How much camo do you use hunting? I use a jacket and pants and sometimes gloves. What pattern is best? Q

Boy Q it can depend a lot on the area your hunting, the time of year and even the game your hunting. I use camo pants and a shirt and hat when I'm calling coyotes and I have the gloves and cap with a mesh cover that hides my face, but in the winter I just use a white coverall.

I've seen lots of folks that camo their rifles, but in 45 years of hunting I've never done that. Out here in the west I like light tan camo in the fall for coyote hunting, but with the influx of out of state big game hunters I tend to wear some hunter orange when big game hunting simply to try to keep some idiot out for the first time from shooting me.

I used to wear camo when big game hunting. I found myself sitting under a big pine tree watching a trail one morning. Another hunter came walking down the trail rifle ready to shoulder and shoot. He was so tense you could feel it when he walked right by me no more than ten feet away in full view. I was simply to scared to even say anything. He was so jumpy you could watch his face twitch with every step he made. I don't know if he'd have seen me even if I'd been covered head to toe with blaze orange, but since then I've always worn something that stood me out from a deer or elk or the background.

Out here in N.E. Montana in the wide open sage flats Max-1 seems to be about the best from calling Coyotes to Turkeys.

BigSky

In the eastern woodlands the leafy wear has made a difference. I think it hides some movement and breaks outline better. We hunt in stands that are pretty open and the deer know to watch them. The leaffy wear helps.

I only use moss green carhartt overalls and a moss green carhartt jacket. I can't see spending all that money on something you only wear for one activity.

Shot my last deer wearing a white t-shirt, jeans, and white tennis shoes. Well, the white stuff *used* to be white, but it's been relegated to the deer hunting pile now and is permanently filthy/stained. But it's pretty light colored. Generally I get around to changing into my camo when I need to gut a deer or pig, so I don't get my jeans quite as messy.

Oh and I had a 7 year old with me. Tell me that's not a handicap!

Still I go for full camo when predator calling, or using the crossbow. Find it doesn't matter as much as long as it's dark and drab.

In my state you have to wear Red or Orange hat/cap and jacket/vest. No camo allowed in lieu of them. You can wear camo underneath these required items but not in stead of them. Been like that for over 30 years. No .22's except 22. Magnums and up for hunting.
No hunting from roads or RR tracks. No hunting near:

schools
cemeteries
urban areas
etc, etc, etc,etc,


Baron

Its the same here, 400 square inches of orange, 1/4 mile from occupied buildings, 30 feet from centerline of dirt road not bound by fences, or on the other side of fence.

We don't have caliber restrictions here, and felons can archery hunt here, some states don't allow them to hunt at all.

Realtree Hardwood HD or Hardwood green work good here in Louisiana. I usually wear a coat and pants. Orange is required if hunting on public land but not on private. I always wear an orange hat or cap though. My uncle learned the hard way not to wear a gray felt hat while squirrel hunting.

What ever camo you have confidence in works for me. For years i strictly wore A.S.A.T (all season all terrain) with great success. Now its any of the national brands in the type of clothing I need.

Jason

The kind that is on sale !

Sale camo is good camo.

I do remember from USMC days that the most easily identified shape in the bush is the straight lines of a gun barrel.

I can't prove it, but based on seeing tutkeys during deer season and deer during turkey season, I firmly believe that a hunter's posture and movements are more of a tell than anything else.

How many times have you watched coyote's run into the middle of a deer herd and the does just stopm a few times and keep one eye peeled as they eat?

How many times have you seen a herd of deer on high alert at something and finally see the coyote or bob cat lurking at the edge of the timber?

I have said for years that next year I will don bright orange and tromp through the timber and shoot a turkey in the first 100 yards.

I would really like to hear from somebody smarter than me about the whole pheromome thing. Does anyone know if we smell more like a predator when we are in the seek and destroy mode?

Scent and movement are key but breaking up your outline and blending into the cover is too. Those of us who hunt stands that are perminent and the deer know to look learn quickly that a black face mask and black shirt may be just the thing when light camo gives you away. Sometimes the only way to really know is to get someone to look at the stand from the deers perspective and see what works at particular times of the day.

If my memory serves me correctly, Jon Sundra did a piece on that very thing back in the 80's. He took tie die, plaid, faded, stained, and camo to the field.

I remember that it was about the time that the UV thing was big. the black and white pictures that he shared in light and shadow were enlightening.

At a distance even a large plaid was less defined. I really like Mossy Oak and support them more for the Ministry they offer.

I have whatever camo that the kids buy me for Christmas. I did find that the Bass Pro in FL sells some dynamite warm weather stuff that I can't find here in IA. Being a "full figured" man, I need help during KS dove shoots.

Got a coyote hunting book somewhere that has the guy calling coyotes in a full Santa suit, beard cap and all. Took as many that day as he did wearing full camo. I wear camo often because it's my hunting clothes, but I've killed as many in a T shirt and blue jeans as any day I wore camo. I've been busted more for movement by coyotes than any other reason.

I really get a kick out of the fellas that dress in Ghilli suits and paint a thousand dollars worth of scope and rifle with a few rattle cans of paint from Walmart. I simply refuse to paint a gun. Their hot, hang up on everything, usually stink after a few uses and are simply uncomfortable.