Lets talk about camouflage patterns.

[Pasidewinder]

Hey fellas, looking for your opinions on camouflage patterns new and old. They have come along ways since instarted bowhunting 20 years ago, and i know some of you have done it alot longer than that.

One of my favorites was the origional advantage camo from realtree i believe. I used it exclusively for years till they discontinued it. Some of the newer mossyoak patterns seemed to blob up terribly. I am currently trying out an outfit of mossyoak treestand camo that my wife got me years ago but i never wore, it seems to work well. I have been looking at the ASAT patterns for sometime now and i believe this will be my next camo purchase.

I know that the biggest thing in the woods is keeping movement to a minimum, but i believe some of these patterns help hide even movement to some extent. I used a leafywear suit "3d leaves cut into the fabric" and i actually drew my compound and shot a large doe while she was literally looking right at me at 20 yds, she never moved till the arrow hit her!

[Tom]

A few years ago I saw a test of camo patterns. It was very surprising. Every pattern would show up as a BLACK BLOB in certain lighting conditions.

They used all patterns (at that current time), even army pattern (large block pattern) and even a Hawaiian Shirt with very bright colours. At dawn and dusk, that Hawaiian shirt did better then some of the hunting camo patterns in hiding your body outline.

When they switched up the camo, bottoms and tops with different patterns, at the certain lighting conditions, not your whole out line of your body would blacken as they would seem to darken at different times.

But the conclusion of the tests were that the patterns with LARGER IMAGES in the pattern would hide your body out line better (not turn into a black blob as easily).

Hope this helps some

Tom

[galamb]

This may seem an odd answer but here goes -

I am totally colour blind - see black/white and a bit of grayscale.

I can pick out a guy dressed in camo - any pattern, you name it, when they are in the woods just the same as if they had flashing lights attached to them.

I believe "camo" is a phenomena that only fools people (critters) that can see colour. When you can't see colour the contrast and difference in lightness/darkness compared to the background is literally like white on a black background.

Now, I have read some studies on deer vision (not from a hunters point of view, but some biologist that di-sected them). His conclusion was that deer are also colour blind but they additionally can see blue (so don't wear bluejeans), plus he noted that if you wear white, which reflects other colours, it will also reflect any blue that is around (I'll take his word for it since I have never been able to "appreciate" what blue actually looks like outside of it's relative position on the grayscale).

So if a deer's vision is anything like mine the latest/greatest cam pattern is no better than the stuff that first came out a few decades ago.

Having said all that I still wear Max-5 because it looks "cool" and gets me in the mood to hunt. Those 3D leafy shawl things are tougher to pick out because there is some depth and shadow with them, so I would suggest they would give you better protection from detection if you move slightly.

That's my take - I expect others will have significantly different opinions....

[Pintail]

I have used ASAT for a few seasons now and swear by it. I think its the only camo that was designed for animals and not humans. I have walked up to and taken deer at less then 25 yards( with the wind in my favor). The pattern is large enough to break up the human silhouette to a point where you blend in with the surroundings.

[onegunguitar]

I think it's more important knowing the wind direction plus keeping movements to a minimum. It's amazing how quick a deer can detect the slightest amount of movement,then once they focus their attention on you,it's tough to get them to "relax" again. But as far as camo,I wear good old military style woodland camo.

[wabi]

I think it's more important knowing the wind direction plus keeping movements to a minimum. It's amazing how quick a deer can detect the slightest amount of movement,then once they focus their attention on you,it's tough to get them to "relax" again. But as far as camo,I wear good old military style woodland camo.

I'll agree with this!
I've probably killed more deer when I was wearing "regular" clothing than camo. I do stick with "dull" colors (brown, dark gray, dark green) and soft material like polar fleece or wool.

[gendoc]

I think it's more important knowing the wind direction plus keeping movements to a minimum. It's amazing how quick a deer can detect the slightest amount of movement,then once they focus their attention on you,it's tough to get them to "relax" again. But as far as camo,I wear good old military style woodland camo.

I'll agree with this!
I've probably killed more deer when I was wearing "regular" clothing than camo. I do stick with "dull" colors (brown, dark gray, dark green) and soft material like polar fleece or wool.

I also agree with both of yall...

I have had most luck with my old block camo stuff and or brown, green
solids.
we do a lot of turkey hunting and I have had my best luck with the block
old school camo from the 70-80's before the desert tan days.

which see's the best, turkey or whitetail ? I know the answer, do yall....

[Riflemanz]

I think it's more important to get 20' high so the deer don't look up at you.

[cevans]

I've killed a ton of diff. animals wearing insulated carhart brown a lot of years as well as diff. styles of camo. I still like the new camo like realtree and mossy oak has out today. Suckered into buying a bunch of it last year. Just don't think it makes a diff as long as its subtle colors, lack of movement on the hunter's part, no eye to eye contact with the deer before you think about shooting either, and playing the wind. You make eye to eye contact with him and his 6th sence kicks in and he goes wild on you without you getting a shot.

[gendoc]

I think it's more important to get 20' high so the deer don't look up at you.

my son has lock on's 20-25' and he has great luck...but just the same as his ol'man
@ 12' tripod or even from 6' elevated shoot'n houses.

[roly]

I have used ASAT for a few seasons now and swear by it. I think its the only camo that was designed for animals and not humans. I have walked up to and taken deer at less then 25 yards( with the wind in my favor). The pattern is large enough to break up the human silhouette to a point where you blend in with the surroundings.

I have just purchased an Asat suit to try this year. I did quite a bit of research on it and can't wait to give it a try.
The large pattern and the fact there's no green in it is why it's suppost to work so good
I guess I will find out soon, maybe it will be magic

[cevans]

ASAT has been around since mid 90's as when it came out,,carried it in my archery shop then,,I still have a couple of sweaters, and a few pieces of it that I occasionally wear. Good stuff and it definitely wears good. Enjoy!

[xcaliber]

Well, I hope there are some here that remember this one! Although I do agree that heights over 20' are the best method to beat the deer eyesight, and sometimes their nose, to me the best camo was Timber Ghost which was an exclusive pattern by Gander Mountain in the early 90's. You could vanish in the woods with that pattern. Today, it's AP for me.

[gendoc]

I think we need a thread about your thoughts on elevation.
coming soon..........

[DuckHunt]

Being an Arkansas duck hunter, its hard to beat Avery Buckbush or the Mossy Oak Bottomland for the bayous and swamps. For deer hunting, I'm partial to Realtree Hardwoods HD or Mossy Oak Treestand. Mossy Oak Breakup or New Breakup might as well wear a black jacket.

I agree with those that say camo is a bit overrated for deer hunting. It matters far more for ducks. I went out to replace a hang-on stand a few weeks ago wearing blue jeans, blue sneakers and a highlighter-green t-shirt along with the necessary orange hat since it was rifle season. After hanging the stand I decided to sit in it a little while since I brought an old gun along. I ended up taking a doe wearing sweaty clothing that was far from camo. Being more than 20-feet up changes everything. Had turkey been in season, I could have taken a couple of those as well even with a bow.

DuckHunt