DEFRAZZLEHEIM

No, most of the time I do not wear hunter orange. Why? I hunt the wilderness areas in the Adirondack Park and rarely see a human being except the one or two people I hunt with. Also, there is no NYS law that mandates hunter orange in the Adirondacks. When I hunt I am looking for game animals and I can tell you that a human being does not look at all like any game animal. We should be training our hunters to IDENTIFY YOUR TARGET AT LEAST 3 TIMES and THEN SHOOT YOUR WEAPON! People are shot by people who are; Impatient, Anxious, and Untrained. They lack the discipline to validate their target and the path of their weapons projectile. I have passed the German Hunting exam and spent several years hunting there. Do you know what the acceptable attire is? Muted browns or greens. Hunters shooting other hunters is unheard of. It is really unfortunate that we have a percentage of hunters in New York State and other states that although in the minority, cause the majority of hunting related accidents. How do you stop this insanity? We should increase the licensing requirements with an expanded safety education curriculum that lasts longer than a couple of hours of classroom training. Show some reality films and pictures of what happens when a projectile encounters a human body. A continued enforcement and expansion of physical areas that require blaze orange will only educate hunters that a non-orange wearing entity may be OK to shoot. Target identification is a MUST, hence even in areas mandating blaze orange, one STILL needs to identify ones target! The focus must be on IDENTIFY YOUR TARGET not Identify Blaze Orange. In closing, I occasionally do wear some blaze orange when I know that unknown hunters could be in my area - WHY? because I don't know what training they had nor their mental capability to properly identify targets. For those that look for blaze orange when they hunt.......please don't hunt near me.

My wife and I bought 4 acres on a dead end road in 1993 and over the years have built our retirement home and a garage with an upstairs guest room and bath. The best part is that it is in the Adirondack Park near Whiteface Mountain. My 4 acres borders about 150,000 acres of primitive and wilderness land. During hunting season, or for that matter anytime, I very rarely see anyone else.