I personally think that should be a must for everyone no matter what the age. I have seen many idiots out there... most of them ignorant on things that they would have learned in a hunters safety course. The two biggest I see are bowhunters not announcing themselves when I walk by them. (You shouldn't be bowhunting during firearms or muzzleloader season, much less with camo on. Btw, deer don't notice hunters orange. They notice movement, not color.) The other is people shooting without having a backstop, or not bothering to think that other people are around and their bullets travel very far. It's gotten to the point where I no longer go out for firearms seasons on public lands except for way back in the national forests. I'm content with trying to my luck on 60 acres rather than the shenanigans that go on in crowded wildlife management areas and state forests...

"The two biggest I see are bowhunters not announcing themselves when I walk by them. (You shouldn't be bowhunting during firearms or muzzleloader season, much less with camo on. Btw, deer don't notice hunters orange. They notice movement, not color.)"

That's a rather high and mighty statement telling people what they should and should not do with a certain weapon when most of the time it's perfectly legal to hunt with a bow during firearms season even if you have to wear hunter orange while doing it! As far as your other statement, do you expect everyone to hunt out on a range so they have a good backstop? Common sense dictates to know what's in the area, but to say you need a backstop isn't going to happen 99% of the time when in the field hunting.

Believe it or not; In California at a certain time of the year, EVERYTHING is open for hunting at the same time !


BTW - with no blaze orange requirements !

Idiotic IMO and extremely dangerous !!!

Sorry, didn't mean to say bowhunters shouldn't hunt during firearms season, meant to say they should wear orange on public lands even if they aren't legally bound to do so. I do bowhunt myself, and have never understood why people would bowhunt on public lands during firearms season. In Maryland at least, bow season starts in mid september and ends during the end of january, so I never understood why people are out with a bow for the two weeks of firearms season on public lands during the end of november in maryland. As for a backstop, If you know hunters are in the area, as they will be in small wildlife management areas during deer season, you need to make sure that your shot does not go far beyond your intended target. I hunt in the applachian mountains, so the ridges are always there to supply a good enough backstop. You just need to know whats beyond your target, so that there is no chance a stray bullets gonna go into a house a mile away, or into livestock down the road. Plus, there is also the dense tree cover you won't find in the valleys that have been converted to farmland. I've never hunted true huge farmland, but from what I understand is that most people hunt from treestands here. So usually they're shooting at a downward slooping angle, so the bullet will enter the ground when it passes through a deer. The problems I've had in the past on public lands in the mountains is that a small minority of people will shoot with no regard as to what is around them. They take potshots at running deer, and I have shot deer in the past that have been wounded in the legs, and have seen many gutshot deer that were never recovered. I stopped going to public lands during firearms season when the whizzing around me got to be a little bit too bad. I'm not exaggerating, as much of the public land in maryland, even greenridge state forest at over 40,000 acres is a zoo on opening day. Even if you go far back, you will still be around a lot of people.