Sir, your comment about bad beer offends me! That being said, when I'm feeling lucky I've been known to take a cold one with me to the stand and enjoy it while field dressing an animal, but the gun is always unloaded and I don't usually have it finished by the time my Grandpa shows up to load the deer on the tractor.

I sir am greatly offended.... hey everyone prefers their own different beer i for one am a bud guy but i dont mind a Canadian or Kokanee every once in a while.

There are always a few bad apples in the bunch...Education is the key to protect our image.[:@]

I will NOT go out in the woods if someone is drinking or has been drinking. There is no reason to drink when your hunting or before you go out. Hek with all the shootings every year i read in the papers about a guy getting killed when both hunters were sober. Just imagine everything is about 20 times worse when theres a drunk in the woods. But i totally agree with hunt sober.

i personally believe that hunting pictures should not include beer in them. under any circumstance.

I believe that goes back to the stereotype that hunters are just a bunch of drunk rednecks.[:@]

NYhunter863 made a really good point earlier on this thread. Image matters. Posing in camo with beer cans and guns just perpetuates a stereotype that hunters really don't need. I know everyone thinks that it is just a picture they will have as a keepsake, but pictures do get posted on forums, and the anti-hunting faction does find them.

It's just as easy to put the beer cans away and pose. It also protrays hunters and hunting in a much better light.

well put gunslingergirl. i couldnt find the words.

At first, I agreed with you and felt that all hunters were being stereotyped because of a relatively small group of morons with guns/bows. But the more I thought aboutit, the more I realized that many people in the general public already take it for granted that hunters drink, sometimes before, and usually after a hunt. Furthermore, some actually do hit the woods intoxicated. That's what's truly disturbing, not aroad sign with a PSA.

I'm now worried less about the public getting the wrong idea about hunters from the sign and more worried about actual hunters drinking and making us all look fools. If you don't drink and hunt, then that sign's really not for you. Just take it as a reminder to set the right example for your fellow sportsmen. That's the only thing that will really foster positive opinions abouthunt safety.

Oh, and I had a pair of Juenglings after last Friday's hunt. After the deer were dressed and dropped at the butcher, the rifle was unloaded and cleaned, and I was in my lounging sweats and far away from any and all cameras. Seems prettty common sense to me.

Aught Six, sadly you are right that the general public probably already thinks that hunters drink before, during and after the hunt. Some of them also think hunters are uneducated, uncouth rednecks who can barely remember not to wipe their noses on their shirt sleeves.

Public perception needs to be changed. All hunters need to remember that they are ambassadors for the hunting lifestyle. The only way to change public perception is one person at a time. The more hunters that donate excess game that they take to food banks, that spend time teaching others the safe way to hunt, and who work to be good citizens, the better the public face of hunting becomes.

I see a lot of posts about the future of hunting and what might happen. One way to help make sure that future is a good one is to present the best image of hunting we can present. If everyone keepsthis in mind, we can transform a lot of people who approve of hunting but are apathetic about supporting hunting into strong supporters of the hunting lifestyle.