A good camouflage test

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I, on occasion like to test out my camo pattern to see if it works in the terrain I'm hunting in.

A couple of days ago I got a good chance. I was sitting under a pine tree on the side of a hill overlooking a valley with small brush around me, my jacket (dappled pattern) with hood up and rifle stacked against the tree in easy reach hoping a Whitetail would break out of one of the multiple tree lines. I'm glassing the tree line with binocs when I hear the rumble of a quad but can't see it yet.

The side by side quad comes into view and climbs the hill straight toward me. Two men with a buck in the back are heading to the trail behind me. I think about stepping out to announce my presence but decide to stay put and still and see if they spot me as they're headed straight at me.

They veer off to the side about 20 yds away looking ahead to find the trail. They look straight at me, through me and around me but obviously fail to spot me even though I'm sitting in full view.

They pass me laughing and talking and I can see their faces highly magnified in the glasses.

They never knew I was right there. I'm guessing my camo setup works.

Before anyone mentions it - I am hunting in Southern Alta where red or orange isn't required.
 
An interesting experience! I suspect that camo is a thing for other humans, not perhaps for some game. A buddy regularly gets his whitetail with muzzle loader - in blue jeans, ball cap and sitting in grass at edge of bush, in a chrome frame folding lawn chair. So far as he is concerned, for white tail, your shape and colour mean not a lot - but your smell does. And even blinking your eyelid does - motion and smell are the keys, he tells me. I had been sitting on a stump, in full blaze orange in Saskatchewan, and had two white tail does walk up to investigate the smoke curling off my cigarette - until I moved one foot - their hair pretty much stood on end and they went bounding away. Might be different with birds - geese for sure - I think they can see colours pretty good. And perhaps elk might be able to see blaze orange - I just do not have enough experience with them to be sure.

But I do wonder about the camo thing. For sure will work to hide you from humans. Not so sure it actually "hides" you from many types of game animals. I do not believe that you will be able to reach over and get your rifle into action, without a deer seeing that motion - whether you are in camo or not.
 
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Potashminer said:
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But I do wonder about the camo thing. For sure will work to hide you from humans. ...
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Agreed, the vast majority of camouflage patterns are designed to appeal to the preconceptions of modern hunters: If it's hard for me to see, then it's hard for deer to see, right? That's what sells camo gear.

But ungulates (and other animals) simply don't see the same way that humans do. I haven't seen any real evidence that camouflage works even a little bit in reducing game animals' ability to spot hunters.

How about this? If there was an advantage to "break up" camouflage patterns, then our local predators would have evolved to use them in their coats.
 
I've had some fun interactions with people in Southern Alberta. Wearing Krytek basically makes you invisible down there provided you are still and not silhouetted. A buddy of mine and I used to hunt down south a lot together in a hike in area. He wore Sitka Optifade. We would keep track how many times a day we would see each other. He was usually zero. I was 3-5 times spotting him. Optifade is apparently designed to fool deers eyes. A buddy of mine has a cool video of a deer walking within a few meters of him while standing and remaining still on open ground. Mind you I also have a video of me doing the same in Kryptek.

At the end of the day it's movement that busts a fella 9 times out of 10. Massively so for deer and to a lesser extent humans.
 
Some years ago, I had read that mammal eyes have got structures called "rods and cones". One senses colour; one senses motion. We humans have many more of the colour sensing ones; deer have many more of the motion sensing ones. Is a physical difference that can be seen on an autopsy of the eyes. Many birds are almost completely colour sensing structures.
 
Potashminer said:
An interesting experience! I suspect that camo is a thing for other humans, not perhaps for some game. A buddy regularly gets his whitetail with muzzle loader - in blue jea chrome frame folding lawn chair. So far as he is concerned, for white tail, your shape and colour mean not a lot -ans, ball cap and sitting in grass at edge of bush, in but your smell does. And even blinking your eyelid does - motion and smell are the keys, he tells me. I had been sitting on a stump, in full blaze orange in Saskatchewan, and had two white tail does walk up to investigate the smoke curling off my cigarette - until I moved one foot - their hair pretty much stood on end and they went bounding away. Might be different with birds - geese for sure - I think they can see colours pretty good. And perhaps elk might be able to see blaze orange - I just do not have enough experience with them to be sure.
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Not disagreeing with you, just thought this was funny.
Reminds me, when smoking was allowed, how your cloths would smell the next day, after a night at the pub. .
 
Even for humans movement is a big factor. My corporal in basic taught us that one day. The entire platoon turned their back on him, we were maybe 50' from the treeline. He quickly shimmied up a tree in front of us and told us to turn around and try and find him. Because the sun was behind him there was just enough shade that all 40 of us couldn't spot him. It wasn't until he moved one arm that we all spotted the guy DIRECTLY in front of us.
 
HuskyDude said:
Not disagreeing with you, just thought this was funny.
Reminds me, when smoking was allowed, how your cloths would smell the next day, after a night at the pub. .
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I agree - a disgusting, stinky habit!! I have been smoking cigarettes about 50 years - sooner or later will have to give that up!! My Dad finally quit when he was in his mid-70's. He passed at age 84.

Cruising that same big chunk of bush that I had the two deer approach me - maybe that year or several years later - from within bush, I saw an opening - was like a metal pail with what looked like incense sticks - curly smoke rising. Had never seen such a thing before - I suspected someone in a blind overlooking that, so I backed on out - I never saw them - hoping they never saw me. It was elk season in that area - I presume it was an attractant of some sort.

Is kind of amazing - I was taught to hunt / walk facing wind or at least quartering it - zigzag - always sensitive to which way is wind going - in this place, right now. Take a couple steps in heavier bush - stop - use binoculars to take apart the scenery - astounding to me how far back into bush you see with binoculars, compared to your eyes. Four or five more steps - repeat - as if you walked 15 miles - it looks entirely different. Very cool to spy a bedded deer - does not appear to even know that you are there. Might take all morning to cross a mile or two of bush - but when sign is evident, you know they are right there - just have to find them - you have to see them before they see you. Another was to drop down almost on belly in heavier spruce stands - some of those little saplings - they will eventually move - is actually deer legs for deer standing 25 feet away - they have you pegged - if you are walking upright, will never know they were there, except for the tracks that you might find if you are looking.
 
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Just like most fishing lures are designed to catch fishermen...most camo patterns are designed to fool hunters.

Gotta be honest: I feel like a total goof wearing camo unless it's in one of the (few) situations where I feel it has actual value...such as waterfowl or turkey hunting. For large game or predators, I have moved further and further away from using it at all, and have never seen any negative effects from this trend in terms of my hunting success. Like others have said: avoid movement, be aware of wind direction, practice scent control, stay quiet...and you're golden no matter what you are wearing.

I chuckle at the guys I see wearing camo as some kind of fashion statement; in stores, on the street, on the jobsite. As far as I am concerned, camo is a tool used for hunting in specific circumstances, and I am not going to be wearing my hunting stuff at work or anywhere else where it is going to get all stunk up with unnatural odours. I am about as likely to wear camo in a gas station or donut shop as I am to be stark naked there.

"Testing" camo? Yep...I test that it fits, and to make sure it doesn't make weird noises when I move. That's it.
 
I was thinking about the Scotland "game keepers" - where the ghilly suits originated. I wonder now if that was not about catching poachers, not so much about hunting deer??

I do know a couple guys who claim a background as those nasty sniper military guys - one thing I noticed - is actually very hard for me to sit or lay perfectly still for 5 minutes - not move a muscle - not scratching an itch, even when an ant or spider crawls across your face - those guys apparently can do that for hours. NO MOTION. Apparently, in their line of work, movement means detection - detection means mortars / artillery coming your way.

I saw a TV thing some years ago - British SAS training. Officer sitting on chair on a hill side with binoculars. A "dummy" on chair beside him. Students in ghilly suits had to sneak up and place a shot into the dummy - several Sargents in the field with marker sticks - Officer would direct them to something that he spotted - even a boot toe - so that student would fail. The ghilly suit helped - but my impression was that it was almost always the motion that was the give-away.
 
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Potashminer said:
I was thinking about the Scotland "game keepers" - where the ghilly suits originated. I wonder now if that was not about catching poachers, not so much about hunting deer??

I do know a couple guys who claim a background as those nasty sniper military guys - one thing I noticed - is actually very hard for me to sit or lay perfectly still for 5 minutes - not move a muscle - not scratching an itch, even when an ant or spider crawls across your face - those guys apparently can do that for hours. NO MOTION. Apparently, in their line of work, movement means detection - detection means mortars / artillery coming your way.

I saw a TV thing some years ago - British SAS training. Officer sitting on chair on a hill side with binoculars. A "dummy" on chair beside him. Students in ghilly suits had to sneak up and place a shot into the dummy - several Sargents in the field with marker sticks - Officer would direct them to something that he spotted - even a boot toe - so that student would fail. The ghilly suit helped - but my impression was that it was almost always the motion that was the give-away.
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Most game animals are color blind, but very sensitive to motion.

Grizz
 
The OP has simply shown us that camo is effective at avoiding detection from humans. Weird, its almost like marketing over the years has convinced people that if a human can't see me, neither can the animals i am hunting.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but in the exact same scenario a hunter wearing head to toe blaze orange would be just as hidden from deer or moose as the OP was wearing is good camo.

Looking like a neon orange pumpkin hasnt stopped me from stalking within spitting distance of deer, nor has it stopped deer from nearly running me over.
Blaze orange, camo from the 90's and the newest high tech camo are all the same to a deer.
 
alpining said:
I suspect you are right. It would be great to see some real data on this topic, but I doubt that any hunting gear manufacturer is going to pay for proper research on the subject.
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The only real world data you're going to get is from real world hunters who've been in situations to prove whether camo is useful or not for deer and other big game. During the controlled hunt i wear head to toe blaze orange and i have been in dozens of close range situations where deer had unobstructed view of me but they do not know youre there til you move.

You'll never get data like that from camo manufacturers because they already know the truth and they definitely dont want to convince people that camo is practically useless for deer and moose. Same as golf and fishing, they use marketing to convince people what they need.

It wasnt really that long ago that practically every deer hunter was out in blue jeans and flannel jackets killing deer just as effectively as guys wearing modern $1000 apparel.
 
Deer are not "colour" blind per se and we understand that term. They just see in a different colour spectrum. They don't distinguish green from orange or red. Your red/black plaid lumber jacket is camo to deer. However they see shades of blue very well...even better than humans see red. As a prey animal they have eyes on either side of their head. They have excellent peripheral vision and spotting movement and vision in low light. However, they find difficult to view detail. Have your ever seen a deer looking straight at you and bob their heads up and down/back and forth. They are trying to see more detail by getting a different angle.
 
A few problems I see. Sometimes camo has the right fabric or the right amount of pockets or whatever we require to hunt in compared to non camo. Some camo is better than others for reducing your perceived motion. ( solid is best) I like to take pictures of my hunting gear in the field in black and white to see what blends in better. I also think if your camo or blaze orange gives off too much UV light that it’s not helpful. My favorite camo pattern is Under Armor. I prefer solid colors, but sometimes it’s hard to find something other than Carhartt.
 
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