Last spring I walked across a field in the early
morning light with the intentions of setting up in the corner for turkeys. Unfortunately, another hunter beat me to the
spot. I saw him from almost two hundred
yards away. A big dark blob hunkered
down in the tree line. From that
distance, with the sun just beginning to peek over the horizon, his camouflage
clothing looked as black as a bear’s hide.
And if I could see him so easily, then a sharp-eyed tom was sure to pick
him out as well.
Why he was so noticeable was twofold. First of all, the clothing he wore contained
no green, despite the fact that he was set up along the edge of a grassy
field. And second, the camo he was
wearing contained lots of leaves and might have worked just fine in archery
season when, say, he was perched twenty feet high in a treestand. However, even then, sometimes camo clothing
isn’t nearly as effective as it could be because many of those same leafy
patterns also contain “ghost shadows.”
When sunlight falls directly onto camouflage that
has built-in shadows, it makes those shadows appear even darker, almost
black. That kind of camouflage tends to
work best under specific situations, such as when you have the woods canopy as
a backdrop.
Natural Gear is a camouflage manufacturer who does
not use these ghost shadows in their patterns.
All of their patterns have open, broad-based tones slightly more pale or
grayish in appearance. The reason for
this is that plenty of shadows already exist in nature. Why add more?
If you’re wearing a camo pattern that blends in well with your
surroundings, the existing shadows found in nature will help you virtually
disappear.
Truly blending in with your surroundings isn’t all
about the type of pattern you wear, though.
It’s also about adding dimension and breaking up your outline, and
nothing does this better than Natural Gear’s 3-D Suit.
Several months ago I obtained a 3-D Suit from
Natural Gear (www.naturalgear.com) and
couldn’t wait to try it out. The 3-D
Suit is a lightweight garment that easily slips over top of any other clothing
you wear. What a difference it
made!
I spent an evening watching a food plot to see if
any deer would come out to feed. Three
does appeared just before dark and worked their way toward me. They didn’t stop until they were literally
feeding on the grass next to my boots…and they never knew I was there! The next week I had two hen turkeys do the
same thing, with the same results.
I’ve always preferred 3-D camo over “regular”
camo. The tiny imitation leaves sewn
around the edges do a great job of breaking up my outline and helping me to
blend in with any ground cover I find.
And when I’m hunting out of a tree stand, they mix well with the leaves
already present in the canopy. A 3-D
suit with lots of earth tones – and no ghost shadows – is the ultimate
camouflage for hunters. Which is to say,
of course, that I think Natural Gear’s 3-D Suit is the best I’ve seen on the
market.
It’s ideal for those hunters who get home from work
and have only a short time to get to their stands for that last bit of
daylight. The whole 3-D Suit can be
slipped into in less than a minute. Wear
any type of clothes you want underneath, it doesn’t matter. The actual suit is made out of a durable yet
ultra-thin fabric. The pants and bottom half of the jacket have a mesh interior
lining that totally camouflages whatever clothes you’re already wearing.
Natural Gear’s 3-D Suit is also perfect for early
season hunting, when the weather in most regions is still quite warm. The mesh allows for great air circulation and
is practically weightless. Later in the
season, when the weather cools down, the 3-D Suit has enough stretch to comfortably
fit over heavier garments and hunting jackets.
Another positive quality of Natural Gear’s 3-D Suit
is that it’s very packable. The
lightweight nature of the fabric can be easily compressed into a size not much
bigger than a softball. Try doing that
with any of the other camouflage suits on the market!
Natural Gear’s line of camouflage has open,
broad-based tones meant to match just about every situation you’ll encounter in
the woods. As previously mentioned,
their patterns contain no ghost shadows, which means their camouflage works
just as good in the shade as it does in full sunlight.
It’s the most versatile camouflage I’ve ever
owned. Try Natural Gear’s 3-D Suit and
see if you don’t agree.
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