Just a little OT: need input from experienced hunters

D

dumdeedum

Joined
Jun 16, 2007
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I was browsing gizmodo recently, and came across this article... just wondering what your opinion is on it...

looks... good?... bad?... ugly?... reserving judgment until after you find a way to rationalize the purchase to the Mrs. for the "research and experiment" section of the budget so you can test it for yourself?... but then again, I guess it won't matter if you're like this guy...
 
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Looks like it's a version of breakup camo.

Time will tell whether or not it is any more or less effective than existing breakup or habitat camo.

Whilst it may prevent animals from visually identifying the hunter, I'd be interested in how quiet it wears. IMO, there's no point being "invisible", if the material used makes enough noise to give a hunter away when stalking in close.



Kind regards
Mick
 
dumdeedum said:
but then again, I guess it won't matter if you're like this guy...
Click to expand...

Probably he wants to become a vegetarian, and he's shooting mushrooms or wild edible plants or something... The deer was just standing in the way...
 
I wear camo when I hunt..but I doubt it is as important as the skill of SITTING STILL! I cant stress this enough..once in your blind..dont move...at all. I have had many deer walk right up to me..as long as you are sitting still..they are very curious animals.
Anyway..preaching is done..looks cool. It seems to be an offshoot of the Digi cammo that the military is using...which seems to be good stuff? I dont know...I wear my old BDU's and dont have any problems other than I am full of "humble pie" ...I need to get a deer this year!!!
 
I hate what has happened to the hunting industry. Hunting used to be a pretty simple thing. By the way things look when you walk into one of the big stores, you would think that you could not step out into the field unless you spent thousands of dollars.

I went through my gear phase, and I am over it. As with everything else in life, I prefer to keep hunting simple. Which means I really don't care about the latest camo pattern on the runway :D

Just my 2 cents.

B
 
Looks like something that would work, but would be pretty pointless. Hunting is more than easy enough without new-fangled gizmo-whizbang 'digital' camo, so what's the point? No amount of camo in the world is going to help one of the modern day hunters I often see that make so much noise and movement that I could spot them from a couple of klicks away. :foot:
 
If you are ever near Williamsport in Central PA, take a few minutes to head to the Woolrich factory store in Woolrich PA. They have historical displays of what used to be state of the art hunting apparrel. None of it is camoflaged. In fact much of it is in the red and black plaid design for which Woolrich is famous.

I agree with Briangandrews. Hunting has become a large and very successful industry now that we are no longer hunting to survive. I am glad to see people making money but I try to limit the amount of my money that they get.
 
I agree with everything said so far. No camo is going to replace being quiet and staying as motionless as possible. All these new camo patterns are pretty much gimmics. Not that some arent better than others, there just not going to make up for a lack of skill.
 
Camo is "area" specific...one pattern tends to work well in one area during a particular season but not so much in a different season and/or area. One pattern may work well in Spring but not Fall. So what I've done is buy inexpensive hankerchiefs with all the various standard patterns and go to some of my favorite spots during different times of the year and then string them out and walk around 360 and see what works/doesn't work.

This eliminated most of the patterns immedately while some show promise and one didn't stand out at all making it the leader! I'm still experimenting...but to be perfectly honest this is what I found that works the best:

1. Natural Gear is the best "all purpose" blending pattern on the market - head 'n shoulders above the rest. This patterned worked well in the dense rain forest of the Pac North Wet and even works better in the High Desert east of the mountains. YMMV depending upon your ecosystem but I would guess their two patterns work work well. Buy a hanky or something cheap and try it!

2. Wearing Wilderness Friendly colors in constrasting combos works as well or better than most if not all the camo pattern's on the market - i.e, wear charchoal grey wool pants with loden green shirt and similar vest/jacket. One time my buddy wore navy blue 5.11 pants with a OD green shirt and I lost him in the foliage immediately. Earth tone brown, green, small amounts of black for 3D depth/shadow, or other related colors work just as well as camo when worn in contrasting combos. Also doesn't draw attention to oneself as easily when in an urban situation. Also anything that breaks up your human outline is more important than the pattern. Boonie hats do a great job of disrupting the shape and shilo-wet of a human face/head and thus why they're used in military & SWAT applications.

3. Washing your clothes with a non-phosporus soap will make the biggest difference as non-human animials can see a phosporus glow when we use standard laundry soap - makes a huge difference! It is like turning on a flashlight halo around your body for deer, elk, bear etc.

4. Bath/shampoo in scent removing soaps helps more than camo. They tend to smell you before they see you.

5. Cut a small brow off a live tree and put your hunting clothes (all of them) inside a bag with this brow to prevent human scent contamination and to scent "season" your clothes with something common to the critters before you put on at your car in the woods.

Hope this helps but, ah what the heck do I know?
 
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Quirt said:
Camo is "area" specific...one pattern tends to work well in one area during a particular season but not so much in a different season and/or area. One pattern may work well in Spring but not Fall. So what I've done is buy inexpensive hankerchiefs with all the various standard patterns and go to some of my favorite spots during different times of the year and then string them out and walk around 360 and see what works/doesn't work.

This eliminated most of the patterns immedately while some show promise and one didn't stand out at all making it the leader! I'm still experimenting...but to be perfectly honest this is what I found that works the best:

1. Natural Gear is the best "all purpose" blending pattern on the market - head 'n shoulders above the rest. This patterned worked well in the dense rain forest of the Pac North Wet and even works better in the High Desert east of the mountains. YMMV depending upon your ecosystem but I would guess their two patterns work work well. Buy a hanky or something cheap and try it!

2. Wearing Wilderness Friendly colors in constrasting combos works as well or better than most if not all the camo pattern's on the market - i.e, wear charchoal grey wool pants with loden green shirt and similar vest/jacket. One time my buddy wore navy blue 5.11 pants with a OD green shirt and I lost him in the foliage immediately. Earth tone brown, green, small amounts of black for 3D depth/shadow, or other related colors work just as well as camo when worn in contrasting combos. Also doesn't draw attention to oneself as easily when in an urban situation. Also anything that breaks up your human outline is more important than the pattern. Boonie hats do a great job of disrupting the shape and shilo-wet of a human face/head and thus why they're used in military & SWAT applications.

3. Washing your clothes with a non-phosporus soap will make the biggest difference as non-human animials can see a phosporus glow when we use standard laundry soap - makes a huge difference! It is like turning on a flashlight halo around your body for deer, elk, bear etc.

4. Bath/shampoo in scent removing soaps helps more than camo. They tend to smell you before they see you.

5. Cut a small brow off a live tree and put your hunting clothes (all of them) inside a bag with this brow to prevent human scent contamination and to scent "season" your clothes with something common to the critters before you put on at your car in the woods.

Hope this helps but, ah what the heck do I know?
Click to expand...

Good advice here! I'd say you know a fair bit, Quirt! :thumbup:
 
If you don't move (and don't smell) you could wear just about anything in the woods and deer won't pay much attention to you. If they see you move the best camo in the world won't help. Don't worry so much about matching the local vegetation as much as choosing a pattern that will break up your outline, that's all that really matters. Larger patterns with a mix of light and dark colors will hide you the best. All that terrific leafy detail is wasted since it can't be resolved past a few feet anyway. Time and effort is better spent reducing your scent trail, hiding your face and hands and learning how to sit still and move slowly.

My 2 cents, ymmv.

Something to look at
 
Smell is your primary concern. Deer may see you, and not run. They may hear you, and not run. But if they smell you... they are GONE!

One thing bears mentioning. Deer are COLORBLIND! Anything that breaks up your outline (including plaid) works. As mentioned above, holding still is very important. No quick movements.

That camo pattern is a joke, clearly based on the new military camos which are designed to be effective against digital night vision gear (that's why they have little squares).

All marketing.
 
Just about any pattern that breaks up the human form will work. I don't put much stock in one pattern being that much better than another. I like subdued colors like OD green or light browns. I have camo too but I don't really think it's all that necessary. I have had deer walk within 10-15 feet of me while I was wearing jeans and a plaid shirt. Woodsmanship (for lack of a better word) is becoming a lost art and being replaced by gadgets and gizmos.

Think about it this way, deer don't have any camo patterns on their fur but if you watch them walk through the woods they look like ghosts at times. I swear I have watched them vanish while I was watching them. They have a soft appearance to their fur which helps them blend. I think this is the approach that NatGear uses with their patterns. If I were choosing a camo pattern that is probably the one I'd go with.

Hope this helps,
SDS
 
A lot of camo these days is hype. In fact, almost all of it is. I've noticed in the past couple years that every time I walk in the hunting store, it seems there's a new camo pattern. Some are good, some aren't so good, but most are good enough these days that you can pretty much pick any one that's reasonably appropriate for your area and it will work.

Hunting tactics matter more than camo, in my opinion. I've crept within 10 yards of a lot of deer, turkey, etc., wearing blue jeans and a white t-shirt, or something equally "un-camo." It is very helpful to have some sort of pattern that breaks up your outline, though.

Quirt has some good stuff to say.
 
ever notice you don't see much deer on a windy day during hunting season? deer aren't stupid and they know their ability to detect movement and scent is degraded during windy days, especially windy days when the gusts are blowing in different directions. they bed down and wait for a calmer day when their chances are better at detecting the movement and scent that'll save their skin

when i was a young kid, i used to think camo mattered - until I stalked a fox in regular clothes and white tennis shoes and I realized that movement and scent were the key. i love camo - but it's an aesthetic appreciation, not a practical one. my favorite is multicam - it's like faded-out woodland camo with some interesting dappled effects thrown in.
 
Color is nearly irrelevant in my experience hunting in Texas and Idaho. The most important aspects of hunting are noise and smell and motion. Deer cannot distinguish colors very well at all and it has been proven that they cannot really distinguish yellows and such as anything other than grey. Basically, don't bathe with scented soaps before you hunt [use plain water only], sit still unless you stalk hunt like I do [then you need to learn how to move slowly], and be quiet. You could go out in the woods in jeans and a t-shirt and still bag a deer if you just keep these three things in mind. Camo is even less important for those who think hunting is sitting in a blind with a highly scoped rifle and waiting for a deer to stumble across a baited area.
 
Deer are not color blind, but they do not register colors the same way as we do.

Smell and movement are definitely your primary concern. I'm wearing camo in the photo in my avatar, but have been plenty successful in a hunter orange vest and ball cap.

Stay still, stay quiet, and stay down wind and you are doing what you need to be successful.
 
When I first started hunting in the 50's there was no camo clothing. You wore tan canvas coats or checked wool. We all got deer, pheasants and whatever. Now you have scent block, remover, camo for every season, climate, area and altitude. We have to wear blaze orange anyway. The main rules are stay still and downwind from your target and you will do great.
 
I can't add to what Quirt and some of the others have said...other than adding that they are right-on-the-money in my opinion.

I am just old enough to remember when camouflage clothing wasn't available for the average hunter (other than some old Korean War military surplus clothing). Obviously, none of the hunting greats, or the hunters I was associated with had a problem filling their freezers with good hunting skills and common clothing (plaid shirts, etc).

Camouflage clothing aimed at the hunting population, like colorful dog toys and attractions, are all highly market driven. They feel if they constantly change their inventory (like women's styles), the average hunter will feel he can purchase something even better than last years. Most usually, this is not the case.

I am a successful bowhunter of many decades and choose not to wear camouflage clothing. Every fall, I find myself in the middle of elk herds (sometimes just a few feet from the elk) wearing simply earth-tones of either synthetics or wool (depends on temperatures). Being scent-free with good stalking and hunting strategy is the key to a good bowhunt.

In my area, on the boundary of a wilderness area, groups of hunters often come through the local stores wearing their camouflage clothing head to foot. They move around like a military detachment. Most of the locals (some are in government occupations) do not like to see this sort of activity and do not hesitate to voice their disapproval in writing. This is NOT a good thing for hunting or hunters. When I (we) was wearing camouflage, I never went in to town wearing the stealthy clothing, knowing how much of our population feels negative about hunting. Ones hunting clothes shouldn't travel through a smelly town any way. :)
 
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