Hunting Bumper Stickers Saved Me

I sort of cruised through the stop sign. That’s when the cop hit his lights in the dark. I hadn’t seen him lying in wait. It was pre-dawn and spring turkey season. “License and registration, please?” he said. I’d never seen this guy before in my life. Not a good way to start out a spring gobbler hunt.

My shotgun was cased; my jacket nothing special; the classic rock radio station I'd been blasting was now muted – I’d yet to dress for turkey hunting.

Hunting bumper stickers on the back of my old pickup told the story though. Come on, man, I thought silently as he checked my record out in his cruiser.

He slowly approached, looking my truck over. “Okay, I’m giving you a warning,” he said through my rolled-down window. He paused a second or two.

“By the way, they’ve been pretty shut-mouthed on the roost this week. I haven’t been able to do anything with the turkeys. Good luck!”

Go figure – a fellow turkey hunter. Nice. I thanked him, for sure. I didn’t kill a gobbler that day, but my hunting bumper stickers likely saved me some cash.

Hunting bumper stickers and decals tell others like us we’re out there doing what we do: hunting or thinking about it. On a road trip, a Realtree, NWTF or other bumper sticker always catches my eye. They’re signals to the rest of us on the highway. You can read another hunter’s intentions sometimes when you see their vehicle pulled off at a likely hunting spot. It’s a kind of secret code.

I’ve often gone both ways with bumper stickers. Sometimes my once-a-decade “new” (used) trucks are bumper sticker free (not lately). Often enough, like now, I have a bunch slapped to the back of my four hunting wheels, covered with off-road mud.

What hunting bumper stickers tell the world about you? Let us know in the comments section below and thanks.