Odd camo question

Depends on the part of "the south". In south Jawgia, there's some green on some brush, year around. In Texas, greasewood, cedar and live oaks are green all through the winter.

But, it would seem to me, in Terlingua, desert camo would be the way to go. Wonder do they make prickly pear camo, maybe lechuguilla or something.

Just one of many reasons why I don't bother with camo.

Wester NC sounds like it would be fairly similar to upstate SC which is my neck of the woods, err... no pun intended If you hunt from a blind or a stand like I usually do, camo dosen't do a whole lot for you. Truth be told, I don't know why I wear it as much as I do other than the fact I think it looks cool and I've just always worn it, even if it was just woodland BDUs from an army-navy store. The green might help in pine thickets but I believe most major hunting apparel makers have fall camo that blends in w/ dead leaves and whatnot and I would think DCU camo or "Chocolate Chip" would probably do ok although I don't know if deer can see in color or not... Dangit now I have to go find out cause that's gonna bother me until I do.

I'm also in western NC, we don't have the same kind of brown as one finds on Desert BDU's. Also, according to the last field and stream I read, deer see grays really well. So all the grayish white in that desert camo is going to mess up your plan. And finally, camo doesn't really matter anyway. get hidden and still in whatever you're wearing and you'll be ok. But don't where blue according to that same article.

Unless you are hunting turkey, dove, ducks, or geese?
It doesn't matter.

Deer, coyotes, etc see in shades of grey.

Lots of deer have been harvested by hunters wearing red plaid coats, or blaze orange vests & hats over the last 100 years.

rc

Friday evening I had four or five deer up the ridge 20yds behind me, two 15yds to my right and several more coming down the ridge in front of me no more than 50yds away. All while sitting on the ground next to a tree wearing nothing but solid colors, including a navy blue, heavy flannel shirt. Happens every year, even with turkeys.

I ordered two new wool hunting shirts from Woolrich this week, one red/black plaid, the other blue/green.

I have done most of my deer hunting from the ground. I think camo is pretty much useless for deer hunt that's from my experience. A good pant/shirt in some shade of khaki or the older OD green type shades works perfect, as do blue jeans, and black or dark shirt. During gun season it's required in GA to wear blaze orange I don't step in the woods without it. Mind your colors of clothing to to match with the color of deer, just to many itchy trigger finders in the woods.

If ground hunting find a small tree (cedar is my favorite) that you can use to sit behind/break up your outline this works much better than any camo or has for me.

I know in PA and from what I have seen driving up and down the East Coast, the fall season's brown is much darker than military desert camo. Now having lighter camo is not necessarily a bad thing when dealing with human eyes as dark camo can appear as a giant shadow, but with game animals, this can be tricky.

Maybe some kind of "FDE" flat dark earth based camo would work, but I do not know of any that are not "specialty". Check out hyperstealth's website and their US4CES stuff if you want pricey camo that is digital... they have like 100 different color variations. For me, I will be sticking with cheap WalMart Real Tree... not that I ever wear it anyways.

But my real question is: How come a deer can see me sneaking around in camo, but not my Blue Jeep barrelling down the highway? My vehicle is more successful than my rifle!

Break up your pattern. If you have to wear BLAZE ORANGE camo get the blaze orange break up camo.

To me they look more of a "sandy " color. Of the two, I`d rather go ,green.

mountain_man said:

I have a rather odd camo question that came to me the other day. In the south east woods after the leaves fall, everything is brown. No green really in my area, just shades of brown. So I got to thinking would a surplus desert camo work in this scenario? It seems that woodland wouldn't as there is no green.

Click to expand...

Best camo to use in fall in TN woods is atacs au.

I was still hunting one morning and eased up to near our boundary fence. Stood and watched a doe staring at a fella. He was just sitting still, about ten or fifteen yards from the doe. She did all the head-bobbing and staring as does will do. She finally decided that he was just some oddly-shaped stump, I guess. She finally ambled off after five minutes or so.

He was wearing Levis and a Levi jacket...

Since deer are supposed to be color blind, try this.
Take a pic of the camo laying on some brush with a digital camera.
Now, convert the pic to a black/white image and see how it's blends
Me? I don't wear camo, normally I kill 2 deer per year, this year I've taked three
All without camo, all under 30 yards

Unless you're a SEAL or in the special forces and are hunting men who in turn can hunt you, colors are irrelevant. Breaking up the outline is what camo does best. ASAT camo works in all environments because it breaks up the man shape. High contrast bold patterns are effective everywhere.

The only drawback to solid colored clothing that I have seen is it is easier to see movement. I have had deer within a few feet of me while I wore blaze orange and they did not notice me unless I moved. As for blaze camo, you might want to check your state regs. It is not legal in Missouri.

rcmodel said:

Unless you are hunting turkey, dove, ducks, or geese?
It doesn't matter.

Deer, coyotes, etc see in shades of grey.

Lots of deer have been harvested by hunters wearing red plaid coats, or blaze orange vests & hats over the last 100 years.

rc

Click to expand...

Agreed. Something with contrasting patterns to help breakup your outline is all the is needed to help. Unless you can be REALLY still all the time.

Carhart Bibs and a burnt orange T-shirt worked on this guy at 45 yards on the ground. Personally, I think camo is way overrated for most forms of deer hunting, Scent control and paying attention to the wind is much more important in my opinion.

What about the yotes? Do they see color? I think they do see some variations. Deer isn't the only game....

I read an article about a study that had been done with deer vision by having both wild deer and pen fed deer select their food locations based on the color of the containers. It was interesting that one color a deer can pick up immediately in relation to surrounding colors is blue, and gray also appears as a shade of blue to the deer. So, based on this study it appears that if you want to select camo for deer hunting you would avoid shades of gray as they are readily seen by the deer. Of course, most man made fabrics give off a blue UV glare if they are not treated.

Is camo necessary for deer? No.

Does it help? Sometimes, yes.

Is it more effective for other game? Yes, waterfowl and Turkeys, just to name a couple.

Is the pattern all that important? Not really, the idea is to blend in. Many of the camo patterns that appeal the most to humans have detail that is too small and not enough color variation. At a distance it just looks like a dark blob. Color is more important when hunting species that see color, but even then, blending in is most important. Sitting still is just a part of blending in. On windy days, camo may help hide a small amount of movement, as it will help one blend in with moving brush/leaves.

It is just another tool. Like a scope, binos, topo maps and calls.

sage5907 said:

It was interesting that one color a deer can pick up immediately in relation to surrounding colors is blue, and gray also appears as a shade of blue to the deer. So, based on this study it appears that if you want to select camo for deer hunting you would avoid shades of gray as they are readily seen by the deer.

Click to expand...

But grey is a color found often in nature. Rocks, tree bark, grey skies. Even if it looks blue to deer, you still would blend in with rocks, trees and grey skies. That may be why blue jeans have worked so well for folks when deer hunting. To us they look like blu-jeans. To a deer they look like tree stumps.

I'm assuming you're only talking about deer hunting; if so, look at this problem from a deer's perspective, rather from a human's perspective; Yes, deer do have keen eyesight, but what really spooks a deer is "movement", and not so much colors. Deer also have a very keen sense of "smell"; all humans have a "scent" that just about any wild creature can detect from a long distance....anything you can do to lessen your human scent will probably be of more benefit than your garment colors if you're hunting deer.

And then there's "sound"; your best bet.......don't make any!

One other thing about deer behavior that any wildlife biologist will point out to you; being grazing animals, deer tend to be wary of sensory inputs of anything from ground level up to maybe 10 or 12 feet above the ground; (which is why many (if not most ) of them are killed by hunters that station themselves at or above 10 or 12 feet from the ground. )