Full Blaze Orange Reminders

N

nater

Active member
Reminder that youth deer season (statewide, today though Sunday) means FULL BLAZE for pheasant hunting, per below. Shirt/jacket + hat (if wearing one). A hat alone isn't enough. Never a bad idea to throw some blaze on your dog too.

• All hunters and trappers in the field during the open firearms/muzzleloader deer seasons (see page 67 for season dates) must display blaze orange or pink on the visible portion of the person’s cap (if worn) and outer clothing above the waist, excluding sleeves and gloves.

Firearms or muzzleloader deer seasons include:
- Youth Season (October 16-19) (Statewide) / Early Antlerless
- Regular firearms (November 8-16, 8-23, or 8-30 - depending on the zone)
- Muzzleloader (November 29-December 14)
- Late CWD (December 19-21) (Specific zones only)

• When no firearms/muzzleloader deer season is open, a person may not take small game unless the visible portion of at least 1 article of clothing above the waist is blaze orange or pink. See exceptions noted below.
 
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Honestly if you're that worried about your dog getting shot, maybe it's just best to avoid hunting during deer firearms season. Although I don't think there's a ton of youth or early antlerless hunters out, there are a crap load of them during the main 9 day gun season in November. There is absolutely no way I'd even consider upland hunting during that time period. No amount of orange is enough when there's 400,000 hunters out there targeting other 4-legged quarry.
 
gim said:
Honestly if you're that worried about your dog getting shot, maybe it's just best to avoid hunting during deer firearms season. Although I don't think there's a ton of youth or early antlerless hunters out, there are a crap load of them during the main 9 day gun season in November. There is absolutely no way I'd even consider upland hunting during that time period. No amount of orange is enough when there's 400,000 hunters out there targeting other 4-legged quarry.
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Where *most* people hunt pheasants (down in the fields of South/SW MN, rather than more woodland areas of the state), it is easy to avoid hunting by deer hunters the same way you avoid hunting by other bird hunters. If someone is at the parking spot, move on. The deer hunters will often be there well before the bird hunters. The only thing I watch out for is when I'm on public land, near private land, since you don't know what is going on in the private land. Luckily, most of the lay of the land allows for spotting the orange hunters quite a ways off.

I put orange on my dog in the grouse woods, since there can be more hunters in a smaller area and so I can keep track of her. I put it on her in the fields mostly to keep track of her, but it also does reduce the small risk of someone wanting to shoot at a "stray" dog.

This is also another case where people with flushers don't have the same considerations as people with ranging pointers. If a dog is always 15-20 yards away from you, and doesn't stop and remain motionless in thick cover, then you probably know where they are at all times. That's not the case with pointers who are covering a ton of ground and can then stop and be completely motionless and quiet.

The game warden I talked to this week informed me that rifle hunting for the former shotgun-only zones (pheasant country) will be allowed fall of 2026. So there's that to consider too.
 
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MNMEAD said:
Whoops, forgot about that. Though if you measure my hat and vest I might meet the limit, not sure.
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If that's in reference to the 50% orange per square foot, it isn't averaged over the entire surface of the clothing. Every square foot has to have that percentage.
 
Glock said:
How does the game warden go about confirming that a piece of clothing meets these requirements?
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Total guess here...

It probably depends on the person what they are going to do if you are wearing a vest with a lot of brown/gray. But if they want to confirm it, I am guessing they would use a tape measure. If it is camo, that would be tougher. But for most vests that have square sections of non-orange, probably not that hard.
 
I have a friend who was verbally warned several years ago about this during the youth/early antlerless season. They were rocking their normal orange hat and upland vest. The upland vest had orange shoulder patches and an orange back pouch. Wasn't good enough.

You need full blaze orange above the waist and an orange hat. What deer hunters wear.
 
I used to put a road crew type orange and reflective strips thing over my regular vest when bird hunting during deer firearm season. Real pain. It is hard to find a "regular" vest that has the pockets the way I like them and large enough for all the junk I carry.

Last year I switched over to this for the whole season. The pockets are a little smaller than my previous vest, but it still worked for me. If the inner pockets (behind the shell pockets) were a couple inches deeper, it would be perfect for me. If the manufacturer sees this, hint hint.

Alps Outdoorz Upland Game Vest

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When the game warden and I were chatting, and the topic of orange during youth deer season came up, I grabbed my vest and he said that was following the regulations. I haven't measured, but if it is off at the top/back, it would be barely off. I did think I could put a strip of orange duct tape up there and definitely be fine.
 
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Limitless said:
I used to put a road crew type orange and reflective strips thing over my regular vest when bird hunting during deer firearm season. Real pain. It is hard to find a "regular" vest that has the pockets the way I like them and large enough for all the junk I carry.

Last year I switched over to this for the whole season. The pockets are a little smaller than my previous vest, but it still worked for me. If the inner pockets (behind the shell pockets) were a couple inches deeper, it would be perfect for me. If the manufacturer sees this, hint hint.

Alps Outdoorz Upland Game Vest

View attachment 11761

View attachment 11762

When the game warden and I were chatting, and the topic of orange during youth deer season came up, I grabbed my vest and he said that was following the regulations. I haven't measured, but if it is off at the top/back, it would be barely off. I did think I could put a strip of orange duct tape up there and definitely be fine.
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How could that not be enough??
 
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