who uses camoflage

[greg916]

Just curious about thoughts on camouflage and deer hunting.  I do not use it, rely instead on jeans and flannel shirts!  My father, who is colorblind,  can pick out camouflaged hunters I have trouble seeing. In his military days he says they used to fly him, and others that were colorblind over field positions to pick out camoflage.  I asked him what he sees and he says it just looks fake and "sticks out like a sore thumb". This is from a man who will have to ask which fishing jig is green or yellow!

My thinking is deer, being colorblind, probably perceive camouflage the same.  I do, however,use camouflage when hunting turkeys and ducks, which  can see color.

[SDS-GEN]

I usually wear camo when bow hunting, but I'm not sure it really matters.  Deer pick up movement more than anything, I think as long as you stand still you could be dressed like Santa Clause and not get spotted.  More and more I find myself buying whatever hunting cloths that are on sale,  regardless of camo pattern or if they are even camo at all.  The one exception is snow, it has been my experience that if you dress in white when there is snow on the ground it really helps.

[buck460XVR]

IMHO......

I think over the last few years, too much emphasis has been put on camo...and too much R&D time and money has been devoted to what looks good to the buyer instead what works best on the animal he's hunting. I get a kick out of those bow hunters sittin in their tree stand late in the season with their Treebark camo on. With all the leaves gone they are big dark objects that stand out like sore thumbs. They'd be better off with their gun season blaze orange on.......that looks like a light grey sky to a color blind animal. I use camo for most of my hunting, but have found that od green works just as well, as long as you sit still. Large patterns(like the older military style) work better for me, than the smaller more intricate styles that most camo makers are pushing now.

[cherokee75]

Camo definitely doesn't hurt.  If you do not have a proper background, of course you will stick out no matter what.  As far as flannel goes, I have read elsewhere about people using flannel because the patterns help break up their outline as well with a proper background.  In snow, throwing a white bed sheet on that is cut like a poncho can do the trick and it is low cost.  Fooling a deer's nose is more important than their eyes anyhow.  Staying still and down wind definitely stacks the odds in your favor.  Just think, plenty of deer were taken by Native Americans and the early settlers and they did not wear camo or use Scent-Lok suits.  I look at deer hunting as you try to do everything you can to stack the odds in your favor but at the end of the day, it really comes down to luck on whether or not the deer decides to come your way.  And by stacking the odds in your favor, I mean scent control, camo, stand placement, decoys, calling,  and scouting. 

As a side note, I do not own a Scent-Lok suit but the hunters I know that do, swear by them and see way more deer than before they had the suits. 

[Siskiyou]

 ::)I have a bunch of woodland BDU pants that I ware deer hunting in mild weather.  They are tough and comfortable.  But I wear an orange hat or cap.  My upper body is covered with an orange shirt or jacket.  If somebody shoots me I want to give the prosecutor a chance of winning the case. 

In today’s society a good attorney can make a good case of negligence on the dead hunter in camouflage.  And it might be tough to convict somebody when the argument is present to 12 citizens.  All he needs to do is convince 1 out of 12.

Last fall I was glassing the wall of a canyon covered with brush and mixed confers.  A number of does and fawns started moving up slope.  I felt there was another hunter over there but I could not spot him for long time.  When I picked him up in my 10X glasses he was pushing his way in the brush.  Stooping, and clawing to get through the heavy Mountain Mahogany.  He was dressed in a brown, green, and gray blended pattern camouflage.  I knew this because I spent a lot of time watching him.  Most drunks know that deer and bear do not wear orange.  But a lot of hunters do not carry 10X glasses, and use their scope to check the target.  Or they may not check the target before firing.

What if they had pushed a buck out with the does?  Yeah there was another hunter in camouflage and I never spotted him.  I think those guys would have been very nervous if I fired on a deer or bear out in front of them.  I know the thought bothers me.  I talk to them later that evening and they were unaware they pushed some does out in front of them.

When there is snow on the ground I make sure to wear some orange because I will be wearing surplus gray-brown wool pants.

My brother wears a number of camo patterns at his own risk, and I am sure that if he is shot at the other guy is fully at fault.  He takes the nephew out with him hunt.  I stopped and bought an orange hat for the kid.  Like most kids he is out there scrambling all over the rocks.

I should note that I hunt public land 99.9% of the time.

[greg916]

I admit to using flannel shirts to try and break up my outline.  I also use blaze orange camo, again to break up my outline!  Pops says blaze orange practically glows! (of course it does to me also!).  I guess I just wonder what a color blind person/deer actually sees?

[gdolby]

Good day gentleman, I am color blind. To me blaze orange does glow. I am not sure that is the word but cannot think of a better. Far as break-up, tree bark and hardwoods patterns,they do blend in their environment but the outline is what I catch the most. When ambush hunting I wear a 3-d camo suit and have had good success w/ it. Not sure if what I see and a deer is the same but if you keep down the movement and break up the outline, you will get a deer. In this time most deer are used to human scent. they get cautious but still continue with what they are doing. until they pick up on something else that will spook them. Have a good day......Bill

[Dee]

I think the biggest problem hunters have is trying to reason out what a deer is going to think in a human sort of way. Instead they need to try to figure it out using the deer's perspective.
Me and another old man were sharing a lease with two guys about 20 years younger than us, and did so for several years. Our camp was about 400 yards from the hunting area, and me and the other oldster would ride our four-wheelers directly to our deer stand every morning and every evening. The two youngsters complained we were running the deer off, and ruining the hunting.
I pointed out to them that me and the other relic were killing three deer apiece, in about 3 days, and they were lucky to get one all season. Then I explained that the rancher who owned the lease, fed cattle out of a pickup, and the deer had learned not to pay attention to the vehicles. Also we didn't spread scent on the ground when we rode to the stand. Everything me and the other geaser did was actually business as usual as far as the deer were concerned, but that two men stomping thru the woods in camouflage was what was unusual, and that was what was scaring the deer away from the area they hunted. They never grasped the concept, and we eventually lost the lease anyway.
If our forefathers, who were very successful hunters saw the way we dressed they would get quite a laugh. I don't think my grandfather who was a full blood Cherokee ever saw camouflage, and he was a heck of a hunter in his day. But then again all he ever owned in the way of guns was a very old leveraction marlin 22 with a octagon barrel, and an innertube strap running from the forearm to behind the hammer,(the hammer spring had long ago broke) and a single shot 12 Gage. Simpler times, but they worked. I don't think camo will ever replace patience, and common sense when it comes to hunting anything.JMO

[The Gamemaster]

The only thing I will ask you is how old is your dad and how many years ago was he in the military.

Personally - with todays camo pattersn - I think that he is full of poop.

I know of one hunter - namely me - that lost a Motorola Walkie Talkie that was camo covered and I have never found it - even after 20 hours of searching in a 20 acre piece of woods.

I can also tell you of a hunter that set down his shotgun to chase a turkey and had a hard time finding it again.

Camoflage is nothing more than using using a background that is the same color and pattern as the surrounding woods or field that you are hunting in.  You would not want to use a duck blind tall grass pattern in the hardwoods and you would not want to use a hardwoods pattern in a duck blind.

You use the colors that are in season in the area that you are hunting in.

If you ever saw the Realtree and Mossy Oak commercials on Television - you would know that you use the shadows to hide your outline.

My dad loved to hunt turkeys.  We had a flock of turkeys on our hill and he tried to hunt them with a 20 gauge shotgun and 3 inch magnum loads.  He just couldn't seem to get them to come in close enough to be able to shoot them.  He then bought some Mossy Oak Hardwoods and sat against a tree.  He claimed that because he didn't buy a set of gloves that the turkeys saw his fingers and ran away when he tried to shoot them with my 12 gauge Remington.

I put on Realtree camo one year from head to foot and fell asleep in a small ditch - while my decoys were set up at the bottom of a hill.  There I was snoring away like a chainsaw and the turkeys came in to about 15 feet.  Even when I woke up = they were so involved with the decoys that they did not pay any attention to me.

Even after my first shot misfired, they still stood there long enough to take a second and third shot.

It was the best Spring Gobbler season I ever had.

[Dave in WV]

Here in WV you must wear 400 sq.in. of blaze orange when hunting deer with firearms. That's on the average a vest and cap. Depending on weather I have at least that much and it goes up to everything other than my boots and gloves. 90 % of the deer harvested here at taken well under 100 yards. The times I've spooked deer wearing camo wouldn't have helped. In brush you'll only see glimpses of orange unless the hunter is close. A deer is not worth getting shot even by a sober and safe hunter (you can't blame them if you can't be seen). It won't hurt one bit less.

[SDS-GEN]

Greg916, you  may be interested to know that when I was in field artillery the forward observers were issued binoculars with a special lense coating called "tank killers".  The coating had a red tint to it and made two dimensional camoflage (the painted on kind) stand out from the background foliage.  I used the binos several times and I can tell you that any 2-D camo really stood out.  I suspect that this is what helped your colorblind father see targets easier.  As for deer seeing color, science now says that deer see blue pretty well, orange and red appear yellow to a deer and green and brown look gray.

[K.K]

Lots of guys up here in New York still wear the checkered wool jackets, and they still kill deer. However, we do not have blaze orange requirements (yet), and I hunt in remote areas. I dress camo head to toe. It just gives me more confidence. that said, deer will pick up movement before color, at least in my experience.

[elmer]

I read a university study one time that indicated that deer aren't exactly color blind, but see in a higher frequency spectrum. It appears their vision is poor in the lower part of the color spectrum that we normally see, but good in the color spectrum that is above our normal range. It said that things like soap with brighteners enhance the blue spectrum up into the UV range. We only see the colors as being brighter, but deer see it as a bright glow.

I sometime wear camo, I also sometimes wear a fleece jacket that is plaid with subdued colors. I have had many deer look straight at me. If I move they bolt, but if I'm still they don't seem to see me. After reading the article I mainly just stay away from blues and soap with brighteners.

[IL-Cornfed]

Interesting thread.

I prefer to wear camo when I'm hunting everything. That being said, I don't think it matters much here in Illinois being as how we have to wear atleast 400 square inches of Blaze on our upper as well as a solid Blaze hat while deer hunting.

It's my opinion that covering highly reflective and very noticeable face and hands and then keeping movements to a minimum is FAR more important than ANY camo pattern

[Snowshoe]

We have to wear blaze orange, vest and hat is minimum. I have never had a problem with deer seeing me as long as I stay still, or move very slowly. I would much prefer other hunters to see me, to maybe being more invisible to the deer. We have very few hunting accidents here, and the blaze orange sure helps that.

[Ranger J]

I wear camouflage I guess because ‘everyone’ says it makes you harder to be seen.  I saw the article in one of the outdoor magazines about deer color vision also.  For years I word a blue set of insulated coveralls and the color didn’t seem to harm my success.  I put them aside as I found out that when you get older they are hard to get in and out of.  Now I use a pair of insulated camouflage bib overalls and a camouflage coat.  I don’t know if camouflage helps that much or not.  I do know that any unnatural movement will send a deer scooting for cover real quick.
RJ

 PS:  If I remember right, the article said that blaze orange would be almost a black to a deer.  I guess a solid orange vest might be a black patch that would seem to me to be very noticeable if it was moving back and forth against a broken up background.  Another reason to set still.

[elmer]

Snowshoe, I think orange would fall into that range of colors that we see well, but is below the color range that deer can see well. Red is in the 780 - 622 nm range, and orange is in the 622 - 597nm range. Deer see better in the higher frequency (lower wavelength) range such as blue (492 - 455nm), violet (455 - 390nm), and UV (below 390nm).

[GeorgiaTrader]

Break up the outline with camo to fool the deer, use elaborate camo to raise your confidence.  Thats my opinion.  And I also believe deer are not color blind.

[Yellowhammer]

Most of the time I am in the shooting house and I do not wear any camo. Now if I am in a stand then I will have my camo coveralls on to keep warm. When I turkey hunt I wear the old woodland camo that our military uses.

[jhm]

I wear camo, just so I can tell what I am doing in the woods, since I hunt here on the place I can and do perform lotsa chores, But seriously its just mainly for me to break up the human OUTLINE, all the hype of this brand vs. that brand is again a lot of MARKETING.   JIM

[Old Griz]

I love my cammies cuz they're the warmist things I have. I've spent many a cold, freezing day snuggled up in the bushes under a tree sleeping ever so soundly, and the passing deer didn't bother me at all!