Is Camo necessary?

[DawnPatrol]

Camo is a complete waste of time. That’s why so many hard-core ungulate killers like tigers, leopards, jaguars, cheetahs, African wild dogs, etc have evolved for hundreds of thousands of years to wear camo.

Kidding, mostly. Tons of people have killed lots of stuff without camo, obviously. I think it probably matters a bit in certain circumstances, but pretty low on the list of what’s important to getting close to animals.

What I don’t get is why buy a $400 Sitka jacket (in any color) and wear it around town. When I buy an incredibly expensive and specialized piece of gear (which is usually camo, because why not have every possible advantage) to hunt in, I don’t want to put wear and tear, or spilled beer, or spit-up baby formula on it for the other 50 weeks out of the year. For that, I can get a $15 Columbia rain jacket at Good Will.

 

[TheGDog]

All I know is while wearing 3D Leafy camo I've experienced amazing things!

Filmed deer with cellphone passing by me at 17yds, me just seated on a Tripod stool backed-up between two scrub oaks a lil bit. With the 3D Leafy on. Nothing in front of me. No Ground Blind. Bow knocked with an arrow on my lap!

I swear by that leafy gear when you're on a sit, man. Twice I've had Bobcat pass by me at 20yds wearing it. Once raised up from my calling sit to find a Bobcat 8yds to my right, I froze... eventually he turned to look at me... but he wasn't quite sure what I was! It took him quite a few of really scrutinizing looking at me... and probably some of my scent swirling over to him, for him to then decide "I think I should probably go."

I've had a cottontail come up to within... I sh*t you not... 18" of my right foot while I was seated with my rifle on the sticks pointed in another direction. He was soo freakin' cute! (I still took him home though!)

I've had a doe wander in to where I was on a sit for rabbits with mesh ghillie on, in a seat backed up into the scrub oak, with rifle on the sticks at the ready, she came in to extreme right. Watched her feed around behind me... until she finally caught the scent of the dead rabbit at my feet. Then bolted back into the thick!

In general these were experiences in thicker terrain, where the "open" distances are typically like 25-45yd on a sit.

And heck... that leafy gear (and good holding skills) allowed me to shoot 2 different arrows at the first buck I ever tried to do with bow. And he was only 25yds away. (In my excitedness I 1st did 20yd pin, then tried 30yd pin, #FacePalm)... then as he retreated... I got up from my stool and was gonna try to begin knocking another arrow and see if I could aim at a shooting lane I'd cut before season. Right as my fingers are about to grab an arrow.... he turns-in to, I assume try to figure out What was shooting these things past him? And there I was... in a mexican stand-off at 7yds face-to-face with the best buck I'd ever seen in person since starting hunting in 2014. He was there quite a while... then turned around to head away, but then looked back over his shoulder at me ... then I think my scent swirled over to him, his tail got "twitchy" and then he stotted away.

My point is.. to have had these neat encounters already,, this early on in my adventures since starting this? I gotta figure this stuff helped. My $.02

If you stop your movement quickly enough, after they've possibly caught glimpse of you in their side vision and stop and turn their head to verify. If you hold still while sporting the leafy, especially if any breeze blowing so the leafies moving.. they very quickly shrug it off and assume they must have just saw some vegetation sway or something, and proceed along their merry way.

Camo has the potential (if you're generally good about remaining still) to buy you extra time to react to the situation as it's unfolding, such as if the animal has caught glimpse of your head moving as you last-second turn your head to then be surprised to see them there. With some well color matched leafy camo, it can buy you large fractions of a second to react if you're pretty sure you think they've busted your movement, and are now staring at you, trying to confirm they did see something move.

Several times now... with the leafy on, after they've caught tail-end of some of my movement... I've been able to hold... and usually they'll eventually look around elsewhere, thinking they're sure they saw something, since they caught some of your movement, so they end up pointing there head elsewhere attempting to look and listen in the hopes of detecting your presence.

If they caught enough of your movement to know somethings not right, sometimes even then they even stay there dumbstruck for a second, trying to figure out whatTH you are, or what they're seeing. Those little bewildered pauses can give you a shot opportunity sometimes in close-quarters scenarios where a quick jumpshot-opportunity freehand shot has a good likelihood of connecting if you remember to always carry the rifle on lowest power setting of the scope and have like 1x-to-3x low-end of the magnification range.

 

[Rich M]

Some shades of khaki, olive drab are multiple use colors and I think the guys making the clothes don't use those colors cause more folks would buy them than whatever the camo pattern of the day is.

Motion and being skylighted are the problems with hunting, that's whether you are wearing camo or solid colors or plaid (flannel shirts are great camo).

Leafy wear type stuff works - I've got a light "brush" shirt/jacket that will use duck hunting - I can go and sit on a grassy island and the ducks will about take my head off. Set up a blind and they stay far and wide. Good stuff.

 

[9.1]

I know a pretty good whitetail pinch point where a private residential yard juts into a piece of public land. Camo is necessary there so I don't get any locals coming over to chat with me while I'm in my tree stand or other hunters stealing my spot.

 

[ScreamingPotato]

Camo is a complete waste of time. That’s why so many hard-core ungulate killers like tigers, leopards, jaguars, cheetahs, African wild dogs, etc have evolved for hundreds of thousands of years to wear camo.

Kidding, mostly. Tons of people have killed lots of stuff without camo, obviously. I think it probably matters a bit in certain circumstances, but pretty low on the list of what’s important to getting close to animals.

What I don’t get is why buy a $400 Sitka jacket (in any color) and wear it around town. When I buy an incredibly expensive and specialized piece of gear (which is usually camo, because why not have every possible advantage) to hunt in, I don’t want to put wear and tear, or spilled beer, or spit-up baby formula on it for the other 50 weeks out of the year. For that, I can get a $15 Columbia rain jacket at Good Will.

I'm the same way, don't care what color it is if I buy a $400 jacket I want to still be wearing it 15 years from now so it's not leaving the house except for it's specialized time to do so.