I have heard the argument often that hunter orange clothing saves lives. I have also heard it stated that the orange clothing has no or very little significant effect on hunting accidents. Most everyone agrees that required hunter education classes have made the biggest positive impact on hunting safety.
I began investigating data from the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and the Maine Recreational Safety office. Thanks to everyone at MDIFW and the Recreational Safety office for helping me retrieve the data I was looking for.
My goal was to show marked changes with the implementation of specific measures to improve the safety of hunters and the general public during hunting season. I decided to put most of my focus on the deer hunting season as that is by far the one time when the most hunters are in the woods, the one season where hunter orange clothing is required and the one time of the year when any hunting incident seems to garner the attention of the public.
First let me say that the statistics I have begin back in 1940. From 1940 until 1963 the only thing that was tracked were hunting incidents and within that fatalities and non-fatalities. Beginning in 1964 more specific data was collected including big game, small game, waterfowl, upland bird seasons and non-hunting incidents. For a look at the complete statistics, click this link. (PDF)
There are some dates that are extremely important that mark the year when laws were enacted to improve hunter safety in Maine. The first earmark was 1973. This was the first season hunters were required to wear hunter orange that was visible from 360 degrees. The accepted norm for this was a hat and with the objections of many, hunters began to wear hats in bright orange colors.
The arguments ranged from deer could see the bright color a mile away to it wouldn’t make a bit of difference in hunting related accidents. At a later time (I have not been able to get anyone at Rec. Safety or MDIFW to confirm the date), hunters became required to wear an orange hat and orange that would cover the major part of the torso, interpreted to be a vest. This has since been refined to include the provision for a percentage of orange and camouflage, as found in the MDIFW law book.
Firearms Season on Deer: Anyone who hunts any species with a firearm or a crossbow during any firearms season on deer (also on Youth Deer Day) must wear two articles of hunter orange clothing. One article must be a solid-colored hunter orange hat; the other must cover a major portion of the torso, such as a jacket, vest, coat or poncho and must be a minimum of 50% hunter orange in color (camouflage).
The next major date occurred in 1986 when the requirement to take a hunter safety course took effect. While the major focus of this article is deer hunting with firearms, I must explain that the hunting incidents include guns, bows, etc. With that said, I remind you that in 1988 trapper safety courses were required and in 1989 bow hunting safety courses were also required.
One more note before we look more closely at the figures. During the moose hunting season in Maine, hunters hunting any species are required to wear one article of solid colored hunter orange.
Overall hunting incidents I will break down showing any changes after 1973 when hunter orange clothing was required and 1986 after firearms hunting education classes took effect. From 1940 until 1972 a total of 1454 hunting related incidents occurred. This averages out to 44 per year. From 1973 until 1985 there were 406 incidents, averaging 31.2 per year. From 1986 through 2005, we recorded 249 hunting incidents averaging 12.45 per year.
As you can see, the average number of incidents dropped some after the implementation of orange hats but dropped dramatically after the requirement of hunter safety classes. But this may not tell a completely accurate story. Let’s examine closer.
If we look at only the stats for big game hunting, which includes deer hunting and the wearing of orange, we see a slightly different picture. The breakout of these more specific statistics didn’t begin happening until 1966 but let’s look beginning then. Just for big game hunting the total incidents beginning in 1966 until 1972 were 204, averaging 29.14 per season. Between 1973 and 1985, 211 incidents averaging 16.23 occurred and from 1986 through 2005, 123 incidents averaging 6.15 per year.
When looking at these stats with big game hunts only, we can see a sizable drop in incidents that didn’t show up looking at all the data. This would indicate that small game, upland bird and waterfowl hunters attributed to a larger percentage of hunting incidents before the onset of hunter education.
If we look at stats for upland bird hunters and waterfowl and small game we can more easily see the marked results of better safety after hunter education. From 1966 – 1972 non-big game hunting incidents totaled 114 averaging 16.28 per season, between 1973 and 1985, 177 incidents averaging 13.62 per year and from 1986 – 2005, 129 incidents averaging 6.45 per year.
Once again we can see that without any factor for hunter orange, there was very little change in recorded incidents after 1973. After hunter education classes began, the number of incidents dropped by over half.
You will have to look at the complete page of statistics and you can see other trends. The data is listed to show what type of incident occurred which can tell us more specific information. What I derived from this is that it appears that hunter orange does have an impact in reducing hunting related incidents when target identification is critical.
When you examine hunting incidents resulting from “mistaken for game”, prior to hunter orange there were an average of nearly 11 per season. After hunter orange and before safety classes, the average dropped to 4.69 a year. It dropped again after the onset of hunter education to just over 2 incidents per year.
It is probably safe to say that hunter orange will do nothing about let’s say a self-inflicted wound but certainly has helped when it comes to target identification. One the other hand, hunter education has help dramatically to cut down on self-inflicted wounds.
While the fact that hunter orange improves the safety of hunting, I think these statistics show that nothing can beat the results of hunter education. Looking right across the board, it shows that no matter what you’re hunting and with what weapon, hunter safety education has had the biggest impact on safety.
Tom Remington
