curious what the thoughts are on face masks,,,,, I always been one of them hunters when a deer is coming in my head/face is turned and I'm watching it from the side out of one eye until the moment of truth my head comes slowly around as the bow is coming to full draw..
I do wear a spandoflage sometimes but a face mask to me is something you have to wear when your practicing for it to really work or you will always blame bad flight or a miss on that very mask.
So whoever reads this, do you wear one every time maybe use face paints, or don't even bother,
does your success really matter you think??
You'll get a lot of differing opinions on this, but mine is that a mask or face paint make a big difference. It's especially true if you're on the ground.
Is it absolutely needed... no. Does it help... yes.
A very experienced hunter can get by without it but if you are relatively new at this you can use all the edge you can muster.
Face mask gets in the way of my anchor. In a tree... i use nothing. When hunting from the ground... face paint.
Charlie said it as I think it.
On the ground it is much more important to blend a bit, than while in a tree, especially at ten yards or less. Sure, you can get by without it, but it really does make a difference. Same with your hands.
ChuckC
Always wear spandoflage, great camo, provides a level of warmth and custom fits to you face. I've never had an issue, they do stretch and wear out after a season, simply replace and you're in business. Good luck.
Same here I always use a spandoflage face net.
I agree with Charlie.
I like the spandoflage type masks. Doesn't interfere with my anchor. I hunt from the ground and I think its very important to cover the face. I like the rynoskin mask because the bugs can't bite through it...should have got the gloves too cause they ate my hands up last time out.
I am sure ones skin complexion could be a concerN, I am pretty dark completed to never have had too much trouble being pegged without face camo but it still happens. I've tried products such as spandofluage and have just found my confidence to be affected too much with it. I use face paint in warm weather and cold weather and with cold-weather I wear a cap and neck gator which I can slide on and off my face if it gets really cold.
I am sure if I practiced with the facemask I'd be ok but why bother
I don't use any. I got long hair and a long beard.
If I'm in a tree or tripod, I always wear a leafy-flage facemask. If in an enclosed blind, I do not wear a mask.
Bisch
I like spandoflauge - and a leafy head top - and I almost always smear burned cork on my mid face - cheeks - ears. I think a bare face looks like a freakin headlight in the woods. Not a fan f masks though. and I like a glove on my left hand.
Cory<><
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I use Spandoflauge as well since forever never had a issue.
Yep,
I always have one on.
I keep a fairly tight (not spandoflex) face mask on my head. I don't keep it down during low probability times (as best one can predict) because they make my nose run and I may sneeze.
I pull it down if deer are coming. Sometimes I don't get it pulled down and but I can't remember the last time I was "caught" in my tree stand. I think being still when deer might be looking is most important. However, even that I don't practice like when I was scared too death a deer would see me. I remember in the early days I'd move my eyes, then my head when SLOWLY scanning the area around my stand.
I worry that there have been deer I didn't know were out in the bush 40-50 yards that I didn't see who caught me in the stand because of an uncovered face.
I've thought about going back to face paint like I used in the 1970's. One year I even cut the leg (thigh) out of a pair of camp pants and made eye-holes for a mask.
I'm sure ground hunting would require more stealthy approaches. I've only ground hunted whitetails one time and that was from a popup blind in TX. No face mask though. Kill one hog and one deer in the same hour. I have to admit though these beasts were focused on a feeder which was the first time I had experienced that. Fun but not for me.
I use the natural camo full beard that God gave me with a little face paint on the areas the beard doesn't cover.
I usually do, but occasionally pull it down. When I've been busted in stand it's always been when I didn't have a mask on.
Compoundless, yup I used to do that also, but now I look like the hind end of a scared antelope ( white shiny beard) that might not have the same camo effect.
ChuckC
Facemask & 3-D leafy head covering.
Denny
I dont like facemasks at all...cant stand something on my face. Never had too many issues getting busted without one in a treestand...but if u can stand to wear one it wouldnt hurt.
I was duck hunting one day, and noticed a bright light shining every time a flock of ducks would approach the blind on the other side of the lake. After awhile I took my binoculars out, and found it was another hunter without a face mask on.
Had to shave for medical reasons, will be rocking a face mask since the deer here know faces.
No, being a ninja is not likely gonna help you kill a deer, but it might kill your positive anchor point..
wore one for yrs. but have had them keep me from getting to anchor before, so quit wearing one 5-6 yrs. ago.. just have to watch moving your head quickly if deer are in close as they can pick you off easier but other then that enjoy not wearing it anymore.I do usually have a partial or full beard though..
QuoteOriginally posted by COMPOUNDLESS IN CONCRETE:
I use the natural camo full beard that God gave me with a little face paint on the areas the beard doesn't cover.
this^^
Same as above, a face really sticks out when on the ground, which is where I now do 90% of my hunting-darn knees.
Around here, the deer really do not like me. I wear a mask so they cannot tell who I am. ;) :p
I hate breathing into a mask in colder weather, It tends to get wet and sometimes freezes. Often I will leave it pulled up until I see/hear a deer or paint the face. Also, I have cut out the mouth area so I have less chance of getting it soggy.
I use paint. Never did like wearing a mask. But yes on the ground it definitely makes a difference. In a tree I tend to go without because I don't like the cleanup.
With my white beard, I use a face mask when the muzzle season is over lapping. I don't want them to think that I am a deer's tail, maybe I should color it blaze orange. Do they make that 'Just For Men' stuff in blaze orange? Other times I do not, I just smile nice and the deer will think that I am friendly.
I did, I have moved more to a beanies and neck gaiter combo, eyes are free, can pull up and down when you want or have to.
Carbomask for me. Used to wear a mesh mask but have switched to paint only. And this stuff cleans up with a wet wipe back at the truck.
"A very experienced hunter can get by without it but if you are relatively new at this you can use all the edge you can muster."
Yep , I use one.... :D
Don't want to scare the animals to death with a puss like mine. Wouldn't be fair. So I wear a mask at all times when hunting. The locals will just have to put up with my looks.
Face paint for me, I don't care for the masks.
I always wear a light weight net face mask.
Used to but realized 20+ years ago after getting glasses and getting tired of fogged up lenses I started leaving the head net in the truck. Guess what, my hunting never lacked a bit and the deer and elk and tons of other critters really didn't care even on the ground at point blank range.
I will wear one the silk type to keep warm or when misquotes are bad but I really, really try not to and it gets slide down when I plan on taking a shot. I sure enjoy not having to use one that's for sure and can kill plenty of animals with out it. IMO.
Tracy
I would like to tell a little story on how ones face can give you away;
A few years ago I was guiding a Bear hunter in Alaska, we were in a tree stand on a river at a likely fishing spot for Brown Bears. A nice Bear comes out and catches a fish and climbs the cutbank below us putting his head angled right at us as he climbs. He absolutely blows up and lights out. We were in a leafy cottonwood, good cover. I never understood what went wrong.
Two years later I put a stand in the same tree. Another guide had a bowhunter and himself in it. I was drifting down the river in a boat looking for spot and stalk opportunities. I stopped a couple hundred yards away to glass and ensure we would not drift past them and spook a Bear. I knew where they were at but couldn't see them until someone turned their head and the sun hit their face.......WOW. A freakn spotlight!
I knew then what had happened and how important covering your face is.
Sounds like someone needs to get out and get a tan :bigsmyl:
Location, location, location why would you set your self up to look into the sun, that's what you want the deer to be looking into if possible. There's a whole lot to be said about woodsmanship skills and reading the land, scouting and paterning animals before ever placing a stand or blind and brushing them in.IMHO
Tracy
I like having setups that provide very close shots...and nothing sticks out in the woods like a persons face....
I can't stand having a net on so I use paint, just enough to break my outline up.
With some face paint and a leafy suit deer can stand there feeding 8 yards away and not know you are there. Sometimes they look around and seem to look right through you...
NO, nuff said..... :archer:
Yes, always. One of those very light weight ones with the two elastic bands. In a pop-up blind, I'll wear a black one.
I have naturally grown camo mask on my face.
Always
I also wear a light weight face mask.
yes, and it helps.
Yes, a homemade mask all the time because I feel naked without it. Hate paint. Deer look right through me on the ground.
While I like the spandoflage or other elastic/clinging face masks, It hurts like hell since I wear BTE hearing aids and after a few hours its a bit painful to crush that hearing aid into your skull but I still wear it as I think covering that white face helps.
I have one of those tight stretchy ones. One day I went out and it was hot, too hot to wear my Swanee wool, so I left it in the car. Wearing a leather Arvis hat, white and red plaid wool shirt and khaki brown pants, at least I had my face mask and my Nifty seat. I was still hunting anyway and would probably not get a shot. When I stopped, parked my butt on the Nifty seat, I ripped off that face crusher to hydrate and eat my apple, a small 8 pointer came walking up. Red and white shirt, white beard, I did not even have my hat on and my sweaty bald head was probably reflecting like a car mirror. That little buck walked with in 20 feet of me. I thought, 'you poor blind fellow', I thought he was blind and considered putting him out of his misery. He looked right at me like I was not there. Then another hunter fully camoed and straight down wind of him and me walked across an alfalfa field about 200 yards away. The little eight pointer flopped to the ground about 15 feet from me and did not take his eyes off the other hunter until he was out of sight. He then got up and browsed his way around the bend and out of sight. I have no clue why he could not see me, sitting there with my back against a baseball bat sized tree. I still hate that face crusher mask, I still have it in my pocket and I still take it off as soon as I can.
That's because it dosent matter, IMO neither does camo. Wish I new how many I killed wearing blue jeans and no headnet no sent killers or cover ups. Not little bucks or yearlings either!
But I still own camo that I've collected over the years and happens to be so of my warmest and most comfortable if needed. I could see were camo and face mask could help on a over hunted ranch like many were they hunt over feeders night and day. Those deer are raised to look for hunters there whole life and that's all they know.
Tracy
Nope, if I don't have enough cover that they can catch me because of "no mask" then I need to find a better tree.
I only shave a couple times a week tho (cause I get lazy), and seem to always get too busy to take a shower on the weekend or very often when I'm on vacation hunting, so maybe I'm naturally grubby ;)
R