Wearing Blue

[Nyckname]

Some fish can see color.

Octopuses have better designed eyes than humans.

Our receptors face backwards. Light has to reflect off of the retina to reach them. The axons (part of a cell that transmits impulses to the next cell) run across the interior of the eyes, bundle together, and pass through a hole in the retina, leaving us with a blind spot in each eye.

The receptor cells in the eyes of octopuses face forward, so they don't have blind spots.

 

[Kuntry boy]

I’m lucky that I live where I hunt. My little three acres is surrounded by a couple hundred square miles of national forest. My tree stand is about 100 yards from my cabin in the NF. Many days after work I grab my bow or gun and head to my stand. Most of the time I’m in my blue bibs or jeans. Sometimes that and just a t-shirt. I always take deer every year whether I’m in blue jeans or camo. I’ll have deer all over me some days and I’ve had them many times where they will look as stare at me and go back to grazing. I think not moving is more important than the color of clothes. I’d always heard black was the the most unnatural color in the woods and that blue jeans turned grey like tree bark in a deers eyes. I’m also guilty of smoking cigarettes like a chimney in my stand too and the deer seem to pay it no attention. There have been numerous times I’ve lit a cigarette and five minutes later here come the deer lol. I don’t know if they are curious or just used to the smell since my stand is so close to my cabin and wood stove.

Me 2. I smoke all the time and I hunt on land that's in the boon docks and I cough my head off and I still kill deer. I don't have a cue why I still kill a deer r anything. I had one buddy told me that them critters was coming around to see what I was dying of. lol

 

[n3wyu]

Many things can spook a deer. Scent movement especially towards them, but I've noticed your eyes can spook them. People have eyes like a predator located in front like a coyote dog big cat. Whereas deer are prey animals with the eyes off to the side so they can see in front to the side and behind. I found that if I don't stare directly at them they don't usually spook.

 

[Nyckname]

"Are you eyeballing me?! Use your peripheral vision!"

 

[pwbsmokey]

My take away on the colours to avoid wearing while hunting is not so your clothing spooks the game, it was so other hunters don't take a flash of colour you are wearing as the game their after. Wear No red (turkey & deer), no blue (turkeys), no white (deer & turkeys). Not a fully comprehensive lish I'm sure other colours for other game could be add. While hunting don't wear red, white, or blue.

I wish the marketing dept. of all hunting related equipment makers would follow this rule too.
They love to splash the patriotic colours all over their logos then sew and glue them to my gear, just so I have to mute the colours with a marker or unstitch them if I can.

Why not red when deer hunting? Before blaze orange, hunting coats were red

 

[Nyckname]

Why not red when deer hunting? Before blaze orange, hunting coats were red

Red/green color blindness is the most common in humans, and more common in men than women. I'm not sure how that affects seeing orange (it may stand out as yellow), but if red is going to blend in with green, it defeats the effort to not get mistaken for game.

 

[Carbon 6]

Many things can spook a deer. Scent movement especially towards them, but I've noticed your eyes can spook them. People have eyes like a predator located in front like a coyote dog big cat. Whereas deer are prey animals with the eyes off to the side so they can see in front to the side and behind. I found that if I don't stare directly at them they don't usually spook.

I've stalked a lot of deer across open ground by keeping my head down pretending I was grazing, only moving when they grazed when they stopped and lifted their heads, I froze, when they put their heads down I moved. I've even done this wearing blue jeans. Got as close a 10 yards. Shot a lot of deer with a bow that way.

 

[SDSmlf]

Growing up I was warned not to wear blue while hunting because turkey heads/necks were blue. Too dangerous. Not sure how real the threat was, but that is what I was taught.

As far as animals being frightened by bluejeans, when I hunted in Namibia, our professional hunters wore bluejeans every day. Really all they had. The PH’s where concerned with wind, but did insist we wear darker brown or green shirts. After scent being blown towards game (‘wind is bad’), movement and/or noise were number two game scarers, at least in their opinion. These PHs made their living guiding hunters to game. Bluejeans were no concern.

 

[jabo]

[you must not still hunt deer from a tree stand I do and have for over 60 years and I have been busted more times than I liked. If a deer either smells or sees movement in either a tree or built stand they will stop and check it out before coming out to where they can be seen. just ask someone who still hunts from elevated stands and they will tell you about your miss information if you don't believe me

 

[Atticus69]

Many things can spook a deer. Scent movement especially towards them, but I've noticed your eyes can spook them. People have eyes like a predator located in front like a coyote dog big cat. Whereas deer are prey animals with the eyes off to the side so they can see in front to the side and behind. I found that if I don't stare directly at them they don't usually spook.

Have made the same observation. Only look at them by looking past or to the side of them and they don't spook. Eye contact made and they are out of here.I line up my gun and never look right at them until I am ready to look down the sight and pull the trigger. I have found this especially true inside of 25 or so yds. The closer, the more they "feel" the "stare". Just my observation and experience.

 

[Notchy Bob]

The September/October 2020 issue of Muzzleloader came a couple of days ago, and in it I found another brilliant article by Ted Belue, this time about the portraits made of Daniel Boone. This full-length print, by James O. Lewis, was discussed in depth. Note the color of Boone's hunting shirt:

Artistic license? I don't think so. This little snippet is from a book entitled An Excursion Through the United States and Canada During the Years 1822-1823, by William Newnham Blane, first published in 1824:

Note the line, "...the hunting shirt is made of coarse blue linen, or (as they call it) linsey-woolsey..." Blane's description is a near-perfect match for the hunting shirt Boone is wearing in the Lewis portrait. I poked around a little yesterday and didn't find anything else as explicit as Blane's description, but I did find enough to suggest blue hunting shirts were apparently all the rage for a time, especially in the early years of the 19th century. As an example, James Lewis also made this print of a "Celebrated Ottawa Chief," painted at the Treaty of Fort Wayne in 1827:

Looking through my old book of McKenney-Hall portraits of native people, I see a number of them wearing blue shirts and coats, especially the southern Indians. It is true, they may have put on their best to sit for their portraits, but both Daniel Boone and the Ottawa man appear armed and ready for the hunt.

I enjoyed reading this thread again. Many of the responses are very well-informed, and there are plenty of anecdotal stories about successful hunts conducted while wearing blue. It would seem that controlling scent, noise, and movement might be more important in outwitting those wily old bucks and toms. You can bet the hunters in Boone's day knew this, too.

Best regards,

Notchy Bob

 

[tenngun]

Blue was a very common color for commercial made capotes taken to rendezvous. Miller shows such in ‘The Trappers Bride’. A young man in a worn blue capote taking a young lady to marriage.
Deer seem to me to be more concerned with movement and perceived threats then what ones dressed in.
I’ve shot deer in blue jeans and blue chambri shirts. And my long coat is navy blue deer don’t seem to mind.

 

[MN284]

lue attracts mosquitos, too.

 

[Bucolic Buffalo]

Hunters wearing worn camo overalls during bow season. Especially the WWII pattern stuff. Will often appear solid blue in the early morning light.

I do not like making direct eye contact with animals.

Look at your tree stand from their point of view. If you get to high, you do not have the lower, secondary growth to break your image up, and hide your movement. You may be sky-lighted, and every movement looks exaggerated.

I suppose a lighter colored blue would have been cooler in the sun than a darker blue. From what little I know, all shades of blue were very popular for cloth outer garments at that time.

 

[MTGUNNER]

I wear camo only so I can catch those that trespass on my land while I am hunting. One year hunting for turkeys in the spring with a longbow had two young men walk with in 20 yards and didn't see me standing next to a tree. I ask them a question and they just froze. Moral of the story camo is so the people can't see me not worried about the animals.

I was once bowhunting in about 2 feet of snow in Montana. I was on the ground by some downed trees and wearing a snow camo parka. Had a gentleman walk in and climb up to his tree stand about 5 feet away from me and settle in for the evening. I gave it a few minutes and just walked out without saying a word. Didn't look back either :>)).

 

[appalichian hunter]

Scent is a big factor when hunting deer but movement I believe is just as alarming to a deer, I have had deer come right up yo me not 2 feet away when hunting squirrels sitting at the base of a tree, found that if you remain completely motionless and do not look at them directly it does not seem to bother them actually they seem curious as to what you are.

 

[Zonie]

I've had deer come right up to me too and, as I recall, I was wearing blue jeans at the time.

I was on a turkey hunting trip and had just gotten out of my sleeping bag when mother nature told me I should attend to an important matter.
Grabbing the folding Johnny seat, the folding camp shovel and a roll of TP I ventured some distance from camp, dug a small hole and proceeded with the task.
I hadn't been sitting there for over a couple of minutes when not one, but three deer came out of the brush just a couple of feet away from me.
I looked directly at it but it didn't make any difference.
The lead deer took one look at me and stopped right there. It then proceeded to give me the, "I know what your doing. I also know you can't do much with your pants down around your ankles and only a folding shovel within reach. Besides, we both know it's turkey season so I'm safe." look.
With that, it led the other deer into the brush and vanished. Almost made me wish it was deer season so a big turkey could walk out of the brush, stop and look at me sitting there and say, " I know what your doing. I also know you can't do much with your pants down around your ankles and only a folding shovel within reach. Besides,....."

 

[FishDFly]

Folks worry too much about hunting.

Wonder how any deer have been killed by folks wearing blue bib overalls and smelling of farm chores?