Shoot Me Down: Camouflage Is Overrated For Deer Hunting

Camo is overrated for deer according to our own ENO (pictured below), winner of the previous “Shoot Me Down,” whose research and use of an outside source impressed me enough to offer him the coveted prize of doing my job for me, as a guest blogger. Put another way, ENO is my guest. So, as I’ve said before, be nice. Disagree, certainly. Nail him to the wall if you must. But be nice about it.

With that, here’s ENO:

_I guess the reward for shooting someone down is the opportunity to get shot down myself, huh? Okay, here goes: Camouflage is overrated for deer hunting.

I realize that if my wife reads this I will have to negotiate myself out of a garage sale, but still. . . I have multiple plastic containers in my basement full of neatly folded clothing arranged by camouflage pattern. I have my favorite turkey hunting patterns, bow hunting patterns, varmint, waterfowl, western plains, and so on. Recently, I looked at a new line of camo with the latest digital patterns, which will probably result in another plastic container in my basement. But aren’t we all just fooling ourselves?

Last year, after spending the entire bow season dressed head-to-toe in camo, I shot this buck on opening day of the gun seaso–while walking out to my stand, in broad daylight, standing in the middle of a grassy pasture, dressed completely in blaze orange. The buck walked less than thirty yards from me at the edge of the woods. What’s more, my father-in-law, also pictured, was standing right next me dressed completely in blaze orange. We got into a bit of an argument about who should shoot this deer, until he finally insisted that I shoot.

I know what you’re thinking, “. . . another armchair expert enlightening us with his anecdotal evidence.” I’ll give you that. But I challenge you to look at some of the old black-and-white hunting photos from the good ol’ days. Those guys hunted in their blue jeans, work boots, and plaid shirts. They were such successful hunters they almost ruined it for the rest of us. If they could see the camouflage fashionistas we’ve become, they’d heel and hide us to a barn door.

I stand by my statement: Camouflage is overrated. Stand with me, or shoot me down._