Am I as camouflaged as I thought I was?

AndyK30

New Member
Had an interesting conversation today.
Whilst browsing stalking gear, the shop attendant, Brian, informed me that washing my stalking clothes in ordinary detergent causes them to have a UV effect. He suggested treating them with an anti-UV spray.
I would appreciate members thoughts? :camo:
 
don't bother buying fancy sprays its just to lighten your wallet, move slowly and quitely and that will make all the difference along with glassing every few feet into cover, atb wayne
 
most detergents have some form of uv boost. its their attempt to create that whiter than white, cleaner than clean effect.

roll around in the dirt before you go out!!

ade
 
You Actually wash your stalking clothes that cant be right. Just wash in machine with out detergent.
 
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Correct, best to use pure soap. The blue specks in normal powder are just uv reflectors (aka optical brighteners) designed to make your brain think your whites are crisp and bright. Really your brain is just seeing very light blue uv reflection.

You can buy a uv lamp off ebay for £5 and check for yourself.

Just leaving your stuff in a room will allow it to pick up dust which is smothered in UV reflectors from the clothes in the house.

Whether it actually matters......:confused:
 
There was an article in a BASC mag last year that talked about the increased UV from modern washing powders and as suggested, they said use plain soap flakes for camo gear.
 
Had an interesting conversation today.
Whilst browsing stalking gear, the shop attendant, Brian, informed me that washing my stalking clothes in ordinary detergent causes them to have a UV effect. He suggested treating them with an anti-UV spray.
I would appreciate members thoughts? :camo:

See my signature!
 
I use army surplus gear cheap and cheerful and the only time it's washed is when it rains which is every time I go out these days .............lol
 
+1 for nickwax tech wash all my cammo gear is washed in it.though on the marsh i normally come home mud brown anyway as a creek bottom finding specialist.if theres a hole im first to the bottom of it:drool:
 
same as wingy, only wash when you get funny looks witch in my case is quite a lot,not because i stink but because i would frighten a police horse!:old::fox:
 
I think the scent thing is pretty over done. I stalked into a group of whitetail bucks this fall: sweaty, wind at my back, after having just taken a pee a few yards back. I got within 20 yards of one of them and they didn't care. Closed the distance to the others across open ground -with nothing but air between myself and the deer- covering the 40 yards in about 45 minutes. They had plenty of time to be alarmed by scent but weren't. One of the Tribal guides is a long time friend of mine and we discussed this. He just rolls his eyes when his clients talk of using scent-removing/masking wash solutions.~Muir
 
Just pure soap as you'd use on waterproof gear (no brighteners/perfummed). Out door shops use Techwash. Removes dirt not the proofing.
Just don't use detergent or anything with colour brightening claims.
 
Muir,
Whatever about scent removal being a marketing man's christmas bonus, I reckon that blue pooh scent addition aka optical brighteners and fragrances has to be a spoiler. Me and the dog definitely find it to be an unpleasant and alien smell. My sinuses crash and she sneezes! ( +1 for Ecover ) I've always looked on optical brighteners and fragrances as a way of increasing your telltale scent.
Ion
 
1+ for ecover, never wash any of my cammo in anything else, put a bit of whizzz oxyaction in if its very dirty/bloodstained.

Remember reading an article years ago on this, may have been in an air gun mag, so stpooed using normal washing powder since.

D
 
The brighteners do make the wearer stand out a bit. An amusing thing to try is to look at something washed in the latest "fizzbangwallop blast'o'clean" and then something washed in, say, Nickwax TechWash. The former sticks out somewhat and supposedly a lot of prey animals have eyes sensitive in the UV end of the spectrum.

I use this:
Nikwax Tech Wash Non-Detergent Technical Cleaner: Amazon.co.uk: Sports Outdoors

:eek: Now that's an idea........I'm with the never wash it brigade but had to wash my RiversWest FieldPro smock last week after a productive day on hinds - I stuck it in the washing machine on a couple of rinse cycles which did the trick but seems I could have hung it on the line and pressure washed it instead.

:rofl:

atb

Fizz
(No connection with any washing powder manufacturers whatsoever)
:cool:
 
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