I was talking to a young guy at our local Cabelas and said I sometimes where predator camo pants and maybe first lite top and he freaked out. Said he wouldn't go in the woods if camo didn't match, I had to laugh.
Doesn’t matter whether it’s Cabelas, the local archery range, or Internet forums. It’s always easy to differentiate between those whose opinions are based on actual experience and those whose opinions are based on tv, videos, books, a friend of a friend of a second cousin’s brother-in-law, etc.
LOL! Definitely a SMH moment! A few years ago my wife and I stopped at the local Mc D's drive thru one Sunday morning, and I ordered her an egg Mc Muffin. She doesn't like Canadian bacon, so I told the girl on the speaker..."with no meat". She replied that...."It doesn't come with meat, it comes with Canadian bacon"......!!!!!!!
She must be the Cabela's guy's sister!
What really made me shake my head with her, was the fact that this particular Mc D's is located in a town where the biggest building in it is the grain elevator!
i think anything that breaks up your outline will work. I hunt a lot in natural vround blinds so I mainly worry about from the waist up. I do wear a ghillie type head covering that breaks up my head n shoulder outline.
All Sitka all the time….unless I happen to be wearing some Kuiu , with some First Lite base layers underneath, and a Mossy Oak leafy jacket over the top of all of it.
When I first started bowhunting I was 100% camo, 100% of the time. It was WW2 camo, but camo none the less. I mean, I even wore camo UNDERWEAR!
Then one day during gun season I was hunting the same farm that I bowhunted on, and I was wearing blaze orange upper garments and hat, as per the state regulations. I was sitting on the same log that I had sat on the last time I bowhunted there. I heard a sound and froze, and a deer walked right by me at 15 yards and didn't even notice me. Granted, I was in heavy cover and my outline was broken up, but the fact remained that in this circumstance the blaze orange worked just as well as the camo.
It was after this incident that I began to go...Hmmmm...when it came to camo. In the years since then, I've learned that much of a hunter's "camo" is mental, and a good part of that is just having the confidence that you "blend in" and you DON'T MOVE! That's 90% of it!
Tell him too wear solids and really blow his mind. My daughter got a doe on this hunt. No face masks and solid colored pants. When the temp drops I like to wear a camel colored Carhart vest.
If the guy wants to wear matching camo, good for him. It is the guys who prance around in the latest Game Changing Camo that have issues. Stop it I'm not telling anyone how to or care how they spend their money. It's my opinion you don't need hundreds of dollars of the newest camo every year to be successful. It is my opinion camo pattern is not a "game changer."
It’s gotten to the point for me where if I notice I’m matching, especially head to toe matching I’ll sometimes reach and grab something else, just out of fear I’ll be seen and be lumped in with some of these poster boys. I shouldn’t be bothered by what people think I know, but somehow it just gets to me. I prefer to not “match”
Years ago, I went hunting with a Outdoor TV crew on an antelope hunt. When it was time for us to take pictures and footage, I had to get out of view as my top and bottom camo didn't match:) They said I 'clashed'
I definitely think some patterns are better than others but freaking over mismatched outfits is over the top. I keep buying new stuff because the warmth, function, waterproofing & durability has improved by light years. As a kid hunting all I can remember was being cold & wet.
Hard to believe that guys used to shoot deer with a bow, while wearing jungle camo jackets and dark green wool pants. (The elite guys wore the gray pants with the red and green plaid...)
Never hunted in the '50s, up through to the present with full camo on. Sometimes something to break up head/face. Have had hundreds of caribou pass within a few feet of myself and occasionally a client and we simply hunted the wind. Today just use a bit of nose hammer and have no trouble with deer passing very near....wind.
First elk I ever shot was in a red, white & blue ski sweater. Elk didn’t seem to care. Only thing I had that was dry. Don’t hang your clothes outside when you crawl in the tent
My many bear hunts have mostly been in natural cover on the ground. My outfitter of over twenty years stresses scent, wind, and sit still!! Such has worked out well for our bear group.
I can’t believe I didn’t get busted with this combo…..Still haven’t gotten a call from Sitka, Kuiu, or Scheels to be on one their their pro staffs, though :-(
If you think about animals in the woods, like deer, its amazing how they can disapear in the woods. I think wearing material that defuses light is a big part of it. Honestly, Im just too cheap ..I but what ever is cheap but will blend me in..lol
First elk I ever shot was in a red, white & blue ski sweater. Elk didn’t seem to care. Only thing I had that was dry. Don’t hang your clothes outside when you crawl in the tent
My grandfather always wore flannels and never had any issues knocking down game. Go figure, heck I have camo so old it’s practically white and damn comfortable. The deer and hogs don’t seem to mind
My favorite early to mid season camo is Cabelas Legacy Fleece. I've had it for a long time. When I bought the jacket and vest, they didn't have the pants in the same camo pattern. So I bought it anyways. Jacket matches the vest.
ive hunted on the ground 90% of the time for last 45 yrs..I wear a ghillie type head cover but Im thinkin seriously about tne ASAT leafy suit. Too hot in LA ( lower Alabama) for a ghillie
In my day we didn't have hair dryers, if you wanted to blow-dry your hair, you had to step outside in the middle of a hurricane! You would get your hair dried but you would also get a sharp piece of wood driven clean through your skull--'Look, I'm a human head kebab!'--that's the way it was and we liked it
Solids are definitely in. And I think some companies are realizing it. Seems like Kuiu sends me an email every day that some piece of clothing now comes in solids. This morning it was new colors in Attack Pants. . . . I love the clothes, and prefer the solids anymore. Even though I'll still buy camo tops from time to time.
The only matching camo I now own is my Sitka Incinerator bibs and Fanatic coat (and my old (and my old Sitka Fanatic in green forest camo). and I WISH WISH WISH they came in some neutral brown color. HEY SITKA!!!!! SOLIDS are IN!!!! Make stuff in BROWN!!
My camo matches. I upgraded all all my clothes to Kings this year and just got everything but one pair of pants(brown) in Realtree edge. I like camo but I’m well aware that it really doesn’t make that much of a difference if at all.
This is a big joke around here with my hunting buddies. I REFUSE to dress in all matching. I'm a firm believer that different camo patterns IS camo, because of the break up of patterns. Sometimes we have contests to see how many different brands/patterns we can wear at one time. How many can you count in this picture?: Realtree gaitors, sitka pants, first lite vest, kings camo shirt, hat (who the heck knows). Didn't include the Onka gear rain jacket and another Sitka pattern rain pant that was in the pack. To each his own, of course!
Another pic of mismatched camo or just call me a misfit, anyhow, the shirt and pants are fleece I’ve had for close to 20 yrs, the wool vest for at least 10 yrs, and still using on this 2018 Alberta Canada hunt.
I think if you just watch any of the many and sundry hunting/kill shows and watch the babe of the show in her makeup and pretty, ad payed for camo sitting in the house on stilts, one can surmise that it is movement that alerts and not so much patterns and smell. Then again, I’ve had a bulliet rye or two and am feeling a tad snarky.
I normally don't care, but last year I was all one camo pattern when I killed my biggest bull elk, and then all one other pattern when I shot a nice 6x6 whitetail. Could it be? ;)
I was sitting in a Huntmore 360 chair behind a rootball of a downed tree . He walked along my left side on a angle at about 7 yards but couldn’t get a shot until he moved to a different location in front of me at 12 yards.Just a Asbell wool plaid pullover of earth tone colors.
i have a pullover ASAT shirt from Day One I use to put over whatever Im wearin. My wife says I look silly. I told her I dont care if it helps me hide from the deer. Lol
True story .. I had a certain celebrity hunter come last spring and turkey hunt opening weekend with me. never met him before just out of the blue he called me few weeks before season and asked if I would help him out, someone else had given him my name…he pulls a camper parks in my yard we scout day before season find some birds …opening morning I walk out to his camper 515 he has mossy oak head to toe talking 5 am face mask on ready to go… he kills a turkey first hr..wants me to do closing interview with him but says “u have to match your camo “ I said “ I’ll just watch you” haha
I buy most of my camo off these guys who have to match , so they change camo everytime their brand changes. I buy it here on bowsite , facebook, tradgang, archerytalk and ebay for about 1/2 off :) Stuff is like brand new, I could care less if it matches if it keeps me warm. I think mismatched camo hides you better sometimes.
It's funny how many guys think ASAT doesn't work. I've had guys practically step on me during turkey season while dressed liked Jack two replies above. Hens within 15 feet. No camo is perfect, anything works better if you sit still.
The 'original' Realtree wasn't a close match for the trees & bark around here, but I could disappear in it sitting against a moss & lichen- covered granite face in Vermont.
There's a good article on camo and 'background' in the latest 'Traditional Bowhunter'.
Shopping for a new shirt and found this - I'd bet a lot of younger hunters have never seen this pattern ;-) Back when Trebark and Realtree were the 'new shiny' this is what a lot of us hunted in. Might buy one just to shock the fashionistas ;-)
Love the pictures of some of the old camo patterns still in use. They worked then, and I’m sure they work now. And new or old, nothing beats sitting still. But I have a question—has anyone else noticed the tendency of these old camo patterns to shrink? I have a set of realtree coveralls that my mother gave me in high school. Faded to almost white now. Tried to put them into service last year, wound up lightheaded due to lack of oxygen. I think the camo industry’s equivalent of “planned obsolescence” is “planned shrinkage.”
Great early season when maples are turning color. Of course a lot of these kids have never even seen a pair of green Johnson 'woolies' either. Kind of amazing deer ever got killed. ;-)
jebediah, yeah, until I experienced it myself I'd a swore 'polyester don't shrink!' ;-)
Dana I still wear those pants to this day! They were my grandfathers. My father has a pair too he still wears. They use to be big on me….now they almost fit…..no sure if that’s good or bad haha. I’ve killed deer in em. They work still lol