Most hunters I know have piles of hunting gear for all different hunting conditions. And nearly all of that gear is in one camo pattern or another. And some of those camo patterns seem to us to be absolutely incredible at helping us blend into the landscape.
I nearly blundered into a guy several years ago on a talus slope deep in the Hoback. He was just sitting there perfectly still in a depression in the rocks, wearing his Kuiu Vias outfit. Even his bow was done up in Kuiu Vias. If he hadn’t turned his head when I got about 20 feet away, I maybe wouldn’t have ever seen him at all.
At least for the talus slope he was hiding in, that pattern seemed to work perfectly. The colors were an exact match, and the pattern itself just looked like the shadows and light patches of the rocky terrain. But it’s important to know that deer, elk, turkeys, and other wild animals have much different vision than we have. Almost all game species actually have the ability to see much farther than we can into the infrared and ultraviolet spectrums. And that’s important to know, because nearly all laundry detergents you get at the store these days use UV boosters to make your clothes seem brighter than they would without them. You can’t see the UV colors those boosters bring out, but the wildlife you’re trying to hide from can, and they can see them well.
So instead of washing your hunting clothes in store-bought detergent, just wash them in water. They’ll get plenty clean enough without the soap, and they won’t turn you into a beacon in the eyes of the critters you’re trying to hide from.
