Fred Bear, one of the driving forces behind modern bowhunting said the best camouflage is to “Sit down and be quiet”. We have heard this said, now does this advice seem to match the truth in practice? If so, does it work only against beast or is its viable against man too?
After several decades of chasing beast and man through the great outdoors, I say absolutely it holds true. When I began hunting as a kid, I didn’t have a lot in the way of camouflage. I spent a lot of time in the forest hunting in street clothes. Blue jeans until the weather turned and I wore coveralls and whatever t-shirt or coat I had depending on the weather. I dressed for the Midwest weather. I quickly learned the best way to see anything was to find a spot where animals hung out and sit down up against a tree. If I could remain silent for 15 or 20 minutes, then forest forget I had come crashing through and would come alive with its flurry of activity. Especially in the fall when squirrels are everywhere storing their nuts for winter. I had even had squirrels hope across my outstretched foot before noticing I was there.
On afternoon I was bow hunting along a trail in-between a standing corn field and a section of timber. I couldn’t find a good place to sit, so I found a spot to stand next to few trees. After waiting for a few hours, I saw a big ole’ fat racoon waddling down the trail I was watching. Not the deer I was hoping for, but fun to watch, nevertheless. Well, that huge coon turns right in front of me and walks to a tree about five feet away, where he starts to climb up it! What was going on here? How could he not see me, and why this tree?? Well, he gets to about my head height and turns his big ole” masked head and looks right at the skinny kid staring dumbfounded back at him.
In what seemed like slow motion, the wheels in the coon’s head seemed to turn until it finally registered, “Oh crap! This goofy looking person isn’t supposed to be here!” All four feet went flying in different directions, while it momentarily remained suspended in the air like a cartoon character. Only to hit the ground with a thud and tearing off like its hair was on fire!
Now I may have been breaking the tenet of “Sit Down” but I promise you I had “Be quiet” locked in and I was not moving. So, while I may not have followed Fred’s advice to the letter, I was abiding in spirit, and his advice very much worked.
What about people? People also primarily see movement, yes, they register things like color, shine, shape, silhouette, noise, etc. One of my favorite examples of how the lack of movement really can keep a person from being seen. While in the Border Patrol I was playing the role of Opposing Forces (OpFor), or simply I was pretending to be an illegal alien, and for agents doing tracking training. I was maybe two hundred yards ahead of the guy chasing me and I went over a hill, the landscape rolled into a gully and went back up another hill. I saw a decent trail running through the gully. Running down into the gully, I left some fat tracks and made sure I dug in going up the next side. I then back tracked carefully about 10 yards and found some hard ground to hop on going up the gully perpendicular to the trail. As I turned into the gully, I could see the guy tracking me coming over the hill, he must have seen me and ran to catch up. I ducked down, using the hill for cover and was able to creep about 15 yards up bottom of the gully and sit down near some brush.
Unfortunately, I was still in full view of the trail. So, I sat still and waited, he followed my trail down the gully and started up the other side I could see him as he got to where my trail ended but he continued on. My ruse had worked!
I was truly dumbfounded he didn’t see me, but he was so focused on the trail that he didn’t look up and around. I am certain if I had moved, he would have seen me, but I didn’t and that is all it took.
So, the lesson is twofold, stay still and you are probably safe. Secondly, you need to be looking around! Something interesting might just be sitting under your nose. Which is an important learning point for a tracker. keeping your eyes glued to dirt and you miss a lot.
-Joseph
Meme as found on the internet.
Outpost 95 