It was a dumb move. Blame it on the adrenaline. The nice 10 pointer walking slowly down the hill straight toward my stand inspired enough go-juice to turn my brain into gray silly putty. I like to draw my bow early and take my chances at full draw rather than wait and then run the risk that the buck will pin me down. Usually I don’t worry much about which way the deer is looking as long as he is 40 yards away, but this time not a twig dissected the cool November air that separated us and the buck picked up the movement instantly.

What was I thinking? He immediately froze and locked his eyes right on me, sending a wave of panic through every cell of my central nervous system. All I could do was wait and hope; shooting was out of the question.



As the buck slowly picked apart the space I occupied in the large, open tree the relaxed look never left his eyes. Ten seconds later, he was walking again, heading straight for the scrape that marked the bank of the grown-up stock pond under my stand. It wasn't until he finished pawing the ground and had begun to leave that he offered a broadside shot.

Less than a 90 seconds after the trophy buck had overlooked me in my tree, he was down. If today's modern camo patterns can turn a mistake into trophy antlers, as one of the popular patterns did for me that day, then the subject of choosing camo deserves serious consideration. Success can, at times, come down to how well you blend with your surroundings.

Properly chosen, modern camo patterns will make the motionless bowhunter disappear. In the past, hunters have always felt the need to hide behind something to break up their profile. They would hunker behind bushes or build ground blinds. Today's camo patterns allow a well-outfitted hunter to hide in front of the cover.

The key to excellent camouflage is to eliminate the solid block of your silhouette, while at the same time blending well with your surroundings. With their detailed and contrasting foregrounds combined with large open backgrounds, all the popular patterns allow you to disappear in the woods. Take a look at the many designs represented in this year's camouflage buyer's guide. The fact that there is a pattern to match any hunting situation will surely amaze you.
During the 22+ years that have passed since Jim Crumley released his original Trebark, the basic intent of sporting camo hasn't changed: to create a three-dimensional illusion that makes game look through you instead of at you. On the other hand, the way this goal is being accomplished has changed drastically. Today's most versatile patterns are open, with large, light colored patches adjacent to areas of shading to create surprisingly effective contrast. Over this lays an intricate arrangement of branches, tree bark and leaves. These patterns are a combination of distant, blurred backgrounds and highly detailed foregrounds for the ultimate 3-D affect.



Some of today's patterns are so effective that they actually create an optical illusion. Camo experts have told me that when a deer (or a human, for that matter) looks at a combination of blurred background and detailed foreground images it has a hard time focusing on both at the same time. As a result, the animal is unable to put the whole thing together to pick out a single outline. It is the same phenomena we sense when looking at near and far objects at the same time. Natural depth of field limitations prevents us from seeing everything in full detail. Every good camo pattern tries to achieve this three-dimensional effect. There are dozens of companies offering regional and niche camo patterns. Somebody makes a pattern that perfectly matches even the most specialized hunting environment. For example, if you find yourself hunting from stands in small trees with little background cover, you can choose a pattern to blend with the sky. If you’re hunting whitetails in early season you will find several green-based patterns that match these conditions. If you hunt in corn, reeds, sage, snow, brush, dark trees, light trees, pine trees – you name it - there is a specialized pattern just for your situation.

Specialized patterns are a great choice if you spend most of your time hunting predominantly one type of cover. Also, some specialty patterns have lighter tones than popular all-purpose patterns. For example, while sneaking through the big pine timber of Colorado’s mountain foothills a moderately dark toned tree stand pattern like Mossy Oak’s New Break-Up would work great, but it would stand out like a sore thumb as you stalk across the open sagebrush country of Colorado’s eastern slope. The same is true if you specialize in cornfield hunting. A pattern such as Mossy Oak Duck Blind, Advantage Max-4, Farmland Camouflage or Cornfield Camo would be much less visible than a darker all-purpose pattern designed for hunting among tree trunks.

The more you can match the exact environment where you hunt the better you will disappear. That’s where the specialty patterns shine. It’s worth taking a close look at your hunting area to see if the overall tone of your clothing matches the setting. If it doesn’t, no amount of sticks or leaves or detail will make you disappear. Do you really need a new set of camouflage clothing every time you hunt a different area? In the first place, few bowhunters hunt several different kinds of areas with distinct background tones. For example, tree trunks in Kansas are very similar to tree trunks in Georgia. It is when you get on the ground that overall tone becomes a big issue. Fortunately, many of today's better patterns will work well under a wide range of hunting situations.

For example, open patterns like Realtree AP, AP Green, Mossy Oak Treestand, ASAT and Predator (among a host of others) are at home whether you're sitting in a late season tree stand or slipping through the timber along the edge of a mountain stream.

Personally, I feel the average bowhunter would be well served if he owns two patterns: one a dark all-purpose pattern for hunting big timber with predominantly gray, brown and black coloration and a second outfit that features a light colored all-purpose pattern for all other situations. This tip comes from video and television personality Ralph Cianciarulo. He hunts with a camera over his shoulder at all times so it is not surprising that his tip would involve camo as seen through the lens. “We take for granted that our camo patterns are really effective and that we are well hidden in our tree stands,” Ralph said. “Rather than assuming you’re getting the job done, have someone film you with a video camera from several angles as they walk around your tree stand. Start from farther away and move closer just like a buck approaching your stand. You may even attempt to bring your bow up to full draw just to see how noticeable the motion is and whether or not your equipment glares in the sunlight. To view the scene the way a deer does play it back through your television with the screen set to monochrome (black and white).” This is also a great way to see if you are sky-lined in your stand. Leaf-cut camo is appearing in more and more bowhunters’ closets because it produces a 3-D effect that completely hides a hunter’s outline. I’ve heard some fabulous claims from hunters who are using the garments. Animals seem to have a really hard time distinguishing anything dangerous in the rustling blob of leaves that is a hunter wearing leaf-cut gear.



The outer material used to make leaf-cut clothing has been etched to produce cuts that hang loosely and flap in the wind to give the garment a three-dimensional appearance. The clothing's "leaves" flutter and rustle in the wind just like real leaves. For more information about companies that make leaf-cut garments take a look at the attached sidebar.