Thread: How necessary is camo?

Originally Posted by Jus

I’m head to toe in Kuiu camo gear. Have had deer walk past at 15m without seeing me. Have had deer see me move and locked eyes on me as I laid eyes on them, they have stood and stared for minutes and minutes and then gone back to feeding. Definitely don’t need camo but there is 15-20% of the time when it pays off. Deer here are only predated upon by human so they are looking for the human shape. Equally, their eyes are tuned to look for movement, if you move fast and erratically they will pick you up from hundreds of meters away before your camo can even begin to work

Both of these things nail it. Camo hides your deficiencies as a bush stalker, or enhances your ability to get in close enough to hear a hind chewing on her lunch. White hands and white faces in the bush will blow it every time but if you move around like a gumby they're gone regardless - early days I watched a deer at 200m pick me out while I was thought I was (not so) stealthily getting set up for a shot. she paused, and I thought she went back to chewing her cud in the shade, by the time I had the rifle on the pack and was looking down the scope she was gone.

Originally Posted by Joe_90

In this example of Gore I think you're describing a lure not camo.....

So I was sitting in a backcountry hut the other week. Main divide out the window with tahr, cham, and stags frolicking on the alpine meadows. Pure bliss, at least until I made the mistake of visiting the hut reading material..
“Otago uni tramping club antics magazine” sounds entertaining, I thought.

Flicking through I see a trip report featuring a chap I know as Joe_90, so I have a read. Taking a rifle on a tramping trip, yep. Getting lost, then falling off a bank and landing on said rifle, yep definitely Joe.

Then I turn the page to be confronted with a picture of said Joe, standing stark naked in a cave, with only the poor abused Howa for cover.

Bloody traumatic.

In my defence, it was was dark at the time and I was left unsupervised. It was only a small bank into the creek anyway.