Camo Required??

79ron79

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I'm heading out turkey hunting for the first time this year. I am wondering if I need to be worrying about putting some camo on my black 870. I now these birds are good, but is this a big deal?
 
Turkeys will see movement regardless of whether what is moving is camo'd or not. Your black 870 will be fine as long as there's nothing shiny on it.

My grandfather successfuly hunted geese, turkeys, deer and all variety of critters wearing a dirty worn out flannel shirt and dusty blue jeans.

I wouldn't recommend that outfit, but what I'm getting at is that camo helps, but it's not required.
 
All animals see movement, and don't really care too much on you or your gears appearance. I used to firmly believe in camo for coyotes and waterfowl but not any more. One time I had a coyote run right past me while bowhunting so close I could have grabbed his tail. I was camo'd head to toe and was a believer. But then another time I had another not sure of what I was. I was wearing a white flannel jacket with a black vest and blue jeans, sitting in some sage. He didn't run away because I sounded like a meal, but didn't look like a meal. He stayed a short ways away barking and yipping, but never ran. I've also had ducks come in and land right in front of me, my shotgun sitting on my lap and they just swam about, while I was wearing the same jacket and vest. Once I moved a bit they were gone. I've never hunted turkey but I'm sure it would be much the same. Sit infront of cover and not behind it, that should be enought to break up your outline and cover some movement while allowing you to shoot from where you are as opposed to having to clear the cover. And your shotgun will be fine. Good luck.
 
Set yourself behind a blind or some sort of cover. Anything to break up your outline and cover small movements.

Some would have you believe that you need to be in full camo gear including camo underwear, and drive to your spot in a truck with camo seat covers, take your camo gun and camo thermos and camo choke tubes and set them up in your camo blind so that you can shoot the turkey with camo shotshells.
 
pharaoh2:...Sit infront of cover and not behind it...Good Luck.

Grouse Man: Set yourself behind a blinds or some sort of cover.


LOL you two are FUNNY.
 
Thanks for the tips and the laughs....So what I gather is the I dont have to worry too much about the shotgun and absolutley do not have to buy the camo bedroom suite from Cabela's.
 
The camo bedroom suite is nice to have when you flop on the bed after hunting with all your gear on and disappears while the wife is looking for you to pick up dog #### in the backyard.
 
LOL! Camo is awesome. I love camo.

Like a lot of others I too had a grandfather who killed a lot of dinners with his 30-30while wearing his Kenora dinner jacket (red wool plaid coat :D). If you're just looking to kill a turkey, that's one thing, but if you enjoy playing with your toys, then why not camo your gun anyway? It won't HURT your hunt, will it?

Is it necessary for your daily driver to put out 1000hp? No, but that's not the point :D
 
Comments on movement and breaking up your outline by sitting in front of grass/trees/bushes are spot on. Also, avoid skylining yourself. Any shine from your equipment should be masked. I think camo is good, mostly because it tones down shine and breaks up a solid surface. A face mask is excellent if you want to have game get close to you. The shine of a human face (or arse end):p is disturbing to game. As an aside, a couple of helicopter pilot buddies said that it was always easy to spot folks having a love session out in nature by spotting the shine of a guy's bare backside:eek:. They would then pull in and hover for a laugh w/o too much concern about a low flying complaint being called in. ;) Ditto on spotting an upturned face from the air.

At close range you should avoid making eye contact with an animal who has not got your scent or is not otherwise alarmed. Your hands also stand out, even without movement, so gloves are a good thing. I've had many close encounters with game by watching the wind and paying attention to all of the above. Geese and old Tom Turkey are especially sensitive to movement and shine. When turkey hunting or muzzle-loading for deer I like to wrap the barrel of the gun in burlap to break the outline and avoid shine. I've also used a piece of pipe insulation with dull camo tape on it clipped around the barrel, so that your shotgun rib or sights can still be seen.

I remember an old army training film titled "Why things are seen". These primarily included shape, color, shine, silhouette, and movement.:) Self-evident perhaps, but we always used to like to check our cam and concealment from the "enemy's" point of view.
 
Grouseman got it right with this---"Anything to break up your outline and cover small movements."

A cow moose feeding on lily pad roots in a slough, wind in my favour, was not legal to shoot, so tried to see how close I could get. She'd put her head in the water, I would advance over open grass slope, starting at about 80 yards. Her ears would wiggle and the head would slowly rise, then turn to look at me. I would crouch over, head lowered, trying to look like a stump instead of a human and stay perfectly still. She would look me over, couldn't see anything, so down would go the head while I advanced.
She probably looked me over eight times, at the last at only 25 yards. Finally, I guess she decided that whatever it was, she didn't like it getting so close, so she wandered off.
Another popular myth of nature was clearly broken that evening. Anyone who has ever read a book on animals in the wild, will have read that beavers warn of danger and other animals then heed the warning and take off.
All the while I was sneaking up on the moose, like twenty minutes, a beaver was splashing his tail on the water with that sharp crack, a danger signal, like mad. He was sometimes so close to the moose that I think water splashed on the moose. But she paid absolutely no heed to the beaver and its warnings of danger.
 
Killed my first ever turkey with a Regular double shot gun no Camo!!!! Since then I have a camo gun just because but I don't beleive it is nessecary.
 
One fall I was set up for turkeys near a stock corral in S.W. Manitoba. This flock had a preference for pecking the seeds out of cow$hit and I thought that "cow patty" pattern camo might be just the ticket. Unfortunately Cabela's was'nt stocking that pattern (maybe they do now)--and I did'nt feel like improvising on the spot.:redface: I remembered that the chickens used to peck the grain out of cow turds in the barnyard and tasted pretty good, and it turned out that $hit gobbling gobbler was OK too.:p
 
I've shot turkeys with my gloss blued/wood shotgun, on a sunny morning. Movement is key. Try to keep you shotgun placed on your lap to allow minimal movement to raise it. When you do raise it, do it SLOW. I usually just sit against a maple tree or in between some cedars. Rails fences offer natural camo as well...
 
Set yourself behind a blind or some sort of cover. Anything to break up your outline and cover small movements.

Some would have you believe that you need to be in full camo gear including camo underwear, and drive to your spot in a truck with camo seat covers, take your camo gun and camo thermos and camo choke tubes and set them up in your camo blind so that you can shoot the turkey with camo shotshells.

Hey, your describing Americans here! How many times I've had whitetails walk up to within ten yards of me while I was wearing blaze orange. Cammo is for crow shooting IMO.
 
Can't comment on turkeys, but I've had a whitetail doe walk past me within 10 feet. I was in my full glory of blaze orange, including socks and underwear :)p). Another time I walked out of a bush and noticed a nice whitetail buck eating alfalfa about 50 yards away. I froze. He looked me over and went back to eating. I did much the same thing as H4831, only I didn't move up. I would raise my rifle a wee bit every time he put his head down to grab a mouthful. Eventually I got my ugly old Mauser up and kaboomed him. I had my blaze orange underwear on that time too.:p
 
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