original night cache, look for them beady glowing eyes in a tree. :D

 

Thanks for the reminder. :)

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Another good suggestion that bears repeating is for cachers to avoid the very early morning or late afternoon "prime hunting hours". In the U.S., many hunting seasons have legal shooting hours of 30 minutes before sunrise (or at sunrise) to sunset; the busier hunting times being the first and last couple of hours of each day. Yes, some hunters will be out all day, but waiting until light conditions are more favorable gives both the hunter and cacher a better chance of identifying the potential for an unfortunate interaction (truck parked in an odd spot, someone already out in the field, someone walking down the path...) and the chance to make a wise decision. Be safe ya'll!

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Funny that I saw this today. I was out cache stalking this morning (dove season started this month) and saw many shotgun shells.

 

I found a geocache once that used a shotgun shell as a container.

Interesting idea... I have 3 different gauged shotguns. I am envisioning a "Shotgun" series; caches titled "12 gauge", "16 Gauge", ".410 bore".

 

Back on topic. I have heard that bear bells don't work well for bears because it is a constant sound that they will start to hear very quietly, then gradualy getting louder. Appearantly this does not scare them. From what I have heard, it is better to just keep talking with others in your group (or yourself if you are alone). When hikeing by myself in bear country I usualy sing quite loude the entire time. So far I havn't seen a bear, so it must work (Anecdotal fallacy alert).

 

I will concure with the 0.5 h before/after sunrise/sunset rules. That is the same here in Alberta. Really, at this time of year, you can't see very well before/after that anyway. And it only gets worse as the winter solstace gets closer.

 

You know, we have so much "hunting land" around here (approx. 60% of the province (148,000 sq.miles; the size on Montana) is "crown land" i.e. public, plus farm land where permission is usualy granted for hunting), that the hunter density throughout most of the province is fairly low. As long as you don't dress up as an animal, you should be ok; just be aware of your sourandings. There are a few exeptions to this. Some areas tend to consentrate hunters. Phesent release sites are one such location. You definatly should not go off the road/parking areas there without wearing blaze orange.

Edited by Andronicus
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Funny that I saw this today. I was out cache stalking this morning (dove season started this month) and saw many shotgun shells.

 

I found a geocache once that used a shotgun shell as a container.

I have one in play and more to make. I use a 3 inch magnum and the brass from a target load that has a deep powder cup, knock out the primers and epoxy hair pins in the holes and attach the two parts together with fishing line. They make nice containers for small geocaches.

I also would have to agree with hours that I would geocache in a area where hunters are present. Most of us that hunt deer are already in the woods concealed waiting for game to start moving at day-break and late evenings. I would go with the blaze orange over the bells, we don't all hear well. :(

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... I would go with the blaze orange over the bells, we don't all hear well. :(

Either hunters can have hearing damage from fireing their guns without hearing protection, or they have hearing protection and can't here the bell...

Have you ever seen someone hunting with hearing protection? I haven't, unless you count those volume limited hearing aid things.

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Similar situation here in the "Emerald Triangle" It is Mary Jane harvest season.

 

Hunting season and Mary Jane harvest time are dangerous times to be in the boonies.

That's exactly right. I'm more afraid of the farmers than I am of the hunters. :laughing: Even when we are ATV riding in the summer and fall months it's best to stay on the trails, and my Artic Cat makes more noise than Bear bells. That's another thing about hunting and geocaching. You need a permit to place a geocache on NFS property and it must be near an established trail, and when you hunt Deer you need permits and are not allowed to discharge a firearm within a certin distance of an established trail. I don't hunt nothing but geocaches on NFS property. On private property I'm not concerned because we normally have written permission to be there, unlike geocaching. :rolleyes: I say that because when I first started geocaching and visited this site I found one listed on my property less than a 1/10th of a mile from my house that had been there for over two years and I knew nothing about it. :)

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Just a quick friendly reminder, it's hunting season. :)

 

When out hunting for caches (non-lamp post caches), be sure to wear your bright orange clothing.

I also strongly encourage to carry a bear bell on yourself and your 4 legged caching partner if you have one.

 

- weird double post thingey...

 

We temp disable our hides in game lands during the very busy rifle deer season and remind people to have a blaze vest (a requirement) when hiking/caching during other seasons.

- But a bell ringing as you're walking in the woods here will probably get you fined (or worse) for harassing the hunters.

Our Game Commission owned game lands are funded by hunters and leasing oil & timber rights, not by tax dollars. We are guests there.

Many hunters have a bell on their bird dog when hunting fields though.

Very good post. In the past I've seen posts that seem to indicate the hunters are somehow interfering with our game. In PA the Game Lands are one large category of public land which has no fee or permit system attached for geocaching. As Cerberus1 stated, these large parcels of land are NOT purchased with tax dollars and most people in the state have had no part in paying for the purchase of them. In spite of that, most of them are open to the public for activities such as hiking, horse back riding, mountain biking and geocaching. I have seen some posted against bikes and horses due to damage to the trail systems. So, if you're geocaching in PA, give the hunters a break and do your Game Land hunting on Sundays during the main rifle deer season.

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Since I don't live in bear country I've never heard of a bear bell - thanks for the tip.

If you hear LOTS of bells, don't worry -- that bear is already full and likely is not hungry anymore!

haha, nice

 

... I would go with the blaze orange over the bells, we don't all hear well. :(

Either hunters can have hearing damage from fireing their guns without hearing protection, or they have hearing protection and can't here the bell...

Have you ever seen someone hunting with hearing protection? I haven't, unless you count those volume limited hearing aid things.

I was suggesting both blazing orange and the bell.

Most hunters I know don't loose hearing in both ears.

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Funny that I saw this today. I was out cache stalking this morning (dove season started this month) and saw many shotgun shells.

 

I found a geocache once that used a shotgun shell as a container.

Back on topic. I have heard that bear bells don't work well for bears because it is a constant sound that they will start to hear very quietly, then gradualy getting louder. Appearantly this does not scare them. From what I have heard, it is better to just keep talking with others in your group (or yourself if you are alone). When hikeing by myself in bear country I usualy sing quite loude the entire time. So far I havn't seen a bear, so it must work (Anecdotal fallacy alert).

I don't live in bear country, so perhaps my understanding is wrong but I didn't think the purpose of a bear bell was to scare the bears, but to alert them to your presence. Walking quietly through the woods and surprising a bear is a recipe for disaster. If a bear knows you're there before you get too close, he's alot more likely to turn and flee from you. If you're 10 feet from him before he see's you...well, you can only hope he'll turn and flee at that point.

 

I have one cache that is in a WMA - which I post warning during hunting season. I was thinking about tempory dis the cache until Jan. I like to respect the hunters and don't want to intrude on their fun. I believe my area disallows hunting on Sundays which is a great time to cache.

 

That's usually the best policy and alot of cache owners around here do that as well. Do your best to get along with the hunting crowd. The money that comes in from hunting/hunting licenses talks pretty loudly. It usually dwarfs anything any other outdoor recreation brings in. If the hunting crowd gets fed up with geocachers disturbing their hunting, a few choice complaints to the right people can make things ugly for geocaching.

 

I try to avoid caching where I believe there will be hunters. I can cache all year round. Hunters get limited seasons to chase their prey.

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I don't live in bear country, so perhaps my understanding is wrong but I didn't think the purpose of a bear bell was to scare the bears, but to alert them to your presence. Walking quietly through the woods and surprising a bear is a recipe for disaster. If a bear knows you're there before you get too close, he's alot more likely to turn and flee from you. If you're 10 feet from him before he see's you...well, you can only hope he'll turn and flee at that point.

You hit the nail on the head!

Most likely, if the bear knows you are coming, you will never see him -- he is already gone (speaking of black bears)! You cannot imagine how quickly (and quietly) a large animal can melt into the foliage. You've got to see it once to understand.

 

Normally, a black bear isn't a big problem, they are gonna run when they see/notice you. Two seasons are tricky. Cub season and breeding season -- either time, you are intruding and they just may take offense to that.

Cub season is long, breeding season is relatively short. Making noise (bells or otherwise) helps to insure that encounters are held to a minimum.

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From a sign along a trail in the west.

 

Leave the area if you come across bear scat and it contains bear bells.

 

That's how you tell the difference between black bear and grizzley bear scat - black bear scat is smallish and usually contains berries. Grizzley bear scat contains bear bells and tastes like pepper spray.

That right there made my day (and made me laugh out loud).

 

 

I don't live in bear country, so perhaps my understanding is wrong but I didn't think the purpose of a bear bell was to scare the bears, but to alert them to your presence. Walking quietly through the woods and surprising a bear is a recipe for disaster. If a bear knows you're there before you get too close, he's alot more likely to turn and flee from you. If you're 10 feet from him before he see's you...well, you can only hope he'll turn and flee at that point.

You hit the nail on the head!

Most likely, if the bear knows you are coming, you will never see him -- he is already gone (speaking of black bears)! You cannot imagine how quickly (and quietly) a large animal can melt into the foliage. You've got to see it once to understand.

 

Normally, a black bear isn't a big problem, they are gonna run when they see/notice you. Two seasons are tricky. Cub season and breeding season -- either time, you are intruding and they just may take offense to that.

Cub season is long, breeding season is relatively short. Making noise (bells or otherwise) helps to insure that encounters are held to a minimum.

Double quoted the two of you as you are both correct. As for large animals melting into the bush... If you ever get to see a Huge moose dart into the bush with a full rack tucked across his shoulders.. That is amazing to see.

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From a sign along a trail in the west.

 

Leave the area if you come across bear scat and it contains bear bells.

 

That's how you tell the difference between black bear and grizzley bear scat - black bear scat is smallish and usually contains berries. Grizzley bear scat contains bear bells and tastes like pepper spray.

 

On a recent trip to Alaska we saw an example of this first hand. Our guide pointed it out as we walked down the trail to the platform where we were able to watch bear fishing for salmon; just like you see on Nat Geo!

 

bbb2fb09-409f-47c1-b3cf-5683afd323a9.jpg?rnd=0.5142618

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Funny that I saw this today. I was out cache stalking this morning (dove season started this month) and saw many shotgun shells.

 

I found a geocache once that used a shotgun shell as a container.

Back on topic. I have heard that bear bells don't work well for bears because it is a constant sound that they will start to hear very quietly, then gradualy getting louder. Appearantly this does not scare them. From what I have heard, it is better to just keep talking with others in your group (or yourself if you are alone). When hikeing by myself in bear country I usualy sing quite loude the entire time. So far I havn't seen a bear, so it must work (Anecdotal fallacy alert).

I don't live in bear country, so perhaps my understanding is wrong but I didn't think the purpose of a bear bell was to scare the bears, but to alert them to your presence. Walking quietly through the woods and surprising a bear is a recipe for disaster. If a bear knows you're there before you get too close, he's alot more likely to turn and flee from you. If you're 10 feet from him before he see's you...well, you can only hope he'll turn and flee at that point.

You are correct. But my point is that I have been told that a bear doesn't nesesarly noticed a bell because it gradualy gettes louder. This may be wrong however. It is just what I have been told.

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I don't live in bear country, so perhaps my understanding is wrong but I didn't think the purpose of a bear bell was to scare the bears, but to alert them to your presence. Walking quietly through the woods and surprising a bear is a recipe for disaster. If a bear knows you're there before you get too close, he's alot more likely to turn and flee from you. If you're 10 feet from him before he see's you...well, you can only hope he'll turn and flee at that point.

You are correct. But my point is that I have been told that a bear doesn't nesesarly noticed a bell because it gradualy gettes louder. This may be wrong however. It is just what I have been told.

This test seems to indicate that at least some bears simply ignore bear bells, for whatever reason.

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