Thread: Camouflage?

How important is camo clothing; guns; accessories? I've come full circle. Like most new hunters, everything I bought had to be camo. As time passed, the camo gear got replaced with non-camo, higher quality gear. Nothing garish, natural colours, but not the commando look. Now, as I do more bush hunting, I'm starting to wonder if camo has it's place. When hunting with mates in the bush, the first thing I see when they approach is any unnatural colours they are wearing, and the photo below springs to mind. The cover on my suppressor disappears in to the background, gun sticks out like a sore thumb! If you're doing longer range shooting, I don't think it matters too much, but in tight bush with close animal encounters, I think it might actually be useful. Also, I'm aware that different animals perceive colours and shapes differently. Thoughts?

Camo has it place but isnt key many other factors come into play more,

I go for quality gear 1st and foremost

I have a mix of
under armor
kuiu
osprey

If anything im moving more to tramping brands ( not kathmandont tho )

been ripped several times by nz " hunters " clothing brands with the clothes falling apart easy and them not wanting to cover for repairs or faults were main over sea's brands just lasts

Yep, most of my serious clothing is Kathmandu; branded Gore-Tex; Rab; Mac-Pac etc

Camouflage must be really important as I see even underwear in DPM

I don’t bush stalk as such, mostly river clearings and open tops but don’t really think for the type of hunting I do that camo makes any difference. Probably 90% of the deer we shoot haven’t seen us before being shot so camo would have made no difference. In fact one time my son wore a bright blue hoody (much to my disgust) out hunting with me and still shot deer.

Most animals pick up movement very well but don’t pick up stationary objects easily. I can imagine that wearing camo when bush stalking would break up your outline so if a deer saw some movement and was staring at you, as long as you kept very still it would probably have trouble telling what the movement was.

It is probably more important for birds than mammals. Mammals probably see more outlines especially if they are high contrast compared to the background, like pure whites or pure black clothes with no pattern. Ive heard that when bush stalking, bright skinned hands are a dead giveaway, so I always at least wear fingerless gloves with a neutral color or camo. Two dark spots (eyes) on a pale face may also scare prey animals. But thats just hearsay, haven't done any experiments.

I don't know if this applies to all deer species, but it's worth a read.
https://www.northamericanwhitetail.c...succeed/261981

So from a deer hunting perspective, not covering yourself in colours that deer can see well sounds more important than the exact pattern, though if pattern helps to break up your profile a bit, that's not a bad thing.

But most importantly, their eyesight is sensitive to movement, the same as any other animal. It's quite surprising how big and bright of an object you can casually miss provided it's not moving. And the less you look like a human, the more time you'll likely have to takea shot whilst the deer figures you out, if it does spot you.

Saw a guy in town the other day with camo pants and hi-vis orange jacket; I wish he'd make his mind up whether he wanted to be seen or not

saw a photo one time of chap up in a tree,perfectly camoflaged in black n white....add colour back in and he was wearing the most outragous hawaiin shirt Ive ever seen.I have some blaze blue and have shot deer while wearing it....far rather be seen by people and not shot.my fav Tshirt is a H&F one where no two panels are of same fabric...guys I hunt with says it stands out well for them...the deer dont seem to see it at all.
Ive got oodles of clothing now,accumulated over the years,I wear what I FEEL LIKE WEARING... what is comfortable tops what looks good. mix n match is good camo for me.

I wear camouflage or dull green clothing, and a reversible camouflage/orange beanie. The biggest colour giveaway I suggest is white hands and white face. Fingerless gloves are good value as is a shemagh scarf (inherited from serviceman). Camouflage gear can raise some giggles; at a range shoot once, a shooter held up proceedings as he had to “put on my camouflage boots”.

Dirty or faded orange is a similar colour to a red deer in the bush.

Ive found the new 3d cammo to work quite well, at times allowing me to close the gap to 30m with little cover, while being watched.

Deer aren't completely colourblind, they are just red-green colourblind, so can't really distinguish between the red and green colour spectrum (that's why tigers are orange; they stand out to us humans but through a deer's eyes they blend right in and the stripes break up their outline). They can see blue I believe, but blaze orange in really low light can look quite similar to red/ginger fur...I guess the most important thing is breaking up your shape/outline when you're standing still

I watched that recently on Netflix about the colourful world of animals, concerning the Tiger post.

Originally Posted by mimms2

The main thing about "camo" is that it's "human camo" not "deer camo" - this is why you can wear blaze orange... the animals are colorblind.
It's more about breaking up solid shapes that are out of place. If you start thinking in black and white, then you'll notice that a shirt of solid colour sticks out like dogs balls in the bush, against a background of many small shapes.

Also regarding the movement, hands are generally one of the things people move most, consciously or not, and one of the things people camouflage the least...

Dead right about the hands MD! And slings hanging from a rifle flailing around as the owner walks through the bush is another source of movement - best to take them off.

When in native bush Mrs Finnwolf and I took pictures of each other in our hunting gear (using my cellphone) then edited the pics to black and white to see what the ‘deers eye’ view of us would be like - Mrs Finnwolfs Stoney Creek blaze orange & camo top blended right in whereas my bush green swanny looked almost black as did anything else that was dark green that we were wearing.