AUTHOR’S PHOTOSA
RCHERS have long memories.
Even today, more than 30
years afer I stopped wearing
plaid shirts and jackets in
the bowhunting woods, I
am ofen asked why I used those green-
and-black or red-and-black wool gar-
ments to pursue elk, caribou, deer, and
bears. In today’s world of high-techcamo patterns by world famous design-
ers like Realtree, such checkered garb
looks hokey. But amazingly enough, I
shot plenty of wise old animals during
those decades gone by.
First, I will answer the question about
plaids. One key element of every bow-
hunting garment should be a broken,
sharply contrasting pattern that breaksup your human shape. Another is sof,
silent fabric that fools the very keen ears
of game.
When I started bowhunting, this
deadly combination was almost impos-
sible to find. Nifty military camo pat-
terns like World War II and Vietnam
Jungle were commonplace at the time,
but those were usually only available in
scratchy, shrieking fabrics like ripstop
nylon and cotton canvas.
On the fip side, the only sof fabrics
sold were cotton and wool. Tese were
available in contrasting plaids, but al-
most never in traditional camoufage.
As a result, the best solution in durable
and quiet duds with a broken pattern
was wool. Sof cotton at the time was not
very durable, and miserably cold in wet
weather.
When viewed in black and white, the
way big game animals largely see it, I
found that a square-plaid garment efec-
tively broke up my human shape. I once
leaned backwards against a pine tree in
Colorado with red-and-black Woolrich
plaid from head to toe. A whole herd of
elk ambled past, some within fve yards.
Te wind was perfect, and not one ani-
mal detected a thing. A cow elk stared
right at me from pointblank range. Te
broken pattern and silent fabric let me
blend perfectly with the woods.
Now, of course, the need for funky
plaids is long past. Modern fabrics like
feece, cotton blend, and loose-knit wool
are quiet and carry myriad realistic camo
patterns to suit any background from
snow and dry desert to sagebrush, gray
winter treetops, and lush summer woods.
Sufce it to say that if you want to blend
with your environment, there is a camo
pattern that’s perfect for the situation.
It takes some tactical smarts to select
the just-right pattern to match your area.
You need to view clothes from 20 or 30
feet away in the sporting goods store.
Many commercial camos are designed
to look good from 18 to 36 inches — theAdvanced Camo Tactics
Fortunately for bowhunters, there is a camo option to ft any scenario.
16 >BOWHUNTER APRIL/MAY 2015On The Track
CHUCK ADAMS
I shot this dandy
mule deer after a
stalk utilizing com-
mercial camo, broken
terrain and foliage,
shadows, and rear-
positioned sunlight.