Camouflage

[Morkai]

@John Gryphon A pack of Winfield and some Hahn SuperDry.

 

[foxdropper]

Y

you can buy camo glasses..true



View attachment 220839

Must have for 2022 John .Can you view thermal ok though

 

[Mossypaw]

While some cammo patterns are fine for woodland most are not that great on the hill the colours are usually not right, I Ifind estate tweed patterns better for that ,but estate patterns are localised designed for a particular environment no one pattern will work everywhere
a background pattern of a colour close to the colour of the terrain, blue where there is a lot of slate green or yellowish where there is a lot of grass,a pinkish shade like some of the estates in the North East where there is a lot of granite
Where my Grandson is for example they have both granite and slate their tweeds are a blue grey with a pink line through it, this they set of with pink shirts works well in that area.
Usually there is a contrasting line one horizontal and one vertical which helps break up the outline for some optical
reason while these lines often seem to clash with the background colour when close up or taken out out of their home
environment but on their home turf they seem to blend into the background.
What may work for a woodland stalker is not usually right for the hill, the colours and shades are usually wrong and a leaf or bark pattern well how can that be right where there are no trees
Flecktarn seems to work reasonably well on many hill environments a jacket and trousers of different colours also helps
to break up the human outline . In foul weather I will sometimes dispence with the tweed jacket and don a modern smock or my Nomad in Argyle pattern which though appearing yellowish blends into the white grass on the hill.

Campbell’s of Beauly used to have a book of samples for all the estates they supplied that, if I remember correctly, was made into a book some time ago.
One of the more interesting tweeds was my local estate (Gairloch) it was almost entirely black and white to match the gneiss in the rocks.

 

[JTO]

Certainly the Boers were some of the first to use sniping and camouflage so the British army could have copied it from them.

My dad, who had a half-day school holiday for the Relief of Mafeking, always reckoned that it was the Boers that made/persuaded the British military give up bright uniforms.

 

[JTO]

I think it was the breaking up of your outline that influenced Richard Prior's recommendation of a large-pattern Scottish tartan. Much more acceptable in the High Street nowadays!

 

[JTO]

Yes stands out very much, thats the trouble with loden it's fine when dry but turns black when wet you will pick out a man
a mile away on the hill in wet loden.

Reminds me of Kenzie's fear of 'black objects'!
I certainly get more shots at wildfowl now I haven't got a black Flatcoat with me. Chest waders are not always good enough as a replacement, though.

 

[John Gryphon]

This morning while out I took some ordinary video of a hind. She was relaxed and just standing chewing her cud and had looked and listened to her left for a few minutes,then looked to her right for the same. I was standing at my tripod at full height and then she looked straight down the lens from 115 yards and did a double take twice. She saw "me" I know as she snapped her head back suddenly for the study. My effn feet and knees were full of aches as I had been at the tripod for 40 minutes watching and waiting for her to step into some clear and with her looking at me I couldnt move. She stared right through me and then relaxed and continued her business.....I was wearing camo ....OF COURSE!

Several screen captures from video.





And the camo ensemble today lol?

 

[Moray Outfitting]

@Moray Outfitting know the ground where I stalked with Patrick S many years ago, dead flat flow country where the only approach was to walk doubled over in a line and pretend you were a bunch of hinds. Exhausting.

Patrick has also used the trick of walking with two sticks above his head to get past animals....J

 

[NickJ]

Campbell’s of Beauly used to have a book of samples for all the estates they supplied that, if I remember correctly, was made into a book some time ago.
One of the more interesting tweeds was my local estate (Gairloch) it was almost entirely black and white to match the gneiss in the rocks.

All mills will have a samples book but Johnston's of Elgin published this 'paper' book a few years back: Scottish Estate Tweeds by Harrison, E.P.: Used; Good Hardcover (1995) | Reuseabook

 

[Mossypaw]

That’s the one.

 

[merlin]

The camo I actually found surprisingly effective on the hill was the Swiss Alpenflage:

View attachment 220372

.....does Alpenflage allow you to sit undetected in a bowl of rolled oats, chopped nuts & raisins??



I'll get me coat.

 

[Kalahari]

.....does Alpenflage allow you to sit undetected in a bowl of rolled oats, chopped nuts & raisins??



I'll get me coat.

No but you are allowed to be the "gnome" on a plate of rostii!

David.

 

[Dunwaters]

I concur FB and have seen it a number of times. It is as if they have an inbuilt or ancestral memory of their territory.
But I have also had them within five to ten metres and just not seen me (until too late!).

I think their eyes are sharper than we give them credit for, sika can definitely make out a silhouette or “ something “ at 2-300M.

 

[Klenchblaize]

I think it was the breaking up of your outline that influenced Richard Prior's recommendation of a large-pattern Scottish tartan. Much more acceptable in the High Street nowadays!

Indeed but he wasn't adverse to a yard or two of DPM and neither am I to this day for woodland adventures.

K

 

[Mr. Gain]

The "old" lighter DPM was fairly good, but the later, darker version always seemed a retrograde step to me. I think Alpenflage works because of the strong highlights, which MTP also benefits from. Colourwise, I think the original Jack Pyke brown and later green patterns are some of the very best in woodland. Sadly these are now being replaced by a Realtree lookalike, a pattern I have never found effective in the UK. As many have said, however, camo is often an effective supplement to good fieldcraft but never a reliable substitute for it.

 

[Tazz]

The camo I actually found surprisingly effective on the hill was the Swiss Alpenflage:

View attachment 220372

It worked we can’t see you