Starting Monday, you're going to want to wear bright orange in much of the Blue Hills, because hunting arrows hurt like the dickens
By adamg on Fri, 11/12/2021 - 12:24pm
The Friends of the Blue Hills alerts us that DCR will be allowing limited bow-and-arrow hunting in roughly half of the Blue Hills Reservation starting Monday and running through Dec. 2.
General public access for recreation will NOT be restricted in those areas in which hunting will take place. Members of the general public who choose to enter those areas in which hunting will be taking place are advised to take proper precautions by wearing blaze orange clothing, vests, and hats.
Hunting will be allowed in Fowl Meadow, but not the part that extends into Boston, where hunting of any kind is never allowed.
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What could POSSIBLY go wrong
What could POSSIBLY go wrong ???!!
Boredom
Lots of it. That's all that's gone "wrong" so far in the Blue Hills Deer Management Program.
Set them upon the Canada Geese
He have WAY too many of them around and if a few got arrowed, that would be OK with me.
LOL
That headline made me laugh out loud for some reason. Good one @adamg.
What exactly will they be hunting?
260 pound tick carrying pests
They ate all my tulips and my wife picked up Lyme.
Not just ticks
Covid too.
Well
Here's your chance for sweet, sweet revenge.
Honestly, the logistics of dealing with a large dead animal full of blood seems like the worst part of hunting by a landslide. Catch a 15 lb. fish and it's no big deal. A deer? No thank you.
You need a Maine Coon Cat
Mine chases them out of my garden and yard. Just runs right at them and they scatter. Fifteen pounds of attitude is all you need.
Deer
https://www.mass.gov/guides/blue-hills-deer-management-program
Huh
I was under the impression that bowhunters themselves wear camo, and not the orange kind.
both
State regulations require at least a hat and probably 500 square inches of orange for all hunters: https://www.mass.gov/info-details/deer-hunting-regulations#blaze-orange-...
Hunting "in" Boston
Hunting is regulated by the state and I don't think it is prohibited in Boston by the city (correct me if that's wrong). I think it's just that the rules around not being able to hunt within a certain range of a house, in a park or other restrictions make it that there's really nowhere in the city that meets the requirement.
However, I have seen people duck hunting from a flat-bottomed rowboat with a blind set up on one side out on Boston Harbor and I think that would be legal.
Bow hunters are pretty safe
I feel pretty safe sharing the woods with bow hunters. Hunting with bow and arrow takes strength, training, and discipline; sighting a target, drawing and releasing an arrow takes time. Bow hunters are very unlikely to wheel around and fire off a shot when they hear something rustling in the brush or see movement out of the corner of their eye...
The one thing I worry about is "what's beyond the target"
because despite the greater care required with bow hunting, it's still easy to fixate on the target and forget about where that arrow might end up if it misses.
...but I can't imagine bow hunters would be any *worse* in that regard.
Physics makes it better
An arrow doesn't keep going anywhere near as far as a rifle bullet. So, the odds of your being hit by a mis-aimed arrow are less than for a bullet. Also a rifle bullet can pass through an animal and hit another animal or person behind it, which I don't think arrows can do.
Excellent points
n/t
Not a lot of rifle hunting
Absolutely correct; however, there is not a lot of rifle hunting in Massachusetts. Rifles are only allowed for bear, and you don't get a lot of bear east of the Connecticut River, and then there's the black powder season, which are technically rifles, but they don't shoot very far.