The blaze orange and hunter education requirements that have gradually become an accepted part of the landscape for deer hunters in Mississippi were inspired by scores of tragic accidental shootings over the years. As new generations of hunters enter the field, generations removed from first-hand memory of safety’s bad old days, stressing the reasons for orange and education becomes more important.
Eighty people shot and 34 killed sounds like a report from a war zone, but those figures come from one Mississippi deer season. Just one. According to the state, those were the totals from the 1972-1973 season. At that time, the state’s deer populations had begun to expand rapidly and hunter participation had quickly followed suit.
With more people hunting, especially those who may have spent a lifetime chasing small game but who had little or no experience with rifles, shotgun slugs or buckshot, the table was set for bad things to happen. The 1972-73 run was the worst on record, but it was no fluke by any means. The season before had seen 56 hunters shot and 23 killed. The season after, 75 shot and 15 killed.
First steps to safety
Reacting to the scope of tragedy seen in 1972-73, the legislature passed a law requiring deer hunters to wear at least an orange hat, then expanded that requirement to 500 square inches of unbroken orange a few years later, an act that met with some resistance since part of every hunter’s goal is to remain unseen by whatever they’re after. Biologists have demonstrated deer to be effectively color blind as we would think of it, though. They say deer see blaze orange as a shade of gray, and results have borne that out. During archery-only seasons still today, bow hunters must wear full camouflage because of the necessity of hiding their profile at very close ranges. Although not alarming to deer because of its hue, the solid blaze orange doesn’t hide the human outline. The trade-off for safety when gunpowder is in play was one that had to be made, and that’s when the accidental shooting numbers declined dramatically.
In 1987, the requirement that anyone hunting in Mississippi born after Jan. 1, 1972 show proof of passing an approved hunter education course before purchasing a hunting license became law.
Together, the orange and education requirements have made the deer woods much safer, reducing the annual accidental shooting incident rate to the low single digits, but it’s every hunter’s responsibility to remain vigilant still, because even one accidental shooting is far too many.
Hunters new to the game must pass a class before being allowed to buy a license, but the opportunities to take that class are handy and varied. A number of chances to do so are offered in every county each fall. Some require a full day on site, and others are geared toward students who’ve already knocked out the majority of hunter education’s required instruction time online in advance.
Anyone born after Jan. 1, 1972, must complete a hunter education course before buying a license in Mississippi, anyone 16 or older must have a license to hunt, and anyone 12 to 15 must have a hunter education certificate to hunt alone, so the course is a necessity. Most states require those buying licenses to have a hunter education card, non-residents included. Mississippi’s hunter education card is accepted in other states, many of which set their date of birth requirement somewhat earlier than Mississippi’s. Missouri requires such certification for anyone born after Jan. 1, 1967. Colorado requires it of anyone born after Jan. 1, 1949.
The Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks offers the course free of charge at locations across the state in 10-hour sessions that include range firing. In recent years, the state has also begun to accept the fully online completion of the course as well. There is a fee associated with the online course, but it’s only payable once. Students may take and retake the course until they pass it.
The course, either online or in person, is thorough and demanding, and does a good job of supplying a base level of safety and of understanding in the hunting world, both from a consumption and a biological standpoint.
Treestand safety
When he hit the ground at the base of the tree, Jon Cunningham broke 12 ribs and many other bones, injured countless internal organs, lost the use of his left hand and, ultimately, lost his career. Still, he counts himself lucky.
Through the years as an Oklahoma game warden, Cunningham had certainly seen enough to know what could happen in a treestand-related fall, yet it took falling himself to realize the ultimate truth.
“It can happen to anybody,” he said. “It happened to me.”
“I called my son and said, ‘I’m hurt really bad,’” Cunningham says. Rescuers loaded him onto the rack of a 4-wheeler and transported him through the woods on a ride he terms “the most painful thing in my life” to the nearest place a helicopter could land. Years later, the injuries still plague him.
“I lost the use of my left hand, so the doctors won’t release me to go back to work,” he said. “I have to retire, through I’m lucky to get to retire. It cost me my career, but it could have cost me my life.”
In areas where treestands are commonly used, falls from them have generally become the most frequent type of hunting accident. Most hunters wear safety harnesses when initially hanging stands and then when hunting from them, but common practices often find hunters climbing while unattached, getting into the stand, hooking onto the tree while hunting, detaching from the tree when done and climbing back down unattached.
Mind the gap
“It turns out that 86 percent of all treestand falls happen in transition,” says Jay Everett, with Hunter Safety System. “Investigations find that, in 82 percent of treestand falls, the hunters were wearing a harness at the time, just one that wasn’t connected to the tree when they fell.”
Hunter Safety System has made safety harnesses for years. Now they’re promoting a solution that will keep a climber secure from the time they leave the ground until they’re ultimately back down. Called a lifeline, the product consists of a main line that’s attached above the stand. The line hangs alongside the tree and is tied off at bottom and top. Sliding along this main line is a Prusik knot with a carabiner that clips into the top strap of the hunter’s safety vest. The knot is a friction hitch that, if pulled at all by the tag attached to the carabiner, as in a fall, locks in tightly. Hunter Safety System sells the lifeline for lock-on-style treestand users for about $39. A model designed to keep climbing stand users safe runs about $20.
To learn more about Mississippi’s online hunter education course, visit hunter-ed.com/Mississippi. The site is compatible with tablets and smart phones as well as traditional computers. The company providing this service also does boating, bowhunting, off-roading and snowmobiling safety courses online as well. Learn more about them at kalkomey.com.
To find dates and registration information for the traditional course, visit education.mdwfp.com.
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