The ASAT® Camo Story

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The ASAT Camo Story
By Jim Barnhart
Oct 28, 2005, 07:18

The ASAT® Camo Story
Reprinted from Bowhunter®Magazine,
January 1990 by Jim Barnhart

Camouflage. If there is any such thing as a “trademark” for bowhunters, it certainly would have to be camouflage. Sure, there have been a couple of top bowhunters over the years who haven’t worn camo clothing and who have indicated that they felt it wasn’t necessary. But if you talk to and read about the vast majority of bowhunters, famous or otherwise, you will get a virtually unanimous endorsement for total camouflage when hunting whitetails.

The irony I see in this is that while most bowhunters agree that you need camo clothing and equipment, probably no part of our equipment is less understood nor more taken for granted. There are some reasons for the lack of understanding.

First, historically, bowhunters adopted camouflage from the military. Experiences with camo during World War II put the idea into many bowhunters’ heads that camo for the close range work necessary when hunting with bow and arrow made good sense. The problem was, and is, that no military camouflage I know of was ever designed for North American environments. Military camo was designed for use in Europe, the Middle East and various other desert, jungle and forest locations around the globe.

Second, although bowhunters who take their whitetail hunting seriously develop an equipment system through meticulous experimentation, they often make the erroneous assumption that camo is camo; they proceed to select a camo pattern because it “looks good” or “might work well” or because somebody said it was good. Sadly, there are some who don’t think about their camo at all, simply buying whatever is available for the least money in a discount store somewhere.

“…if green was such a great camo color, the Good Lord would have made deer, rabbits, quail, hen pheasants and so on green.”

Third, all bowhunters, including this writer at one time, have been brainwashed, primarily by the erroneous glut on the market of military-style camo patterns, into believing that green is good. In the pages which follow, you are going to be told that nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, I’m convinced the things you are about to learn concerning camo patterns for clothing, equipment and hand/face, can if you apply them properly, significantly increase the number of deer you see and the number of shot possibilities you have during future archery seasons.

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