EricD
(.416 member)
13/10/08 09:45 PM
Re: Camoflage Clothing in South Africa?

As a side note regarding colors and camo, when I was out hunting moose yesterday, I was acting as the doghandler. Therfore I was wearing a red fleece jacket, with a "hunting orange" vest, in addition to an orange cap on my head. Just so that none of the hunters sitting at various posts could mistake me for a moose.

Our dog Jega had found a cow with a calf, and was baying at them a few hundred meters away from my location. I silently moved towards them, and eventually was between 10-15 meters away from them. As there were several trees in the way, I was unable to get off a shot, in addition to the calv being right next to the cows side the whole time. So no clear shot was possible. After a few minutes the cow suddenly moved a few meters to the right, exposing me (I was kneeling with the rifle pointing at them). I held perfectly still, and it was clear that the cow was wondering what I was, and waiting to see if I moved. I didn't. Thus, it ended up with the cow moving a few more meters to the side, but not being spooked by me! The dog moved with them, and eventually the cow and calf moved down the hill towards a waiting hunter who was able to shoot the calf. What I find interesting though is that the moose cow did not recognize me as human even though I was at that time only 10 or so meters away, with it looking straight at me. And with enough orange and red on me for anybody to see me from a very long distance. So clearly, certain colors are not visible to these herbivores, even though our logic tells us that they would run at first sight of an orange clad man.

Ps. it is my experience that moose see movement very well when looking at you from the side. In other words, it may appear that the moose is staring in another direction, but it is in fact looking at you to see if there is any movement.



Contact Us NitroExpress.com

Powered by UBB.threads™ 6.5.5


Home | Ezine | Forums | Links | Contact


Copyright 2003 to 2011 - all rights reserved