Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Spomer Camo Article

What's the deal? Are we going to have Camo fashion police now? So what if I want to wear Camo wherever the heck I want too. I'm a hunter and a redneck and proud of it. If people will take the time to talk to me maybe they will find out what kind of person I really am instead of making assumptions based on how I dress.

I might note that in a lot of places camo is somewhat Chic. I saw an incredibly lovely lady dressed up in something skimpy made out of woodland Camo it got my heart to thumpin! You can find "Urban" camo in lots of trendy stores, as well as other patterns influenced by hunters cabin.

As long as you act politely and respectfully to others there's no reason to hide who or what you are. People who try to tell you how to dress are usually trying to make themselves fell superior by thinking that they dress better. It's just as much B$ when they tell you when and where to have Camo on as when they tell which brand of jeans you should wear...........................DJ

Thanks for the opinions folks. As far as expecting the non-hunter to talk to us I feel it would be easier for them to approach us and us them if we were not dressed head to toe in camo. Some folks say people should take me as I am and get to know me before they make opinions on my person. Yes, that is maybe true, but even the most grunge rocker will form an opinion on someone based on how they are dressed.

My dress when traveling is usually clean jeans and a decent shirt, button up or pull over and fabric depends on the weather. I firmly believe people have talked to me not knowing what I was about who may not have if I was covered in camo. Than, I am able to engage them in conversation per our wont and make know bones about it that I am hunting.

I think we have to remember that most people are influenced by TV, seeing mostly bad stereotypes when it comes to hunter, especially those in camo. We need to be approachable in their minds so we can put our good foot out there and prove to them the reality is much better than the fictitious TV shows, or news for that matter.

If I must dress a certain way for someone to be interested in talking to me, I am certainly not interested in talking to them.

I'm not saying that you should be dirty or unkempt but if you are cleanly and polite someone judging you by the clothes you wear is just as prejudiced and wrong as someone judging you by the color of your skin.

One of the most articulate and intelligent people I know happens to have a Bright Orange Mohawk. In his early 20's he is in a well paid management position in a relatively large computer company. He thinks it's just as funny as I do that some people think clothing and looks are what makes a person. Unfortunately I also find such people foolish and shallow.

We should be making good impressions on people by our behavior not by the clothes we wear. Some of the worst people I know were the best dressed......................DJ

There have been a host of improvments in fabrics, and fabrication in recent years for hunting clothes. Sadly, they are only offered in camo patterns.
I sure wish I could find something like Brownings XPO duds in just plain subdued browns, greens, and grey.

Your bright orange friend is the norm in some places. Hunters have to be good ambassadors to the non-hunting public so when hunting issues come up for vote maybe we can sway some fence sitters our way.

You're right that some of the best dressed are the worst people. I can think of many in Wash. D.C.. There is a fella in town, and maybe many more, who is a millionaire. You wouldn't know it by looking at him. He dressed just like everyone else.

Here's a radical idea for you: wear whatever you want.

If you wear your pinstripe suit to the deer woods or your camo fleece to church, you can expect a few sideways glances. That just goes with the territory.

Shades of "Green Acres!" <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

"If you wear your pinstripe suit to the deer woods or your camo fleece to church, you can expect a few sideways glances. That just goes with the territory."

Exactly

JAH,

While I probably agree with a lot of what you are saying, I would NOT recomend anyone wear "blue" jeans while deer hunting......or anything yellow either. Jeans in a different color might be fine.

Deer vision is probably limited to blue and yellow tones. Browns, greens, olives, even tans are probably fine.

Several years back AR allowed the use of bright yellow (can't remember what they called the color) as an option instead of bright orange. I thought I would give it a try. Man was I busted by deer over and over and have never used it again after those two days. Since, I've read the research about deer seeing in a yellow and blue color palette. Noting how they picked up the yellow, I would be leary of blue.

Hunting in the east where there is a lot of stand hunting and maybe half the shots are 50 yds or less (and 90% under 100 yds), I like wearing camo. I wore Carhart brown for several year prior to camo being offered and never noticed a problem. Out west, I can't see camo would be much of an advantage. The hunting styles are a lot different between the two areas, I have never had a spot-and-stalk situation where I hunt in the east.

Around here its not the camo that upsets folks.......it's when I forget and walk into a store still wearing my handgun. Never will forget the time I went into the bank wearing it. Frtunately I live in a very small town where everyone knows everyone (and is probably related)......teller looked down and said, "I suppose this means you are making a withdrawal". Embarassing.

Well he I am contradicting myself. I received some hunting clothing from NAH for testing and you guessed it, it is camo. I am going bear hunting tomorrow, but am not sure if I will wear it or not. It is supposed to snow and the material is thin and yes I will have orange over it. It is either do that or not wear it at all.

It gets kind of tiresome always having to take the pistol off for things like that. Funny how it doesn't effect the robbers

I was flying from Wa to Wi for a deer hunt, to save room in the my luggage decided to wear my orange wool makinaw and full brimmed orange hat(keeps the snow from going down my neck). Everyone on the flight was very friendly and wanted to talk football finally someone asked if I had tickets to the game? The flight had a stop in Denver and everyone thought I was going to the Bronco game.

erich

I read the article again and have to agree with RS, camo is more for the hunter than the hunted. I the west, I like my filson tan coat and carhardt pants. in the east, filson green wool works fine. I like camo too but I know the deer don't care the least. however, my kids care. my oldest son, now 13, told me his camo coverall dont' fit any more. I told him he could wear his browning down jacket this year. he said that he could but that the camo was part of what made the hunting fun.

we are going shopping for new coveralls this week.

funny observation, for years, I attended the big deer hunting show in south atlanta called the buck-a-rama, kind of a season kick off for deer hunters with all the gear you could imagine. fun to go and look around a bit. what struck me was that folks would be lined up for a couple hundred yards waiting to get in a great many of them would be dressed, head to toe, in their latest camo. fathers and sons alike. I could never figure who they were trying to hide from.

for me, hunting clothing is too sacred to be wearing about town, to get worn out and stinking like civilization. got to save it for some meaningful activity, like sitting in a deer stand.

erich - That is funny, and that's is what you call REAL camo.

Still laughing here!!!

After re-reading the article I realized a simple conclusion that Spomer missed. He made fun of people who wear Orange over their camo hunting clothes. The reason that a lot of people do is that they wear the same hunting clothing for both bow hunting - which you don't need orange for, and for rifle hunting - which you do need orange for. Not everyone can afford multiple sets of hunting clothes, one for rifle and one for bow so it's simpler to toss an Orange vest over the same jacket you used for bow season...................DJ

I can remember, when I was a wee lad in Western Pennsylvania, how on the night before deer season opened you'd see all these guys strutting around downtown in their red plaid Woolrich hunting suits. That was the "in" style then, just as camo is the "in" style now. Somehow, though, the guys who got blood on their hunting clothes seldom got it on Woolrich plaid.

Interestingly, by the time my family moved West and I was old enough to go deer hunting with my dad, the standard "uniform" around here was blue jeans, a wool or flannel shirt of some kind, a war-surplus GI field jacket with a red "safety" vest over it, and a red cap. Anybody who showed up in matching hunting duds was immediately branded a dude, probably from New York City.

Even today, in the areas where I hunt, the camo-clad big game hunter stands out like a sore thumb among most of the people you'll encounter. I imagine things would be different in deep woods, for which most of today's designer camo was ostensibly intended, but in the West, camo looks as silly in the open country we hunt in as it does on Main Street.

It has been my observation that the folks that live near their hunting grounds and hunt often, don't really pay much attention to what they were. I could be their work clothes or whatever they do their chores in. their success comes from simply being in the woods a lot. my dad has shot a truck load of deer, he has never owned a stitch of camo. for me, I own lots of camo 'cause you gotta wear something and I don't hunt in jeans. I also think there is something deer can see in the color blue.

I've heard that about deer being able to see blue, and I now do all my hunting in a pair of "bark" colored Carhartt jeans that I orginally bought for coyote calling. On many occasions past, though, I've had deer and all manner of other critters totally ignore my presence when I was wearing blue jeans, as long as they didn't get my scent and as long as I didn't move. Let me so much as twitch a glove-clad finger, however, and they're off like a shot.

Under clear blue skies, blue jeans likely do show up more vividly in a deer's monochromatic vision than would brown or camo pants, but I suspect that any color, be it blue, brown, or the latest Mossy Twig camo pattern, is going to alarm a deer when he sees it strolling through the woods or along a hillside. Stationary blue jeans, on the other hand, likely look like just another brightly lit spot in the landscape, as long as that spot isn't moving.

I've heard this before and wonder if it applies to African animals, too.

A friend just got back from Namibia, and judging from the pictures he was accompanied everywhere by a small army of trackers in royal blue coveralls.

I saw so many of those coveralls over there that I call them "African Carhartts." I don't think there's any color that could stand out more against the green/brown brush and red sand. But it didn't keep him from shooting 11 animals in 10 days.

JF

I just saw an article of his where he is wearing an orange vest over camo . . . .Like I said. . . , oh nevermind, it is'nt worth it..

Long