CAMOUFLAGE CLOTHING
Get the right picture
THERE is a widely held belief in the hunting world that to be a good hunter you have to wear camouflage clothing, but is this really true? And if it is, what pattern should you choose to be most effective, considering there are a plethora of variations out there on the market?
Wearing the wrong camo pattern can be just as counter-productive in the bush as is wearing it around town. It won’t hide you at all; you’ll just stick out like a Belisha beacon.
Modern-day camouflage hunting clothes has its origins in the military and over the decades many different patterns, in a range of colours, have evolved for use in all types of environments, from jungles to deserts. Today it’s commonplace for hunters to wear camo.
Indigenous people who have to hunt for food are pretty proficient and do not wear any form of camouflage. They may make use of certain plants to mask their body odour – this is the main reason why an animal detects you, not movement – but they know that the key to hunting is stealth.
Countless scientific research papers indicate that humans do not perceive the world around them in the same way as animals do. This should be kept in mind when deciding on the clothes you wear to hunt in. If animals saw colours and patterns in the same way humans did, all animals would be randomly patterned in greens and browns to blend into the background, but they’re not. When was the last time you saw a camouflaged-patterned wildebeest? Most mammals have blotches or stripes, of tan, brown or black to break up their profile and ‘hide’ them in the bush.
To us, the bold black and white stripes of the zebra appear to be advertising their presence to predators, but predators are
seeing the stripes in an entirely different way. The contrast between the stripes and the bush causes the zebra to blend in, and this is what makes it difficult for predators to spot them.
Many predators have dichromatic vision; they have only two light-sensitive cells in the retina which tends to limit their colour perception to predominantly blue and yellow, and less red. Humans are trichromatic; we are able to detect three different colour wavelengths and then combine them to form the entire visual spectrum.
Despite the zebra’s blazon colouration, predators have difficulty spotting them at a distance of 50m and at night, all species have difficulty spotting zebra, even if they are right in front of them. Keep in mind though, that a lot of predators have far better eyesight than their prey.
So why then are we bombarded with a random array of camouflage clothing, which is claimed to make you a better hunter? I think it’s all down to clever marketing that creates the perception that we need the camo. Decades ago, if hunters wanted to use camo, they wore ex-military fatigues. Now we can buy camouflaged clothing in just about every conceivable pattern imaginable. All these patterns are playing to deceive the human eye, to make you blend in with the background through countershading and breaking up outlines. But, if you were only able to see in black and white, the patterns would appear entirely different.
For example, ungulates are red-green colour-blind and can tell the difference between blue and red, but not green and red, or orange and red. In reality then, wearing solid-colour clothing in green, brown, red or orange, will make you blend in just as effectively as camouflaged patterning will. To ungulates, all these colours appear as muted grey.
Another factor few hunters consider is UV light. While it is widely known that birds can see UV light, recent research has discovered that many mammals can see UV light to varying degrees. A lot of clothing contains dye which has UV brightener content.
Also, many washing detergents contain UV enhancers to give colour stability so, be careful what you wash your clothes with.
You should also take into account the environmental conditions such as light or shadows, and the way the bush moves around you. Big, bold designs are sometimes better than more intricate designs as they have less areas between the patterning where they can reflect light.
Wearing camo clothing can make you (falsely) believe that you have the edge over your quarry when in fact, it is having little effect on the ultimate outcome. There are just as many successful hunters wearing non-camouflage clothing – all a hunter needs is clothing that breaks up their outline. If you are hunting zebra, you would be better off wearing a black and white striped suit, rather than a camo jacket and pants. You could probably get closer to the zebra because, even if it saw you, it would probably see you as ‘one of their own’.
A disadvantage with some camouflage clothing, is that the patterning does little to disguise the body’s silhouette. Many animals do not have sufficiently good eyesight to distinguish between similar shades of colour and find it hard to see fine detail. Even we can find it hard to distinguish intricate detail in some patterning. It looks good close-up, but move any distance away, and all that detail simply blends into one blurry drab
colour. So any advantage the camo has at close range, is lost the further away the animal is from you. Again, we may just as well wear uniform tan, brown or green clothing.
Poor visual perception to colours in some animals is one of the reasons why we can get away with wearing a fluorescent yellow or orange safety vest. To us, it seems out of place in the bush but the fact that the animal perceives it as grey means we blend in.
In this respect, the type of animal you are hunting and how well it can see, will largely determine whether you should wear camouflaged clothing.
Let us look at options should you wish to invest in camo clothing
■ As its name implies, Terrain Mimicking Patterns (TMP) attempt to mimic specific types of terrain, allowing you to get closer to the prey. The downside is that one pattern does not fit all types of terrain. You will need to buy an outfit for each, which is beyond the budgets of many. Another downside, while you may think that lovely intricate patterning looks cool, keep in mind that most animals do not perceive fine detail in the same way we do. If the pattern is too busy, at a distance it will simply appear as a jumble of blurred greens and browns.
■ The military has adopted break-up patterning. The idea is not to match the terrain but rather to break up the human profile which allows you to ‘disappear’ into the environment. By doing this, movements are harder to detect. Typically, this type of patterning tends to be made up from large patches of high contrast colours which have a block or blob-like appearance and is effective over a wide range of distances and terrains.
■ 3D Patterns are aimed at breaking up the human form. Known as a Ghillie suit, this is camouflaged clothing with bits of material resembling leaves and twigs attached. Although widely used in some parts of the world, it has not found real favour in the African hunting scene. This type of clothing is often heavy and cumbersome. I recall wearing a suit many years ago; it got snagged on every branch and my movement was quite restricted.
Whether or not to use camouflage clothing is an individual choice. My advice is not to base your decision on what you see at arms-length, but rather at a distance, where all the intricate patterns might just blend into one. Moreover, while it’s good to conceal your body, your uncovered face and hands will stick out, so consider wearing gloves, a hat, neck tube, or balaclava.
While camouflage clothing can be helpful in some situations as it can break up your outline and conceal movement, it is by no means necessary for hunting all types of game. Try to see the camouflage options through the eyes of your quarry. Patterning is often given priority over profile but successful hunting depends more on eliminating your profile and staying still, than on blending in. As one well known hunter said, “I don’t think camo is effective at fooling game, because the essential thing is not to look like your surroundings, but to not look out of place in your surroundings”.
THE many Action Reports published in Magnum always contained something for readers to learn from. This one from twenty years ago is no different and is perhaps even more relevant today. Staying safe requires planning, preparation and diligence – and at times no shots need even be fired!
In 1992, newly married, I was transferred to Cape Town for 18 months. We found and set up a temporary home on the ground floor of a cosy little flat in the Rondebosch area – in a lovely garden environment adjacent to the university residences.
About a year previously, with the impending responsibility of a wife to look after, I had bought a CZ85 pistol. Prior to buying it, I had spent many hours looking at, reading about, and discussing the various options for self-protection. I had eventually settled on the CZ, having been exposed to it during service with the BSAP in Rhodesia/zimbabwe.
In those early days I put many hundreds of rounds through my issue CZ on the range, where I found it very accurate in my hands. The practice and training made me confident with it and I thus carried it wherever possible or permissible. On the occasions when I could not, I opted for my little Browning .25 Auto – feeble as the cynics might think it is, it is much better than nothing and fits into the pocket of my shorts along with the car keys. (The legislation has since changed and firearm owners are no longer allowed more than one handgun licensed for self-defence. Ed)
I also believe that the simple act of carrying a firearm focuses your senses, making you more alert to possible threat – you go one step closer to code orange, I suppose.
Anyway, while I was always alert out on the street, our little flat was, to my mind, a safe haven. It had a solid wooden door with a night latch, a barrel bolt and a normal lever lock, and the windows had flat steel bar burglar bars welded to the frames throughout – so we considered ourselves pretty secure.
One warm Saturday, after spending the morning shopping and exploring the attractions of the peninsula, we went back home for lunch and a nap. We followed our usual habit on coming home, which was to offload handbags, keys, sunglasses, etc on the sideboard in the lounge, where these items remained until next we went out.
Perhaps twenty minutes later I was just dozing off when my wife nudged me, saying she could hear something. Thinking that she was overreacting – that it was probably just the cat playing in the next room or a squirrel outside – I took little notice… Until half a minute later I heard a distinct sound from the lounge which could not be explained away. As quietly as possible, I rolled off the bed and sneaked round to the lounge entrance, slowly exposing more of the room to view. At this stage my CZ was still in the bedroom.
As the main window came into view, I could see the tops of the heads of two people as well as a long gaff-like stick, poking through the window. They had been trying to fish the things off the sideboard (mainly the handbag), and that was the sound we heard. There was some discussion going on outside the window – perhaps building up each other’s courage – as they must have known we were at home.
They had not seen me so I went back to the bedroom, whispered to Jane what was going on, and took up my CZ – I was forming a plan to give these people something to think about. The window below which they were crouching was relatively high, over a metre from floor to sill, so I could crouch and sneak up to it very quickly, with little risk of being seen. I went back and peered carefully around the door; they were still facing away from me, so I did a good rendition of the Pink Panther walk across the lounge, crouching below the window.
Concentrating on my breathing, I gathered my wits and taking up the CZ in a classic isosceles hold, I stood up slowly, far enough back that the muzzle was just protruding through the burglar bars as I did not know whether the men were armed. A moment later, baddy number one stood up and turned, no doubt to have another go at fishing. He was greeted by a pistol inches away from his face … and being held by the daunting sight of a pretty angry me – I stand over two metres tall. I enquired – neither quietly nor politely, in pretty raw construction site language – as to his intentions there. To say that they left the scene without delay would be an understatement.
In counter-insurgency training in the BSAP, exposure to a rather wild instructor with a dummy (as we found out afterwards) hand grenade, showed the effects of adrenalin on people’s reaction times. I saw that effect again now, marvelling at the speed with which they disappeared from sight beyond the hedge some thirty metres away.
WHAT LESSONS DO I SEE HERE?
Complacency led to our leaving tempting valuables visible to potential villains.
Even our obvious presence in the flat was not enough to deter the villains from attempting theft (perhaps they had knowledge of the building and knew that they would be well away before I could get out and give chase – perhaps they were armed and confident that they could stand their ground should I go in pursuit).
Even on hearing the noise and going to investigate (although I did not enter the room from which it emanated, but just moved myself into a position where I could see into the room) I had left my pistol in the bedroom – I didn’t want to look too gung-ho macho in front of my new wife. How stupid.
The biggest lesson of all, and relevant to those authorities who wish to deprive us of our means of self-defence: I did not need to fire. I did not even disengage the safety. Perceiving myself to be safe from personal attack helped, certainly, but the mere threat inferred by the villains through direct confrontation by having a firearm was enough to terminate any threat to me or mine. The baddies probably had something to think about and might have been cured at least temporarily of the urge to steal.
Before leaving Cape Town we were victims of theft from that flat. We were out to dinner with friends and returned, not very late, to find that the burglar bars in the lounge had been attacked with a large monkey wrench, twisted until the welds broke, and then simply bent back. We lost all the small valuable things in the flat – everything that could be easily carried without raising suspicion, including the gun safe, ripped off the wall with my .25 inside.
It is not possible to make oneself totally secure from such a threat in this country (or any other) so we should never relax vigilance. We should not provide temptation by leaving valuables exposed to view, nor be afraid to take appropriate (but safe and legal) defensive action to prevent those intent on crime from achieving their goals.