What Colors Can Deer See?

This light that is available at Can. Tire has the correct bulb in it for checking hunting clothes for UV.
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Do not wash hunting clothes with regular laundry detergents as most of them contain UV/optical brighteners.
Use dedicated products like Sportwash or others that are marketed as containing no UV brighteners or scents.
 
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Most deer don’t notice or even care where or what your are. But they certainly notice where and when you have been there. I suggest not worrying about been seen so much because most time it to late for them by then. But I would worry about not been found and not being detected during your comings and goings. Will primos “you can’t hunt deer where they are, have to hunt em where they are gonna be” Bill Winke “ the best way to kill a deer is to keep as many of them as possible from knowing they are being hunted for as long as possible “ how many of us have had deer see us and only come closer to see what we are.
 
This colour phenomenon research has been active for decades, at least when I was in my teens (1970's), reading about it in Outdoor Life and Field and Stream magazines. From personal experience, they are colour blind, can easily pick up movement, and can see during all hours of the day and night.
 
They also pick up on the type of attention they’re receiving, for example when I’m out in the barn doing chores and I see some of the resident wt bucks and does in the neighbouring field they know when I’m just casually looking at them or hawking them intently. One result in them hanging around longer than the other, it doesn’t really seem to matter what time of the season it is. Prey animals are pretty observant most of the time.
 
Been my experience, hunting in street clothes, that learning to sit still and not constantly fidget around, will get you farther ahead than expensive camo will.

Not that camo is bad, just, it ain't gonna help, if you are twitching and fidgeting in your stand!

Kinda wonder how they come to the conclusions that they do about deer seeing what colors better. Kinda hard to get a deer to tell you if it sees a 3 or a 5 in the little cluster of colored dots...
 
I've heard and read that deer see blue the way that we see blaze orange... blue is said to jump out at them as unnatural (yet orange is somehow ok, weird I know right)

I've hunted in blue jeans many times, grated I'm in saskatchewan and 250-400 yards isn't an uncommon shot, maybe I'd have no chance in the bush at 25 yards, who knows... I'm not a bush dweller
 
Camo...huh....? I shoot from 350 yards plus...could be wearing a clown suit. I suit up to be warm....stay still....and be a great long range shooter. Camo is a placebo at best....
 
Potashminer said:
Not sure where you got that from? Some years ago in bush, South of Hudson Bay, Sask. I was sitting on a stump and had just lit a cigarette - I did not know there was a game trail maybe 25 feet ahead of me - two whitetail walked out - younger deer just walked on past - and the older doe just totally zero'd on the smoke coming off my cigarette - went on for several minutes until getting hot on my fingers - so I moved the toe of my boot - her hair stood on end and she ran off - I was dressed head to toe in blaze orange - until I moved my boot, I do not think she knew what I was - sitting still, not moving, smoke was drifting towards me (away from her), if not straight up. We were hunting elk - no deer tags.
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growing up hunting, we always wore orange/red jackets and caps, when i questioned it, my dad said deer only see black and white.
we were a lowed to wear camo or brown while goose and duck hunting, the point is they see movement first
 
I've found the best thing for getting deer in range is reading cgn while hunting. Look up and there's the deer 20 yards broadside staring at you.

My last deer was shot at about 4 yards He walked straight at me while I was sitting in a chair behind a log with my crossbow held above the log. He never saw me and I was in max4d camo in open hardwoods.
 
While wearing blaze orange I have almost been ran over on multiple occasions and have no issue when wearing it and stalking to within 40 yards.

Deer react to head to toe orange the exact same way they do to camouflage. Doesn't matter if it's 10 or 100 yards.
 
Unless I was to endurance hunt one with a speer, I don't think it matters. Just don't move and don't smell too humany, let the round do the rest
 
The purpose of camo isnt to make you invisible, it is to break up your silhouette and make you harder to see. So if you think of it from that perspective, wearing camo will help. If you move while wearing camo, it becomes apparent to them that something is there.

They can see hunter orange but not hunter orange as we see it. Hunter orange over top of camo is a strange thing. Whatever color it presents as to the deer, it is not natural to have a square-ish blob of it in nature. It will stand out. I think that if we were allowed to wear a camo patterned hunter orange (Ontario does not allow for it), it would eliminate that issue.

Maybe if we had tigers in North America, they would adapt to figure out that orange means danger but based on the predators we have.....orange has been given a back seat on the bus and is not a priority.
 
STEELCITYSLICKER said:
The purpose of camo isnt to make you invisible, it is to break up your silhouette and make you harder to see. So if you think of it from that perspective, wearing camo will help. If you move while wearing camo, it becomes apparent to them that something is there.

They can see hunter orange but not hunter orange as we see it. Hunter orange over top of camo is a strange thing. Whatever color it presents as to the deer, it is not natural to have a square-ish blob of it in nature. It will stand out. I think that if we were allowed to wear a camo patterned hunter orange (Ontario does not allow for it), it would eliminate that issue.

Maybe if we had tigers in North America, they would adapt to figure out that orange means danger but based on the predators we have.....orange has been given a back seat on the bus and is not a priority.
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Camo does not provide any advantage over blaze orange while deer hunting. Maybe confidence for the hunter, but zero impact on deer. There is no issue to be solved by using camo patterned orange.
 
I got these 2 at a small public bush that has lots of deer hunting pressure. I was wearing a blue coat and grey shirt. Sitting still is the key!

deer deerss.jpg
 

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