Camoflage does it work?

Wear a quality ghillie suit, and that includes your rifle/glass..
Be mindful of your scent.
Be mindful of your movement.
I've almost been stepped on by nice bucks on game trails...
Same for ducks/geese. You become your own blind.
My kit has surprised many a hunter who have spent too much on all that camo gear thinking they look good in the mirror but in-situ is another story...
ymmv...

When in a ghillie suit what do you do with your head? I tried the hat that comes with mine but the screen is too dark to see through comfortably when dusk arrives.
 
more important than what you wear is what you wash those clothes in.
Most laundry soaps contain UV brighteners that prevent color fading of your clothing. These UV brighteners are highly visible to ungulates , especially deer.
The effect is that you will literally glow in the eyes of an ungulate, no matter what color you are wearing.

So more important than what you wear is what you choose to wash your clothing in prior to setting out hunting in it.

100% UV, scent and wind direction is what you need to master.
 
I've had a cow moose walk to within 12 feet of me when I was dressed like a big glowing pumpkin, standing right out in the middle of a trail with no cover. I thought that was close enough so I wagged my finger at her and she took off like a shot.

I and many others have nearly been ran over by deer enough times while wearing blaze orange suits to know that it makes zero difference with them. I'm talking deer still running straight at you until you shoot them at spitting distance when humans can see you from hundreds of yards away.

I also have no issue stalking within 20 yards of deer while wearing blaze orange during the controlled hunt. Scent and movement are everything with deer.


Camo really seems to help with coyote and birds though.
 
I dont really get to crazy with camo, I have hunted deer wearing a high vise vest and work boots and come home with a deer, I have also gone out in full real tree camo and filled the freezer...to me, deer will hear you and smell you before they will see you in some cases.
 
Wear a quality ghillie suit, and that includes your rifle/glass..
Be mindful of your scent.
Be mindful of your movement.
I've almost been stepped on by nice bucks on game trails...
Same for ducks/geese. You become your own blind.
My kit has surprised many a hunter who have spent too much on all that camo gear thinking they look good in the mirror but in-situ is another story...
ymmv...

We’re going to need to see some ghillie suit harvest photos of the nice bucks with words that strong. ;)
 
We’re going to need to see some ghillie suit harvest photos of the nice bucks with words that strong. ;)

Ghillie suits are useless for bowhunters... all the loose material interferes with the bowstring on the release... I would like to see the Ghillie success photos too... seems rather "Rambo" and awkward... although I am sure it would work better than a flat material pattern at concealment.
 
Saskatchewan law says in rifle season I have to wear an orange, red, yellow, or white jacket/vest. Solid colours. White hats not allowed. They even get specific about maximum logo sizes.

So orange it is, my camo is in hats and bunnyhugs (yes, I said bunnyhugs, not hoodies, I am from Saskatchewan afterall) that don't get worn hunting

I never wear blue jeans hunting... usually some kind of cargo pants or something... because someone once told me that how we see orange as a stand out colour... a deer sees blue that way. I have no idea if it's true or not, but I stick to it.

But I do feel that camo is wrong in rifle season if there is any chance that anyone else will be around. If you own or have private access to 100 acres of great land that nobody else would be on... then I don't care... but if some other clown you don't know might be out... orange makes more sense to me. I'd rather be spotted by deer so that I'd be spotted by others looking to shoot things that move and know that I don't look like a deer to them.
 
I believe camo does work but the biggest factor is movement.

You can have the best camo in the world but if you are not careful with your movements, most game will spot you.
 
Wear a quality ghillie suit, and that includes your rifle/glass..
Be mindful of your scent.
Be mindful of your movement.
I've almost been stepped on by nice bucks on game trails...
Same for ducks/geese. You become your own blind.
My kit has surprised many a hunter who have spent too much on all that camo gear thinking they look good in the mirror but in-situ is another story...
ymmv...

I've literally had to step out of the way to avoid being run over by deer and could have got them with a bayonet while I was wearing blaze orange. I have also had deer walk within a couple yards of me while wearing full blaze orange. Then there's the many times I have stalked within 20 yards of deer while wearing that same orange. The ghillie may give you confidence, but I can assure you it's definitely not required to get close to deer.


I still wear head to toe camo while bowhunting, but I cannot explain why as I have experienced enough examples to know it's not required for deer. I guess deep down I am a victim of camo marketing too?
 
As can be seen by the variety of responses here, there are lots of successful hunters; that use camo, those that do not, and those required by law to wear certain colours, or amount of colour.

I have had success with, and without camo over the past 40 years.

The biggest lessons learned from my time in the field is:
1) You may be able to fool their eyes, and maybe their ears, but you absolutely cannot fool their noses! Play the wind and use scent control (it does help)
2) Movement is the biggest attractor for the eye. If you have to move, make it slow and steady.
3) Noise/silence can be important to some species, but to other species, noise can be very beneficial. Ie. when calling elk in, they are noisy animals and expect to hear noises from the "bull" or "cow" that is calling to them such as; footsteps, racking brush, scuffing the ground, kicking stones, rattling antlers, pulling grass, etc. It will depend on your targeted species.
4) If possible, give them something they expect to see, such as decoys like the turkey and waterfowl hunters use. The Montana decoys for elk, deer, moose, etc work very well. If in a setup, set them up upwind or crosswind from where your target animal will be approaching, or have a buddy calling, move the decoy around 50-100 yards back and to the side of you so that the target animal is focused on them as they approach and will offer you a side angled shot at their vitals, within youand your weapons effective range. Works very well!
5) Not every animal will act, or react in the same manner, or play by our known rules of engagement. Be prepared for the unexpected, and adapt to your particular situation as it occurs. We can still be successful when all "common sense" and experience tells us it shouldn't work. Great examples above of animals being so focused on other things, that they miss the obvious right in front of them. We do it all the time, why shouldn't animals?
 
After a few thousand years of evolution deer, elk and caribou are brown with white bellies, moose are brown, bears are black or brown. Then you have your smaller animals - squirrels reddish/brown, black or grey. Rabbits go from brown (summer) to white (winter).

Given that they evolved at least partly, if not mostly, in order to hide well enough in their environment to save themselves from predator detection "they" are proof that some pretty basic, mostly solid, earth tone colours are "good enough".

The camo industry solved a problem that didn't really exist for many hunters. They had to convince the (market) that you "need" camo.

And not just one pattern but many patterns for each and every possible application - so just keep forking over the cash or you will never, ever, ever, see that solid coloured brown animal.

Because now, even if you are only a mediocre shot, within 500 yards your CNC rifled stainless barrel, free floated in a composite stock (because the lifespan of a wood stock even only occasionally tended to barely lasted 50 or 60 years, so it better be composite) with a range finding first focal bullet drop compensating scope that can zero in and send that polymer tipped boat tailed mono bullet at speeds unimagined even a few years back is "totally useless" unless you are wearing the new 5D Bottomland Mossy Super Camo.

I bow hunt mostly. I have never shot further than 35 yards (Bear, Moose and Deer). I wear whatever I'm wearing when I decide to go out. I do have mucho-camo which mostly stays in the closet - just had to have it. And it looks cool - I still stop and check out every new pattern. I just stopped buying it a number of years back. I can honestly state there is NO situation that I hunt where I "need" camo..
 
The main purpose of cammo is to brake down the human shape and make you blend with surroundings.
You can be fully cammo / invisible to the game, but if they get your scent or movement, or you make noise you are busted. (archery)
Wild game are wired to detect movement, and cammo clotting help you to minimize this movement and make you less visible.
 
I wear it, when I bow hunt. It has work for me but as others have said hiding from their nose and ears is the biggest hurdle.
 
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