Camo or movement

[emusmacker]

Which is more important in hunting situations, good camo or movement?

[tradwannabe]

no movement.if you move in camo, it's too late-they're gone.

[tradwannabe]

oops, before that even---smell. if you're upwind....welllll that's why they call it hunting and not just shooting.

[Jerry Jeffer]

You don't need camo, but movement is critical.

[Ru]

movement!  ...Don't move...

[woodslinger]

Movement.

[MJB]

MOVEMENT

[Seeking Trad Deer]

If you want to learn a lot of new research on camo get the next two issues of Predator Xtreme.

[BobW]

same answer as I put on LW - camo is used to cover movement - movement (or lack there-of) is critical.

[Rick P]

Depends on the situation and the species. While I agree that camo covers your movement it also brakes up and hides the human form. Fro example you can hunt moose in a bright yellow leisure suit as long as you don't move. Try that with a Dall Sheep and you'll be busted from a mile away whether your moving or not.

[LKH]

I once shot a three point muley as it rose from it's bed at about 8 feet.  I was wearing a blue and white plaid shirt, bluejeans and no face paint.  I just never let it catch me moving.

[emusmacker]

I believe camo is more important, reason is let me give a situation, 2 hunters are in a duck blind, on is fully clothed in camo the other is wearing hunter orange. which hunter will cause the ducks to spook, remember both hunters are dead still? Deer are color blind, and camo will hide movement, if you move slowly and deliberately you can get away with it, but if you move and the colors are contrasing the deer will notice. Yes deer are color blind but they still see shades.

[Jeremy]

Sorry mate, contrast is exactly what you want in a camo - lights and darks over large areas to break up your outline.  Most of today's camo is far too dark - you look like a blob to the deer from a distance.  Birds see colors; deer see in shades of gray - there is no color contrast just grayscale (with a little bit of UV thrown in).

Movement is key.

[Dartwick]

The question rests on a false dichotomy.

If you dance around the the forest, the best camo in the world wont help you.
But proper camo can save you from being noticed when you move carefully - although sometimes proper camo is just a plaid shirt and brown pants.

[electric blues]

Camo can work on stupid animals. I've crawled on all fours up to bow range on a 4 pointer before he spooked. In an open field no less. Its about not letting them see your profile, a human profile.

On an experinced buck however, no ammount of camo will save you. The old bugger didnt get that way from being stupid. Thats why indians never needed camo, but I would bet a years pay they were better hunters than any of us. Movement is everything

[One eye]

Movement

[Bjorn]

Movement is it. Camo helps with shape and silhouette. But never makes up for staying still.

[Montyc]

Movement for sure.  I have had deer walk to  within 3 feet of me, look directly at me, smell me, and not be botherd as long as I did not move.  Once you move they are gone!

[emusmacker]

All answers are appreciated, and alyhogh I still think camo is more important I'm not making light of movement. I've been busted many time for moving and also I've crawled on all fours to within some deer too, and they just keep eating, I'm not sure if they were stupid but one of them was filmed by video camera and he was a nice 9 pointer that we had been watchun for the last 3SEASONS. I hunt pretty hard and I kill my share of deer and my decision that camo is more important is from 20 plus years of hunting, and not just deer but turkeys and ducks. Movement is a very,very close second to camo, afterall nature made camo famous before we did. Also, Indians did camoflage themselves, oftentimes taking the deer hide and covering themselves with it to appear like a deer. And guess what many times they would walk right up on them to within 10 yards.  They must have only hunted stupid deer though!

[Dave Bulla]

They go together...

The best camo in the world won't help you if you continue to move after a deer picks you off.  

Where camo "helps" (IMO) is not in actually hiding movement but in confusing or fooling an animal after you are spotted.  Usually because you moved.  If the movement stops because you relize you were picked off and you froze still the deer may have enough trouble putting your shape together into something recognized that it will decide you are not a danger.  The ability to get away with movment is still directly proportional to the age of the deer and the amount of hunting pressure in the area.  Ya might fool a yearling 2 or 3 times in 5 minutes but not a wise old doe or big buck.  Good camo will make it harder for a deer to distinguish your shape WHEN YOU ARE STILL.  The crazy peak of the rut may make a buck ignore you completely(we can only hope eh?).  But hang a stand in a bare tree with no cover in the middle of a field or somewhere you are skylined and most deer will spot you.  Even then though, staying absolutely motionless MAY fool a deer into going about it's business.  But even if a deer seemed to relax after looking at you and you get a shot there is a good chance the deer will react quicker to the sound of the bow than if it was totally relaxed and never saw you in the first place.  

If you are not wearing any camo but choose a stand with background cover to break up your outline and don't move when a deer can see you, you will likely get just as many shots as a guy wearing camo.

Personally, I wear it because it gives me more confidence.  Plus, I hunt public land and don't want other hunters to see me unless I want them to.

Heck, talking about why a deer spooks, eye contact is probably as likely to spook a deer as movement.  I've messed around trying to walk up on deer in open fields in the summer and by always quartering on a tack that appeared to take me past a deer and not looking right at them or crouching like a predator I've zig zagged into bow range of quite a few.  Out of season of course....  Usually I look everywhere but at their head and do stupid stuff like shake a hand near my side like a deer shakes it's tail and sometimes shake my head to flick bugs away.  Thirty yards is pretty easy to get to and twenty can be done but the instant you square your body to the deer and look it in the eye, it's gone like it was hit with a cattle prod!