Thread: Clothing Colour When Hunting

An old thread got revived on the other forum regarding colour of clothing when hunting so I put up the link below that may be of interest.Gives you an idea that whatever colour you wear you may still be potentially at risk if the shooter doesn't Positively Identify The Target. Might be of interest to some.
https://www.colourblindawareness.org...our-blindness/

as I've always said there's shooters and there's hunters shooters just want to shoot something hunters have a specific target in mind. That said tho where there is a human involved there is always the potential for fuk ups sometimes with tragic results

There seems to be a fair bit of research out there suggesting colour blind people have some advantages as hunters as the increased sensitivity to shape and texture means they are less likely to be fooled by camouflage.
This certainly bears out for me as I always had a knack for spotting animals from a young age and it's now become my career (bugs and fish mostly!).

It'd be interesting to see any stats but i'd be very surprised if colour blindness was a factor in failing to properly identify target incidents.

Im colour blind for red and green I see yellow or orange like safety vest colour everywhere in the bush so i got my daughter a blue camo hat and shirt. Theres no natural blue in the bush and it stands out real well

Blue. There's a reason that Fonterra use blue on their fleet and that is to improve visibility of them on the road.

Yep, I agree. Blue sticks out like hairy dog’s bollocks.

We avoid wearing or having any gear that is blue in the bush. From our experience it is like a neon sign to insects , especially bee's and wasps and anything else with a stinger and attracts them from miles around.
Don't do blue at all.

heard a story many years ago about my older school mates dad, the dads uncle. Both done a bit of hunting.
The dad and the uncle (colourblind and the point of this anecdote) were about to go out when the the uncle saw the red chequered swanndri that the dad had to wear.
He said bugger that. It was the exact same colour to him as a red deer. Whilst this highlights that he was not always identifying his target properly, he had a system whereby nothing else in the scrub was that colour and helped him work it out.
I would also suggest back in those days and the areas the old fella hunted very, very unlikely to see someone else so for him it worked, but still a bad practice
Definitely not ideal

being that we always hunt public land - I wear a blaze orange shirt, wife wears a pink one - might've saved us too. One time in the Kaimai's as we pushed through some scrub another hunter called out to us - "hey, good on you for the high vis - I thought you were a deer" As it turns out he was in forest camo and I didn't spot him until he moved out of the scrub he was concealed in - whilst I didn't see it I got the impression we were being lined up with his rifle a moment earlier.

The times I've come across other hunters those with Orange have been really easy to spot, yellow is a little harder but still beats camo

There is a huge difference between 'Blaze' and 'Fluro'. The fluro converts some of the non visible spectrum to visible light and so is brighter than surrounding objects. Blaze can loose its colour in the shadows imo

So why is the blaze clothing not a blend of orange AND blue?
And why is there bugger all of it for sale? Especially summer weight? Can get blaze fleece ok but seems if you want something thin for peak summer it's wear a mesh vest cover other clothing. Gap in the market?

I have a couple of bright orange Nike Tshirts that I've been wearing lately with the heat - solid / no camo/ break up though but cooler than the Stoney Creek fleece shirt when its hot

Have lost a good mate due to misidentification in the bush. I only do blue. Not a blaze orange fan. My Dad is colour deficient in red/green as is my wife and brother. I have clearly experienced my Dads difficulty in locating orange track markers and red blood in the bush through my life as it looks brown to him. Blue is a different story, completely unnatural and it is seen by all of them much easier. We have bumped into hunters in the bush whilst wearing blaze blue and had them comment on how easy it made it to identify us as something out of place. None of this is an excuse to properly identifying your target but human factor and mistakes are real and they will never ever go away. Therefor when in the bush during busy times like the roar I choose blue to maximise my chance of coming home to my family. What I look like to deer is an after thought in these situations.

Agree --- Wasps ----have got a thing about blue, been wearing blue overalls while watching a large nest get destroyed. Pest control man an Australian, thought it was a huge joke, apparently it only the wasps coming back that get you.

I have a blue blaze ridgeline tee that is nice and breathable mesh sorta stuff. Brilliant on hot days but they don't wear well if you are bush hunting.

Agree with blue being horrible for attracting bugs, especially wasps but after a couple close-ish calls with other hunters I would take the wasp over a couple thousand feet per second lead any day.

Probably reason for most hi-vis/blaze being in fleeceis that the roar occurs in colder time of year and market probably only thinks people get shot during the roar.

There are definitely warmer weather variants out there though.