Why not more digital camo

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tikka-guy

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I've never been a strong believer in the popular camo patterns. I think they do a relatively poor job in breaking up your outline, which is the most important part of camo. In my opinion, a digital camo pattern does this much better.

That being said, why are there so few options on the market for digital camo-style clothing? Sitka makes stuff, but it's really expensive. I haven't really been able to find any other options, besides picking up some BDUs or something. I haven't ever tried those, but they don't strike me as particularly warm or comfortable.

Are there any options I'm missing? Any reason why this is? As an added bonus, clothing manufacturers have to license patterns from the camo makers. If they went with a digital camo pattern you wouldn't owe licensing fees to anyone. Seems like a win-win to me.
 
Probably licensing rights has a lot to do with availability.....some of the best camo I ever used in corn fields and fall colors was the military chocolate chip pattern (Desert Storm era).

Fellow hunters couldn't make out my presence.....neat stuff.
 
a digital camo pattern does this much better.
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Why for then do the National Guard guys I can see from my house during weekend drills look like little Grey men walking around from 1/2 mile away?

I never could see them when they used to wear woodland cammo next to, or in the tree line.

Digital maybe works better in the desert, or against IR at night?

But IMO, it don't work worth a darn in the good old American woods.

rc
 
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I wear Digital Desert Camo pants when hunting all the time. I picked them up for $20 and they are the best pants I have ever worn in the field. The are comfortable, durable, and blend in well enough. They have lots of big pockets and are great all around hunting pants.
CApighunter
 
Hell, I just hunt ducks in woodland camo, well, a Vietnam era M65 field jacket and it does fine. I have a 3D jump suit I mostly use in teal season that's pretty awesome.

I have that marsh grass pattern on a Drake gore tex pull over I really like in the marsh. It's not exactly for trees, though, but blends in wonderfully in the tall spartina of the marsh. It's really nifty, though, rain proof and has a magnetic closing pocket for quick access to your calls. I stuff 'em in there and just yank the lanyard when I want 'em, keeps the rain and moisture off in the meantime.

I don't get real anal over camo patterns, all seem to work if you sit STILL and don't show your face when calling. The face will flair birds no matter what you have on. I wear a mesh type face covering that's made into my boonie hat for duck hunting. Works great. :D Also have a 3 D pull over that came with my 3D jump suit.

I wear camo for birds. I don't know that it's all that necessary for deer, I guess if I bow hunted, but I haven't, yet. That time of year, for the same reason as teal season, I'd probably go with my 3D suit. It's mesh and flows air in 90 degree temps.

The new military stuff probably works, don't see why it wouldn't. I mean, if woodland camo works, wasn't the computer pattern supposed to be an improvement on woodland?
 
Any US GI Army Surplus fatigue / BDU pants, shirts, jackets, or coats are never a bad choice.

You can't buy better hunting clothes for several times the money.

But I'm still not sold on the digital cammo for hunting unless you are trying to hide in shades of Grey digital square woods.

rc
 
The USMC digital camo works. The Army camo is a poor choice. In fact the Army just announced they were ditching their camo because it made their soldiers stand out in almost any terrain. They are currently searching for a replacement. They stopped issuing it to any soldier going to Afghanistan months ago and have been using the Multi-Cam camo for soldiers in the war zone.

BTW, I've been wearing the Multi-Cam for a couple of years. I like it a lot.
 
rcmodel said:
....But I'm still not sold on the digital cammo for hunting unless you are trying to hide in shades of Grey digital square woods.
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Deer have dichromatic color vision, which makes the digital camo appear as shades of gray.
 
I've shot more deer wearing an OD field jacket than anything else. I've never believed the latest trend in camo was any better than some of the old school options.
 
Deer can't see me in worn out blue jeans and an old khaki work shirt unless I move and scare them!!

Digital cammo still doesn't impress me at all for hunting, or fighting clothes.

Look at it from fight or flight distance and it is all solid grey that stands out against natural green undergrowth.

rc
 
I have a set of replica USMC desert tan "digital". They're so old that really they're just a mottled khaki now. In Texas winters they're fine cuz everything else is the same color of dull tan. They're pretty comfortable and I use them as a thin outer layer if it's " cold" out.
 
So far, it seems that presently-available camo works okay when hunting turkey, geese and doves--which is about the only real need for camo at all.

For varmints and deer-type critters, any old dull earth tones will do quite well.

If you can sit really still, Bambi doesn't seem to be bothered by blue jeans, which I've always found to be sorta odd.
 
rcmodel said:
Deer can't see me in worn out blue jeans and an old khaki work shirt unless I move and scare them!!

Digital cammo still doesn't impress me at all for hunting, or fighting clothes.

Look at it from fight or flight distance and it is all solid grey that stands out against natural green undergrowth.

rc
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"Digital camo" is not an all encompassing term. The Army pattern stinks, there's nothing wrong with the USMC's woodland and desert digital patterns. As for hunting specific digital clothing, depends on if you believe the "studies." Some guys swear by the Optifade patterns, some guys don't.

Hunting camouflage as far as I'm concerned is a purely personal choice. KUIU Vias, Optifade, Mossy Oak, Realtree, brown and green solids, jeans and a blaze orange jacket, whatever floats your boat.
 
Old worn out & dirty work clothes on the farm worked for me for years.

But then I learned from the modern TV hunting shows (sponsored by the cammo clothes companies) that I had to spend several big ones on state of the art, matching, scent-lock, seasonal cammo patterns to hunt everything, and have a chance of collecting anything.

And if I really wanted to be successful hunter?
I had to buy the new patterns every year or so to keep the game animals from recognizing last years out-dated cammo patterns!

With the exception of Turkeys, who seem to have HD, Color, 3-D, X-Ray, Motion-Sensor Vision?
Old worn Carharts work as well or better then anything else for me.

rc
 
The digital camo was chosen for the military beause the digital pattern does not show up when viewed through night vision scopes. A person using a night vision scope is actually lookng through a modified video camera. The image they see is converted into pixels of information. Having the camo pattern in digital squares instead of the typical camo hunters use blends into the pixels seen trough a night vision scope.


The USMC chose 2 very different colors, one that works well in desert environments, the other for forests and swamps. They work well. The Army chose to try 1 color that could be used in either. It proved to be a poor choice for either.
 
Some guys swear by the Optifade patterns, some guys don't
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I didn't know what this was, so I looked it up and it looks like that's what Sitka uses. I would say that's a digital-style camo, in that it's pixelated and generally doesn't contain any large areas of color.


The Army pattern stinks, there's nothing wrong with the USMC's woodland and desert digital patterns.
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I agree here, and is probably why the Army has had issues. Their pattern has very little variation and contrast, so from a distance it looks like a solid color.


I know camo is a touchy subject. I mostly wear earth tones when I am hunting, and I don't bother buying a lot of camo. Mostly that's because I don't want to spend the extra money for diminishing returns. That being said, I also have a hard time believing that camo doesn't help at least a little bit.

It just never made sense to me why we bother making camo look good to US. We essentially drape ourselves in a forest painting, with large areas of color that just don't look quite right out in the woods.

Sitting still is the best solution, obviously. But that isn't practical at all times. I can't stand in the same spot, looking the same way the entire time. Hunting in the woods doesn't work like that.
 
The digital camo was chosen for the military beause the digital pattern does not show up when viewed through night vision scopes. A person using a night vision scope is actually lookng through a modified video camera. The image they see is converted into pixels of information. Having the camo pattern in digital squares instead of the typical camo hunters use blends into the pixels seen trough a night vision scope.
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Interesting theory, but no.

This is the actual reason; it actually has to do with human neuroscience and how the human brain interprets things it sees. The gent quoted in this excerpt (O'Neill) is the experimental psychologist and West Point professor who first came up with the idea.

Why use squares or rectangles, with their unnatural, hard edges? According to the U.S. patent issued for the Marines' MARPAT camouflage, the selection of four-sided pixels had nothing to do with concealment. Rather, the tiny squares were easier to print on fabric. (The same patent concludes, rather meekly, that "camouflage is an art in the process of becoming a science.") The shape doesn't matter, said the textile engineers, so long as the pixels are applied in the correct proportions of color and brightness.

According to O'Neill, who now works as a consultant and does not endorse any particular pattern now under review, any kind of pixel will do so long as it has clearly defined edges. These are necessary for creating a proper texture match with a natural background, he says, even though the details of the pixel pattern are invisible when viewed from any reasonable distance.
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There's a lot more in the article this excerpt came from, just printed a couple days ago:

http://www.slate.com/articles/healt..._the_ucp_and_the_future_of_digital_camo_.html
 
After trying everything out there, I still think the woodland service BDUs are the best camo availible. Especially if your are moving. The one thing I have noticed is all other camos (that includes digital and commercial) are easily detected when the person wearing them is moving through the woods. Now that may not be true in other parts of the country,but in the eastern hardwood forests I think woodland is hard to beat. The original Mossy oak comes in a close second and thirdly a tie, I like the Swiss Alpenflage and Vietnam era tiger stripe camo. My .02 worth.
 
I guess I'm old school too, in that I don't go for the "latest-get it cause it's newest fad". For waterfowling I prefer the brown WW2 pattern. Drakes markets it as "old school" pattern. It works well in marsh and corn. That being said I do use the Marine digital as well. It too uses a brown base that works well in fall. I use it if hunting woods or brushy "fenceline" type blinds.
 
Thanks for the clarification Hacker. I related the information the way it was explained to me.

But the purpose of the digital camo was developed with concealment from night vision optics in mind. Regardless of how it actually works. From a hunting perspective digital is no better or worse than any other.

From a hunting perspective I don't worry too much about camo. I tend to wear military BDU pants because they are the most comfortable, rugged pants I've found to hunt in for the money. I have several in various patterns including solid OD green. For deer hunting I'm usually in some type of solid colored fleece top in a drab color such as grey, green or brown. I do wear some type of camo top if turkey or waterfowl hunting.

The actual patten matters little as long as the color is close. I'm going to disagree with a few others here. I have found the older green woodland camo to be too dark about 1/2 the year. No problem with the pattern, but the dark green and blacks are just too dark by the time the leaves fall off the trees and eveything in the woods are brown. It just stands out at that time of year. Especially in waterfowl season. Early in the deer season and late in turkey season it works just fine while the woods are green.

That is what like about the new Multi-cam. It is essentially the same as the old woodland, but with less dark green and black and more lighter greens and browns.

http://www.acuarmy.com/army-ocp-mul...tion-ecwcs-parka-size-large-long-p-17235.html
 
Well, let's think about what existing camo has worked well for various types of vegetation for us as hunters.

What the military uses is not very important to a hunter. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
 
Art Eatman said:
Well, let's think about what existing camo has worked well for various types of vegetation for us as hunters.

What the military uses is not very important to a hunter. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
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I actually know several guys that went with surplus multi-cam and USMC camo clothing because of a combination of cost and effective patterns. Now of course that doesn't make it good for the military on it's own, but for hunting purposes some of the newer military patterns are as good as the old woodland BDU pattern or the other commercial outfits.
 
infmp32, I guess my overall point is that it doesn't matter a whole bunch what style of camo you use as long as it's reasonably close to surrounding vegetation. Still, sitting still and doing an imitation of a rock or stump works pretty well, even in blue jeans.

If the price is right, go for it--but Goodwill khakis and suchlike are generally cheaper. :D
 
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