Hunting clothing

If you really want to keep clothing weight down, I would just wear your normal UL clothing and find a camo vest or light jacket (maybe camo poncho?) to go over everything. Simple solution without having to buy an entirely new hunting wardrobe.

Edit: FWIW, I believe that most animals are color blind and camo clothing colors do nothing. The key is broken up patterns in the clothing helps to disguise you against the background of the forest versus a solid object against the background. Camo gear could be bright pink and lime green, wouldn't make a difference to the elk. So if you have any flamboyantly designed gear (Patagucci maybe? lol) that would work equally well in theory.

All the mountain hunting clothing companies (Sitka, Kuiu, etc) seem to make decent stuff, but it almost always has too many bells and whistles. Heavy and expensive. I try to buy most of my outdoor clothing in grey and brown, and use that for hunting. Rifle hunting I think solids do just fine, especially as I (in MT) have to wear an orange vest anyways.

Andrew, I think you are correct about the color discernment. My aim is, as you say, to break up my shape so that I don't stand out as a solid against a varied background.
My current clothing approach is to wear my good clothing under Red Ledge camo raingear which works well, but is a bit noisy.

"FWIW, I believe that most animals are color blind and camo clothing colors do nothing. The key is broken up patterns in the clothing helps to disguise you against the background of the forest versus a solid object against the background. Camo gear could be bright pink and lime green, wouldn't make a difference to the elk. So if you have any flamboyantly designed gear (Patagucci maybe? lol) that would work equally well in theory"

Yup! But also be aware that some clothing and detergent manufacturers use UV light enhancers to make colors "pop" – and most mammals, including large ungulates, are much more sensitive to UV light than we are. Be careful what you wash your clothing in.

I generally hunt the alpine, so there is not much cover; hence my desire to blend in as well as I can. I tried on a Sitka jacket the other day that was light and comfortable – the price tag was $599 – way too high in my estimation.
Another reason for separate hunting clothing is scent and blood; I want to wear clothes I'm not concerned about getting bloody when I am butchering in the field. In addition, I store my hunting clothes with deer tails in a garbage bag in a plastic tote which permeates them with deer scent which I hope covers up my man scent.

I am aware of the detergent issue and use detergents that supposedly do not have such enhancers. I saw a dramatization somewhere of what one looks like to a deer when your clothes have been washed with the enhancer – a bright glowing alien presence.

The best camo pattern hunting outerwear value is the Wild Things Tactical 1.0 Multi-cam wind-shirt/wind-pants. They are 70 denier EPIC; I tested them at 25.5 CFM and 422 mm H2O (similar breathability to the pre 2013 Houdini). The largest size wind-shirt, XXL, weighs only 9.4 oz. but it handles tough bushwhacking without any issues.

Use them in combination with your typical UL Backpacking base and insulation layer(s). The price is a very reasonable $109 for each garment.

Richard, thanks for the recommendations – I will check them out. Question – how quiet are they? My Red Ledge rain gear works well, but it is noisy.

… and unlike many, the Windshirt has a hood –

Thanks Richard.

Yes, I am looking at the windshirt and pants right now. I wonder if they are as "swishy" in the grass as my Red Ledge stuff.

The WT windshirt has a rather luckluster hood, that is.

The WT tac windgear is good stuff. I like the pants in particular. Quiet for nylon, but not on the level of wool or fleece.

I got within 60 feet of 15 bighorns this weekend (no legal rams) in grey pants and windshirt, so that's good enough for me.

Lots of outdoor companies also make Military gear.

Strangely enough, it never occurred to me to look at "military" gear for camo clothing – I was stuck in the "hunter" mode.

Patagonia furnishes a lot of clothing to the various armed forces- it's in camo or muted browns or greens. They do usually differ slightly from their civilian counterparts- generally a tad bit heavier, but usually a little beefier. At first you could get some really good steals on Houdini's, Micro Puff's, DAS's, Capilene, various hardshells, etc, but seems like lately a handful of folks on ebay have purchased up a lot of stock and are charging premium prices :(

Michael,

I'm a hunter and backpacker as well. My experience has been that I prefer camo for the most part when archery hunting, but don't consider it a need when rifle hunting. That said, it is much cheaper to use the high tech backpacking clothing you already own, and cover it with a lightweight mesh ASAT leafy suit when you want camo.

The most comfortable way I've found to carry a rifle is with a Gun Hook attached to a Paradox Pack (disclosure: I'm an owner of Paradox).

The gun hook allows you to sling the rifle over the top of the pack frame, and secures the butt to the waistbelt. Fast access, but really good weight transfer to the pack.

Nathan

LL BEAN has a pretty complete range of camo apparel, everything from lightweight poly to Windstopper fleece to camo baselayers to camo Gore-tex rain gear.

http://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/507929?mkwid=sAnYVo21b_dc&pcrid=46708482643&pkw=llbean%20hunting&pmt=e&qs=3107516_google#/llb/shop/506557?gnrefine=1*FTRS*Camouflage&nav=ln-507932&thumbType=0

I would seriously consider the lightweight NO FLY ZONE camo shirt and camo pants. Lightweight, quick-drying hiking gear in camo patterns. The NO FLY ZONE is Bean's name for factory permethrin treatment, so that stuff is going to repel ticks, skeeters, and flies. The shirt is a standard collared hiking/travel shirt. The pants are convertible zip-off to shorts polyester hiking pants.

Not cheap, but not ridiculous

The UnderArmor fleece beanie that reverses from camo on one side to blaze orange on the other would be useful purchase. As would the camo long sleeve polyester baselayer top — similar to a lightweight PowerDry fabric. That would be great hunting "t-shirt"

Under Armor makes a whole line of camo stuff, most of it in a choice of two camo patterns. They've got compression base layers, polyester fleece hoodies, and so on and so forth. Not cheap, but not insane.

http://www.underarmour.com/shop/us/en/ua-hunting

I second the ASAT Leafy setup.

You can wear just about anything (including layering) below it, though I used browns and greens and it's very very light weight mesh. I've often time hunted in baselayers on hot days since you cannot see through it enough to notice. =)

The one thing I haven't sorted is lightweight quiet raingear. It can go under the leafy but I haven't found anything which is lightweight and yet quiet enough for stalking in. Maybe the "right answer" is just a Nikwax'd wool/fleece layer unless it's REALLY coming down in which case noise won't matter anyways.

-mox

Mountain hunting, yes Sitka was the first one to make high-end camo stuff. There's a few now though.

Top Tier:
Sitka
Kuiu – no retail presence, online only, as good or better than Sitka quality, cheaper than Sitka (except if you are in Canada, duty KILLS you)

Mid-Tier:
Core4Element – quality below the top 2, but still better than Cabelas stuff, way cheaper than top 2, they come up on Camofire.com a lot for very good prices
Kryptek – Good gear, but debatable whether it would be considered as lightweight mountain hunting gear

Lower-Tier:
Tons of stuff here, including Cabelas house brands and traditional camo stuff. Not that it's bad gear, just not 'technical' gear, and definitely not the best choice for mountain hunting.

Long story short. Sitka is great quality, great warranty, but priced as a "statement", kind of like Arcteryx.
Kuiu is amazing serious mountain gear. This is the best price point if you are very serious about mountain hunting but don't really care if people see you in the 'optifade' sitka pattern, probably 30% less than Sitka on average.

C4E is great gear, definitely lesser quality than the top 2, but usually under half the price. Great gear to buy for the mountain hunter on a budget, or a guy who is upgrading from low-level hunting clothes for one hunt per year.

The rest of the stuff, well, it's what most people wear. It's functional, it works. It's better than jeans.

I own a few pieces of each, but it's usually just as good to buy normal backpacking clothing in dull colors and use that (after a good washing in hunting-specific soap and a week in a garbage bag with a bunch of tree branches). Seems silly to double up too much. Wear your normal technical gear, buy a Sitka 90% or a Kuiu Guide jacket, wear that on top when you need to. Wear brown pants.

Also… holy hell man, get a new rifle. 9 freakin pounds is crazy!!! You don't need a 5 lbs RMR, but it's not hard to get to 7 with $1,500 or so.

I know I'm hijacking a bit here but I have to throw my two cents in on the smell issue. I have two issues. First is that out west unless you are bow hunting you'll probably rarely be close enough to game for them to smell you before a shot. It's not like we're up in deer stands waiting for them to walk by. Maybe some are able to do this, but no one I know can.

Second is more about the ideas of covering up the scent. I read a test conducted a few years ago in one of the hunting magazines about scent blocking and removal. Basically they used a drug sniffing dog to find where a person was. They set up a field with a number of large crates and placed people inside each one. then right before the dog was released, they pulled everyone off the field except for one person. They then timed how long it took for the dog to find the individual among the crates.

They started the trial with everything from street clothes all the way up to multi-layered scent-blocking clothing, scented sprays and even had the individual take a scent-removal shower. The result: The longer the test went on the faster the dog found it's target, regardless of the clothing used. Times here were measured in seconds. (They attributed this to the dog just getting excited and having more fun with the game as they went on.)

I'm not saying that the scent obfuscation techniques used here aren't beneficial but after I read that test my faith in all of the scent blocking products and techniques out there was greatly diminished.

Hike your own hike and hunt your own hunt, but like the many marketting gimmicks we see with backpacking gear, not everything you see or read may be as amazing as it is portrayed.
/hijack

I think the scent-blocking or camoing thing is rather silly as well. Doping the wind properly is the beginning, end and middle.

Mike,

I think the suggestion of wearing camp over our gear has pros and cons.

PRO-> protection of your shell clothing Less expensive than new GTX parka and pants

CON-> without a good DWR treatment it will block the breathability of any waterproof/breathable shell underneath.

I just wear Gore-Tex camp parka and pants when hunting.

BTW. I have a .300 Win. mag. Browning Stainless Stalker A-Bolt with a BOSS muzzle brake. If'n I lived on Kodiak Island I might even want a .338 Win. Mag. with 220 grain bullets. I've seen the photos of the monster bears there. Their heads are enormous.

Nathan – I use the Kifaru Gun-bearer with my Kifaru Long Hunter pack frame. It allows me to leave the sling off if I choose and the rifle is handy for shooting. I have three times shot deer standing with my pack on because they appeared suddenly out of the alders.

My trusty rifle has bagged 2 goats, 3 elk, and numerous Sitka black-tail deer. It is stainless steel with composite stock which is necessary for the marine environment in which I hunt. The extra weight is worth it. And only $1500 to lose a few pounds……hmmmmm

I read the very same article which pretty much persuaded me to not pay the extra money for scent blocking clothing. However, I hunt varied terrain in the mountains of the Kodiak Archipelago and have definitely observed game spooked by detected scent – at least as far I could best determine. I am generally a successful hunter and I attribute part of that to preparation, stealth (in all respects), observation (excellent optics), and the rest…..luck.