Caring for your Camo

 The other day I was talking with a friend and he told me a story, Seems that when he first got married his young wife was doing laundry and found his set of camouflage. Being almost a year since he had worn them and his neglect of cleaning them after his last hunt she begrudgingly threw them in the wash while he was at work.

 We both had a good laugh, but then he when on to explain how he had had to wash them repeatedly in tomato juice and then baking soda to get the fragrance of Gain out of his hunting clothes.

 This reminded me of a research article I read a few years back from Dr. Karl Miller at the University of Georgia. In his report, Dr. Miller stated that a deer’s eyes have no UV filter in them. Which in effect renders them color blind to a degree; basically they only see colors in the mid-wavelength. What they can see is shades of yellow to green and blue to purple.

 The problem here is that all grocery store laundry detergents not only add fragrances to your clothes to make them smell good, they also add UV-color brighteners so that your clothes don’t look old and faded.

 And these color brighteners reflect light in a frequency which deer see as the color blue. So washing your camouflage in a non scented detergent, as I have seen in some hunting tips, is not enough.

 If you are unsure of this, just use a black light on any clothing which has been washed in normal laundry detergent and you will see the glow they give off. This is what a deer sees and it’s not something they see every day in the woods.

 Now there are some specialty detergents specifically designed for camouflage clothing on the market. Which are non scented and protect against UV detection, but general I wash mine in cold water and baking soda, allowing them to air dry. Also a method of removing blood stains is to make a paste with salt and cold water then brushing the area with the paste and a toothbrush, but never let the fabric dry out. If the stain is still there after rinsing, just repeat the cycle until it is gone.

 Well I hope you enjoyed the read and feel free to add any comments or ideas if you might have.

 

Deer Cross Supplies, the ultimate hunting scent eliminator