Posted on 08/07/2007 7:33:14 AM PDT by HairOfTheDog
Riding during hunting season can be a bit scary:\
I’ve always been told that for bow and black powder hunters, the have to be really close to the target to hit it, so will “know” what they are shooting at. Rifle hunting they can just see something moving thru the trees and may shoot without really knowing what they are shooting at. That’s why it is more dangerous during rifle season, so I don’t ride at all then except maybe in the arena. I hope this is true:)
Becky
Good morning, anxious to see the pictures of the new horse.
I think it’s true the distances during rifle season make it more dangerous. Bow hunters take their shot at 25 yards. I don’t know about black powder, but rifles with scopes on them, they may shoot at things that are as much as 150-200 yards away. Not that they always should, but they’re tempted to.
Of course, in our country, and even yours, there aren’t many places where you can actually have that long of a field of view. Even rifle hunters have to get closer than that to find a deer. It’s not like my dad hunting deer in AZ where they can see for miles unobstructed. Still... there’s a chance that a hunter taking a shot and missing could send a round a loooooong ways into the woods if it manages to miss all the trees. It’s a long shot, so to speak, that you might be in the way of one of those shots, but that’s the risk.
That’s my problem with the modern costumes. I can’t imagine indians riding with essentially the best gear on their horses, carrying fishing baskets and buffalo hides. And all the rest. It’s a combination of a bunch of aspects of indian life all at once, all on the same horse. I’m surprised someone hasn’t figured out how to carry a tipi also. No one cured hides, went hunting, fishing, foraging and visiting all at the same time on the same horse.
You’d think Lady Godiva knew some self defense if she was going to ride around naked wouldn’t you? :)
Still, it would be kind of cool to ride a horse in dragging one of those bundles on long poles... whatever they are called. In traveling clothes of course :~)
I’ve always thought the biggest problem with this area around my home is that being so close to town, we get a lot of wannabee hunters. Hunters that don’t really know how to hunt...They go out to a place close, for one day, during the afternoon, and just shoot at anything that moves. We’ve had them before.
The guy next door that is obviously a real “hunter” I don’t worry so much about him. During the week days he’s at work except during rifle season. I think he takes that time off, because I hear him leaving early early in the morning everyday on his 4wheeler then.
He’s told me he doesn’t mind my riding thru there...gets the deer use to seeing horses and people there...am I bait:)? Even so tho, I won’t go back there during rifle season. The trees can be good shelter, but also can obscure the view, and then, you’re right, the missed shots have a slight risk.
I don’t know, hunting season rather pisses me off...this is after all a housing area, lots of kids run around out there. I’m not against hunting, I just don’t think for most of the hunters this is really a very safe area, altho there are a lot of deer and they do need to be thinned out...there is definitely two sides to it. I just get really aggravated when during hunting season the weather is great, but I can’t ride because of fear of getting shot:). I’m rather territorial about this area...this is “my” mountain, I spend more time out there then anyone around here...they should have to come and get my permission:)
Becky
I understand! It’s made difficult that it’s not really an area whose use is defined. On public land like Capital forest, there’s a trailhead and warnings and rules. People are told it’s hunting season and when to wear orange, they’re also warned to look out for other users. Your place, it’s not defined at all. More and more people come in and do what they want, but who owns it?
They're really bugs on safety (which I like a lot), a few people are really serious about getting a high score, but mostly it's for hobby shooters to get together and have a little fun.
Potluck supper next month -- I'm going to try to have something to wear before then. This past Saturday, I just wore my jeans, my old roping boots, a Western belt and shirt, my breaking chaps and my Aussie drover coat, along with the moth-eaten old Stetson that I bought when I worked on a ranch in Nebraska back in '67. The feather hat band was dead, dead, dead when I took it out - the feathers had just decomposed to dust - so I brushed it off and wore it without a hatband.
But I'd like to be more period. If I'm a lady marshal, I'll probably wear mostly man's western attire (one blurb on Ms. Miller said that she aspired to be another Calamity Jane, but on the side of law-and-order instead), if I'm an Indian scout, I'll have to delve into what would be correct for a Crow woman - but one fighting as a man, and on horseback, and as a scout for the U.S. Army. Lots of room for interpretation there. I have a photo of 4 scouts from Custer's unit, between the four of them they have just about every possible combination of Western and Indian attire.
You make a really good point that you would go out to do one thing at a time, not load everything on the horse for a whole week's work! It's not like the poor thing is a pickup truck and you can just keep everything in the back until needed . . .
Then they are UP in the trees, shooting DOWN, so that if they do miss, the bullet will travel quickly and harmlessly into the ground. THE most dangerous situation is where the hunter is down in a draw and shoots at a deer silhouetted on the skyline. If he misses, that darn bullet could go ANYwhere (another rule, 'know your backstop', that's more honored in the breach than the observance.)
Good luck on getting a costume ready. Those SASS events look like so much fun. At the show today, a friend was telling me about the clinic held yesterday for Mounted CAS. I wish I would have known and I sure would have went.
But the closest SASS mounted event is in FLORIDA!!!!! It's just not gonna happen, folks!
It does look COLD and gray there . . . it's a little chilly here (30s early in the morning, high 60s by afternoon) but bone dry. We sure do need rain!
What a gorgeous horse!!!! Whose horse is that?
Thanks! She is pretty cute and has a really nice way of going.
Woweee she is a knock out.
She’s gotgeous. She blooks like Okie except for that beautiful tail.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.