Camo clothing

[Bowhunter]

I have just bought an ASAT leaf suit. Looking forward to using it in France in Feb 2009, with Pothunter, and Ferret

I must admit though, it takes some getting used to, I mean, WILL this stuff realy work I think I will take some realtree with me just incase

[wolfkiss]

Hi Mark,
Never used the Asat gear but can assure you it works.
While in Colorado I was hunting with a guy' Rene' from Texas. We spotted 3 Muleys,2 does and a button buck at about 60yds, we froze and waited. I was stood in the open and Rene was leaning against a tree.
The Muleys fed right up to us, I think the lead Muley had sussed something but they continued to feed, they passed one on the right at 8 yds and one on my left at 10 yds with the button buck following his mom skitishly.
They came together behind us and continued to feed out of sight. Lasted about 20 mins and was one of our most memerable moments of the trip.

I was wearing realtree AP with a full headnet and Rene was wearing Asat with a camo' d face and ball cap.

Movement is the definative factor but combine good skills with most camo's and you'll be ok.

We could'nt work out why they did'nt wind us, though it was very still with no breeze.


Andy.

[bowsmith]

Camo, an interesting topic.

I was just hunting with a veteran who use to work for team realtree, he has featured in several bow hunting videos in the 80s to 90s and has hunted for about 40 years. So quite experienced, as well as a dear authority. Anyway, I had it proved to me that camo does not matter (if you are hunting dear) as there spectrum is mostly black and white, and as mentioned earler, is based upon motion.

The other interesting thing is that he must have smoked 5 or 6 cigarretes each time we were in the stand together whilst he was wearing white trainers, a bright(ish) blue shirt and an orange peaked cap. (Note the wind was in our favor!) Over the 3 days we were observing (before the season opened) we had groups of up to 12 Does with fawns eating within upto around 10 yards of us and saw 4 bucks 'play fighting' within 20 yards.

Had it had been open season I would have had a BIG buck! (I had my bow and drew on them to get the feel for it)

SO having experienced this we stopped in Bass pro on the way to the airport where I brough a lovely scentlok full season (realtree ap) softshell, a timex realtree watch and a Browining 'Mossy oak' wind resistant fleece.

But hey, it looks cool & makes me feel like a hunter (Turkeys have good eyesight so I can use it next year.)

[stickman1975]

Bowsmith, a lot of us suffer from the same affliction!
I think the medical term is 'Camophile'
Welcome to my world!!

[Tristan]

I wonder if a lot of camo is printed to look attractive to consumers in a marketing sense rather than being useful in the field. E.g. the reltree patterns look good close up ( ie we can all marvel at the bark patterns) but how do they look from a distance? My guess is that the patterns are so "busy" that from a distance it looks like one uniform colour and hence doesn't break up the human outline that much. I find robtattoo's arguement to be quite persuassive re simple bold patterns.

[bowsmith]

My guess is that the patterns are so "busy" that from a distance it looks like one uniform colour and hence doesn't break up the human outline that much. I find robtattoo's arguement to be quite persuassive re simple bold patterns.

The new or 'current' real tree AP HD is a decorative camo up close, which you can not see at distance, but it is not too busy at all. It works pretty well, bearing in mind camo is not there to make you invisible, just to make you difficult to see. If you look at ASAT's web site you will see highly pixelated and 'fixed' images. (Mossy Oak man in the middle of a field, ASAT man behind a bush).

I found myself being quite sad and have started having 'real life' photography done of me wearing all of the different camo's I have, tested in the same location/pose, and then in different locations. When finished ill see if I can up load some of the photo's.
As an interesting point natural colours seem to work better (hmm... something to do with like looking like the surroundings you are in?!) and nothing is more natural than mud.
check these photo's out on this site

http://www.nativeawareness.co.uk/courses/camouflage/

I think it is worth considering that the native americans, who would hunt at CLOSE (less than 5m!) range used natural camo and charcoal ('active carbon' ) to mask their scent.

Well, I just got a King of the mountain 'shirt' for christmas, which uses very natural colours. Going to have to do the whole test again now to make sure they are all in the same conditions. I also intend to use this on my next hunt, as I have a 'hunch' it maybe the best stuff.