Saturday, May 23, 2009

The conventional wisdom of camouflage

Whatever your pursuit, chances are it is governed by rules and regulations. The rules generally control the play, while the regulations enforce the boundaries; and while the rules and regulations of some pursuits are highly formalised others are less so.

My pursuit is hunting and while it certainly has rules and regulations, when you are in the field your ability to fully control every aspect of the hunt is far from complete. One reason being it seems no one ever bothered to explain things to the game we hunt.

People however don’t seem to be all that comfortable with this and so use various systems and approaches and adopt certain behaviours that might help them gain some control. In my pursuit all of these could all be wrapped up into what you might term the conventional wisdom of hunting.

For instance hunting downwind is a conventional wisdom, nowhere it is written that you have to hunt this way, there is no linesperson or umpire to enforce this - however it’s not a bad idea to hunt into the wind.

Trouble is there are times when things happen that go directly against a conventional wisdom and since you can’t ask for a replay or ruling your only choice is to ask why and try to learn from it.

Take scent for example, now generally it is held that smelling like a human is a great way of scarring off game. Consequently many hunters make an effort to dehumanise their scent; which includes such actions as not using deodorant, avoiding campfire smoke, having ‘hunting only’ gear and even being careful about what to eat.

However recently I had a good look at an 80kg+ boar a friend knocked over with the help of his German shorthaired pointer. Considering the location of the boar I estimated that is was about 800 metres down wind from our camp.

Now our camp was a place where 9 noisy, smoky, smelly, diesel and petrol vehicle driving, bacon and egg eating, cigarette smoking and occasional beer drinking hunters set up shop for a week.

Yet possibly the best boar of the trip was taken almost within site of this camp - which made me ask why? Could it be that (1) the traditional view on scent may need some refinement, (2) scent is not an exact science, (3) no one explained things to the boar or (4) it had had a cold.

The other thing is that much of the conventional wisdom within hunting does not have universal support. In fact debate surrounding a particular topic seems to generate more campfire banter than almost anything else.

Effective camouflage is a case in point. It appears that here are two very distinct and competing wisdoms here.

The first contends that for camouflage to be effective it must be the same colour, shade and design – or as close to possible, to the hunting environment.

Here in Southern Queensland this means steering well clear of the darker colours and busier designs of New Zealand and the US. What you should be using is faded, washed out colours incorporated into simpler vertical patterns that reflect our drier landscape.

Auscam, especially old faded Auscam is highly recommended though some of the specialised patterns from the US with light, washed out browns, fawns, taupes and sand colours, and the odd flick of green are also highly sort after.

Generally to achieve the right balance of colour and shade it is recommended that you repeatedly wash your new camouflage and allow it to dry in the sun so it can fade to the desired level - or in my case shrink to an undesired level!

However a second school of thought directly challenges this approach to camouflage.

It argues that as no combination of colour, shade or pattern will hide you from sharp eyed game you have to use designs that change or break up the all too recognisable human form so as to make you unrecognisable.

Advocates of this approach to camouflage often use blaze orange to strengthen their case, if colour is so important, how can any hunter be successful wearing a blaze orange hat? There are a number of popular imported and local designs that help break-up the human shape, with more seemingly available everyday at the local gun shop.

Interestingly one point where these two schools agree is dealing with your hands and face. More dedicated camouflage aficionados from both camps state that the human face and hands stand out in the bush and so must be camouflaged.

Therefore veils and gloves are regarded are an essential part of the complete camouflage kit, though of course what colour, shade, pattern or design is dependant on your point of view.
So as a hunter, how do you decide which approach to camouflage is for you? Well one of the great benefits of not having a lot of boundaries is that you can make your own. So when choosing camouflage you can make yourself invisible or you can change your shape - or you can even have a go at doing both.

One certainty in all of this is that you can always sit close to the fire in your comfortable chair with your favourite drink and simply listen and enjoy the conversation.

2 comments:

  1. Marko there possibly is another aspect to the animals and that is maybe the boar and others know you are there and it simply a matter of personal space. I sometimes wonder if its like if someone stood in your backyard whatever they were wearing you would know something extra is there. Would be good to know how close these animals are when you camp.

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  2. T, good point, I think there is a multitude of possibilities and trying to figure them out is one of the aspects of hunting I enjoy.

    Possibly J’s scent was covered by the camp and the boar could not pick him out. Also as we both know there is lots of pig-doggin’ in Nundle was maybe the pigs are more attuned to the sounds of vehicles and barking dogs. So a stalking approach with a quiet pointing dog may be very successful.

    In terms of personal space and territory it is an interesting idea, I’m unsure what size territory pigs roam, though the mob we encountered was back there the next day. Maybe they had a daily routine of leaving the pine.

    I did notice there were no permanent water sources in the Pine, so maybe they head out to the Eucalypt for an afternoon drink before bedding down.

    All very interesting speculation!

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