Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Military vs. hunting camo

I've been looking at different camo patterns lately on the Internet. Hunting camo tends to be more realistic while the military camo is all over the place in terms of either realism or disruption.

Which brings to mind the question: what are the considerations that go into designing a camo that fool the human eye (military) versus one that is meant to fool an animal (hunting)? Is the military camo meant to work in more terrains like the new Army ACU camo?

John

Military camo is designed to sell to the military so that defense contractors who have contributed heavily to certain politicians on key defense committees can pay back their debts and said defense contractors can make a lot of money. Day-Desert and Woodland Camo-what a friggin' joke. Give me a pair of old VN era Jungle utilities any day.

Military cammo had been lacking for a long time. The new USMC digital is a good try.
Of course the hunter gets to decide on the pattern vs terrain.

It shore do look purty anyways.

Well, I don't think camo patterns matter very much. Howard Hill wore a checked shirt and khaki pants and slew any number of animals.

So, whatever your choice, it's fine. I wear "woodlands" camo because it's cheap.

Around here the military wear a strange camo pattern the purpose being to be harder to detect with technology such as infrared, night vision, ultra-violet, etc. I don't know how well it works but most of the troops seem to like it.

As to hunting camo just good earth tone plaids work without the washing brighteners in the soap. When I was a kid every hunter wore black and red plaid hunting outfits and that seem to work just fine. I don't think all these fancy camo outfits are really all that necessary after all the animals don't have high tech gadgets to see humans.

And you know this military/defense contractor conspiracy because of why? I've seen the tests done of the various mil. camo. came in with cotton OD's left with the early developement of the digitals. The digital type pattern isn't new there was a green with black tiny squares that was a part of the early desert camo. It was a part of an overcoat system that was tested in the Sinai years ago.

The desert pattern was a hurry up and produce it, the first units that got it during DS were those who went first, many didn't have it at first, they had to wait on production. You have to remember the cold war had just ended when DS started, everything was centered on the forested areas of central Europe. I don't know your mil. background or experience, but mine is Ret. after 25, 20 RA, 5 NG, 47YOA.

There's more to this selection and testing then drawing straws. As one man stated the military has a large area of the world to consider, so you have to have minimum types of camo. to suit your needs. It's too much of a logistical nightmare to have a multiple variety of camo.

I noticed on a recent trip to Ft. Bragg that the multi-cam uniform is being tested by some SF units. It uses a lighter and smaller version of the old BDU (woodland) pattern, cut on the ACU design. I think I might try some this season. I have been using old BDU's for years - still have about 5 sets left in my footlocker.

http://www.cryeprecision.com/view_catalog.asp

When the woodland camo BDU's hit our overseas forces in the early-mid 80's it was a godsend. There was no comparison between it and the old olive drab uni's in every facet. When it was finally announced in late 1986 that USAFE was switching over as well, a bunch of us ran over to Army posts to buy BDU's and sewed the stripes and name tags on ourselves instead of waiting for supply to get stocked.
I made a living in photo recce overseas, trust me the BDU's work/worked. They breakup your figure in hardwoods and if washed properly, they cut IR signature to some degree.

I use a lot of the commercial patterns because they can be matched to exact terrain/foliage but the woodland was a decent all around camo.

I will say that I think the Tiger stripe is superior but that's from hunting in Florida where the foliage matches asia more than temperate hardwoods.

I think you have to differentiate between military camo, designed to defeat ultra-violent and human eyes and hunting cammo, which is to disperse a pattern for deer who are colorblind.

Two different missions, and there is literally, no comparison. The different patterns are to attrac buyers, not to confuse ungulates.

True to a degree. Since most have to wear orange over it anyways, camo is more for the hunter to feel like he is blending than anything else. Any breakup pattern though is better than a solid IMO.

I may be showing my age, but I like the old style camo that could be used to harass the EM's by playing "brownside/greenside" all week long :-)

So. Idaho is HOT and dry during our Sept bow season. I wear a tan plaid sports shirt made of cotton/poly. It's the coolest thing I can find for a dry climate and it blends in as well as most camo patterns.

Dick

I don't have to remember it, 'cause I do remember it. I didn't say anything about a conspiracy, per-se. It's all about the dollar.

I don't know much about the very latest military camo-like I said it looks good...

Back in the day, a study was done of the visibility of various camo patterns. Up close, the old Tiger Stripe was best. From a distance, it all blended together, making black just as good as any of the patterns.

My concern with the contracts is where is the cutting/sewing taking place? Are the mil. camo being cut/sewn in the US or is it being done overseas? I've seen alot of sewing plants shut down due to lack of contracts etc. and the work being done overseas. These plants had done mil. work in the past.

I agree. Most commercial camo is designed to appeal to buyers, not to actually work as camo. Look at how many different versions of mossy oak and realtree camo there are, and there isn't a bit of difference realistically speaking amongst any of them. Most commercial camo is far too detailed and busy to actually work. The more effective camo styles are the larger patterns like the old woodland style, not the really busy stuff like mossy oak break up. The smaller the detail the more the eye focuses on the larger outline of the human body, from 50 yds away all you see is a grey blob shaped like a human. Camo patterns with larger features will fool the eye into not recognizing the larger outline of the human body, which is what we're trying to conceal. The vast majority of commercial camo is useless, but it looks nicer when you're wearing it to cabela's than the military stuff, which is what 95% of hunters care about anyway. It really is kind of pointless to wear camo clothing and then stick a big orange vest on top of it.

If I wear camo at all, its usually the Woodland pattern from years back. I have it in stock, did not cost anything to start with, and the deer don't seem to mind.
More often than not, I am wearing brown slacks, a green shirt, and a plaid shirt over that.

I know a retired SF soldier who participated in a camouflage test at Ft. Bragg in the '90s.

They dressed several dozen soldiers in every U.S. and foreign military and commercial pattern they could find, and had them hide in a piney area and move forward a small distance at a time. Observers watched for them and "tagged" them when seen as they moved closer to the edge of the tree line.

The general statement he made was that the commercial patterns were the worst across the board, because they were too dark and too small a pattern. All of them looked like black blobs.

The US woodland pattern had a similar problem because there's a lot of black in the pattern and not much contrast.

Surprisingly, the best performer was the old US desert camo, which had a big pattern and a lot of contrast between the darkest and lightest tones.

I think the new Army ACU pattern is effective. I drive past an ARNG facility on the way to work and see a lot of the soldiers walking from their cars. The pattern seems to blend pretty well into both shrubbery and concrete walls.

I bought a set of Multi-Cam BDU's from Sportman's Guide. With the buyer's club discount, they were about the cheapest around.

From what I remember reading about Multi-Cam, it was originally developed by the Army at their Natick Research Labs as a replacement for woodland camo. They ended up going with the new ACU and not Multi-Cam. I have seen lots of photo studies (amateur)comparing it to woodland, ACU, etc and it seems to fit in most everywhere.

John

John,
Now that you have been using the multi-cam what do you think? It looked like a good all around choice for eastern NC in fall and spring. I think I will pick up a pair of the pants on my next trip to Fayetteville (the jackets have all the velcro for military patches, not sure I need that on mine).
Odessa