@cloudedleopard kindly sent me this hoody in the summer without me asking, which was very nice of him. I let everybody know that I wouldn't be reviewing it in 100 degree weather, but as it's cooled I've worn it out and about town and while creek fishing and scouting. Today I had my first sit of the season, and connected on a public land doe on the ground at 20 yards. So, review time.
Let's get this out of the way first.
No, I won't be buying leather pants to go with it. Yes, I will definitely wear raybans more often in the future. A matching leopard skin pillbox hat? A distinct possibility.
This camo, first and foremost, will up your groovy factor by orders of magnitude. Ask yourself if you can get with that vibe. Squares won't dig it. Every single person who has seen me in my hoody has aired their thoughts on it. You either get a kick out of being "that guy" or you don't.
If you take yourself seriously, this aint for you. Keep wearing whatever digital swirly blob camo that the western big game hunters have made trendy. I'm sure that if they told you it's "scientifically designed" on their podcast, it's true. Or, if you want to feel Fred Bear moving in you, wear some carefully mismatched combo of second-hand flannel and treebark camo. Or wear (if you're part of the great unwashed) whatever RealMossyTreeOak pattern WalzMart has on the shelves next to the bait blocks and packs of Rage broadheads. It'll make you invisible in more ways than one, normie.
This isn't just camouflage, it's counterculture. It's the anti-camo. It's a cheerful but defiant laugh in the face of an industry so up its own butt that it can't see the humor innate to a group of 40-60yo WEIRD men pretending to be Squanto for the day and paying out the wazoo to do so. This camo is Dylan going electric after being put into the "prophet of a generation" box, and then recording a country album after folks took that seriously too. It's Frida Kahlo's unibrow. It's Frank Zappa and the Mother's "lip synching" at Greenwich Village in '67. It's Warhol painting a can of Campbell's.
(deep breath)
Ok. Seriously.
It's a hoody. It has a big hood. It has a nice hoody pocket. It's made of polartech fleece. It's soft. It's fairly warm. It's quiet. It's comfortable. It seems well-stitched. If you like hoodies, this is a good one. I think a good hoody is about the handiest piece of clothing you can have if you live south of Nashville, or hunt during bow season anywhere.
The camo itself is (and I say this in complete earnestness) very good. It's a better ASAT. It LOOKS loud when you put in on in your living room. But get it in the swamps, hardwoods, pine rows, or cutovers; tuck into a little cover; and you disappear. No, it's not too light. It's not too yellow. It works. The pattern has a pretty good track record of hiding large animals from other large animals in a variety of terrain. It will hide your butt too.
Does it work better than other patterns? I don't know. I've shot lots of deer on public land, from the ground or climbed less than 12ft, at less than 20 yards. I've worn everything from ghillie suits to white t-shirts to do so. I personally have come to like either lighter colored, tannish solids, or big, open, lighter patterns. I feel like in most cases camo buys you the extra seconds you need to make a shot happen.
Today's deer had no clue I was there. It looked directly at me several times. She appeared to be a fairly large old doe, and the parcel I was hunting is open to gun deer season in one of the most populated counties in a state with higher than average active hunter percentages. I had a good wind, and was being still, and had a large tree for back cover, but aside from that was fairly exposed. I will continue to hunt with it as my primary outerwear this year until temperatures drop into the lower 30s. I'd be interested in having a piece made insulated with Primaloft or another good, technical insulation.
I'll post a few pics in the next post that kind of show the jacket in the field. Later this week, I'll try to record some video of me set up in a hunting scenario in some different biomes.
