It is absolutely ludicrous to believe that deer are sensitive to UV. The mammalian eye simply is not built to resolve visible light AND UV light-- not to the extent purported. Deer do not have magic eyes. They see a lot like we do, except they see less red and more blue and green.

This is the classic case of somebody creating a need and then attempting to fill it.

I have a couple of books on deer hunting that devote whole chapters to this anti-UV craze. I'm sure the authors themselves were just reporting what was available at the time. If you go back and look at it, this craze was typical of hunting gadgetry. Somebody comes out with a product that promises no-UV brighteners added to their clothes. Then somebody comes out with a product that will kill UV brighteners already on your clothes. Then . . .

The fact of the matter is that UV-brighteners exist, but they're put on clothes to make them whiter than white and brighter-than-bright-- not something you'd do to the average camo material. At the time UV brighteners became the big bugaboo for hunters, women's fashion was big on white stockings. UV sensitive dies were put on the fabric to keep them from looking dull in office lighting. As a result, when they got out in the sunlight they'd fluoresce to the point of annoyance. I've been in the woods now for 26 seasons. I've never seen anyone's hunting clothes with that kind of day-glo.

That is with one exception. Why is it we go to such lengths to kill UV on all our other clothes and then don fluorescent hunter orange hats and vests? Has anyone ever stopped to think how silly this all gets? I can see an orange hat at a distance of a mile or more when it gets into the sun. I'm sure the deer can too. They just don't pay any attention to it. To them, it's just a BRIGHT gray (?). What is bright gray?

So now I spray UV Killer on it-- somehow this magic potion dulls one dye (the UV brightener) without touching any other color. Hmmmm. Selective bleaching. There's a trick! It kills the UV dye on my camo clothes, but does not touch the florescence of my orange vest. How do it know? How do it know?

Back in the 20's the canned tuna industry was a tight race-- nobody had clear leadership in the field. All tuna was pink. Then Bumble Bee Tuna accidentally came up with a way to bleach tuna and turn it white. They didn't mean to. It just happened that way. Stuck with bleached tuna, somebody in the marketing department came up with an idea. Their ad campaign: "Bumble Bee Tuna-- Guaranteed not to turn pink!" Bumble Bee got on top and stayed there for years. I'll leave you to ponder that one.

Dan said...

Dear Shaman,
If you believe your readers would be interested in a two sided discussion of U-V-Killer and the science of deer vision, I will try to engage in a conversation.
In any case it would be only fair to direct them to Atsko.com where the dvd and book and hundreds of references in juried periodicals are all available at no cost.
Sincerely,
Dan Gutting, Atsko Inc.
Mon Sep 22, 03:48:00 PM 2008

Coffee hurts as it comes out of your nose.

Shoot, most of the deer I've killed in 40years of hunting were dispatched while eating candy bars or smoking cigarettes and NOT wearing any camo, or scents, or scent-blockers or with a cartridge that had magnum in it's name. In short, doing everything the "wrong" way. Don't even get me started on "UV-blockers!"

snow seal on choppers...now I've heard it all.

Blogger Dan of Atsko said...

Dear Shaman,
Thanks for the invitation.
So you're not seeing much glow on your camo. Maybe that's a good thing.
How about your blacklight. Is it a screw in bulb like a std 60 watt incandescent bulb? If so, it makes very little UV light and a lot of short blue light. It will light those psychodelic posters from the 70s , but only a small percentage of the 200 compounds used in cloth, paper, and laundry products.
If you have a dark purple fluorescent tube that is marked 350BLB or an LED from Atsko you may have a lot of good camo reguardless of the pattern.
I check back,
Dan of Atsko

Anonymous Dan at Atsko said...

Dear Shaman,
Nothing is conclusive because you are using an incondescent bulb.If nothing glows at all you may have "selected" clothing over the years that you were successful with. I would suggest that the reason why you were successful with these pieces may be that they don't glow. If you have any interest in evaluating your need for U-V-Killer or the effectiveness of it you will need to get a 350BLB flourescent light.
Sincerely, Dan