I’m not trying to troll, I’m genuinely curious. Thinking about deer specifically, it doesn’t seem like visual camouflage would really help much when hunting them. Deer sense predators by sensitive hearing (big ears) and smell (long snout). Their eyes are on the sides of their head, so they detect motion rather than high-resolution.
So trying to blend in with the surroundings doesn’t seem to be an advantage in this case. Assuming all this, what’s the point of clothing with camo print on it?
For deer camo is irrelevant because most cases you have to wear hunter orange (or pink) because you don’t want to die by being shot by another hunter. Also the deer don’t really notice the orange so it works out. If you strictly hunt deer you should focus on staying warm and wear hunter orange, camo doesn’t matter.
For waterfowl and Turkey especially though camo is necessary. Birds are really good at seeing danger so if you don’t blend in you have almost no chance of getting one.
The reason a deer hunter would likely be wearing camo is they also hunt turkey/waterfowl and gear isn’t free so they use a lot of the same gear for both seasons.
At least this is why I wear camo while hunting, I do both, but I’m fully aware it doesn’t matter for the deer. The gear is just good for long duration outdoor activity in all weather.
I assumed the job of the camp was to break up the silhouette more than make the person invisible. Humans know an orange hat and strap comes from the store; deer do not. Is that really not the case?
Well camo doesn’t make people invisible obviously, but it’s good enough to fool birds or people at a distance if there isn’t much movement.
There’s lots of photo examples of this online where entire hunter tents and hunters are very hard to discern from the forest itself which is effectively invisible if you’re deciding to take a shot or not.
so like when hunting fowl you just take the danger of getting shot?
Only when you’re hunting with Dick Cheney.
When deer hunting you’re firing a big ass heavy bullet that can travel and be lethal for a long ways.
Birds are hunted with small pellets that dissipate energy a lot more quickly.
Not OP, but yeah, basically. Lots of incidents of hunters getting shot while turkey hunting.
ok. so I guess its just that the wounds are less severe since its buckshot or whatever but deershot will like be bad enough you want the orange?
Birdshot. Buckshot is for deer, never heard it called deer shot.
Buckshot is about 10 lead balls, each one roughly the size of a 9mm bullet. It’ll absolutely fuck you up.
Slugs are more common, though. That’s just a single 1+ oz projectile. Will also ruin your day.
Birdshot is hundreds of pellets, ranging from .05" - .18" diameter. They lose energy quick, so if you’re 50+ yards away, they might not even break skin.
There’s dove hunts where hunters completely surround a field and send their dogs in to scare up the birds. They’re constantly getting hit by other hunters’ shots from the other side of the field but nobody gets hurt.
Birshot shot needs a fair bit more distance than that to not break the skin in my experience, even for 20 gauge.
I wish I had not witnessed these things to know for sure…
yeah my use of terms is generally pretty random with only a hint of possible relation to the real ones. in my head I thought buckshot was the weak one so my brain made up deershot.
With deer you’re typically using ammo such as a .308 or .243 Winchester. These are long range high velocity rounds that have very high lethality.
The long range part is important, a hunter 200 yards away wearing camo is probably mostly invisible and a hunter taking a shot at a deer at 200 or even 300 yards isn’t uncommon with this type of ammunition.
Shotgun shells have lots of small balls, they will often be concentrated more by a choke when people hunt birds, but their effective range and velocity combined with not being a solid mass make them way less dangerous the farther from the shooter they get.
This also means nobody is taking shots over long distances so the chances of noticing a hunter in camo is higher overall.
That said people do definitely get hit while wearing camo as was said above, it’s a risk, but if you know where you are and know your fellow hunters aren’t doing unsafe things those risks can be mitigated.
Buckshot is intended to hunt deer. Turkey shot consists of much smaller pellets, which can still do significant damage to a human, but the effective range is lesser due to the way the shot spreads out. Turkeys also see colors differently from deer, so while you can wear blaze orange and not spook the deer, you will absolutely be spotted by a turkey.