Science Behind WTFCAMO

Closeup whitetail deer eyes

Those eyes have busted more hunters on the ground and in tree stands regardless of what camo pattern they were wearing.   I never understood why I would be sitting still in my ladder stand with the wind in my favor, and yet every now and then a deer would just look straight up at me.   Well, now we know why, and you might not like the answer.   We have been wearing the wrong camo all along. 

Here goes, get ready for your camo life to be changed.  Well, at least that's what we are hoping.   Scientists actually studied deer eyeballs at the molecular level and made fascinating discoveries that impact our success in the field.

1.  Deer do not see colors the way we do.  They have a form of red-green color blindness, and by deer we are talking whitetail, mule deer, elk, moose, etc.   

Camo reality #1 -   All those nifty different shades of green on your real to nature camo - they see them as a shade of yellow.  Reds also appear as a shade of yellow.  Blaze orange appears as a shade of gray.  Browns are less distinctive.

2.  It is estimated by scientists that deer have between 20/40 and 20/100 vision.  Deer cannot see fine detail.   Their eyes give them almost 310 degree field of vision to spot predator movement with only a small blind spot behind their head.  That field of vision and night vision is more important than seeing fine detail

Camo reality #2 -  All of that leaf and branch detail in your camo, it just blends together to a deer making you even more visible and easier to see your silhouette.   Because deer cannot distinguish various color shades, wearing camouflage clothing containing similar colors of browns, greens, blacks and greys make you appear like one big blob to deer.

3.The farther away a deer is from you, the more your real nature looking camo just all blends together.

Camo reality #3 -  We are actually making ourselves more visible by wearing finely detailed nature based patterns.

That is why we developed WTFCAMO®.  The pattern is designed with three contrasting colors (black, brown, tan) with larger geometric shapes to disrupt the silhouette up close and at a distance.  

On a side note, have you ever noticed that when you see commercials and photos of the real to nature camo patterns that they always film them from above or the same level?   Last I checked deer are looking up from the ground at broken sky, leaves, and branches.  The contrast in the WTFCAMO pattern works amazingly well in stands.  

Below is a photo of a WTFCAMO archery hunter in the ladder stand as a deer would see the colors.  It is much harder to outline the silhouette of the hunter, or even recognize the hunter as one solid object.  The pattern works great with broken light in the background.   

Join the WTFCAMO revolution away from nature based patterns that were designed for human vision.  If you want to put deer on the ground, wear WTFCAMO and create visual confusion for the deer.  It's time to give yourself more of an advantage, it's time for WTFCAMO.