I haven't bought (into) camo clothes in at least 15 or more years. I don't even use camo when turkey hunting, and that was supposed to be a BIG no no.

I have recently discovered "Hi tech" lightweight clothing and must admit that I am getting hooked on it, especially pants.

So, has anyone else abandoned camo clothes for hunting?

I thought this was real life write up on camo:

https://byland.co/blog/2017/12/11/3-reasons-you-should-consider-quitting-camouflage

I'm with ya. I no longer purchase anything with a camo pattern.

I still utilize an older camo hunting jacket or two and an orange camo vest but that's about it.

Wear Camo top, Camo face archery elk, deer and turkey hunting. Brown or green pants

Gun hunting no need. Muted jackets

I do wear camo for coyote hunting but haven't bought into the expensive stuff, and have pretty much have gone to just a waist length ghillie jacket and tan pants. I've been wearing the same ghillie jacket for 15 yrs. It is mesh lined so works early in the season over a T -shirt and later over a heavier coat or sweater and vest. Most of the camo I started with came from Walley world

You have to figure, that if my orange clown suit works just fine:


. . . then camo isn't a requisite.

One thing I would strongly suggest: don't put on a pair of brown duck overalls and pair it with a brown duck barn coat and leave a white handkerchief sticking out of your back pocket.

I've spent a good part of the season going old-school for over a decade.


I started this when I was a pro-staffer at D&DH. I did it to demonstrate the point that camo was not required, and it became a habit.

I suppose it depends what you are hunting, and how you are doing it. It probably makes little difference from a stand, whether you are top to toe in blaze orange or just something dull coloured. It makes little difference still hunting with a rifle either, and even less again with pigs or rabbits.

One thing I have noticed though is that if I want to get really close, like bow range, it helps to have my face and hands covered, and gear that breaks up my outline also seems to help. I have got in really really close with it. A lot of commercial camo doesn't really seem to be well designed to take into account how animals see though - deer can't resolve that photorealistic detail on a lot of it, and it just looks like a blob, rather than breaking up your shape for an animal with fairly poor resolving ability. Some of it is quite reflective too, which is also no good at all.

I also find that blaze makes some of our bird species get really riled up, which makes it a good deal harder to sneak around. It is like you have mobs of bloody cockatoos circling around you screaming "look out, he's coming!"

Sako

I started with camo many years ago. I've learned thru experience it is movement that catches deer's attention NOT
the clothes you wear.

NO I haven't abandoned camo ..... I have TOOOO much of it and it DOESN'T matter so Yes, I'm wearing it.


Jerry

Camo is not an absolute necessity for me but the fabrics and styles of hunting clothes I prefer are mostly Camo patterns.

Looks like that clown suit has plenty of ball room...

... even for two balls.

Too soon?

John

Shaman said,

"you have to figure, that if my orange clown suit works just fine:"


You could not have described it any better. Clown


Jerry

Only time I buy camo is when its on sale cheaper than the regular stuff.

Killed my last turkey , one of those 'extra wary' eastern birds while I was wearing a red buffalo plaid jacket.....

Probably been feeding it cracked corn on the patio. Can’t kill stuff without boutique camo duds.

Were you buffler huntin?

I have a lot of camo. It's cheaper on clearance than jeans.

I mostly wear Carhartt bibs and a Carhart coat, tan.

I have never purchased any camo. The main reason being I’m afraid that if I set it down anywhere I wouldn’t be able to find it again. It’s camouflaged, right?

I wear camo when hunting, just not same pattern head to toe. The exception is a Open Country snow pattern in bibs, parka and hat.

None of my camo matches,
I only buy it on sale/clearance and still wear a blaze orange hat. Camo is more for us, humans rather than animals.
Movement and smell are what gives us away.

Admit to owning some camo underwear. It must work well, as I've been quite successful on all of my recent hunts.

LOL

Winner. I am now convinced camo works!

I have been wearing green wool pants and a red and black checked Woolrich coat that was my grandfathers for the last 50 years. Deer still don’t seem to notice. I do wear mossy oak during Turkey season. Now that NY is requiring blaze orange I guess I will need to add an orange vest, over my Woolrich coat of course.

I love my blue jeans for hunting. Always have.

I didn't know that, glad you chimed in.

Aren't you taking a terrible risk wearing those non-visible boots?

The only camo that I own is a parka that I've had for at least 30 years. It's fleece, non-insulated, water proof, and loose enough to wear over anything.

I have some camo clothes. However, most of the high dollar items I have tried on must be for someone 6’3” plus and weight 150#. The sleeves are always long and most jackets will only fit over designer long Johns on your arms. I’m 5’9” and around 160. I’d probably buy some if it fit. Don’t know if I’m the only who has ran into this.

I have some camo that I wear but don't buy anymore unless it is on sale. I shot a deer from 10 yards sitting with my back against a rock wearing blue jeans. 33 years ago I was hunting with my brother. He set a camo backpack on the ground. It took us a while to find it. Finally I told him that the thing over there that looks like a rock on the next hill was his backpack. If that happened today these eyes would no longer pick it out. I was using a binocular back then,

I have an open area clothes rack for my camo and work clothes.
If I took a pic you see that i have bought camo over the years PAST. I have more than I will live long enuff to
wear out.

I'm not ashamed of wearing it. I've already bought it.....so I'm wearing it.

Just because someone does NOT wear camo doesn't automatically make him/her a better hunter.

I'm NOT buying 'more' non camo clothes just to hunt in. It does NOT make any diff.

Jerry

I have a lot of hunting clothes - some of it happens to be cammo.

I tend to wear it bowhunting. Duck hunting - must. Outside of that, I've been known to hunt in jeans/flannel/carhartt jackets. Whatever's warm that day. Shot a buck wearing a black hoodie with Jerry Reed on the front once. Smokey and the Bandit sweatshirt. Bill Jordan's got nothing on me.

Make sure I have a good background, don't move and don't show my face directly to a critter - that is don't get in staring contests. Seems to work.

I must have had more swelling down there than I realized. I caught myself adjusting all my bib straps over the past week.

No, I'll take inappropriate humor any old day. In fact, I've willed my body to science, stipulating that my corpse be used for stupid practical jokes by first year med students.

Even now, I have fantasies about my testicle being used in some horrible prank. We can only dream.

. . . and how he got into that hoodie is anyone's guess.

From reading many of your posts over the years, I was pretty sure that would be your attitude!

I like the bit about first year med students using you for practical jokes! What a great way to go out!

John

I mostly hunt in states that require firearms game hunters to wear 400 square inches of blaze orange on the front, back, and on the head. I perfer a blaze orange camo vest and hat, an attempt to break the blocks of solid color. One of my bowhunter friends uses a detergent without UV brighteners from Alkuhme and he recommended that I use it and leave my blaze orange gear hanging on a clothline for an extended period, as he believes that the Sun will help to degrade UV brighteners.

Black/green and black/red buffalo plaid helps to breaks the solid color and looks black at a distance in conifer forests. When I was a kid, most of the firearms deer hunters who I saw in ME, NH, and VT wore wool tops and bottoms, mostly buffalo plaid tops and solid green bottoms. Johnson Woolen Mills in VT, Labonville in NH, and Codet from Canada were the favored brands back in the 1960's and 1970's.

The whole UV thing is bunk. I went to battle with Atsko years ago about their claims. It's a long story. I covered it at length here:

Elephant Repellent

BTW: I bought the Orange Clownsuit as a result of the run-in with Atsko. I vowed to wear it under a sign that read "Danger: Hunter." Believe me: That suit hurts your eyes, and it did nothing to impede my deer hunting.

People believe what they want to believe, if they didn't there wouldn't be a market for both CNN and FOX.

I always wore just plain old Dickies work pants, usually khaki colored. I'd just sit down next to a tree and flip some leaves across my legs if I thought camo was needed. I had to wear a vest and hat in blaze orange anyway, so I didn't think camo would be much help, and maybe, sometimes, I'd wear a turkey mesh face mask to break up my pasty white face. I've never had any problems shooting a deer that way.

Tan Carhartts and a some shade of green shirt.

Movement is your enemy.

Here in Idaho we're not required to wear any orange at all. They recommend it but state that it's our choice, not theirs.

I've hunted some in an area with lots of hikers and trails. Virtually none of the hikers wear orange. They're the ones who are probably in more danger than the hunters but how many states require everyone in the woods to be wearing orange?

I don't mind wearing orange when I'm big game hunting. What I'd like to see is everyone in the woods during hunting season wearing orange, hikers and ATV'rs off their machines. Lots of rural kids back home used to wear orange waiting for the school bus in the morning. Somewhere around here I have a ghillie vest with 600sq" of orange for coyote hunting during big game season, the hood on it would go over my orange hat , most of the orange was on the back and when exiting the stand I'd open it to reveal a orange vest underneath.

I have camo items for my upper body, but have stayed with solids for my pants. They are too expensive to not wear other times of the year. When rifle hunting I can't see a reason to buy camo because we have to wear orange anyway. If I was in a state that didn't require it maybe i would buy more camo. I did buy more when I was bow hunting more.

I get Propper brand 100% Ripstop Cotton BDU's, in M81 woodland pattern, for <$50 a set.

Lightweight/roomy/comfortable/wind and mosquito proof/fast drying/dbl seat, knees, and elbows/wears like iron.

... and breaks up the human outline.






GR

The Sun Valley, ID area is a yuppie, anti-hunting mecca. Many of them are pretty snooty. They also live in an area full of both elk and deer so I've hunted it a lot. I usually don't wear orange simply because it brings on nasty comments. One time we were on a trail and some bikers passed us. One guy asked why we weren't wearing orange. He wasn't just inquiring. He was being an ass. The real question was why wasn't he wearing it. He was wearing a gray jacket and was riding in a horizontal position. He looked a LOT more like a deer than I did. Plus, I had the gun, not him, and I wasn't going to shoot myself.

BYW, in spite of the hikers and bikers, I've brought a lot of elk and deer out of that area. The animals are used to seeing them on the trails and ignore them but they aren't pets. They know what a trail is. As soon as you leave it, the high alert sensors switch on and it's a different game. They're at least as wary and possibly more so than elk in the back country. A couple years ago, we were on one of the hiking trails when my partner spotting a big buck way up on a ridge, at least 1/2 mile away. He'd been up there watching hikers all morning but the instant we put binocs on him, he vanished. He knew the difference.

Jerry and I DID that.

I wear camo for birds. Where are these blind 🦃 ?

Yes I wear camo. Especially for Archery

JMHO- i never wear any clothing with brown in
the field during a deer season.
Way too many pinheads making sound shots and
hail mary shots for my tastes.
Making absolute sure of your backstop used to
be a hard and fast chiseled in stone rule.
Not any more. It's get your big antlers and get em
posted online ASAP on your farcebook or yoofloob
page

Couple years ago hunting on top of a drainage with some heavy timber. I saw some light brown moving through the trees.
Put my rifle up in a hurry and it was some dude wearing camo with a tan hat.
Saw him later that evening getting in his rig while on my way back to camp.
Told him I accidentally had his head in my cross hairs due to the his tan hat. Not sure if he was picking up what I was putting down.

You could be the stuff of legend.

Years ago my sister told me of a prank by the med students she hung out with, involving a dead bloke's old feller: one of them would carry the said equipment in his trousers and front up at a crowded pub urinal, shoulder to shoulder, and whip it out. He'd then stumble and drop it into the trough, and pretty much clear the room every time. That donger had quite a social life for a while there.

That's why I carry binos and don't point a gun at anything I can't 100% identify.

I regret that I have but one willie to donate to science. I find that story inspirational.

Unlike some of the clowns I have seen posting on these fora, sure as shooting they have two as it isn't possible they could be that silly just playing with one.

I knew that was coming. Perfect hunting angels.
Sometimes you only get one opportunity, and even though I glass a lot. Things happen fast in real life and reading about on line is a different.
The real lesson is not to wear tan hat durring rifle season.

If I ever miss an opportunity at a critter because I couldn't get positive ID on what it is before putting my scope on it, I'd be OK with that. There probably has been a few situations in which that was the case over the years, but I think they're really few.
I've been scoped several times, regardless of my hat color. It is not a good way to put me in a good mood.

I've never felt like camo was necessary, movement being the #1 reason for being seen. However, since most of my hunting these days is out of a climbing stand, I do wear camo on top and typically solid pants, either brown or grey. I used to wear wool from Filson and other but since I discovered KUIU, I wear nothing else. First of all, the clothing is light, no sense dragging a load if you don't have to, the difference is really astounding. On top of that, the pants and jackets are four way stretch and what a difference it makes when climbing or reaching over your head. I could easily sleep in my gear and not be uncomfortable. I'm not saying everyone should go out and buy KUIU or camo, wear what you like, but I can't stand heavy, restrictive clothing anytime and certainly not when I'm hunting. I had a Sleeping Indian wool jacket that was my favorite piece of hunting gear, haven't worn it since I bought KUIU. Tried it on the other day and knew I'd never wear it again, sold it here on the campfire.

Just a little FYI: Cohen found that deer see blue colors best and red colors the worst. Deer can also see greens, yellows and UV light, but they can't differentiate color shades to that extent that humans can. What this means to a hunter is that you should avoid wearing anything blue

https://www.outdoorlife.com/blogs/big-buck-zone/2014/07/video-new-study-sheds-light-what-deer-see/

Jeff O, is that you?

All those deer I shot wearing blue jeans were just the stupid deer????

I have a few sets of waterfowl specific high end camo for hunting water or fields in comfort. I also have 3 sets of temp Specific high end camo for bears, deer and elk depending on weather. I don’t have them to be bougie but rather because it’s comfortable, breathable, durable and flexible for long hikes. And I also get a fat ass discount on it so why not.

I also own sets of lightweight cotton camo for spring turkeys.

Don’t need camo for most of what I do but have it because of the technology in it

^^^^ This, 100%
I'm not buying the fancy camo patern, I'm buying the quality and technology that is put into the clothing.
25-30 years ago it could get miserable compared to today. I can sit through blowing rain, freezing rain and wet snow all day long and be dry and comfortable now.

LMAO…That was a classic.

No. The real lesson is not to point your gun at something you can't identify. Call names all you want, I'm good with it.

I feel the same about the technology & comfort/fitment.
Thankfully some of the companies (KUIU and FirstLite) offer solids. I guess Sitka does as well but not to the extent as the other two.

I didn’t use my gun/scope to identify
I thought it was deer moving through the timber and drew.
I know it’s hard to comprehend

"Drew" as in drew your bow? You said crosshairs and rifle so I suspect you're referring to "drawing" your rifle, which sounds very movie like. Either way, blaming a person's admittedly dumb attire choices for you having their "head in your crosshairs" is Biden level dumb and 100% on you. 100%.

I wear mostly neutral solids but I also have camo. When I factor in wind, noise, movement and eye contact I am not sure I see a difference in how successful I am at stalking close wearing camo or solids. I think it’s funny when you read an article or hear someone say “deer don’t see… (this color or that).” and then extrapolate that if they wear that color, somehow they will be invisible to the deer. Hilarious. I am severely colorblind, in fact I have an unusual type of color blindness and on top of that my mind interprets colors differently depending on the background they are up against. However, when I don’t “see a color” the object is not invisible or even without color, it’s just not being seen at the same wavelength someone else is seeing it. I can pick game out the brush like it’s no ones business. I’d be cautious about “knowing” what a deer sees and doesn’t see.
What I do like about camo is not being seen by people at certain times of the hunt. I am walking in or out of an area or someone glasses the hill you are on only to come up and talk to you.
It’s amazing how unaware many hunters are. I’ve sat on a hill and watched hunters push deer 250-300 yards ahead of them even with the wind in their favor, just from walking.

No it is very easy to comprehend. You actually couldn't identify what was coming through the wood, but pointed your gun at it anyway. Every year people get shot because someone "thought it was a deer". You are wrong, but can't admit it.

Hind sight is always 20/20. Can’t take it back and won’t apologize for it .
Real world situations happen fast , and internets perfect Hunter ethics worriers have never done anything wrong in the field.

Yep. Never done that. Nor would I blame the potential victim if I did.

Olive or brown for me.

LOL.

I do remember reading a study that Deer & Deer Hunting magazine did about which color spectrum deer see most vividly and it was the blue violet end of the color wheel. The blues are on one end of the spectrum and the reds are on the other as far as wave length. I'll still wear a camo breakup pattern given the choice, but my deer tend to see movement before they spook due to a color choice. One of my biggest bow bucks came one day during the peak of the rut when I'd forgotten my camo coveralls and I was sitting on the ground in a red plaid shirt and blue jeans.

Dang. A bunch of elk and deer have seen my OD GREEN wool milsurp pants and dark GREEN down parka. I must mesmerize them as they'll stand there totally ignoring me until I do something dumb like moving at the wrong time. Then they look at me and wander off into the brush.
Who's Cohen? Is he a Jew who owns a camo clothing store or something?

Bradley Cohen, the lead researcher in a 2014 University of Georgia (UGA) study, calls whitetails an “anti-predation machine.” For starters, their eyeballs are positioned in their head to provide 300- to 310-degree views of their surroundings, including about 65 degrees of binocular vision to the front. The only area they can’t see is the 50- to 60-degree cone behind them. And because they easily detect the slightest motions within their huge visual side-to-side arc, the whitetail’s eyes are more than a backup safety system.

Further, the whitetail’s eyes are most sensitive to colors in the blue-spectrum – the light that’s most available at dusk and dawn when they’re most active.

Man, I try to avoid camo, mostly. That being said I do own some Sitka Gear, and believe it's pretty high-quality stuff and a fair price when you find it on sale. Much of the latest technical hunting clothes only come in garish camo patterns.

Speaking of trying to look stylish while deer hunting, do these gray and orange gaiters clash with my navy blue jogging shorts?

Those gaiters should keep the chiggers from your ankles, but man do I pity your balls.

Dude, watch how and when you quote people.

I am insulted.
I am OFFENDED!

Your inner Jeffo O coming out? Laffin’.

Elk never seemed to mind my blue plaid wool shirt . . . maybe they thought I was a vertical pond. Always understood the wind and motion much more important than color or pattern.

I drink camo beer during hunting season. Seems to work fine.

Good ole busch ice drink all day and still function.

You and I could hang out.

Luv me some Busch Light.

Dude, my balls scoff at chiggers and ticks.

They're protected like Remington's "3 rings of steel."

First, I liberally apply Avon skin-so-soft lotion all over 'em (probably unnecessary, but why wouldn't you? ), second my clothing is sprayed extensively with Permethrin, and third all exposed skin is sprayed with Deet.

Using Permethrin has been a life-changing event in early season.

Permethrin is to my balls, as the hard candy shell is to peanut M&M's.

This, plus killing the ultraviolet glare "brighteners" that literally glow in the glooming to animal eyes. Scent killer too, if hunting in uncertain winds, or getting really really close. Steady winds, and stay down wind, latter not needed. Camo as dedicated clothes for above works.

I know more about moose bellies than I really need to......

I'm finishing my coffee right now and then going "moose hunting" in street clothes (blue jeans, poly fleece hoodie) washed in Tide......so there! Actually, I just need to go walk around the woods for a day, and the weather is good. 34 right now, and warming. Bye!

I think killing the UV glare in hunt clothes is much more worthwhile than radical scent control measures. I’ve been using UV killer detergent on my hunt clothes and think it’s made a difference.

For deer, boar, and bear hunting in WV there's a Blaze orange requirement of 400 sq/in. I wear it. The only camo pattern I like is Cabela's Outfitter camo.

Scent control stuff is mostly a waste. An elk can smell your breath a mile away. Your body odors are much stronger than what's in your clothes. Playing the wind is the only scent control that works.

i have usually worn jeans and a red or green plaid shirt. it seems though that there are many more deer in the woods than there were in the good old days, before camo. in va where i grew up and still hunt some, the season west of the blue ridge is longer and more deer and turkeys are allowed. in fl there are so many deer. only thing, most of them are about the size of a large dog.

I guess to answer the OP's question instead of derailing things like I often do: I normally avoid camo for no reason other than the fad around it that has been created.

Aside from the materials it is made from I am sure it generally doesn't hurt things to wear it, but the cult it has just to be wearing camo just makes me shake my head. The Kuiu warriors lead the charge, but they're not the only ones. I see them in stores, restaurants, wherever...and that's fine but I do find it amusing that X percent of them never do anything more than ride around on their wheelers and bitch about how the game department has mismanaged everything and that there's no animals left. It is pretty rare for me to see anyone not in camo these days when looking at camps on the side of the road or seeing bird hunters in the field or in town, etc.

It is entertaining, I guess.

I honestly can't remember the last turkey I killed when I was wearing camo, to include a couple of bow kills.

I think the mutts in Idaho and Montana are generally a bit easier to kill than easterns, but I have shot enough of the latter to confidently say they're nowhere near as tough as a lot folks make them out to be, especially the ones on private or remote areas that haven't been hunted much. When they are pressured, their escape routes have been so ridiculously habitual (for me at least) that setting a second shooter up there has actually been a very effective tactic.

Calling? I don't do it much but I have noticed that all subspecies I have hunted will respond if they want to, will hang up if they want to or will ignore you if they want to.

Speaking of did I tell you about how the game department has mismanaged everything and there's no animals left?

Shooting and finding turkeys in the panhandle is easy. I see no correlation between wearing camo or not and getting discovered. I wear both solids or camo.

They've what?

Dude, let's go get a couple cases of Natty Lite and go chase the 40 Mile herd around.

Pinky promise?

Thoughts on camo....

Camo is more useful when hunting some species than others. It's a big help on turkeys or ducks, and while it's doesn't make as much of a difference on deer, it's still worth doing. I do take exception to this quote from the article linked in the OP:

"no pattern of any kind - regardless of how new and fancy it is - can never cover up poor hunting technique. "

I often hear similar comments whenever camo is discussed. It shows a lack of understanding of what camo is for. It's not there to cover up or compensate for poor hunting technique. It's to better your odds for success when using GOOD hunting technique.

I do agree that most modern camo is too detailed and dense, which increases its appeal at arm's length in the store, but just turns into a brown blur at a distance. I still use a lot of original Realtree Xtra Brown from the 90s because although it's not up to modern photorealism standards, it has reasonably good detail and has large areas of contrast to break up your outline. I usually wear pants of a different pattern to break up the human outline. When turkey hunting I have a few plastic leaves on my vest and hat to add a 3D effect. I once had a turkey hen walk close enough to me that I could have kicked her. But she was doing a better job of calling like a lonely hen than I could imitate, so I let her continue.

I've sometimes thought about getting newer camo, but after I once had a squirrel jump out of a tree onto my hat I decided that I was probably sufficiently camoed as it was.

I'm really tired of the multi thousand dollar hunting suits.
I'm going out of my way to shoot my buck this year in cheap non camo...🤣

I’ve hunted in pretty much everything.

Cotton, wool, synthetic, camouflage, solid colours and plaid.

As said above by many nothing works better than good hunting techniques; playing wind, moving properly and looking carefully (used to include listening carefully but 60 year old ears don’t have the definition)

I tend to use some camouflage clothing as they tend to be the brands that offer fabrics that are quiet, flexible, breathable, wind and moisture resistant and don’t shred in the rose bushes and rocks or tear like toilet paper on barbed wire.

Hmmmm, see the camo guys in the stores but not in the field........

Maybe they dont really hunt, or maybe the camo works...

NAY NAY! Virtue Signaler:

https://www.kingscamo.com/pages/men

(bundles)


ATACS iX and AU-X apparel in bdu format, etc.

Most of the camo looks solid brown or black at more than 100 yds, maybe 50 for small intricate patterns.
This is a parka that I've been wearing for the last 30 years. At 75 yds, it's a patch of plain brown...about the color of an elk. An orange vest is recommended which kills the reason for camo anyway.

I use King's snow pattern waterproof and windproof fleece for coyote hunting. Deer hunting I have to look like a pumpkin anyhow, so I layer appropriately and go kill deer.

Lots of pumpkin looking folks in WI. too, but since we only need to be 50% blaze orange or florescent pink above the waist and I don't see other gun hunters where I go hunting in bigger woods, I wear camo orange. A buddy and I hunted in the U.P. of MI. and sitting on the ground, he was getting spotted by the deer on opening day. He was wearing an inexpensive solid orange cotton hoodie and he was frustrated about being seen. That night at the cabin he took a black Magic Marker and drew oak leaf patterns on his hoodie and the next day on the same stand the deer paid no attention to him.