Hello all.
I have a questions for ASAT and Predator camo users.
Which would work best in coniferous forests as well? I turkey hunt in a primary successional forest dominated by cedar trees and was trying to decide on which camo would work best.
Any opinions welcome.
thanks,
Tom.
Six and two threes, to be honest.
I prefer the older Predator patterns (Spring Green/Fall Grey) over the new Deceptions & Evolution, but either Predator or ASAT will work fine.
Both are exceptional patterns for breaking up your outline. Try a Predator top, ASAT pants for a great breakup effect!
I like the theory, animals are brown not green - anyway - ASAT has a special on the Ultimate Jacket (returns or whatever) This is the best Archery Jacket I have ever owned (and I have owned a few) it was almost half price as of last week.
I have to agree with rob. I think they are both good patterns.
I am however a predator deception fan. I think that it is a very diverse pattern. They fall grey is a very good pattern as well though.
ASAT may be one of the most versitale patterns out there.
As Rob said mix and match them and you can vanish almost anywhere.
Where is Predator made? ASAT is made in China. Does that make an effective difference?
My predator jacket says Made in USA. My predator pants says made in the Phillipines. I'd take them over china anyday.
I have plenty of Predator. The only problem I have is the small pockets. I can not get either hand in the pockets of my bomber jacket and the pants pockets are so shallow you loose your change climbing a tree. The pattern is great.
Buy your ASAT from Day One if you want it made in the US of A.
I personally use ASAT but either will work for you.
Here's a shocker....
I'll tell you the same thing the others have. They'll both work well in most any environment.
My opinion will obviously be biased (being on the ASAT hunting staff), but the Vanish Pro leafy suit is a garment that shouldn't be overlooked. I'll likely wear mine on 75% or more of my 2009 hunts.
The open patterns of the world get my nod....and there's a few out there. Your two choices are sound.
Good luck.
I know you"re asking about two specific patterns, but I like the Cabelas outfitter. Its greenish, blends in with a lot of different areas. I have the wool, don't know what the other fabrics look like.
QuoteOriginally posted by GMMAT:
, but the Vanish Pro leafy suit is a garment that shouldn't be overlooked.
Good luck.
I've got that... The biggest shocker was the hawk bouncing around the trees around me trying to figure out what I was... (Hawks do see colors..). but until I moved waving him off, he was bouncing all around making sounds sorta like a chicken at 3-7 yds... I personally like it alot!
Never used Predator, but I think either would work well...
Thank you for all the input.
I wasn't sure if ASAT worked best in an environment primarily made up of vertical branches and trunks whereas the cedar forest would be more "blobish" (does that make sense?) which may be better suited for the Predator pattern.
Anyway, thanks again.
Tom.
Both work exceedingly well. I've got a bunch of the old Predator (SG and FG), and like it over the Deception pattern.
ASAT's just as good - the Predator was on clearance sale when I picked it up.
QuoteOriginally posted by kbetts:
I know you"re asking about two specific patterns, but I like the Cabelas outfitter. Its greenish, blends in with a lot of different areas.
That right there is your problem. Well, not you specifically, but the general problem with camo stuff.
It's green.
In our eye, that means it blends in with other greens.
Deer don't see green!
If you want to
really see how good your camo is, get a buddy to photograph you wearing it in a hunting environment & then change it in photoshop to black & white. Cabelas Outfitter suddenly becomes a human shaped, grey blob that stands out like a sore thumb.
Colour really, really,
really doesn't matter. Contrast between shades is what we're after people!
If you take the Predator Spring green & Fall Brown & look at them in 'deer colours' (monochrome) they're actually almost identical & not too fussy. You have a reall good blend of grey, white & black, with not too much of any one shade. Try that with Realtree or Mossy Oak; Big, Grey, Blob.
Contrast, contrast, contrast!
Deer also don't see in black and white.
Studies on deer vision suggest that deer see much as a human with red-green color blindness.
Deer lack the red "cone" that allows us to see red and orange colors.
"I have plenty of Predator. The only problem I have is the small pockets. I can not get either hand in the pockets of my bomber jacket and the pants pockets are so shallow you loose your change climbing a tree. The pattern is great."
Does anyone else have a sodapop machine near their tree? just curious. LOL, no offense I have done this also and wondered why I carried change with me. Don't any more.
All those camo ads remind me of those pet food commercials with all that "gravy and real beef broth du jour etc." Very appealing to humans but the animals don't view "food" (colors) the same way and people end up paying WAY too much money not recognizing that! I'm with Rob-just break up the pattern-red, green, orange-it doesn't have to look like a real leaf or a real tree (pun intended). I still know guys who just grab a flannel shirt from the closet and some dark pants and get it done. Just look for a good deal and buy either. Mix and match-even better.
QuoteOriginally posted by Slasher:
QuoteOriginally posted by GMMAT:
, but the Vanish Pro leafy suit is a garment that shouldn't be overlooked.
Good luck.
I've got that... The biggest shocker was the hawk bouncing around the trees around me trying to figure out what I was... (Hawks do see colors..). but until I moved waving him off, he was bouncing all around making sounds sorta like a chicken at 3-7 yds... I personally like it alot!
Never used Predator, but I think either would work well... [/b]
Had the feather wind detector on the tip of my bow (held about 6" from my face) attacked by a hawk. What camo pattern was I wearing? I was in a brown Ron LeClair Longhunter Shirt and had on green wool pants. So much for the "ultimate new patterns and designs". Yes, I do own camo, but only due to the fact that a nicely made (read: it fit me) piece of outdoor clothing was only available in a camo print. It likely helps, but there are other options and methods. If it helps your confidence, it is worth it.
Sorry, but it was my turn to play "George" :p
OK there are so many misconceptions about camoflauge they are even in the minds of folks that choose the effective camoflauge patterns.
Let me ask all you Predator Spring Green users and "I don't like that because it doesn't have any green in it" folks a question. Can you name one large predator that is green? Aligators are actually more brownish than green; but some crocodilians are green, the ones that eat fish almost solely.
All land based predators that hunt by spot and stalk and ambush techniques are either striped, spotted, some combination there of or fairly monochromatic or variations on a color like grey. Not one of them has green in it's coat.
Of all four legged predators the one with the most effective camoflauge coat is the leopard. It has been scientifically proven that if the leopard remains still it is invisible to its prey as close as 5 feet. Yes the being still is important; but the camo effect of its coat gives it the edge.
Now Predator camo was designed from the standpoint of breaking up the human outline with a large open pattern with black lines to establish false outlines; and it works.
ASAT is different from all other camo patterns. It is based on the way animals see. Basically the each color squiggle looks to be a different distance from the animal. The black appear to be however far you are from the animal, the brown appears to be basically twice that far. The like tan color is photoreflective so it looks like open space and what is around you. So baically it gives you discontinuity in the animals vision. Simply put you don't look like a whole object but disjoined pieces. It does this no matter how close or far you are to the animal so it never blobs up and makes your outline reappear.
The single best camoflauge money can buy is an ASAT 3D Vanish Pro suit. The most versatile and effective camo there is bar none except a ghillie suit. It is superior to the ghillie because it is neither bulky or hot as a ghillie is.
All the changes to Predator camo over the years have not been done to make them more effect in fooling game. They have been done to make them more marketable to hunters. Because the biggest complaint about both original Predator and ASAT that hunters voice is,"It doesn't look like anything." Well ASAT has never changed because that criticism is actually its biggest strength in effectiveness. IT DOES NOT LOOK LIKE ANYTHING,
so it makes you the next best thing to invisible.
ASAT is the ONLY camo with a money back gaurantee. That should be the last word on the subject. If any other camo manufacturer truly believes they make the most effective camo why don't they offer the buy it back gaurantee?
QuoteOriginally posted by C2:
ASAT is different from all other camo patterns. It is based on the way animals see.
Ummmm, I beg to differ with you on that one. Sitka Gear's new Optifade is the most recent advancement in camo that is specifically geared towards "how animals see."
I'm a fan of both predator and asat...both have worked well for me but neither is "superior" or the guys that own or have owned either would never own anything else.
JC I was partially ignorant about optifade BUT they say they are "the first company to take into consideration the way animals see" that is untrue. I'll point something out. On the Optifade site they have their "test pics" or "proof pics" in a game called "Spot The Hunter" They give you just a few seconds to click on the hunter BUT all the shots were black and white. some with some yellow added to mimic the way ungdulates see. Still it was a matter of using the touch pad on my laptop instead of a mouse and the short time to click on them that caused me to only get 53% not because I had a hard time seeing the hunters. On the ASAT site the "test pics" are both full color and black and white and you have all the time you want to find the hunter and in some I've shown friends and they couldn't find them, period.
I'm not saying Optifade will not be effective I'm just saying I believe ASAT is superior to all other camos. I was wearing a regular ASAT outfit standing in the woods in Tennessee and had 7 seperate people walk past me without seeing me. Several were close enough to reach out and touch with the upper limb of my longbow.
Wearing a 3D Vanish Pro suit I have had wild boar charge our group and go around me as I looked only like a thick tangle to them I guess. I've had deer try to walk through me. Like I tell people, "Get yourself an ASAT 3D Vanish Pro leafy suit and you'll be able to tell your friends stories they won't believe."
I'm one of the first people that will agree that you really don't need camo to bowhunt. However whatever you can accomplish without camo will can come easier with it. Especially if it's one of these suits.
Awesome info on this thread......I've been picked out while being very still and with the wind in my face more times than I care to count while wearing the "standard" camo patterns.
I have had very good luck with the British disruptive military camo (wearing in my avatar); have had deer look right through me and keep on about their business. Starting last fall, I also have picked up a couple Predator F/G shirts used/on sale, and was very impressed with my ability to blend in with deer and turkeys looking right at me. I have also gotten a pair of insulated ASAT bibs for this coming year and can't wait to try them out
(http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a281/sf1oak/scan0003-6.jpg)
Above is ASAT in Hardwoods...
(http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a281/sf1oak/P9160004.jpg)
Asat and Desert Camo sweater in CT
(http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a281/sf1oak/PB290008.jpg)
Quotebut neither is "superior" or the guys that own or have owned either would never own anything else.
That'd be me! :)
I know it's not scientifically accurate, but this study kinda gets the point across.....
Camo Study (http://whitetail.com/camo1.html)
Predator Fall Grey, or ASAT. Either are very effective, almost anywhere you are.
One year while huntin elk in Montana, I was wearing Fall Grey, in a stand of pines that had been planted a few years prior, and the guy I was huntin with told me the only way he could find me was when I moved. Either one of the two above are in my opinion the best camo pattern there is.
Hi TL
I like both patterns, Predator and ASAT, but I also like the Outfitters camo. I think both of the patterns or all three would work in a conifer setting. It all boils down to the feature that each product offers, your budget and a little experimenting. Mixing and matching patterns is an option too.
Playing the wind, working the shadows and watching your movement play a big factor in the hunt too. Humans have been killing animals for eons without the help of all of today's cool things on the market but camouflage of some sort, I'm sure, has been used for just as long.
A Turkey's eyes are hard to fool, as I'm sure you know, so you may want to consider a leafy or gillie suit when hunting them or better yet a blind. As far as deer, according to this article, http://www.qdma.org/articles/details.asp?id=48 they have better low light vision then day time vision but their ability to pick out detail is not as good. Their eye sight is not limited to monochrome and if it was, and if they couldn't see black and white as suggested, then they would be blind. :biglaugh: Also, according to the article, UV light may play an important factor in our ability to hide from deer. So form an UV light perspective wool would be a very good choice. Any way there is my .02 worth. Once you decide on a pattern take some picture of yourself out in the field in your new gear...we like pictures.
oops :bigsmyl: