Orange Friday

Orange Friday is here and the 9 day Wisconsin gun season starts tomorrow morning.

Saturday is the opening day of the 9 season gun hunt here in my home state of Wisconsin. Tomorrow is Orange Friday. Orange Friday is where thousands of people in the state dig out their blaze orange from the year before, if they haven’t already this week, throw it on a clothes line and get their guns ready. Driving around many small towns and rural communities, you’re guaranteed to see blaze orange clothes on clotheslines and people packing up deer stands getting ready for the big day. Gun season is almost here, thus Orange Friday.

Orange Friday

The Wisconsin 9 day gun season is a rich tradition here in this state. There are many hunters in Wisconsin, probably more than any other state, besides possibly Michigan. I’m sure that data is out there somewhere, I just don’t feel like looking for it. Most of us hunters started out our first hunt during this season. Up bright and early on a Saturday morning, maybe sitting with your dad or another relative and hopefully, shooting your first deer. It’s a day that many kids, adults, old-timers and everyone in between look forward to and it produces some of the largest bucks shot during the fall.

Wisconsin Gun Hunt

Deer camps are already going on, people are hanging out in bars and families are getting together to talk about seasons past. Snow is on the ground this year and the weather will be cold and we couldn’t ask for a better weekend this season.

Hunting has been becoming more and more competitive in recent years. People care about big bucks, antler scores and many aren’t happy when their friend or neighbor shoots a deer that they wanted to kill. While there is a lot of negative emotions surrounding the gun season from die hard bow hunters, let’s all try to remember what it was like when you were on your first hunt as a kid.

My mom took me hunting when I was 12 years old and I never shot a deer until my second season, but she was right there with me. It was a nub buck and I couldn’t have been happier. The 9 day gun season is a great time to remember why you started hunting in the first place and it’s one of the best times to fall back in love with it when it starts to seem like work.