Predator Camo- which pattern to buy?
 

I'm looking into buying some new camo after this season, but I'm not sure on which Predator Pattern will work the best for me. I mostly hunt open hardwoods. I want to buy one that will work early season through late. I don't want to buy two different patterns.

Thanks..

RE: Predator Camo- which pattern to buy?
 

The only two I'd wear year round is Fall Brown and Deception, you can hunt from second season, through spring gobbler, early archery through fall. I wouldn't do that in Spring Green nor Fall Grey. IMO.

RE: Predator Camo- which pattern to buy?
 

Rory,
I was this close to getting some Predator this year, but I held off. Like you I was wanting one suit that would work pretty much all the time.

I was going to order Brown Deception.

RE: Predator Camo- which pattern to buy?
 

Thanks for the input guys.
Also Rob, I completely forgot about using it spring turkey hunting as well. Thanks.

I'll do as much research as I can, and hopefully have some by spring turkey season....

RE: Predator Camo- which pattern to buy?
 

Predator is anice pattern and if you can buy several sets you can cover the entire season. If your still not sold on the pattern, check out www.Ultimatecamo.com for a singularcolor and pattern that looks just as good inany foilage. The only constant we have in the woods is the Tree itself

RE: Predator Camo- which pattern to buy?
 

i REALLY love the looks of fall brown...some deception looks great, but others will agree, it almost needs hand picked or you can get some thats too "blobby" and not so open....

i got a light weight fall gray set...im sure the deer would never notice me....but its a confidence thing...i FEEL like i stick out like a sore thumb....think i only wore it once or twice..only time id feel comfortable in gray would be snowy times...just me though....im very confident to the deer that youd be about as invisible as it gets in that stuff...

RE: Predator Camo- which pattern to buy?
 

Mossy Oak;)

RE: Predator Camo- which pattern to buy?
 

Rory,

Take a look at this link; I think you'll find it very helpful: http://www.huntingnet.com/forum/tm.aspx?m=2399285&mpage=1&key=predator%2cp ics&#2399285

If you have any further questions, please let me know.

RE: Predator Camo- which pattern to buy?
 

Barkdoesn't change colors... so why should you?

RE: Predator Camo- which pattern to buy?
 

Greg, thanks for the link. But the fall grey looks too light-colored for late season, do you think the more light-colored
a pattern is, the less it tends to blob?
They both look great early season, but I'd love to hear about them late season as well.

RE: Predator Camo- which pattern to buy?
 

I've got the Predator Deception and i don't think you can go wrong with it , it does a great job of blending in almost anywhere .

RE: Predator Camo- which pattern to buy?
 

Absolutely, Rory.

You've got to keep in mnd what your background is as a deer looks UP to you from ground level. It's mostly a very whitish, hazy blue, greyish mixture with whatever cover you happen to be in that breaks it up. That's the reason that photo-realistic patterns with intricate details turn into a blob so quickly when you move them out past arm's length and you view them out away from the tree trunk.

To work well in ANY season, but especially late season, a pattern has to have a preponderance of very light, open patterns broken up with dark contrasting blotches. I've said itbefore, but a light blob's a blob just the same as a dark blob; you need both for the pattern to effectively break up the human outline. The key is for the areas of contrasting colors to be large enough so they don't "melt together" at a distance of more than 20 feet.

Take a look at this picture... I know the person who took it, and have conversed with him many times about it. It's NOT doctored in any shape, and was taken with a simple 35 mm camera; I think you'll see it proves my point very well:



There's simply no other pattern that can obliterate the human outline that well amidst the lack of cover provided in that photo, and that's as late-season as it gets. You HAVE to have the open, geometric chunks mixed in to erase the human outline, and they have to be very light colored -- because that's what your background is.

RE: Predator Camo- which pattern to buy?
 

I'd go w/ Deception or fall brown.

I've found fall grey is only good in late season w/ no leaves, and works great in the snow. Otherwise it has to much white for early season... The deer notice that color!

RE: Predator Camo- which pattern to buy?
 

Fall Gray works great ANYTIME of year. One of the best patterns ever made. It is not too light for early season IMO. Here is why. Go into the woods and look-up. What do you see, even with a full canopy? Well, lot's of leaves and some sky. When you are wearing Fall Gray in the early season, the leaves of the canopy are blocking you as much as the trees, sky, etc... You don't glow, considering that deer only see shades anyway - you just look like "nothing" up in the trees. I wear it year-around, that's what makes the pattern the BEST, and all the others (except for Intrusion Treeline) just very well advertised and marketed blob camo that doesn't break any outline.

RE: Predator Camo- which pattern to buy?
 

I beg to differ, and this only comes from experience. You have to think about the terrain. I was wearing fall grey once, it was mid fall so leaves had turned but not started to fall en mass. I had a young doe about 75 yrds out, due to the terrian we were more at eye level, than looking up. she definately was alarmed by the white in the pattern.

That said I still like the pattern, you just have to consider the circumstances and I wouldnt use it right now... its still green. but I'll be wearing deception tonight.

RE: Predator Camo- which pattern to buy?
 

I respectfully disagree; deer can pick you off for a number of reasons, Ed... and to saythat one deer picking you off in one instancefrom 75 yards out due to the light-colored blotches in the pattern is a stretch to me. If that was the case, deer wouldn't be able to leave their beds because their whole world is made up of light-colored blotches liike that -- especially when looking above ground level.

We have at our disposal a plethora of vision studies with the best scientific guesses of how a whitetail can see, and none of them point to white as the one color they can see. Quite the opposite is usually true, as most authorities believe they live in a world of shades, and one that a mixture of light, open and contrastingblocks would virtually disappear in -- from a visual perspective. Add in movement, scent or any number of things and the game changes.

Also, to reiterate a point I've made on several occasions, and one Todd obviously concurs with as well... Let's think about this for a moment: if Fall Gray is universally accepted and deemed as one of the best late-season patterns ever created -- if not THE best -- it would only stand to reason that it would be JUST as effective if partially hidden behind a canopy of leaves. Take a great camo pattern, add in big clumps of leaves between the wearer and the target, and it only becomes HARDER to see -- not easier.

RE: Predator Camo- which pattern to buy?
 

Dude, we have deer look up at us all the time! Doesn't mean they know what you are, and will blow and ruin a hunt. When 4-1/2 year old bucks or older look up at me and my cameraman - know something isn't right - and go back to business; I consider that a success!

I used to huntaround alot of pine trees onpublic landback in Michigan. One of the first times I went hunting up there wearing Predator;like 9 or 10 years agao, I had a small buck nail me against the dark pines cause I was in the open, not a branch in the tree, against abig cedar that was DARK. He knew something wasn't right, and boogied.

The difference between wearing Predator and any other camo is that you may spook adeer or two a year compared to a few dozen. That's the way I look at it anyway. I hunt everyday in a TON of different properties / terrain. If I had to chose one pattern, it would be fall gray. That's what this guy is asking, what one pattern is the best?

I wear spring green for the first couple weeks usually - only becauseI have it in unlined wolfskin. It works great for the summer and early-early season. After that - the other 95% of my hunting season,it's fall gray for me baby!

RE: Predator Camo- which pattern to buy?
 

Thanks guys, I'm taking a long, hardlook at the fall grey now. I went to the Predator website, and didn't see a fall brown though. Do they make it anymore?

RE: Predator Camo- which pattern to buy?
 

They dont make any fall brown anymore.

I was lucky enough to get a pair of coveralls for my wife in their bargin cave last year.

She just layers up under them, and can use the pattern for anything we hunt!

RE: Predator Camo- which pattern to buy?
 

The only place you can still purchase Fall Brown at is www.graywolfwoolens.com

GWW's Fall Gray, however, is a good in-between as far as the "typical" Fall Gray and Fall Brown. Its base coloration isn't nearly as "whitish" as it prints on Predator Camo's cotton material.

RE: Predator Camo- which pattern to buy?
 

I would say the colour of the pattern from Predator doesn't matter to the animals but the pattern colour form Predator matters to the hunter.. All of their patterns are equally effective but it makes perfect business sense to vary the colours of the patterns so that Predator sells 2 sets rather than one. And that is the only reason why there is a spring green and fall grey. For the hunter not the hunted.

I used fall gray for 5 years and we primarily are after elk on foot with archery and we are not in tree stands. Fall grey works really well on the ground too, we've had tons of elk come right up closeto us and on theoccasions where we were busted I couldn't blame the camo. Mostly from wind or stupid human noises. I am learning and if I thought it was the camo, I would have replaced. I have seen other hunters with fall grey in the field and it is effective. I have since bought a set from graywolf woolens in fall brown and wolf skin.. Nice to not be in cotton. So why did I get fall brown instead of grey? Well, for one, colour doesn't matter and what the hell.. Its still the pattern, not the colour. Fall grey in an aspen stand is the bomb.

RE: Predator Camo- which pattern to buy?
 

Yep, I ordered and just recieved Fall Brown from Jeff at Gray Wolf.

RE: Predator Camo- which pattern to buy?
 

Read this.

http://whitetail.com/camo1.html

RE: Predator Camo- which pattern to buy?
 

Greg, the "Wolfskin" is very expensive, but I'm not sure I have heard a bad thing about it. I remember you had a very detailed post about it a while back, but I can't find it. Do you think you could find that for me, or give me a spark notes version[8D];)

Sorry if I'm asking a lot of questions guys, I just want to do as much research as I can before I bite the bullet and buy a lot of new camo.

Thanks again guys!

[Deleted]
 

[Deleted by Admins]

RE: Predator Camo- which pattern to buy?
 

Here you go, Rory... this is probably the thread you're referring to. You will, however, have to weed through some of the nonsense (like posting a pic of one item and a description of another at a totally different price ;)) to get to some facts -- but it's probably the thread where I've given more behind-the-scenes details of GWW's operation than any other:

http://www.huntingnet.com/forum/tm.aspx?m=2956148&mpage=4&key=Gray%2cWolf& amp;#2957953

RE: Predator Camo- which pattern to buy?
 

Rory lol, did you see the comment you left one this thread. It's strange how our opinions can change. I remember saying I would keep my current bow for many years to come...now I'm ready to sell it off in a heartbeat:D

RE: Predator Camo- which pattern to buy?
 

That's it Greg, thanks. And I was actually planning on just reading your responses;)
Thanks again guys, I really appreciate it.

RE: Predator Camo- which pattern to buy?
 

http://www.blackfoot.com.au/

Check it out, an Ausie company thought Predator was good enough to copy...

RE: Predator Camo- which pattern to buy?
 

I know Will, but the more I think about it, the more I realize it will be well worth it in the end. Let's hope so anyway!;):D

RE: Predator Camo- which pattern to buy?
 

Just got a pair of insulated fall grey bibs for 49.99 usually $110 in their bargain basement I also wear evolution.

RE: Predator Camo- which pattern to buy?
 

2 more cents

Out of all of the manufacturers of open patterns, Predator by far has the most convincing ‘test photos’…. The rest don’t seem to do such a good job.. Not saying other competitors’ patterns don’t work, they just don’t convince me with their ‘test photos’.

Basically any camo works and looks convincing when your taking a picture of somebody behind foliage or 300 feet away..

At least Predator takes photos of their product in front of the foliage and branches and from a close distance.. All other ‘open pattern’ competitors have test photos with lots of foliage in front or take it at a distance where Carhartt’s would work just as fine.

RE: Predator Camo- which pattern to buy?
 

Any of these will work for you. :D

RE: Predator Camo- which pattern to buy?
 

FYI, there is no "white" in Predator Fall Gray. take a piece of white paper and hold it next to your camo and you will see a tremendous color difference.

Fall gray works extremely well on the ground as well as in the trees. these pictures show why. We all know that big game animals don't see color like we do. in their vision they greens in shades of gray just like the colors in fall gray. You can see in the pics that many of the leaves and trees actually look "brighter/lighter" than the lightest color on the fall gray pattern.

IMO fall brown may be a better pattern all around because of turkey vision, but for big game they both perform equally well.

One thing I've noticed in watching others wearing Predator or taking photos of it over the years, is that the lighter colors of the pattern will change color as the sunlight filters through the leaves. Iv'e seen fall gray and fall brown actually look like it has a green background. The natural lighting can play a huge roll in what animals see when they look at your camo. The dark blobby patterns just don't work as well.

RE: Predator Camo- which pattern to buy?
 

pics

RE: Predator Camo- which pattern to buy?
 

pics

RE: Predator Camo- which pattern to buy?
 

pics

RE: Predator Camo- which pattern to buy?
 

Have you ever seen the ASAT test photos? I have a Predator Deception Brown Fleece jacket & Predator Winter White Warp Knit Bibs and love them both. But man- you have to give props to ASAT for having a KILLER pattern that absolutely breaks up the human figure marvelously when worn in the bush- anywhere, any season.


In front of a rock faceout in the wide open


In direct sunlight next to a tree in a conifer stand


In scrub Alders / Dogwoods once leaves are down


Against a tree in the shade during early season


Can you even "see" the hunteramongst the birch/aspen & conifers in this photo?


On the ground in early season in the shade but out in the open


Rob

RE: Predator Camo- which pattern to buy?
 

Ok Jeff, enough with these "lies". I heard Bill Jordan say that Realtree "AP" was the most effective camo pattern ever created? Would the same man who sponsors a Nascar team, who currently makes MILLIONS by selling this "idea",and has HUNDREDS of licensing deals possibly lie to us like this?.

If any hunter can look at that last picture and honestly believe that this crap they are being sold by all these big names is true; well, then I guess keep using the blob stuff that all the "pros" use. I'm just a bowhunter who know's what works based 100% on in-the-field use, not expensive marketing campaigns!

RE: Predator Camo- which pattern to buy?
 

G-Dawg..

I like ASAT and I am not knocking the pattern, the only point I am making is that the Predator 'test shots' on their website has hunters in the photos that are much closer to the camera than ASAT or any other competitor and they are all standing in front of foliage, not behind it.. Forme that kind of marketing is more 'up front' (excuse the pun)and effective..

I am not commenting of the effectiveness of the other patterns, just the photos seem to hide more of the pattern and it should be the other way around...