Why not more digital camo

[MrDig]

Probably two reasons, the First being Trademark and Patent laws, the second being it is worthless. When you wear it does nothing but stand out like a turd in a punch bowl.
I have an acquaintance who is in supply and is telling me the Military is planning on decommissioning the ACU pattern, and or the colors to help actually camouflage our soldiers better.

 

[buck460XVR]

Modern commercial civilian camo is meant to attract buyers and their monies more than it is to make them invisible to game. The secret when using camo for animals such as turkeys and waterfowl is to use one that matches the color, shades and variation of the background cover.....regardless of the brand or pattern. Mossy Oak Treeline will stick out like a sore thumb when used in yellow marsh grass. When used for deer hunting, I believe camo is more of a confidence thing for the hunter, as I get deer just as close during gun season wearing blaze orange as I do during bow season wearing full camo.

 

[MCgunner]

They have a goodwill store in Terlingua?

Walmart has woodland camo Wrangler cargos for 20 bucks. I don't really buy 'em specifically for hunting, duck hunting being where I need camo and my pants are covered by waders when I'm duck hunting. I like the big front pockets my 9mm can hide in and the cargo pockets so I don't have to sit on my wallet and, well, camo is a fashion statement and they go well with my real tree snake boots.

 

[dragon813gt]

For archery season I hunt after work in my work clothes. Which consists of dull green or khaki pants and my red work shirts. I do hunt from a treestand but I have never had a problem taking deer wearing those clothes. And for the firearms season I am lit up with all the orange I have to wear. The deer don't seem to care what I wear.

Now for turkey I've had good luck with Mossy Oak Break Up Infinity because it matches the terrain by me. Most of the others stick out like a sore thumb. And if I were to sit in the stand wearing it I would stick out. If you want to wear cammo pick the correct type for the terrain. I have some digital BDUs but I don't wear to camouflage me. I wear them because they were cheap and I don't care if they get destroyed. The other cammo costs a lot and I don't like having to buy it again.


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[DaisyCutter]

Critterz are digital. Digital camo is fer huntin iPods n such.

 

[Patocazador]

Why for then do the National Guard guys I can see from my house during weekend drills look like little Grey men walking around from 1/2 mile away?

I never could see them when they used to wear woodland cammo next to, or in the tree line.

Digital maybe works better in the desert, or against IR at night?

But IMO, it don't work worth a darn in the good old American woods.

rc

They just issued a report about how ineffective the digital camo is in Afghanistan. The Taliban have NO trouble picking out the "gray guys" and inflicting damage on them. The Army is 'looking into' replacing it ASAP.

 

[thralldad]

The best desert camo pattern is DCU followed closely by Multi-cam. I saw the test results where they compared 10 different patterns. We called ACUs "cook whites". In the pitch black deep woods you can pick out ACU like they were glow in the dark!

 

[paintballdude902]

theyre all better than the af abu pattern

 

[mdauben]

Why for then do the National Guard guys I can see from my house during weekend drills look like little Grey men walking around from 1/2 mile away?

Most people seem to agree that the Army's original UCP digital camo (the grey stuff) was a failure, that is equally ineffective in almost any conditions. Some of the newer military digicam, like the Marine MARPAT (in woodland and desert variations) or the new Army MultiCam are big improvements.

That said, I still think old fashioned "Woodlands" camo is still a very effective pattern.

 

[chas08]

Deer can't see me in worn out blue jeans and an old khaki work shirt unless I move and scare them!!

For me, plaid shirts and dark jeans or Bib Overalls has always been fine for Deer. Ducks and Geese are another story. Having grown up in an era where camo was non existant. I've found that just matching your clothing to the exhisting surroundings is sufficient. Great state of the art camo is no doubt an advantage, but necessary, I think not.

 

[Texan Scott]

I've never worn camo for deer. They are flighty, twitchy things, with good ears and a great sense of smell, and they bark 'run' (the only word they know) at the drop of a hat... but they don't seem to see well (dichromatic vision with little or no depth perception - result of having their eyes set so far apart), and they're dumb as a box of rocks, to boot. stay quiet and downwind of them, then shoot.

 

[EmbarkChief]

The Marine digital must do something, when boots started hitting the Fleet with them in '02 it gave me a headache just looking at them.

All that aside I use a good pair of faded out Carhart insulated overalls here in Texas for West Texas whitetail. Matches the surrounding vegetation (or lack thereof) perfectly.

 

[RustHunter87]

never really liked the digital stuff my self, Im a Flecktarn guy my self.

 

[Coop45]

I like the woodland green camo, but then I only wear it fishing because light colors attract bugs at night.

 

[arsenal of democracy]

I just saw this topic and it reminded me of some recent posts I had read on a retired Green Beret's blog regarding the army digital camo. I have pasted four different links, they have a lot of background on the development of tha army digital camo and why it doesn't work vs. the old ERDL camo of the late '60's to early '80's. According to the blog owner/poster the marine marpat pattern works pretty good but Multi Cam works in more situations.

http://weaponsman.com/?p=3756

http://weaponsman.com/?p=3877

http://www.stripes.com/news/army/the-military-s-misadventures-in-pixelated-camouflage-1.182240

http://www.thedaily.com/page/2012/06/24/062412-news-camouflage-fiasco-1-5/

 

[WYcoyote]

I have always favored the bold blocky shapes of ASAT and Predator patterns to break up your outline at a distance.
A trick I like to use is to wear a different pattern jacket compared to the pants.

 

[Trent]

Took this of myself when I was turkey hunting, turned it in to what my son calls a "meme".

Just off the rack surplus BDU's, some burlap tied on to sewn on loops, grass and twigs from the surroundings.

As far as ducks & geese.. ain't that what blinds are for?

And everything else, blue jeans and my normal t-shirt or jacket.

 

[EnglishmanInArizona]

A little more ACU bashing won't hurt:

I once watched a man walk down the street in Tucson wearing blue jeans and an ACU jacket. The background was a mixture of concrete, mixed vegetation and dirt. I lost sight of his jeans before the jacket. I still can't work out how ACU is that bad.

That said, my hunting jacket is Multicam. I think photorealistic camouflage in particular exists because it looks to humans like it should be amazing, and because the obvious overspecialization opens the door to selling half a dozen sets of clothing to the same person. I'm amazed how well the photo patterns do work in the "wrong" environments though. I guess they are just fairly high contrast patterns with a strong disruptive effect.

 

[infmp32]

Took this of myself when I was turkey hunting, turned it in to what my son calls a "meme".

Just off the rack surplus BDU's, some burlap tied on to sewn on loops, grass and twigs from the surroundings.

As far as ducks & geese.. ain't that what blinds are for?

And everything else, blue jeans and my normal t-shirt or jacket.

Your son is pretty clever, that's a funny pic.

 

[Trent]

As RC model mentioned, turkeys have X-Ray vision, and superhuman hearing.

I stalked one (wearing my rediculous outfit) through chest high grass for a half mile back in 2010. I was on a ridge, and watched it bed down in this area. Circled around and came at it from downwind. Took FOR EVER. And I kept getting "hung up" on everything.

When I got there, I could hear it but couldn't locate it.

When I got what I felt as "close enough" I fired one shot in the air, which flushed it out and sent it running. Next shot put 11 pellets in to it's head and neck, it went down hard.

Stalking turkey is SO MUCH MORE FUN than sitting in a damn blind calling them.

But dangerous if you're on public land. I only stalk on private land, after talking to the landowner, to make sure no-one else is out and about. Even then, I wear a Class IIA vest under the mess of rags... *just in case* I, myself, get mistaken for a bird.

Really fun times. Stalking gives an adrenaline rush which is .. remarkable. And pulling it off, well, good sense of pride, that.

 

[BBQLS1]

Any US GI Army Surplus fatigue / BDU pants, shirts, jackets, or coats are never a bad choice.

You can't buy better hunting clothes for several times the money.

But I'm still not sold on the digital cammo for hunting unless you are trying to hide in shades of Grey digital square woods.

rc

I agree that this can be a good choice.

You can buy better hunting clothes for several times the money though. The newer fabrics are so much better at keeping one warm and dry when the conditions are less than favorable.

Digital camo works when done right. It's been studied and proven.

There were some really good duracoat jobs on guns that made the weapon disapear when you were looking right at it. I wish I knew where those were. I ran across them when I was looking into duracoating some guns.

So far, it seems that presently-available camo works okay when hunting turkey, geese and doves--which is about the only real need for camo at all.

For varmints and deer-type critters, any old dull earth tones will do quite well.

If you can sit really still, Bambi doesn't seem to be bothered by blue jeans, which I've always found to be sorta odd.

I'll agree with that, no problem. Especially when talking deer. I was walking back to the camp one day (the road was on a ridge with drop offs on each side), when I stopped because I heard some critter making all kinds of racket and coming up to the road. I froze in the middle of the road wearing a carhardt tan coat (zipped, it was cold and blue jeans). A 8 point buck popped up about 25 yards in front of me. He walked right in front of me, stopped and looked and nonchalantly went about his buisiness and walked down the other side. I should also note, I was down wind so he couldn't smell me (had a fair breeze).

I couldn't take a shot because when I could see him there wasn't a safe direction to shoot.

I do understand that the one color they do see is blue.... I'm just not sure why the buck didn't wig out when he saw my jeans. Maybe he just didn't know what they were, but didn't seem to pose a threat.

 

[olliver]

For you guys with Sitka experience...

I am in the final selection process to acquire a Sitka Gear clothing set in Open Country pattern.

Is the Sitka Jetstream jacket breathable given that it has the wind barrier? I don't want to get one with goretx becasue of this concern but I assume the wind barrier membrane may also fail to breathe as well?

 

[Naterater]

I haven't read the entire thread, but the digital camo now is a desert camo - it's more tan. There is a forest digital camo that contains darker greens and a few blacks and browns. It's much more suitable for American woods.

 

[armoredman]

I'm a sucker for Natural Gear, a pattern that seems quite good for my desert area. I'd LOVE to get Rhodesian grass pattern, but can't find BUD replicas anywhere.
I have some digital desert stuff, but because it was close out cheap.

 

[WardenWolf]

I really like the look of this stuff: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Russian-Arm...290?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5d348b3ab2

I've done business with that seller before, through their website. The Russian Flora camo has always been, in my opinion, one of the best forest camouflage patterns. This new digital version is even better.

Russian BDUs, by the way, are extremely comfortable stuff. There's a lot more freedom of movement than with our gear. Not as many pockets, but the overall feel is more comfortable.