Use Manners When Hunting

Hunters, don’t leave your good manners at home. Take them with you, along with your other necessities. –Image from Etiquipedia private library

Hunters Allowed Forest Freedom If Rules Observed

You may be reasonably “wild and woolly” when you go camping or hunting in national forests of the California regions, but don’t leave your good manners at home. Take them with you! 

P. C. Case, district ranger of Los Padres national forest, declares that the hunter or sportsman will need real sportsmanlike manners more on his vacation or hunting trip than when at home. 

The rules of conduct in the forests, as given by the U. S. forest service, are easy to learn and not impossible to observe easily. They are: 

• Obtain a free camp-fire permit.

• Carry a shovel and an ax.

• Smoke only in camp, places of habitation, or special posted smoking areas.

• Camp only at designated campgrounds and use the stoves provided.

• Open fires are not permitted. Be sure your camp-fire is out.

• Leave and maintain a clean and sanitary camp.

• Cooperate with the forest rangers and state fire wardens in reporting and suppressing forest fires.

• Observe the state fish and game laws.

• Possession or use of tracer ammunition is prohibited by federal regulation in all national forests. 

• Don't shoot unless you are sure you see the horns. 

• Be very careful in handling your gun and ammunition. – King City Rustler, 1939

 

 🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Shooting Party Etiquette

All up-to-date hunters now carry into the woods either a phonograph or a Pianola. 

For calling a moose, the old-fashioned birchbark trumpet is almost obsolete. All up-to-date hunters now carry into the woods either a phonograph or a Pianola. Any able-bodied "critter" will readily respond to this "call of the wild."

When going on a hunting trip, always take along a bunch of hounds and a deck of playing cards. With one pack or the other, you ought to get game.

Never get nervous about noises at night. Half the time it's only the peeling of a tree, whose bark is worse than its bite.— From "EEDIOTIC ETIQUETTE," 1906, by Gideon Wurdz

This case raised several nice points of shooting etiquette. The circumstances of the accident were not disputed.

Shot Too Heavy, So He Gets $6000

Sportsman Wounded by Companion Is Awarded Decision on French Technicality

On the opening day of the shooting season, a year ago, M. Pradeau inadvertently potted the neighboring gun, M. Masson, in the leg. The latter, as soon as he could hobble into the law courts, sued the inexpert sportsman for $20,000 damages. The case raised several nice points of shooting etiquette. The circumstances of the accident were not disputed.

They were there: M. Masson possessed a dog. M. Pradeau, who was a visitor in the district, did not. So when M. Masson's dog pointed, his polite owner signaled to M. Pradeau to come nearer to have a better shot. M. Pradeau did so but with such precipitation that he forgot to keep the muzzle of his gun pointed to the ground. The gun was discharged, and the full shot entered M. Masson's leg.

M. Pradeau's counsel pleaded divided responsibility. If M. Masson had not called upon M. Pradeau to come nearer, the accident, he urged, would never have happened. Not so, argued M. Signorino, counsel for the claimant, and himself an ardent sportsman. It was not the proximity of the shooters, but the position of the gun, that caused the accident.

Further, the charge which entered the leg of the unfortunate M. Masson was of a caliber much heavier than ordinarily employed by experts shot at the opening of shooting season. Impressed by the technical knowledge displayed by M. Signorino, the tribunal awarded $6,000 to his injured client. —Special Cable to the Call, Paris, 1913

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Moderator and Editor for Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia