Written By: Zach Miller
"If there is something to say about proper camouflage and duck hunting it's that people mess it up far too often. When I attended the U.S. Army Sniper School at Ft. Benning, GA there is one thing I can say… they taught us a thing or two on how to camouflage. Even before I went to the schoolhouse it always amazed me how people I would hunt with would either have too much going on or too little and it would make a huge difference in the end. So where do we start?"
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Sgt. Zach Miller, 2014 |
There is no 1 piece of attire that can make an individual disappear by donning it. I have seen people wearing literal ghillie suits in a duck blind that is made of ply-wood. If there is one thing to learn it is to understand your environment and the backdrop of your attacker, in this case… the birds! They taught us that the ghillie suit aided considerably with breaking up an outline before applying natural vegetation. Let me break that down one more time, camouflage in the sense of attire, is designed to break up the wearer's outline, period.
Without going down a rabbit hole of the make-up and design of a ghillie suit, let's apply our real world scenarios. How many times have you seen someone with Max-5 (Realtree) camo from head to toe…in a swamp where there is nothing that matches that background. Another analogy is, how many times have you seen someone wearing a Sitka grid-style pattern in a layout boat. The answer is far too often, now I know what you're thinking, Zach camo is pricey and it’s all I’ve got. You are right and I get it, but for the sake of this article, we're going to forget that.
Know Your Environment
When it comes to the attire, it all starts before the hunt. If I am hunting in a swamp and I’m hugging a tree for 95% of that hunt, you better believe I’m choosing a darker and more tree-like camo. If I am working layout boats on the water, I am using a gray or solid gray pattern/color. Once again, if I am in a corn field, yep… you guessed it…CORN STALKS. Before you start slamming the beers the night prior, get your camo in check.
Apply Natural Vegetation
In Sniper School we had a strict rule, when going through our stalking lanes you must stick to the 70/30 rule. 30% artificial vegetation aka your ghillie suit with face paint and 70% natural vegetation aka the literal ground around you. There was a phrase the instructors used to say before we would start our stalk lanes “Men, you know what Jute (the hairy stuff on a ghillie suit) looks like under a scope?...D*mn JUTE! VEG IT UP!” Take a wild guess who had to do his stalk lane over again because of this… yep this author. Another great rule for this concept is to never take vegetation from your direct backdrop, always fan out and gather from similar vegetation so as to not ruin your current backdrop.
"Jute...looks like jute... as seen here"
Know Your Attacker
Ducks are extremely keen on movement, so stay still when it comes to you in the backdrop. What the title means is know what they’ll be seeing when they fly over or drop in for a test fly-by. If you have a great setup and everyone is “vegged up” to the nines but your buddy Nick has a bald spot shining like the sun…it will flare (scare) the birds as they fly over. The same can be said for if they are in a blind off the shore and the birds are coming in close but all they see is Kieth’s bright shining face before they drop into the decoy spread. Ask me how I know all these scenarios… When you think you are all set and are about to dive into that fresh bag of gummy worms, ask yourself, what will the ducks see?
Photo Courtesy of: FishHunt Outdoors, 2023
Face Paint Or Not?
How many times have you seen those folks with these ridiculous designs on their face that hold zero value to concealing your face, the answer is too often. I will say this… it made for a great social media post! Let's be real here, face paint is tricky and most folks get it wrong or simply don't do it. One of the most uncommon colors found in nature is… black. What is the number one selling face paint color… black. The human face is tricky, Sniper School taught us to lighten up the dark spots and darken up the raised spots. A Lot of time this meant going with a light tan around the eyes and dark green on the jaw and cheek bones. No, I promise this isn’t a Maybelline commercial. My point here is, facepaint is great if done correctly. Or, take out the hassle and just buy a proper face cover/neck gaiter.
Photo Courtesy of: National Guard Marksmanship Training, 2023
In conclusion, camo will change 20 times in the time it took me to write this and you will always get a different opinion on it. Manufacturers will sell you any pattern and tell you it is ground breaking meanwhile we were literally sewing old duffle bags onto our ghillie suits and it got us a pass on evaluation day. While we have only scratched the surface of camo basics, this will be more than sufficient in the duck blind. Trust your gut, don’t get suckered by brands and be resourceful.
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