Hello everyone. I was at cabelas tonight and the green and brown plaid shirt caught my eye i thought wow that would really make a good cammo shirt. Being new to the trad world i havent hit the woods in wool or any pattern orher than my mossy oak scent blocker. The plaid looks great but does it work???!
Welcome to the trad world. And yes plaid works real good . And you'll look better ! Check out classic woolen s web site
Plaid works, even black and red plaid. Though I prefer the browns and greens. BTW, I shot a deer this day.
(http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f196/jjeffer/stillwaiting.jpg) (http://s47.photobucket.com/user/jjeffer/media/stillwaiting.jpg.html)
Movement at the right time works.
A couple years ago I decided to take as many black and white pictures of me in my setups as I could. I now hunt with mostly solid colors. I have killed deer in a bunch of different camo's, leafy suits, plaids and solids. I just prefer to look like the solid tree bases I hunt or the black rotted log I'm up against now days.
If you have the wind and move at the right time almost all camo's, plaids, and solids work.
This will be my first year using wool plaids.
However, in the early season, I have worn super thin cotton or poly cotton blends in various earth tones for years. They work well and are much cooler than long sleeve camo T's. Plus they have the benefit of two chest pockets...I wear thin "pearl snap" shirts. I spray them down with permethrin the day before to fend off the skeeters.
When it gets cooler, I have killed many deer wearing plaid flannel with a thermal under layer....my "lucky" flannel is red, black and white. (Just to be in complete honesty, these kills were with compounds and muzzleloaders, but MOST were in my effective trad bow range...the smoke pole deer weren't too far out of it.)
In my experiences, good plaid is hard to beat.
Aim Small - I encourage you to go on gfredasbell.com and check out the multitude of plaid patterns that are geared toward the traditional bowhunter. The Asbells spend a ton of time (and money) experimenting with and having special plaids produced on quality, American made wool. And they ALL work as part of a concealment strategy in the woods.
Also...while all plaids help to visually break up your outline (just like commercial camouflage patterns do), WOOL PLAIDS do the best job at it, thanks to the light absorbing nature of wool fibers.
2 final thoughts....I am not a big fan of commercial camouflage, because of the way it is marketed. It is truly marketed toward the human eye, not the animals...and somehow it CHANGES every year. Lastly, try and think of camouflage as a CONCEPT, not a pattern. I wrote an entire article with that title recently, but in short, if you follow camouflage technique and principle,the pattern on your clothing is less important than you might think.
Plaid works, hunters have used it for years, and I have NEVER been in a situation where I thought "Dang, if I only had RealBarkHDTriple Leaf Camo on I would have killed that deer!"
Can't wait to get in the woods with my new morning mist zip up from Teresa.
Plaids work very well, they break you up as well as anything. Plus. . . . then "you be stylin ".
Although I still have a lot of it, camo really upsets me, not because it is camo, , but because early on several of the big guys developed some excellent patterns and colors, then they changed them, and not for the better (in my mind). IT is all marketing, no doubt, and we people are so gullible that we have to buy into it.
ChuckC
How long does it usualy take to get a asbell jacket
Any pattern that breaks up the human form works as camo. You could wear paisley or even Lily Pulitzer if her stuff came in earth tones and not pastels, although color doesn't matter that much with animals that are mostly color blind. And, wool absorbs most light so it helps you blend in with the surroundings unlike cotton or synthetics that reflects most light.
aim small, if you wait till just before season, I am guessing your chances of them having stock on hand get slimmer. Then you have to wait a couple weeks.
It has been quite quick though for even custom stuff (made to my own, off shelf specs).
ChuckC
Yes it works. Just make sure the pattern is not too small. It just melds into a blob if it is.
Aim small, it took me about a week and a half but I had the hood made smaller.
Aim Small....abut 10 days or so. Very often stock. I have a XXL Timber Ghost plaid in stock right now.
For plaids though, go to gfredasbell.com
My site sells Asbell wool, but usually only in solid Timber Grey and Olive Drab.
http://ts1.mm.bing.net/th?&id=HN.608014120650672721&w=300&h=300&c=0&pid=1.9&rs=0&p=0
I had 12 turkeys walk by me wearing this. I know that they could see me. I think they also must have known that I would not shoot at any of the toms, when a miss or a pass through could have killed an illegal bird.
I like to stay conceaed to all animals and birds. Whether camo, plaid or solid, I tend to stay with earth tones as birds see color and I like it when crows flyover-head or song birds land next to me instead of sounding the alarm. Does not happen to often wearing red or other bright color.
The shirt that Pavan wore is a little too red for me.
Mike is spot on.
I have a evening shade brown Asbell pullover that is a great fall color. I think their green offerings would work great also.
bretto
Would the light/medium weight with the proper under layer be warm enough for the cool mornings in michigan or would one go with a heavy. Id reall like to get the light medium to wear for early season
I love wool and I love plaids,especially big blocks of 2 or 3 colors.
You get the right colors and you can hunt any season that comes your way.
One of my favorite is about the 3rd of the way in on the clothesline. Two tone brown Woolrich seems to be transparent to the deer out in the woods.
Good Shooting,
Craig
(http://i496.photobucket.com/albums/rr330/livrht/DSCF9794_zps85d97623.jpg) (http://s496.photobucket.com/user/livrht/media/DSCF9794_zps85d97623.jpg.html)
You can always put layers of what you already have under the wool, especially if you get a slightly larger size.
CHuckC
Im leaning twords the evening stand brown pullover
Animals notice all movement, hard edges, shiny stuff, blinking eyeballs stuff like that. Concealment from humans is different-with humans camo is very effective-we know exactly how humans see. How exactly animals see color is still not completely understood. Plaid works great as does anything else that has broken and or soft edges-which is why wool is so effective pretty much regardless of color.
Blinking eyeballs and being stared at they really notice! Next time you see an animal that is out of season, or you have no interest in; experiment. Walk away in plain sight, walk at an angle towards them but not at them, and don't look at them at all-just peripheral vision-pretend you never saw them-the results may surprise you.
Problem with commercial camo is that it "blobs" you
To dark and you stand out.
The thing about plaids is that some have wery open patterns.
I picked up a sherpa lind tan on that I can wait to try in a brush blind.
Plus its as comfy as heck.
I missed out on the black and white one that would have worked out great as a snow camo.
Plaid is good camo. Don't go with all dark or all light colors. If you do, it looks like a solid object. Brown/tan or green/tan are good examples of what I mean as good combos. A little yellow is good, too. Actually any colors that don't meld into a solid looking block are good.
Also, many weights of material are available, making it easier to match clothes to temperature. That is especially important in early bow season here in the South.
All I hunt in is plaids 99% of the time. Wool, cotton.
In my opinion.... Plaid and "chunky" patterns are better at hiding you from animals that actual camo patters because today's camo patterns solid out as distance increases. Where as plaid and big patterns don't turn solid and still break up you outline.
Camo companies want to sell you camo so they make what our eyes see as camo...critters see different than us.
But, where did turkeys buy shirts?
QuoteOriginally posted by Bjorn:
Animals notice all movement, hard edges, shiny stuff, blinking eyeballs stuff like that. Concealment from humans is different-with humans camo is very effective-we know exactly how humans see. How exactly animals see color is still not completely understood. Plaid works great as does anything else that has broken and or soft edges-which is why wool is so effective pretty much regardless of color.
Blinking eyeballs and being stared at they really notice! Next time you see an animal that is out of season, or you have no interest in; experiment. Walk away in plain sight, walk at an angle towards them but not at them, and don't look at them at all-just peripheral vision-pretend you never saw them-the results may surprise you.
What he said. :thumbsup:
As was already mentioned, love wool, love plaid and a larger pattern is better. I would look closely at brown and green plaid though. Dark brown & light green would probably be good. Dark green and light brown would probably be good. If the green and brown are about the same in "tone" or "shade", then they may not break up my outline given the deer's presumed color blindness. I'd be tempted to take a black and white photo and see how the pattern breaks up the outline. In my experience though, even a solid color (like red or brown or olive green ) soaks up light nicely if the wool is not very processed. I am pretty picky about the wool I buy given the cost, but I love the stuff. I think that there is noting at all wrong with an old school large plaid pattern of black and red. Popular thinking is that red = green = brown in the eyes of the deer. All just my opinion.
Is it (un)traditional now to wear standard camo?
QuoteOriginally posted by treepasser:
Is it (un)traditional now to wear standard camo?
Absolutely not.