To camo or not to camo...That is the Question!!!

[simonvancouver]

I really love the truck hunters in head to toe camo... def cant see or hear them in a bright red truck ....

Camo i am sure works but if you got your best perfume on and are the wrong way in the wind you are ****ed regardless.

Good tracking / hunting basics I believe out perform the best camo.

[Bubbacanuck]

Depends on species that you are hunting. Some use their nose, others use their eyes. Camo adds little value when hunting bears but is pretty much a necessity when hunting turkey. When waterfowl hunting, if you are visible they won't come into your spread. Not saying you need to be head to toe camo, but if you are casting a shadow or they see the whites of your face, you likely won't be shooting limits unless you are in some honey hole area. Ungulates, the wind is more important but their eyes do play a part. More so with movement than anything but camo doesn't hurt. When I was lynx hunting, I was head to toe white since I was hunting in the snow. Cats have good eyes but I don't know if it is a must if you are setup correctly. To each their own I say.

[tigrr]

Blaze Orange around here. I'm tired of being scoped.

[Username48]

As far as camo patterns go, I think it gives you a slight edge in only a handful of rare instances. It certainly won't hurt your hunting to be in full camo, but there are plenty of other things far more likely to spook an animal than not having camo. Waterfowl and turkey hunting are probably the exceptions where camo does make a significant difference, since they have much sharper eyesight and rely on it much more for detecting predators.

I'm certainly guilty of truck-hunting with camo on and/or wearing a blaze-orange vest over top of camo, and I'm aware of the irony. That being said, I bought camo hunting clothes not because I wanted camo, but because I wanted to buy high-quality technical clothes that are purpose-built for hunting, and that kind of gear tends to mostly be only available in camo patterns. Yes you can get solid earth-tones from some (not all) brands, but those tend to sell out first anytime there's a major sale.

There are plenty of outdoor brands that make great clothing for hiking, backpacking, trail-running, etc., but in my experience those clothes fall short for hunting in a few key areas: durability, noise, and stretch. Which makes sense, as they're not designed for people that are bush-whacking and stalking animals. They have a completely different set of design criteria, and that's fine.

So to answer the question of "to camo or not to camo", no I don't think it's necessary to buy camo clothing, but it is worthwhile to buy hunting-specific outerwear. If it happens to be camo, so be it. I don't want to buy expensive gear only to have it tear while walking through thick brush, make a ton of noise as it crinkles with each step, or be uncomfortable and restrictive every time I find myself prone or crouching in the bush.

[Redthies]

Well said ‘48.

[Treed]

While camo may not be a big game changer when hunting, having your face covered makes a big difference. In my experience, our faces stick out like deer butts. For some people the comparison goes further.

[Leveraction]

I don’t focus too much on the camo, but rather focus on the darker colours.
I tend to where darker green, greys, some browns, sometimes a bit of a mix of them.
depending on what kind of hunting, I have a face covering with me as well, the colour of skin is not a colour found in the bush.
I’ve always tried to pay attention to the wind, and that over colour many times is a deal maker, but wind going in the direction you are travelling can be a deal breaker.

[Fallkniven]

You don't need camo. Camo was invented to make Humans less visable to humans, nothing to do with animals. If you stand still in a back ground as complicated as a forest, no deer can differentiate you (with the exception of wearing a non natural colour, like Blue) from the background, they just don't have the brain power required, because its actually requires quite a lot. Deer have developed a different angle get around the lack of synapses, they react to movement and scent. Don't move and don't give them your scent, a deer cannot detect you. Camo is like cat food ads, they are aimed at the owners, not the cats, because it the owner who decide what/when to buy. Likewise camo, its aimed at what YOU find difficult to tell from a background...but you have about X1000 times the processing power of a Deer...stay still, watch the wind....save your money.

[Fallkniven]

should have added sound to my list of ways to be detected!

[Redthies]

You don't need camo. Camo was invented to make Humans less visable to humans, nothing to do with animals. If you stand still in a back ground as complicated as a forest, no deer can differentiate you (with the exception of wearing a non natural colour, like Blue) from the background, they just don't have the brain power required, because its actually requires quite a lot. Deer have developed a different angle get around the lack of synapses, they react to movement and scent. Don't move and don't give them your scent, a deer cannot detect you. Camo is like cat food ads, they are aimed at the owners, not the cats, because it the owner who decide what/when to buy. Likewise camo, its aimed at what YOU find difficult to tell from a background...but you have about X1000 times the processing power of a Deer...stay still, watch the wind....save your money.

So youve obviously never hunted turkeys or waterfowl? It’s not absolutely 100% necessary to wear camo in those pursuits, but it makes you 10x more successful.

When not chasing either of those critters, I wear earth tones and call it good. As you and others have mentioned, with ungulates and other big game animals, it’s all about scent and motion.