Why camouflage guns?

[DG45]

If you have to wear blaze orange to hunt (you have to here) why camouflage your gun?

[SAIGAFISH]

cause you can.i believe flat finish is more important thing
to start with.

[oneounceload]

So you can lose your gun after you're done taking care of business!....

As mentioned, a matte finish on the gun and scope will reduce reflections which can spook animals

[rantingredneck]

Depends on the type of hunting.

Here you don't need orange to hunt turkey, waterfowl, or migratory birds. In those cases the camo gun MAY help you not be seen by sharp eyed prey.

Most of the camo guns I see advertised are either purpose built for turkey or waterfowl.

[rantingredneck]

So you can lose your gun after you're done taking care of business!....

I almost lost a good knife that way once.

[Shorthair]

Duck hunters are not generally required to wear blaze orange. You need good camo when waterfowling, so I'm told...

[BigJimP]

reflection or any light colors ( even like a white T shirt ) - including showing your face - are a problem when waterfowling .....

I don't know anything about Turkey hunting / but I don't think its an issue on big game either - and its not an issue on upland birds like grouse, quail, pheasants, etc .

I don't like camo guns in general / but you can use camo tape or even elec tape to dull down or break up a barrel or receiver on a shotgun for waterfowling too.

[lockedcj7]

For waterfowl, dove and turkey I can definitely see the utility of a camo gun. As previously stated, it might give you the edge you need to close the deal with wary prey.

Some states don't require blaze orange for big game so the above logic would still hold up. Beyond that, you typically don't move your torso much when hunting and the orange just appears as a blob of grey to a deer.

A deer might not notice a gun being shouldered if it's camo. I don't think it makes that much difference as long as the gun is flat and not shiny. Then again, most camo is more about fashion marketing than concealment.

[churchill]

camo guns do definitly work...because here in the uk we have no rules on blaze....
often when i shoot waterfowl i go realtree camoed up with facevail and gloves with a camoed gun and it really does benifit me..
as sometimes i am camoed with a standard gun and i see the quarry spot the gun and not me..

[armoredman]

If I ever get the money I am going to do the Rhodesian Duracoat on my vz-58. Why? I like the pattern and I want to.

[Spartan23]

Camouflage the gun?
Yeah.

Camouflage Finnish on the gun?
No.
Why? Because is permanent, unless you re-paint the gun.
I prefer to camouflage my gun with the old school ways. So if i want to hunt on other places or times of the year, the gun has no permanent camouflage and i can camouflage it to fit with the environment or conditions.

As for the orange jacket, the law here says that "it must be on your torso and around it". (Not using the word wearing neither says that it must be fully viewable)
So there are huge leap holes. You can wearing it like a belt, or have a very small part around your torso visible, but it is still around your torso, is legal

Anyway, this jackets are for your own protection and most of the hunting-police officers, will not say anything if you want to put your own life in danger.

Personally, i found the jacket ridiculous.
I believe that is must be on the hunter's judgement, what he will use to make his position know to other hunters. Only his life is in danger after all.

[TCman]

I deer hunt with a SS muzzleloader, and have never just look up at me (or my gun). I also happen to like and have camo guns too.

[DG45]

I liked the answers "because I want to" and "because I can". No problem here with either one of those answers. I try to do what I want, too, and anyone who doesn't like it can go pound sand, and I admire others who are like that.

But I don't think a camouflaged gun helps a hunter. In fact, I asked the question because in the old days people didn't buy a lot of special clothes, much less camouflaged shotguns for hunting and they killed a lot of game. Many of them had to, to eat. I was looking in an old book about the history of my county and it showed local hunters in about 1900, who'd just bagged a deer. All these guys were on horseback around the deer, wearing what looked like suit coats and white shirts, (no ties though). They were all wearing brimmed hats, and carrying what looked like single barrel shotguns across their saddles. They had three or four deer dogs with them, but none of them wore any special hunting clothes at all.

A later picture in the same book was dated 1928 and showed two guys in a marsh blasting away at waterfowl. These guys had a Labrador retreiver with them and wore what looked like leather jackets under hunting vests with shotgun shells in the loops. Both men were wearing waders (hip boots, I think) but with the bibs hidden under their jackets. Both men were wearing ordinary fedoras (sort of like an Indiana Jones hat.) One of their guns looked like a Winchester Model 12 pump gun and the other was either a Browning Auto 5 or a Remington Model 11, I couldn't tell which from the photo, but it had the old-timey safety in front of the trigger guard.

If one of these guys had been using a SxS double-barrel gun, it could have been my own grandfather (b.1875-d.1960) because that was exactly how he used to dress to hunt geese. He wore nothing specially bought for goose hunting beyond a vest for his shotshells, and rubber boots. He wore a beat-up old fedora, which he was never seen without if he was outside his home. But I doubt if anybody on this forum will ever kill in their whole lives one-tenth as many geese as he killed in his. That's because for years he supplemented his small farmer/waterman income by "market gunning" for geese and only gave it up because of the ever increasing legal restrictions and the ever diminishing flocks, and after about 1905, increased competetion from other gunners with automatic guns which he couldn't afford, which eventually made market gunning more trouble than it was worth for him. But he had no special hunting clothes beyond a vest and boots, and he'd have laughed his a** off if he'd have ever seen a camouflaged shotgun.

[chaser_2332]

my waterfowl gun is camp finished because it holds up to harsh inviroments better, less metal exposed, and i think it looks sweet sticking out of a layout blind

[Snakum]

I camo'd my slug gun because I just wanted to paint one. Thought it looks cool. And it definitely breaks up the outline in the woods when enough lighter areas are preserved.

I know for certain that full camo, obsessive scent control, and noise discipline helps me stalk whitetail. At about six hours into my deer hunting career, and with no help or mentoring or advice whatsoever outside of library books and the errornet, I had shot two bucks, gotten within 50 yards of two does, and was almost run over by an old doe when searching for a downed buck. I'm ex-mil but I don't think I'm that sneaky nowadays. I think good camo is just another piece of the puzzle that increases your chances when hunting deer, turkey, and especially coyotes. The same will apply doubly when/if I ever found myself back in a situation where I was hiding from a human(s). I learned the value of good camo when facing a human adversary way back in sniper school. Anything that will break up the all black "weapon" picture helps. Even something as simple as OD or FDE furniture on a black AK or AR. It makes a difference. I promise you.

But even then ...

It's just one piece of the puzzle.

[Uncle Buck]

I agree that with certain hunting situations a camo gun is a good idea.

Now for home defense? Why in the heck? My ex-brother in law camo'ed his shotgun with some kind of tape. He was more of the mall ninja type anyway.

But, it was his gun, it was what he wanted to do and he paid for it. To each their own.

[CajunBass]

I camo'd my shotgun I use for deer hunting. Mostly because the stocks finish had gotten worn and I wanted to do something to it, and painting it seemed the easiest way to do it. I had some spray pait called "Bow-Dull" around from a camo job I'd done on a bow, so I just used that.



Did it help me? I don't know. Didn't hurt.

[rantingredneck]

Just as an experiment this year, I decided to forego camo as much as possible when hunting with a firearm (or muzzleloader). I have been wearing a pair of brown 5.11 pants (because they are comfortable in the woods, I do not wear them to the mall ), a green or brown thermal shirt from Gander Mountain's Guide Series, and a brown or green Winchester fleece pullover. I've used no scent control whatsoever and my wife washes our clothes in regular Tide detergent.

So far I've killed 4 deer this year (2 bucks, 2 does), the longest at 85 yds, the closest at 25 yds. I have seen, and passed up, many more. I've had does and young bucks literally sniff the ladder to my stand and mill around crunching acorns beneath my feet.

The only camo I've worn has been the vest to my Hunter's Safety System fall arrest system. (Learned that lesson the hard way )

[Shorthair]

Count me as one who thinks that camo helps attract more hunter's dollars than it does much hiding them from game. I think that waterfowling and turkey hunting pretty much require as much camo as possible, but that's because those critters rely on their eyesight primarily as a means to avoid predation. I've killed deer in all kinds of clothing, but you just can't really buy deer hunting clothing today that isn't camo'd. I've had deer look dead straight at me from a dozen yards away wearing normal working clothes, and as long as I didn't move they had no idea what they were looking at. Just remember a deer uses his nose and ears primarily and take advantage of that.
And of course, my go to rifle is camo'd

[mwar410]

I have a camo gun, I love it because it is a very tough finish. My other guns will rust just thinking of some of the environments I hunt. not the camo one.
Now on clothing, I'm sure I'm not the only one that heard that deer can see blue really well. How many deer have been shot with the hunter wearing blue jeans?

[kmrcstintn]

a deer's visual acuity is toward movement and anything that contrasts with the background makes it stand out more; even though I have to wear and keep visible blaze orange for certain parts of whitetail, deer, and turkey seasons I wear a blaze jacket and blaze vest that have some camo break up to them...now I have to find an insulated hat to breakup my noggin better; I guess you have the benefit of extended range during firearms season that going all out on camoflauging everything can be bypassed...

Now on clothing, I'm sure I'm not the only one that heard that deer can see blue really well. How many deer have been shot with the hunter wearing blue jeans?

IIRC...deer can see ultraviolet and using detergents that reduce/eliminate ultraviolet 'aura' is another way hunters can blend into their background better

[RJM]

I wear camoflage when I duck hunt, but other than that I really don't. I think it makes a difference when bird hunting. I find many of the camo patterns being sold today are just too dark and have patterns that are too sharply detailed, really they seem to be marketed to hunter's eyes and not the prey's eyesight.

[CajunBass]

I don't see it as much anymore but when I was a kid the old hunters I hunted with were for the most part farmers. They pretty much just wore the same clothes to hunt they wore for working around the farm. Bib overalls, and old brown barn coats. I suppose they technically were "hunting coats" but they wore them all the time so they smelled like a barn or a tractor shed more than anything else. There was no such thing as blaze orange. Some might have worn a red cap or had a red bandanna sewn to the back of their hunting coat, but not many. I doubt any of those coats had ever been washed, unless you count getting rained on. Almost all of them smoked, cigarettes, cigars, or a pipe or chewed Red Man or Beech Nut.

Those old timers killed a lot of deer, in a day when there weren't near as many deer as there are now.

Oh, to keep this shotgun related, they used everything from Parker and Fox doubles, to J.C. Higgins bolt action shotguns to "single barrels" as everybody called them back them.

[DG45]

CajunBass makes a good point. All those old guys smoked or chewed tobacco and many of them drank "strong spirits" too. (Some I knew even made the stuff.) No worries about scent in those days.

I think hunting and fishing are alike in this respect: There are just certain people (maybe 1 out of 20) who seem to be naturals at it, and those people don't need much more than the most minimal gear (a gun and ammo for the hunter, or a fishing rod and a couple of tried and true lures for the fisherman) to bring home more game or more fish than most of us could bag or boat with all the equipment in the sporting goods store. Most of the people who are best at it grew up doing it, and they're good at hunting in the same way that if you played basketball all your life you'd be good at basketball. The other 19 guys buy all the gear but all the gear in the world can't buy what they're really looking for, which is instant skill.

[rem870hunter]

i don't have any. the most i did was took white tape and put patches of it here and there. the stock,fore end,barrel, receiver when i went out in the snow after predators. don't know if it worked. i was looking and looking thru my binos,did'nt see anything but a few starlings.