I leaned something today! Deer are not truly colorblind

[Rosebud]

Read about Jim Corbett hunting the man eating tigers and leopards. He was similar. His books were spell binding.

 

[Buckys]

We often hunt from blinds in Texas (e.g., good luck finding a tree to climb).
Makes me laugh when we go out in our latest fall fashion camo ... I just wear black and paint the interior of my blind the same.

By the way, this is the best time of year to sneak into your buddy's area (the one that always kills the biggest deer in the county) and run your own scientific experiments with blue jeans, etc. (Just kidding of course, unless like me that guy is my friend who is also the one that puts rocks in your backpack when hunting out of state)

 

[Calvin45]

We often hunt from blinds in Texas (e.g., good luck finding a tree to climb).
Makes me laugh when we go out in our latest fall fashion camo ... I just wear black and paint the interior of my blind the same.

By the way, this is the best time of year to sneak into your buddy's area (the one that always kills the biggest deer in the county) and run your own scientific experiments with blue jeans, etc. (Just kidding of course, unless like me that guy is my friend who is also the one that puts rocks in your backpack when hunting out of state)

Brilliant!

This would also be a great opportunity to set up one of those realistic looking "lawn deer" with huge antlers near your buddy's spot if you're extra sadistic. To know that he'll see it, his heart will race and his hopes will rise….only to be dashed to smithereens when he figures it out!!!!!

 

[Orange Dust]

Here is what I learned bowhunting. The deer we were hunting at the time were bowhunted to the point the does walked around looking up in the trees. We shot lots of does trying to restore the balance of the heard. They started staying together in groups. They were easy to kill if alone but it was nearly impossible to draw on them with several sets of eyes looking for you. That was the situation. We tried every kind of camo on the market at the time and it made no difference. You would be spotted if there were multiple animals and you moved. Then I found a mail order company called Predator Camo. Their original fall brown was a game changer. You could be sitting in a tree, stand up, and draw. The deer would see you move and just look at you trying to figure out what you were. They had no idea what you were. Worked just as well on the ground too, same thing. They would see movement but not associate you with danger, just curiosity. No longer made. Guess it wouldn't sell because it did not look like a tree. Now their camo has evolved to look like hunters think camo should look and is not anywhere nearly as effective, but I'm sure it sells better. Of course you still had to move like cold molasses, but it worked to help cover it up. I never cared gun hunting and wore whatever was clean. But inside 20 yards, where you have to move to draw it does, especially if there are multiple animals. Bucks were much easier to kill, just fewer and harder to find.
Blaze orange: Deer can see it. I don't know what color they see it as and that does not matter. I do know they see contrast well. wearing any color that is out of place in the environment allows them to pick up movement much quicker and easier, and the closer they are the quicker they will react to any movement of an object that is out of place in their world, especially if there is a lot of hunting pressure in the area. Never wear white in the deer woods unless there is snow. There are hunters out there that will shoot at a patch of white, especially if it moves.

 

[Playtimefun]

@Orange Dust ... now that is interesting, that they got to looking up in the trees. I always wondered about if that happened.

With regard to the colors, that's why you wear the same old old old coveralls, shirt, vest, etc that have been washed again and again and again. So they aren't bright.

I don't think there's a safe color anymore. I work on the engineering side of road construction and I have seen brand new blinding bright yellow/lime flagperson suits blend in with asphalt ironically. While hunting I can say I've seen orange turn almost brownish at dusk. And yep... white potentially the rear end of a deer. I hate to say it... depending on who is in the woods... No color is truly safe. The worst of it is you can be safe... it's another idiot that isn't.

 

[Buckys]

We often hunt from blinds in Texas (e.g., good luck finding a tree to climb).
Makes me laugh when we go out in our latest fall fashion camo ... I just wear black and paint the interior of my blind the same.

By the way, this is the best time of year to sneak into your buddy's area (the one that always kills the biggest deer in the county) and run your own scientific experiments with blue jeans, etc. (Just kidding of course, unless like me that guy is my friend who is also the one that puts rocks in your backpack when hunting out of state)

Muddyboots, just an FYI, I was reading your replies here ... I'm originally from your home state but my family that lived in LP around Pontiac region didn't deer hunt (my yooper family did) and I moved to Tejas in '81 when I started high school.

In short, I never have deer hunted in the state of my birth but I'm facinated by the differences between Texas and the great lakes region.

 

[Orange Dust]

Don't want to blow up the thread, but hope you are healing and feeling better, Muddy

 

[Playtimefun]

You see... I want camouflage that I can put to... and it passes the ultimate test.

Camouflage where a deer can't see you... that's nothing.

I WANT camouflage that allows me to walk into the house unseen... even if it's moving very slowly with a new rifle in hand. I don't care what the price of that camo is... but I will be buying it!!!

 

[Playtimefun]

I read my post to my wife thinking she would think it was funny because she she woke up one night (after going to bed super early) and caught me sneaking a new gun into the house... and she says... well if you could sneak around in the bush as quietly as you sneak away when there's dishes to wash or house cleaning to be done, you would be able to sneak up and scratch them behind their ears before they knew you were there!!! I was like ouch!!!