Sorry that I did not respond sooner but I was off and on in terms of visiting the forums during that time period. To address the question at hand......

As I stated, I do think that ASAT, Predator, etc.. work well under a variety of conditions. It does not take a brain surgeon to recognize that fact. However I feel that their light color areas can work against you as easily as some of the darker patterns can in "lighter" areas. Case in point, I picked up an ASAT leafy outfit last November and used it for the end of our regular archery season. In four out of six situations where I had deer within shooting range they picked me out like a sore thumb. After much deliberation the only explanation which seemed plausible was the background I had put myself in front of.

A thick stand of pines was what I am referring to and/or anything that is dark and solid in color/shape. It is the only explanation as I was downwind from the animals and was not moving in a stand which was approximately 15 feet off of the ground.

With all due respect to those that use it (or any other camo pattern for that matter), pictures provided to illustrate the effectiveness are only two dimensional and do not really give a total "picture" of what camo really does look like out there in the deer woods. Granted, open patterns do look more effective up in a treestand where it is likely that open patches of sky may be the background but not all of the backgrounds one will find out there are representative of a light/dark contrast.

Now, many of you will say that the light/dark contrast of the pattern itself does, in and of itself, break up the human outline and I do agree with that, however, it still needs to be placed in the correct "context" to be as effective as it was designed.

To illustrate this point, I would ask anyone that has an open pattern design (leafy or otherwise) to do a little experiment for me. Climb up in a treestand in front of a stand of pines or other dark background and have someone take a picture of you up there....in regular sunlight preferably. Use color and/or black and white if you prefer. Then post them. I would be interested to see the results.

Again, my intent is not to challenge the effectiveness of open patterns in a variety of situations but rather to point out that conventional patterns can and do work well in specific situations.