Thread: Clothing Colour When Hunting

Why do duck hunters wear camo patterns when hunting and camo their faces/hands - birds can see colour.

Why do deer hunters wear camo - the study in the US some years ago (NZ has never done a study like this) on Whitetail deer identified their eyes can see different spectums of colour like various shades - not quite like black and white that dogs see. In short hunting deer in most States in the US, you have to wear mainly bright orange clothing (NZ version is Blaze orange - a patent i believe?) as deer don't see this colour as humans do.

Then some years ago, a version of Blue fleece came onto the NZ market, designed in NZ i believe? Down side to this new blue was when it got wet, it went dull. But remains bright during the day though a colour deer can identify with which is likely why a majority of NZ hunters haven't entirely taking a liking to. The bright blue colour appears to be a harder product to produce that stays bright in all weather conditions - NZ hunting clothing research into other green/brown camo patterns have advanced heaps in recent years with more disruptive natural bush/tree patterns on the market that might have their origins in the military but are far different that stated by some. And we all know deer with their acute senses rely on sight, smell, movement - they get 2 out of the 3 and they are usually off.

On a different note, many deer hunters also prefer not to be seen by other hunters in the bush - whether you agree or not hunters over the years have been shot by others while wearing a blaze cap, beanie as they have only seen part of the person in the bush, usually shot at short distance (the Haurangi's incident, the Kamai's incident to name a couple). I have also interviewed a deer hunter about 15 yrs ago involved in a fatality in the Sth Island - the orange hat, he thought was part of the deer's neck. So where do you think the fault lies - Identify your target.

And on the side, we see some Kiwis's wear military style clothing out shopping - a fad obviously as Mums are wearing the stuff too! Nothing to do with hunting i guess.

Just a point of view.