Trail Riding Etiquette

I wish that more people know these rules- about hunting and riding just stay out of some area like we do here during hunting season

This comparison cracks me up! If the impact if you do something stupid on your horse and die is only 1, you are leaving out the rest of the comparison: impact to person's family: HUGE. Also, you go from one hunter making an irresponsible choice resulting in 1 accident, to ALL 1000 that happen annually. If you do something stupid on your horse and die, the impact is half of what it would be if a hunter does something stupid and someone dies, because not only is the victim and victim's family affected, so is the hunter and the hunter's family. So it is not a difference of 1 to 1000, as you seem to be trying to say. Hunting is legal. Laws are hard to enforce. We're not allowed to shoot the stupid, and there will always be accidents.

Sorry, wasn't trying to imply it that way. I should have added an "s" to the word HUNTER both times and an "s" to the word CHOICES.

There was previous mention that I could get killed from riding a horse. And yes I could, but it is my choice to ride and if I make a stupid mistake it doesn't affect others. And most horse riding sports and activities fall along the same lines.
But in this context, mistakes made by irresponsible hunters affect roughly 1000 people each year.

IMHO the sport of others shouldn't have the capacity to hurt society to that extent and to that many people. Particularily when some of those people have no choice in the matter and it is not as simple as "Just stay away from where they hunt."
Not everyone has the choice to just choose a different place to live or a different trail to ride.

So do you think there shouldn't be hunting?

I am not a hunter. I would feel very sad to kill a deer and I cried when I saw Bambi for the first time. That is just for the record.

There are other statistics that need to be mentioned. If all hunting was stopped, then the prey species (in our area whitetail deer) would have a huge increase in population. Eventually, they would exceed their carrying capacity and have a huge die off. But before they reached their limit, they would start to cause other problems.

Deer run into cars and cause wrecks.
Deer eat crops intended for human use.
Deer eat pastures intended for horses and other domestic species.
Deer eat rose bushes. (That really sucks.)

I live in the very heart of deer hunting territory in Georgia. I have never been shot.

I have totaled 2 different cars when I was driving down the highway, minding my own business, obeying the traffic laws, and had a deer jump into my car. (Actually cars.) In one of the incidences, the deer jumped into the moving car, shattered glass, died, broke (big mess -- blood and guts all in my car), and the glass cut my little girl's face and barely missed blinding her for life. Stopping deer hunting would eliminate the obscure chance of being shot by a hunter. It would greatly increase the chance of being killed in a car wreck when a deer commits suicide by jumping in front of your car. The automobile insurance companies are huge advocates of deer hunting. According to our local forester, the insurance companies actively lobby in Georgia to increase bag limits on deer.

It's for the children (TM)

In my previous posts I have stated that do not oppose RESPONSIBLE hunting, and I still don't.
I actually agree with Celeste. (And I cry in every disney movie where an animal gets killed, but I've also had major car damage from hitting deer, although not to the extent as Celeste in that my child was not with me.)

Without some extra predation many types of animal populations would get out of control, especially deer. Far too often though, hunting is associated with just deer when in fact it is done year around in many states and for different animal species.

I own 20 acres. The front portion close to house and barns has about 800' directly facing the public lands that people hunt on. My house sits about 75' off the road and is just down and across the street from the trailhead access. The rest butt up to woods and fields.

All 20 acres get tresspassed upon year 'round by whom ever, when ever, hunting what ever because I am surrounded and hunters think it is okay to go wherever they wish.
My signs make no difference. My fences make no difference. Other than the house being shot incident with state police involement, calling the game comm or local law enforcement makes no difference.

I'v had hunters illegally hunt on my land, hit my house, shoot near my animals, set up their stands on my land, gut deer and leave their mess on my land, let their dumb dogs chase after my livestock (lucky for the dogs the owner got them before I did) threaten to come back and "bag" my turkey (domestic breed of turkey that stay in my pasture 24/7) and generally not give a hoot about anything but "getting the kill." The gunfire (to which there is A LOT) still bothers some of my animals. Thankfully some are used to it by now.

In my defense, I am not from here. Where I lived previously hunting is practriced safely and far away from farms, so I did not fully understand the implications of living near to public lands and trails here. But even so, this is not how it should be.

So, as I said before, for some of us it is not a simple as just "staying out of hunting areas or off those trails during deer season." Those trails go all around my farm, and year around hunting is allowed.

I do believe hunting can and should be done safely and responsibly, thereby elimintating most human deaths and many many accidents. This in turn, would probably make riders feel safer riding on public trails

It sounds like you have serious neighbor issues. If those guys are leasing hunting land, I would contact the actual land owner. This would most likely put a fire under them to behave.

Funny, because all the private land I've hunted has usually been farms.

Trespassing, by hunters or anyone else for that matter is against the law.

Jokingly, we've been trying to figure out how to live with rude yankee's from the time of the war of northern aggression to present day. It hasn't worked that well for us southerns either!

Sounds like a lack of proper upbringing, mind you, nobody raised them yankee boys right.

Me thinks you doth stir the pot a wee little bit.