4 Main Rules to Hunt Safely in the Hudson Valley

If you plan on hunting this year, the DEC has stressed that any and hunters follow these simple rules.

As hunting seasons open up across the Hudson Valley, the Department of Environmental Conservation has released their yearly reminder of things to remember before you head out into the woods, according to News 10.

According to the DEC these are the four main rules to hunting safety,

Treat every firearm as if it’s loaded.
Never point it at somebody else and make sure it’s in a safe direction.
Be sure of the target and what’s beyond it.
Keep your fingers off the trigger and outside the guard until you’re ready to shoot.

For anyone that has been hunting for a longtime, these rules may seem like they are a given, but each year as new hunters head into the woods, every year something happens that could be completely avoidable according to the DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos.

Seggos said that, "We are at a very good point with our hunting program here in New York, but every year, unfortunately, we see some incidents that are entirely avoidable. We really want safety to be the number one thought on everyone’s minds when they go out in the woods this year. It’s our top priority."

This year some 50,000 people signed up to take the required online hunter education course, which is up from 20,000 in years past. That means many more hunters will be in the woods this year and it's super important that we keep the woods as safe as possible.

To be even safer, Seggos said that hunters should wear orange while hunting because "it can make you seven times less likely to be involved in an incident."