If you want to hunt deer, you have to ensure you wear the right camo. This will ensure that you can blend in better with your surroundings so your targets don’t notice you, and you can make more successful kills.
What’s the best camo pattern for hunting deer? You can wear a variety of camo patterns that work effectively. Some great choices include breakup and mimicry camo.
With this in mind, it’s good to know that there are different types of hunting camo for deer. We’ll break them down so you can choose the best one for your next deer hunt. We’ll also look at if you can wear orange or if you should give it a skip.
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Why Do I Need Camo While Deer Hunting?
We’ve already touched on why you need to ensure you wear camo when hunting deer, but there are some other good reasons why you should invest in it.
- Deer can see colors, specifically blue and green wavelength colors. They are less sensitive to longer wavelength colors like orange and red. Since they don’t have an ultraviolet light filter in their eyes, deer can see blue shades almost 20 times better than humans. This is why steering clear of blue is always a good idea when hunting deer, and why camo patterns usually contain muted, earthy tones such as beige and brown, without any blue.
- Camo helps to break up the human form so that deer can’t see your shape. This is important because deer battle to see objects standing still but can see moving objects. This is as a result of how they can’t see as well as humans during the daytime. Their daytime vision is three times worse than human vision.
Types of Hunting Camo
When preparing to hunt deer, not just any camo pattern will do. Here are some of the most effective types of deer hunting camo.
Mimicry Camo
Mimicry camo is a type of hunting camo that, as its name suggests, makes hunters better mimic or resemble their environment. There are two popular types of mimicry camo: Mossy Oak and Realtree.
They both can be found in a variety of patterns, such as marsh, brush, and woodland.
An example of mossy oak camo is the Mossy Oak Men’s Hunting Shirt in the bottomland variety. It has grey, pale brown, and beige colors.
This is lightweight with a non-binding fit, and a chest-length zipper so that it’s breathable when you’re hunting in hot conditions.
Breakup Camo
This is another common type of hunting camo. It contains patterns that serve to blur your outline. This also helps to make you better blend into the environment.
You’ll see that various shapes and colors are usually contained in breakup camo, but interestingly they don’t always resemble natural elements from the outdoors.
They usually make use of contrasting shadows and shapes that work well to distort your silhouette. A good choice for breakup camo is the Browning Wasatch CB Mossy Oak Break-Up Country.
It has colors such as green, brown, and beige, as well as leaves and branches on it. It also makes use of light and shadows to further distort your human form so deer can’t pick you up against the natural surroundings.
3D Camo
3D camo is made out of synthetic materials, such as polyester, that are designed to look like natural elements such as leaves or grass. This enables you to blend into your surroundings as its 3D properties will make you look like you’re part of the environment.
You can find 3D camo that’s meant to look 3D, such as that it will have leaves or branches hanging off the material, but you can also find 3D camo that’s designed to look more like the breakup or mimicry camo options.
An example of 3D camo is Generic Brands Ghillie Suit. It comes with a hooded top and pants, both of which are covered in what looks like leaves and debris. Its zippers are concealed by the material so that nothing on your outfit will stand out.
This camo suit doesn’t catch on branches or other items. It also stays resistant to dirt so that you don’t damage it.
Basic Camo Patterns
Now that we’ve looked at some of the most common types of camo that you’ll find when shopping for hunting gear, let’s explore what you need to know about the most common camo patterns.
Woodland
This is probably the most common camo pattern that will come to mind when you think of hunting camouflage. Established in 1981, woodland camo used to be the camo pattern favored by the U.S. Army.
It combines four colors – green, sand, black, and brown – and contains asymmetrical markings in them.
It has a tight pattern but it varies depending on the season. For example, if you’re hunting in the spring, you’ll want woodland camo that has green color tones and leaves in its patterns.
By comparison, when hunting in the fall, you should choose woodland camo that contains brown tones.
A good example of a woodland camo item is the Rothco Special Ops Soft Shell Jacket. It displays the four colors that are essential to woodland camo and comes with a hoodie as well as three-layer construction so that it’s weather-resistant while keeping you warm.
This is great to wear during the summer when there’s green in your environment.
Marsh
Otherwise known as the waterfowl camo pattern, the marsh has a blend of reeds, grasses, and reeds in its design that’s designed to mimic a swamp. This is why it’s the best camo to choose when you’re hunting in the wetlands.
While you might think marsh camo is, therefore, better suited to hunting waterfowl, deer are drawn to wetland regions because they provide deer with foraging opportunities in the fall and winter seasons. Wetlands also give deer a great place to hide from predators.
One of the best marsh camo patterns is SITKA Lightweight Crew Longsleeve. This top has pale brown, amber, and beige colors as well as various patterns, such as honeycomb and swirls of color.
For increased hunting comfort, it’s a quick-dry material and made of stretchy, lightweight knit.
While you might think pale amber tones aren’t associated with camo or won’t conceal you well, marshlands can have sunlight-dappled grasses near the water so you’ll fit right into that scene when wearing this long-sleeved shirt.
Brush
This is the camo to reach for when you’re in a more open hunting area. Its print contains elements such as dead grass and dirt, and it doesn’t contain a lot of colors as it’s meant to blend into the sparse terrain. It works well if you’re hunting in muddy terrain.
While you might think that deer won’t be around when the weather conditions are wet, deer are active during a steady rain, so you can still hunt them in these conditions, and it’ll serve you well to wear brush camo.
A good type of brush camo item of clothing is Realtree MAX-1 XT®. It has color tones of pale yellow and brown to mimic dry brush.
It can be worn in a variety of terrain and has been designed with a cotton blend material so that it’s durable while giving you greater ease of movement.
Snow
If you’re hunting in the snow, snow camo will help you to be less detectable. Snow camo has a white background and some darker-colored elements, which makes it work well in the sparse winter surroundings.
You can wear it with confidence so that if the elements change a bit you’ll still be protected. You can also mix snow camo with other types of camo prints if you feel that these offer you greater visibility.
An effective type of snow camo is the Huntworth Men’s Light Weight Waterproof Hunting Jacket. It’s got a white background with amber-brown leaves and branches to represent the dry natural elements you’ll be encountering during your hunt.
Since you’ll be hunting in snowy conditions, this microfiber jacket has a waterproof coating to keep you warm and dry.
Can Deer See Blaze Orange Hunting Vests?
You might wonder if you can wear blaze orange when hunting deer. The good thing about wearing this shade of orange is that it will ensure that other hunters can see you when you’re around so that you don’t risk getting shot by them by accident.
However, if you want to wear blaze orange hunting vests to make you more visible to other hunters, you might worry that the deer you’re hunting will be able to see you.
The good news is that deer can’t see blaze orange. It will look gray or brown to them, as they are more sensitive to blue wavelengths, as we mentioned earlier.
Deer don’t have enough visual acuity or accurate depth perception to pick up blaze orange. This is also why you shouldn’t worry too much about details in your camo patterns as they won’t be able to detect those details anyway.
This is why it’s important to break up your human shape with camo so they won’t be able to detect your moving form.
You can wear blaze orange without worrying that you’re standing out too much in your environment, but make sure you combine it with camo patterns, such as the ones we’ve featured earlier in this article.
How to Choose the Best Deer Hunting Camo
When choosing the best deer hunting camo prints, you should consider more than just the environment in which you’re hunting so that you can blend in properly. Here are some factors to take into account.
Consider The Region Where You’re Hunting
- If you’re hunting in the North of the country, you should choose camo prints that contain light and dark colors so that you can better blend into your surroundings. This part of the country contains natural elements such as farmland, rolling plains, forests, and a variety of other habitats. There are also water sources, such as rivers and lakes. This is why having mostly brown, gray, and some small amounts of green, can work well. 3D camo works well in the forest and woods.
- If you’re hunting in southern parts of the country, you should choose camo that will work with the lush vegetation. A good idea is to choose camo that contains elements such as branches and leaves. This is because some regions in this part of the country have thick vegetation as well as plantation fields, so breakup camo is a good choice. Breakup camo is also valuable when you’re hunting in swampy areas, but you might have to mix things up depending on the territory where you’re hunting. Brush camo patterns can also work well because of the grassy, dirt-colored elements in this region.
- The eastern part of the country has a variety of hunting environments. For example, you’ll find pine forests, swamps, and wetlands. Sticking to a versatile, all-purpose type of camo, such as mossy oak, can work well with different environments so it’s ideal for hunting in this part of the U.S. Note that in the woodland areas, you will require a darker camo pattern because some of the greenest regions contain black, gray, and brown instead of just green.
- Finally, the western part of the country contains mountains and deserts so you want to choose camo that enables you to remain undetected in open spaces when the sun’s shining brightly. A good choice is to look for earthy color tones that will help you to blend in. The best camo pattern is breakup camo which will break up your silhouette. Desert and mountain shadow camo are also types of patterns that are highly suitable for mountain and desert terrain. They come in a variety of colors, such as sunset shades and tones, and patterns such as leaves and branches. Desert shadow camo usually has paler, more subtle colors than what you’ll find in mountain shadow camo.
Can You Mix and Match Camo Patterns?
As we touched on earlier, you might want to blend your snow camo with other types of camo, as this will help you to better blend into your surroundings if the region where you’re hunting is prone to different terrain or outdoor elements.
But you can do this with other types of camo prints if required.
For example, if you’re blending in with your surroundings but you find that when you kneel in light grass you stand out like a sore thumb, then you could wear a different camo print on your legs than on your upper body.
You could say, wear a brush pattern on your pants and combine it with your break-up upper body clothing item.
It’s worth experimenting with different camo prints to see which ones enable you to better stay concealed in your hunting environment.
Generally, you don’t have to worry that animals will see you haven’t been blended in properly, but you should mix and match camo within reason.
For example, snow camo pants that are blended with woodland might seem too stark because of their contrasting colors.
Try to blend colors in your different camo prints as closely as possible as this will work to make you better blend in the greater environment.
A good tip is to set up your hunting zone and try out your camo for a day or two to see if it works for you or if you should make some adjustments to it.
Conclusion
If you want to go hunting for deer, you have to consider what camo patterns to wear as they can be made or broken when it comes to how successful you are.
There are many different camouflage patterns from which to choose, which can make it difficult for you to know which ones are the most effective to wear as hunting clothes.
In this article, we’ve featured some of the most important tips to help you choose the best camo patterns for deer hunting, as well as how to mix and match hunting camo patterns so you stay undetected in your environment.
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