Camouflage patterns

E

ethies

Joined
Feb 14, 2006
Messages
139
I've noticed the enormous difference between hunting patterns and military patterns and wondered which is really better. I know that the military patterns are designed to limit infrared reflection whereas the hunting patterns are not. Anyone know the reason for the vast difference between the two styles?

My favorite military pattern is the multicam pattern, if you haven't seen it check this out.
http://www.multicampattern.com/
 
Damn, thats a good pattern. I've always liked the german flecktarn or the canadian digi camo styles, but this multicam beats them all.
 
Ooops, forgot to answer your question. I think hunting patterns are designed to distract COLOURBLIND eyes (most hunting game is colourblind), while military patterns are designs to distract the human eye and break up contours, hope this helps.
 
my understanding is that it was developed independantly, not by any military. Some militaries have looked at using it, but it is too expensive to license/produce compared to the military developed competition.
 
Plenty of people take deer wearing solid blaze orange vests as they appear orange to the deer. Camo is highly important to the turkey hunter and waterfowlers as they do see in color. I do agree that hunting camo is designed to break up silhouettes, but then again so is military camo. Its amazing to me to see how many very very different patterns (flecktarn, woodland, multicam, mossy oak, realtree, MARPAT, CADPAT) all do such an effective job at hiding people.
 
Maybe its just that hunting camoflage doesnt have to be as versatile as military camo (eg. hunters never have to hunt in the city, while marines have to wear their desert camo everywhere (except woodland of course, lol)(never seen any marine wearing urban in combat, although their supposed to have it, lol)) Hunting camo is also adjusted to the local vegetation, while military camo is designed to be deployable everywhere.
 
Orange doesnt appear orange to the deer : quote from realtree.com: "effectively revealing hunters to other humans while concealing them from the color blind eyes of deer."
 
I don't know the answer to your question, but when you ask which is better, if you mean better for hunting:

You'd be surprised how flexible you can be with effective "camouflage" for hunting. It doesn't have to hide you, it just has to make you difficult to visually understand as a potentially threatening animal. I have to stalk and closely approach wild animals almost every day for my job, and for most animals, a rainbow tie-dye with a red and black checkered flannel is as effective as "real" camouflage.

Mike
 
I would say military camo is more effective, for human eyes/brain anyway. Hunting camo is good, but it is about as much fashion as actual camoflage.

Scott
 
Sorry, Lukas, you're right... I meant to say that orange appears as tan to deer. Same for dogs. That's why so many of the training dummies are blaze orange. You throw them in some tall tan upland grass and the dog can't see them and has to use its nose, but if you have to go looking for it you're going to see the bright orange pretty quickly.

Evolute, how do you sneak up on animals that have color vision in that getup? Or are you mainly after colorblind animals?
 
Evolute, how do you sneak up on animals that have color vision in that getup?
Click to expand...

Like I said, for most animals (yes, including most with color vision) the camouflage doesn't have to hide you in order to be effective, it just has to make you difficult to visually understand as a threatening animal. The colors and patterns of tie-dye & flannel break up your body into visual elements that most animals don't seem to recognize as a coherent shape of a human closely approaching them.

That's why I said you'd be surprised. The notion that camouflage has to hide you, in order to be effective, doesn't seem (in my experience) to be true with many animals I encounter.

Mike
 
Your experiences are very different from mine Evolute. I've sat quietly in the woods for hours in a checkered shirt (my closet is a testiment to plaid) and seen plenty of animals, but I'm always amazed when turkey hunting how many of the little song birds will land right near me when I'm wearing my color camo. What do you do for living that you're sneaking up on animals daily? Animal control?

I've also heard that the complex, expensive, high number of color hunting patterns are simply too expensive to produce for military applications. I like the hunting patterns that are available, but none seem anywhere near a versitile as multicam. I suppose its a tradeoff to some degree between versitility and effectiveness.
 
What do you do for living that you're sneaking up on animals daily?
Click to expand...

I'm a nature photographer.

3486277-lg.jpg



Mike
 
I just finished building a basic structure for my website. I am current waiting for the domain transfer from my registrar to my ISP to be completed. As soon as it is, presumably within a few days, I'll upload my website. When I first upload it, it will be pretty much empty; I will progressively add more content over time.

The address will be:

www.mikespinak.com

In the meantime, you can look at a few of my pictures, here:

http://www.photo.net/photos/mikespinak

I hope you enjoy them.


Mike
 
I think the answer is pretty easy, $$$$. Hunters spend huge amounts of money every year. Give people something new and gee-whiz and they buy it. Military needs good working, and will shift as new tech that makes a difference happens, but generally not yearly.

I hunt in a odd combo of different camo (tiger stripe, woodland, mossy oak, sage, etc). This is just good stuff I buy when I need a new peice. Last year while deer hunting (bow) I stalked up to within 30ft of a whitetail. Whenever she looked up I froze, and saw her look right through me a number of times.

I once saw a site that showed a BW pic of a guy in "Camo" in a tree. Then showed the color photo, and there he was in a bright, bold, hawiian shirt.

--Carl
 
Evolute, wow!!! I take quite a few nature pictures, and consider myself a rank amature. However, its work like yours that reminds me of how great nature photography can be. You certainly have an eye for nature's mystery in your composition. Not just the traditional "National Geographic" cover stuff! I'll put my vote in for "Sunset Rock" as my favorite.

pricecw, I agree money is a HUGE factor in this. I think that the folks at mossy oak and realtree could sell a drowning man a glass of water. I think I've seen the picture to which you refer. Its amazing how different things look in black and white. Still, game birds have excellent color vision (including the ability to see into the UV spectrum) and I can't imagine that all of these patterns work equally well.
 
ethies,

You're very kind. Feel welcome to come on by my website, once it is up. I have no idea where the Kate Shelly Bridge is, but perhaps, if we're ever in each other's neck of the woods, we can go shooting (cameras) together, sometime.

By the way, while out working today, I had the single most disgusting experience of my life. It is too graphic and horrible to mention, here; once I recover, I'll post about it in whine and cheese.


Mike
 
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