Types of Camouflage

• Traditional camouflage clothing for hunters was based on Army camouflage and was, essentially, blotches of greens, brown and black. Hunters can get camouflage clothing in a variety of patterns that mimic certain trees and environments. Some of the brands available are Mossy Oak, Shadowgrass, TreBark and RealTree. You can also get camo that has orange in the pattern for safety or white to simulate winter snow.
  
  

How Deer See Camouflage

• Camouflage clothing does not make you invisible to deer. The purpose of camouflage is to break up the outline of the human form so that the deer have a harder time interpreting what they are looking at or recognizing something out of the ordinary. If you move and a deer sees you move, camouflaged or not, it will alert to you. After all, even if you look similar to a tree, you are still a moving, human-shaped tree as far as the deer is concerned.
  
  

Camouflage Recommendations

• While almost any type of camouflage clothing can help break up the pattern of your body and make you less obvious to deer, some seem to be better than others at hiding the human figure. Camouflage patterns that incorporate light colors give the impression of air throughout the pattern rather than a mass of vegetation. Light and dark variations in the camouflage pattern are more effective than color variations. Cervidae (the deer family) are not color blind but see colors differently than humans, so it is not necessarily a good idea to base your choice of camouflage on how it looks to you. Gradations of dark to light make an object harder to recognize as one item and the object loses its 3-D quality.
  
  

Beyond Camouflage Clothing

• The word "camouflage" initially brings to mind the clothing and the pattern of clothing, but the word means to blind or veil. Camouflaging yourself when hunting deer should include scent covering and using blinds to mask your movements.