joshtribe

I'm a relatively unexperienced deer hunter who really wants to learn more about how to successfully hunt deer. Yup, I'm a newbie but ya gotta start somewhere right?

I just wanted to ask some of you pros out there...how much camouflage apparel is enough when crossbow hunting from a tree stand? Because I'm hunting on a budget, I didn't want to go out and spend over a hundred dollars on one of those scent-locking state-of-the-art body suits, so I purchased a long-sleeved camo t-shirt to wear over my regular brown Carhart coveralls. In addition to this, I'm also planning on wearing a camo face mask, camo gloves, and camo knee-high rubber boots. The only region not camouflaged would be from my knees to my waist, which would be Carhart brown.

Should I invest in a pair of camo insulated pants or am I sufficiently outfitted?

Thanks.

kevin1

Define enough ...

It sounds like you have a good start , but some situations will call for different clothing .

Is your present outfit warm enough for Winter ?

Does it match the conditions of every area that you hunt ?

Are all of the pieces the same pattern ?

Do you plan to hunt out of state ?

If you answered "No" more than once you probably need to go shopping .

JagMagMan

I like Realtree, and Mossy Oak camo. That said, in MOST situations the type of camo is mostly over done! So are the expensive "scent-free suits!
Good old G.I. camo works well for 99% of hunting, and good personal hygiene and a little baking soda are just as good, and a lots cheaper than scent-free suits!

joshtribe

My mask, gloves, and t-shirt that I'll plan to wear over my coveralls are all Mossy Oak. I do have some old G.I. camo pants I could wear, but is it wrong to mix two different types of camo?

About the scent issue, I purchased scent-free soap and scent minimizing spray for my clothes and equipment. So I think I'm covered there. When I'm setting up my tree stand, should I spray the bottom of my boots and my gloves as well as the stand with the scent minimizing spray or is that a little fanatical or something?

mlang

Staying down wind and not moving while your hunting are much more important. Camo can help but IMHO it's not all that important. For instance, last week, I shot another doe, she was with a large forky when I shot her at about 20 yards. She went down, the buck ran off, I was sure she was dead but I was going to wait a little while just to be safe. I took my coat, hat, gloves, and coveralls off while I was getting ready to go dress her out. I heard something off to my side so I grabbed my gun, I had one permit left and still hadn't gotten a shot at the buck I was chasing durring bow season. It was that same forky and he slowly walked by about 10 yards away. Remember I had taken all my camo off, So I was standing upright not anywhere close to any cover and wearing my jeans and bright blue sweatshirt, and he only glanced at me once. I have had this same type of thing happen more than once over the years. So, I would say unless you have some money burning a hole in your pocket, you should be good to go.

Mike01

All I use is a camo jacket hat and gloves. I have a pair of greenish/tan pants and that about does it for me. Most of the time I'm hunting from a ground blind thouh, which pretty much covers up my pants anyhow. Since You'll be in a tree stand, what you have is probably more then sufficent.

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woody7

for less than five bucks you can buy a spray bottle of scent killer. spray a little on your clothes, boots AND hat. Put them in a trash bag overnight and be STILL while hunting. You can hunt in just about any clothing other than solid white (unless it snows) and do well. The camo thing is secondary to fooling the nose of a deer. Their eyesight in my experience is good at picking out movement and not stationary objects.

hillbillyhunter1

these guys are right on about smell being the thing. And if you are using one particular stand--I would spray the hell out of it and yourself (especially exposed hair and skin) and still hope for the right wind. Movement and human noises being second most important--Use slow--SLOW--deliberate moves. and avoid any metallic sounds (ex. tree stand creaking) and coughing if possible (I use the cough silencer--no I don't). Be absolutley sure of your target before you aim that thing, make sure your strapped into that tree. Be careful w/that thing in the tree--lot more self inflicted broadhead wounds then gun wounds. You'll be fine.
HB

joshtribe

Thank you all for your advise.

I got my stand put up yesterday. Our shotgun season starts in 5 days, so I probably should have had it up a week or so ago to give the deer time to get used to it. I was careful to make sure were no metal parts that would bang around and make noise. I also purchased a bottle of Carbon Scent Shield without realizing that it turns everything black! The sprayer on the bottle was defective, so I have to transfer the spray to another bottle and go back and spray the stand today. I don't know about spraying it on my clothes though. They say it is ok to spray it on the inside but won't the carbon turn the underclothes black? I saw a recipe on here for a homemade scent blocker; maybe I'll give it a try.

You are right about safety being a big concern in a tree stand. My stand came with a body harness, so when I'm up there I'll be strapped to the tree at all times. I always take extreme cautions when dealing with loaded weapons, and I always clearly identify my target before shooting. To many people get hurt because of haste or carelessness, I'm not going to become a statistic.

Slow bodily movements are the key eh? The only time I've gone deer hunting was 3 years ago with my brother. I didn't have a license, so I was just tagging along with the camera. This was his first hunt as well. We got the bright idea to sit on top of a stick pile smack dab in the middle of their trail. It was getting late in the day, and we were getting tired of scanning the horizon for any signs of life. Then, directly behind us, we heard sticks snapping in the woods. Slooooowly we turned our heads and came face to face with an 8-point buck. For about 5 minutes (at least it seemed that long), nobody moved, we just stared each other down. My brother was shaking like a leaf as he slooooowly tried to swing the shotgun around and turn his body slightly in order to get a shot. That was enough to send the buck thundering back into the woods to live another day. That's never going to happen again by golly. This year we will have the tree stand and a homemade blind, along with camo and more attention payed to scent concerns. Oh...here is the rest of the story. The wind was blowing our scent straight at the buck. As a scent blocker, we had smeared doe urine all over our Carharts and hats. That buck must have thought we smelled sexy...haha.