The annual gathering of friends and family for the opening of Iowa pheasant hunting season is rich with tradition for more than 100,000 hunters who will be dotting the landscape in their familiar blaze orange hats, vests and jackets at 8 a.m. Oct. 25.

As the anticipation of opening weekend gathers steam, hunters are encouraged to share their traditions with someone new.

“We would like our hunters to expand their group and bring in a new hunter this year,” said Megan Wisecup, recreational safety programs supervisor with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Personally inviting someone new to participate has shown to be a successful method of recruiting new hunters.

Part of the hunting tradition is to hunt safely. Wisecup advised hunters to brush up on their safety tips and to check out their blaze orange before opening morning arrives. Blaze orange can fade over the years and become ineffective and not compliant with the law.

“There will still be a lot of standing corn in the field so hunters should wear a blaze orange hat or cap to help them be seen by others,” she said. “The top pheasant hunting incidents all are related to not being seen. The shooter swings on a rooster, the victim is out of sight of the shooter or the rooster flew between the shooter and the victim. We are encouraging hunters to wear more blaze orange than the minimum required. The purpose of the blaze orange is to be seen.”

The law requires hunters to wear at least one of the following articles of visible, external apparel with at least 50 percent of its surface area solid blaze orange: hat, cap, vest, coat, jacket, sweatshirt, shirt or coveralls.

Wisecup also said that hunters should stay in communication with each other and to stay in a straight line while pushing a field. “We have investigated a number of incidents where hunters have been in a semicircle and had been shooting towards one-another,” she said.

These issues should be discusses as part of the hunting plan that spells out how the hunt will take place, each person’s role in the hunt and where each person will be at all times.

“With so much corn still in the field, visibility will definitely be an issue. I would suggest hunters talk to the landowner to see if anyone else has permission to hunt the ground and if so, when they will be there,” Wisecup said.

Other safety tips include making sure when traveling from spot to spot that hunters unload and case their guns. Hunters are also reminded that if they shoot a bird and it goes down across a fence to land where they do not have permission to hunt, they can legally retrieve the bird, but they must leave their gun behind and take the most direct route in and out of the property. Wisecup suggested hunters unload their gun before they leave it behind to prevent the gun from unintentionally going off.

Hunter Education Classes

There are a few hunter education classes still remaining in October and November but time is running out. There is a listing on the Iowa Department of Natural Resources has a listing on its Web site, www.iowadnr.gov. Click on Courses on the Safety Education / Courses link in the navigation column on the left side of the page.

“All of the volunteer instructors are hunters too, and they want to get out in the field and share the hunt,” Wisecup said.

Pheasant hunting incidents

2007: Three total incidents, of which two were personal injuries