Blaze orange to become compulsory for shooting in UK

1st April 2022, Westminster

GunsOnPegs and The Game Card can exclusively reveal that there are plans afoot in the corridors of power to consign traditional shooting attire to the past. New legislation, known as the Hunter Safety Bill, is due to be introduced by the Conservative Party ahead of the 2022/23 shooting season, will see a requirement for all participants in game shooting, deer stalking or pest control activities to wear at least 500 square inches of “blaze orange” on their upper body, and for legwear above the knee to be ‘at least 90% blaze orange”.  Headwear will also have to be ‘predominantly’ blaze orange. Bizarrely, the rules will also apply to anglers, with carp fishers, who are known for their love of camo, mentioned specifically in the Bill.

The future's bright, the future's orange

The new rules, reminiscent of the stringent safety measures employed by some US states to prevent hunters from shooting each other in the woods, is likely to create chaos for shooting clothing businesses and could potentially severely damage the Tweed industry. Despite its intentions to reduce the risk of accidents, the Bill is likely to divide opinion in the fieldsports community.

In order to help support tweed mills, GunsOnPegs is in early talks to design and market a range of shooting tweeds that conform to the new rules. While these discussions are still at an early stage, this article contains some of the early artists’ impressions of what our designs might look like in the field.

Tangerine tweed

One clothing brand representative who we spoke to, Bernard Satsuma, felt that while he wasn’t happy about the rules, that his business would adapt. “Obviously it will be a challenge,” he said, “it will clearly make us re-assess our offering and who knows, maybe it will rejuvenate the fieldsports fashion sector and inspire the tweed mills to create some amazing new styles. We tend to think of shooting attire as having been preserved in aspic since the dawn of time, but even just a few years ago the idea of wearing a ‘technical’ shooting coat would have been laughed at, and now they’re everywhere.”

Jenny Spinning, a tweed mill weaver, said: “Let’s face it, the notion that tweeds are a form of camouflage went out the window a long time ago - just look at some of the styles and patterns you see out in the field these days. Obviously we will have to employ some different dyeing techniques in order to arrive at the right colour, but I’m sure we’ll roll with the punches.”

However, one game shot we spoke to, John Carrot, is less than impressed, commenting: “If I wanted to look like an American I would wear a baseball cap and drive an enormous “truck”, instead of my tweed cap and Range Rover Sport with its tasteful personalised number plate. Do I look like I eat burgers, drink cans of Coors Lite, and call people “Bud” or “Champ”?

Another game shot, Anatole Saffron, was also unhappy, but for a different reason. “I’ve spent decades carefully cultivating my florid complexion with a steady diet of red meat, burgundy and port. This new colour is going to clash horribly.”

Others, however, were more sanguine. “I’ve always liked to draw attention to myself in the field,”  said Marmaduke Marmalade, “whether that’s through a loud tweed or one of my many highly amusing novelty hats. My only concern is that if everyone is bright orange, I will have to work even harder to ensure that I’m the centre of attention at all times. At least it will match my perma-tan.”

We understand that at present there will be no legislation on the colour of one’s shooting socks or ties - governement officials having decided that they are sufficiently garish already.