Dressing for hunting

[Kortoso]

The common teaching about hunting deer is that they don't see color the way that they do, so bright orange camoflague should not alarm them. Or whatever: avoid blue and solid colors, hide the UV spectrum by getting this soap from the hunting store, etc.

But my experience is that my position can be given away easily by some stupid bird, who starts squawking and spooks the deer.

So should I consider the colors that the birds are capable of seeing?

[LDS]

Birds are not color blind. Geese, ducks and turkey are intensively color sensitive. My grandad used to make us police up our empty hulls between flights when waterfowel hunting. He claimed geese could spot a red winchester hull from 20,000 feet!

I have found that the birds do not squak if I am very still, unless I have parked myself under their nest. Squirrel give me the biggist problems.

[dixieangler]

I have to agree with McPherson when it comes to hunting. The best way to be successful is just to be still. Movement is your worst enemy whether camouflaged or not. A good break-up pattern of clothing would not be a bad idea though. Being downwind also helps.

[LDS]

Deer break all the rules.

I have had more than one deer walk past while I was smoking without seeming to notice the tobacco waifting through the air.

I agree that movement, or the lack of it, is the key.

[dixieangler]

We know that deer and many other wild animals grow accustomed to human presence but are still wary, particularly of human movement. Anyone who has sat on a tree stand will tell you that less movement (very slow) is the way to go. Deer do look up particularly when they are nibbling tree limb leaves but they don't look up as often (as is the case with many animals) so the tree stand has an advantage. Find a good deer run, sit up in a tree being still, and wait. I missed a deer one year long ago from a tree stand in a bayhead (a circular stand of trees) when I took the shot but it was due to having the quad _ _ _ _ _ rack vibration knocking the scope sights off. I was not using a bow at the time. You can fill in the spaces.

[LDS]

One of the greatest aids to being still is comfort. Stomping your feet and jumping up and down to stay warm is exactly the movement deer are genetically programed to avoid. This is where human technology enters. We make clothes to keep us warm and every culture has developed clothing from the materials at hand to meet their needs.

It was less than 100 years ago that the artic explorers appropriated eskimo clothing to accomplish their missions. Now the eskimos spend thousands on Goretex, down parkas and -40 Rocky and Timberline boots!

It seems that the feet are the weak point in most situations. It is easy enough to pile on several layers of clothing or furs, if you have them, but the feet are a seperate problem often being emersed in water, in direct contact with the frozen ground and the foot coverings being abused more than any other clothing item due to tarrain and use.

Only in the last 100 years has our technology come to the point that we can keep our feet both warm and dry in most of the U.S. during winter hunts. Even the Indians were hesitant to go hunting during the slushy periods of winter. Cold and dry they could overcome, completely frozen they could overcome, but that spot between 30-50 degrees and wet even the Indians suffered through.

Archeoligists discover evidence of chillbanes and frostbite on the skeletons of almost all NA Indians and many of the early europeans.

The pioneer hunters left us records of the problems of wearing the primitive gear they inherited from the Indians. When wearing moccasians they suffered terribly, even when using two layer moccs and stuffing deer fur between the layers. Many of them suffered from rheumatism early in life and were crippled in their latter years.

Soldiers from every war write of the terror of frozen feet and the remidies they attempted, from wrapping strips of blanketand rags around their feet, throug the leather shoes and gaiters of CW through WW1, right up to the development of the famous "bunny boots" of WW2. (an item still in great demand).

My favorites?

http://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/33549?fe ... =Tan/Brown

I am very partial to my leather topped rubber bodied canoe boots with the felt liner. They are plenty for the KY woods no matter what the weather.

[dixieangler]

I used to have a pair of those rubberized "duck" boots. The side split open and the water poured in. lol Good and waterproof before the side split though. Having gone through that though, I haven't gotten another pair.

[LDS]

I also have a pair of plain rubber boots that reach almost to my knees. I wear them in these cold snaps when I am putting the big boats in the water because i often need to stand in the shallows and shove them around or line them up with the trailer.

The canoe boots are great when I am using the small boats and do not have to go knee deep to launch them. I can shove off and keep my feet dry and still not have to wear the big clunky foot gear. I do not like the tall boots in the pirogue.

[LDS]

AAAAAHHH!

I just came in from my daily walk!

The temp and humidity fooled me. Usually I am comfortable at 37 degrees with my mid-weight jacket and cap. Today my feet are freezing, my nose is running and my lips are chapped after only walking 2 miles.

I am really glad I am not stuck out in this weather even though it is not snowing or raining. This is one of those southern cold snaps that cuts you to the bone. I was out messing around with the temp a lot lower than this just a few days ago and I was not cold!

Today the deer would have been alerted to my presence due to chattering teeth, forget the colors.

Yesterday I had an altercation with a couple of irate squirrels. I do not ever remember a squirrel groweling at me until yesterday. I was still 20 yards away when he started warning me off his territory. At about 10 yards he came out of the tree and hissed at me from the ground.

I did not know which to reach for, my pepper-spray or my .45. I decided to use the pepper spray, if necessary, due to the warning from my Grandad that they are prone to charging when wounded! I would quickly kill a squirrel for a meal but I would hate to have to kill one in self defense.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi2JMPu6qCI

[Bernoulli]

I normally hunt in Oregon where there are no color restrictions. I wear olive drab and dark tan which goes well with sagebrush, juniper and rimrocks. I'm told I'm impossible to see which is the way I like it. If I were bird hunting with a group, I'd probably dress entirely in fluorescent colors. I carry some sort of small pack to put my layers in - usually it's below freezing at the start of the day and it warms up. The best coat I ever had was an Army field jacket. I wore it until the threads rotted out. I like wool or moleskin pants - much quieter than jeans or synthetics. I wear an Aussie suede leather hat - reasonably warm , but not too hot if the weather warms up.

As it has been noted above, taking care of your feet is a problem. I wore my issued Jungle Boots until the leather shank popped out of the tread - lasted 20 years or so. They won't work in the snow of course. I've never had a pair of the LL Bean "shoe-pacs", but I imagine they would do well in the snow. The problem is not walking, but not walking. You're not hunting if you're walking; you're walking. Keeping your feet warm when it's cold and you're not moving for long periods of time is a problem.

As for birds, I don't know any way not to disturb them while you're moving around. My understanding is they see way better than we do.

[LDS]

I was not aware that there were states that still had no blaze orange or chartruse requirements during regular gun season. KY only requires it if you are hunting big game but most hunters wear the safty colors for self preservation, no matter what season it is.

We do not have to wear the colors during black powder or archery season either.

[Bernoulli]

I feel safer when I can't be seen. My hunting party knows where I am.... and they know how to hunt.

[LDS]

It is not the people in "My party" I worry about. In my area you can not guarentee absense of trespassers anywhere. Often inexperienced or careless hunters shoot at movement or even sound without having visual contact with their target.

When you are wearing the Blaze colors you can be a bit more assured the person that killed you will be held responsible! If that does you any good?

I once lost a heard of goats to "deer hunters". I would find the gut piles complete with head, horns and hide right under the trees scuffed by the protable tree stands. I am sure these people were shooting at the "sound of a deer", then removing the head and hide before going home with their kill, to hide the fact they had killed a goat. If asked they would simply claim there was no use for the hide or head of a doe.

People that do things like this will shoot you and walk away and let you bleed out.

I want my orange! I usually wear an orange hat when out during the season even when I am not hunting.

[dixieangler]

When you are wearing the Blaze colors you can be a bit more assured the person that killed you will be held responsible! If that does you any good?

I once lost a heard of goats to "deer hunters". I would find the gut piles complete with head, horns and hide right under the trees scuffed by the protable tree stands. I am sure these people were shooting at the "sound of a deer", then removing the head and hide before going home with their kill, to hide the fact they had killed a goat. If asked they would simply claim there was no use for the hide or head of a doe.

People that do things like this will shoot you and walk away and let you bleed out.

Sounds like folks in Kentucky need more Deputies and Game Wardens rather than orange clothing. Kentucky must be lax in the law enforcement area for folks to get away with stuff like that. Florida requires a Hunter Safety course (effective for certain younger age groups called a Hunter Education Certificate) before a person can get a hunting license so they have no excuse if they shoot or are caught with a "poached" animal or they are negligent with a firearm, fines and jail time. Manslaughter is jail time. Does not matter what you are wearing. No excuses for breaking the law.

Hunter safety requirement
Anyone born on or after June 1, 1975
must complete a hunter safety course before purchasing a hunting license. Children under age 16 may hunt with adult supervision without having to take a hunter safety course. Persons 16 and older who have not completed a hunter safety course can use a onetime Mentoring Exemption enabling them to purchase a license and hunt within the supervision of a mentoring adult who is at least 21 years old. Persons needing proof of course completion
can print a duplicate certification card
at MyFWC.com/HunterSafety.

[LDS]

My heard of goats was lost in Tennessee. We had plenty of wardens but they were all batcrap crazy. One warden was famous for yelling for people to stop when they were a half mile across a field and when they did not stop he would shoot at them! He refused to wear orange when he patrolled and you could not recognize his uniform at that distance.

Here in KY I live in the middle of a triangle of three WMA managed public hunting areas. The areas total about 5,000 acres. All are intensley managed with food plots planted and tended, There are two rifle/pistol ranges, a trap range with 10 trap houses and a skeet range with two shooting areas. There are roads to grade and right of ways to clear. All this is done by ONE resident warden. Several of us volunteer our time but he winds up being more of an agribusinessman than a game warden. Almost all his "patrol activities are done from the back of a tractor.

The way the state revenues are going there are not going to be any game wardens hired here, or much of anywhere else.

We do the hunter safety thing here in KY and they did it in TN. It was a good program. I put both my kids through it when they turned 10 and got their youth liscense. I took the course with each of them even though I did not have too.

That was an experience! It was also the point in time when I realized my son had a real head on his shoulders. He was detirmined to beat the old man when test time came. He was one of the youngest in the class and made the highest score of the bunch. He made 98 and I made 99 and we only missed this due to "trick questions" status. I guessed right on one of the trick questions and he guessed wrong.