Hunt Zone Signs was first designed with safety in mind. I was taking my 11 year old son, Brady, on his first turkey hunt in PA and we would be hunting on state forest lands. Now, a few weeks prior to opening day, we walked the area and did some scouting to find our perfect spot. The area we decided to set up was a good way off an old logging road but showed sign of being a fairly traveled trail. This meant a greater potential for other hunters coming through the area.
This was going to be Brady’s first experience turkey hunting and I wanted it to be a positive one. What I didn’t want to happen was another hunter slipping in and mistaking our decoys for the real deal then possibly shooting them or us. This is where the idea of Hunt Zone Signs hit me. We needed a way to let the other hunters in the area know we were there and using decoys.
On our way back to the truck after, we passed a young couple walking their dogs. I thought to myself, these Hunt Zone Signs would have been the perfect way to let them know as well. If they had a way of knowing we were up ahead, they could have walked out around us or would have known to proceed with caution.
That got me thinking about how many times something like this would have really come in handy! Maybe the time I was on stand in archery season and made sure I did everything right…..keeping my scent down and being extremely quiet when someone comes strolling along at day break making noise and contaminating my area. Or maybe the time another hunter stopped to check out a mock scrape I put down and didn’t know I was there until I whistled and waved at him to get his attention, or during turkey season when I worked a big gobbler only to have another hunter set up right next to me and got the shot before I did. So many times……So many stories I’ve been told from other hunters!
We used the Hunt Zone Signs concept that first day of turkey season and it held off two turkey hunters calling and coming our way. That gave us the opportunity to call in a big old gobbler and Brady dropped the hammer on him. The idea of Hunt Zone Signs was brought to life!