Do you hide your face?

[USN_Sam1385]

Use black carbon powder. Like carbon synergy. It is cheap and one bottle will last 3-5 years. You put it on your face and forget that it is there.

[shaman]

.This is one area where I have done a whole lot of research. I've tried a lot of options. Do I hide my face? Sometimes.

The whole point of the whole camo thing is to disrupt the head-body-arms-legs gestalt that the deer forms when it recognizes us. When I am in normal street clothes I've seen deer recognize me at 600 yards. When I'm up a tree bow hunting or out turkey hunting in the spring, I've had deer oblivious to me at under 5 yards. They could not figure out I was human.

One of the big clues that was missing was my head. I started out hunting with just a hat. Over the next thirty years, I have tried masks, hoods, facepaint, -- the works. What has worked the best is one of the following:

1) Where I cannot hide the rest of my body, I use a hood or a hat that hides everything. For deer, my favorite is a thing I made out of an old camo t-shirt. I took the shirt, and cut off both arms. I sewed one hole up completely and peek out of the other. I put this over a warm hat. It's floppy, it breaks up my form. It isn't hot. The hat I wear has a brim, so it all sticks out a bit. This has been my best answer to hiding my head from the deer.

2) When I'm up in one of my buddy stands, behind a camo skirt where nobody on the ground can see past mid-torso, I relax a bit. When it's cold and I'm hunting with a rifle, I usually start out with a green wool military balaclava under my orange hat. It keeps me warm. Yes, my face does stick out a bit but the rest of me is concealed.

3) When I'm turkey hunting, I wear camo netting attached to a boonie hat like a veil.

In most instances, what I'm wearing on my head hides not only the brightness and color of my face, but it also distorts the shape of my head. With the balaclava, it is a dark contrast to the bright orange coat and hat. All that's showing is my eyes and nose.

Just the other weekend, I had a doe come in to me She was on to me from the beginning. She'd seen me move from a long way off. I was just wearing a hat. She came in to investigate. I was up in my stand, with a camo skirt attached to the shooting rail. All she could see was my head and barrel of my gun. After a long time circling me and stomping, she wandered off. What threw her off was that just as she was getting ready to bolt, I started chattering at her like a squirrel. That has been a sure-fire trick I've been using for my whole hunting career.

What she was keying on the whole time was that I'd taken my balaclava off, because it was getting too warm. I just had my orange hat and my orange parka on. I looked kind of like this:



The point here is that whether it's the camo skirt on the shooting rail, the camo hood made from the T-shirt, or whatever, the goal is to keep deer from figuring out what they're looking at is a human form.

[4khorn]

I wear a really thin, light camo face mask most of the time. I usually leave my nose exposed just because it lets me breath easier. I also have a thicker scentlok fleece balaclava (I think that what it is called). I wear it really late in the year when it is bitterly cold. I always worry about it throwing off my accuracy when shooting though because it is so bulky. I like my thin mask because it fits snug to my head. I typically spray it down each time I go out because I think my breath stinks it up a little by the end of the hunt.

[Sailfish]

.This is one area where I have done a whole lot of research. I've tried a lot of options. Do I hide my face? Sometimes.

The whole point of the whole camo thing is to disrupt the head-body-arms-legs gestalt that the deer forms when it recognizes us.

attached to a boonie hat

.

Had to Yahoo the Boonie hat (didn't know that name ) and thats exactly what I wear. The brim is not uniform, its floppy, and I take it a step further and attach leaves to it. You nailed it with the break-up your form concept. Do what you have to do to not look like a human.
I still get torn on the face thing. Does it look like a bright, unnatural shiney orb from afar? But honestly, more often than not, the thing most times ends up around my neck.

[JPH]

Use black carbon powder.... You put it on your face and forget that it is there.

That may not be a good thing. Could create some awkward moments after the hunt.

[buckwild]

oakarver - owl-face mask? I thought maybe o-w-l might be an acronym so I googled it. now i am pretty sure you are jacking with me!

first gen - the beard definitely helps w the cold.

shaman - the old t-shirt idea is interesting. you sew one old sleeve hole and look out the other. what about the hole for your head. does it sit on the hat you put the shirt over?

I thought about using zip ties to attach natural vegetation to my baseball cap. I was going to try to push the tie from the inside, then wrap it around some grass-like vegetation and back through the hole. Then zip it on the inside. havent tried it yet. mainly because i havent found anything that seemed like it would be easy to attach, stay attached, and not hinder progress through the woods.

[Woods Walker]

Only when I miss an easy shot.

[luvhuntin]

Only when I miss an easy shot.

What he said ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I do have 2 different full face masks one light and one for real Iowa hunting weather. usually i stick my baseball style hat over that to keep things set where i want them and to keep my basketball of a head from looking to unusual against a tree trunk.

[Oakarver]

Use black carbon powder.... You put it on your face and forget that it is there.

That may not be a good thing. Could create some awkward moments after the hunt.

That was what I was thinking! You'll probably even be called a racist

[Oakarver]

oakarver - owl-face mask? I thought maybe o-w-l might be an acronym so I googled it. now i am pretty sure you are jacking with me!

NO..I actually wear a mask of a Great Horned owl. Whenever a deer starts staring at me I move my head back and forth and look at the deer etc.

Nah..I'm kidding But I wonder how it'd work. Hmmmmm....