Sitka’s New Optifade Cover Camo Pattern Is Ideal for Eastern Hunters

I’m a agency believer that Fred Bear was proper: The very best camouflage is sitting nonetheless and quiet. It’s robust to get me enthusiastic about any new camo design as of late. However when Sitka supplied me a sneak peek of Optifade Cover, their first new sample in seven years, I’ll admit that I used to be intrigued. 

As an avid Southern deer hunter, that intrigue turned to keen anticipation after I discovered the brand new sample was designed to “leverage scientific analysis with superior patterning to successfully disrupt the imaginative and prescient of deer and turkeys… notably within the Jap US.”

Optifade Cowl was developed in collaboration with wildlife researchers from the College of Georgia Deer Analysis Lab to offer an choice for higher hunter concealment in greener seasons. 

I primarily hunt the Jap US (deer, turkeys, and waterfowl in Edgecombe County, North Carolina) and am a long-time fan of Sitka’s line-up, so when the UPS driver dropped the preview bundle on my doorstep, I used to be fairly stoked. Contained in the field had been swaths of fleece and Polygiene cloth in acquainted virid hues blended with shadowy greenish grays. 

“Oh, this appears like house,” I stated as I pulled a Sitka hoodie in Optifade Cowl from the bundle. 

Science-Primarily based Camo for Jap Hunters

Sitka developed Optifade Cowl by diving into the analysis of Dr. Karl V Miller, an Emeritus Professor of Deer Ecology and Administration on the College of Georgia. They particularly targeted on his analysis revealing how deer see. Most conventional stick-and-leaf camo designs are based mostly on the way in which people see the world. Sitka took a pointy flip from that method with their Optifade patterns. Optifade motifs are designed to disrupt the way in which ungulates like elk, mule deer, and whitetails see, thereby making it tough for them to acknowledge human predators sitting of their pure environments. 

Miller was a part of the collaborative growth of Sitka’s new sample, which builds on Optifade’s confirmed basis and incorporates specialised coloring and breakup components to raised go well with searching environments again East. 

As a result of massive recreation species can detect motion 4 occasions sooner than people and have 300-degree peripheral imaginative and prescient, Sitka’s camo designers engineered an unique sample that makes use of micro- and macro-breakup components to disrupt the define of the human silhouette. 

However what units Optifade Cowl aside from Sitka’s different patterns is the colour palette. Whitetails and wild turkeys have an enhanced sensitivity to ultraviolet mild (Sport species have a far completely different photoreceptors and cone distribution than people). So Sitka based mostly the brand new sample on analysis that targeted on the construction of animal eyes. The researchers then used spectrometer testing to make sure Optifade Cowl makes use of the right shades to match japanese searching environments. 

I caught up with Miller to debate the brand new Optifade Cowl earlier than I wore it into the woods for the NC archery season opener. 

“Optifade Subalpine is designed for early-season western landscapes dominated by open nation and mountainous terrain,” Miller says. “Optifade Cowl is optimized for the dense vegetation and tree cover cowl environments, primarily within the japanese U.S. It addresses the particular wants of hunters in thicker leafed-out settings the place matching the spectral reflectance of the environment requires a sample tailor-made for extra enclosed, densely vegetated areas.”

That may be a very scienc-y manner of describing the verdant, leafy inexperienced landscapes of my house searching terrain. 

Sitka Optifade Cowl Fall Kinds

See It

Sitka simply launched its Optifade Cover Line-up on Sept. 9. Whether or not you’re believer within the camo sample or not, the road features a full roster of high quality merchandise which can be excellent for deer hunters:

The corporate additionally has restricted choices in girls’s sizes (in addition to an enormous number of hats, caps, gloves, and equipment): 

A Sample for the Remainder of Us

I acquired my first style of Sitka after gearing up for a DIY archery elk hunt in Colorado in 2020. A buddy with Western searching expertise urged I spend money on technical clothes that might higher match the calls for of chasing Rocky Mountain elk than my random clearance rack camo purchases I used to hunt whitetails at house. Desirous to do no matter I might to swing the chances in my favor, I invested in a system from Sitka and carted it throughout the nation. 

Sadly, I didn’t come house with a bull, however I did return with a deep appreciation for Sitka’s high quality gear. I hadn’t realized how miserably uncomfortable I had been all these years whereas sporting low cost gear till I wore my elk-hunting Sitka gear by deer, bear, and turkey seasons within the Southeast. I had accepted distress as a pure a part of the searching recreation. However wearing high quality gear, I spotted that sitting within the woods didn’t have to return with struggling. I used to be in a position to keep within the discipline longer when outfitted in gear that truly match correctly and saved me heat and dry whether or not I used to be mountain climbing a rustic mile or sitting nonetheless for hours on finish. 

There was one drawback: Sitka’s Optifade Subalpine camo sample, the model’s most versatile sample and the one I used to be now sporting within the North Carolina woods, was developed for Rocky Mountain massive recreation hunters. So whereas my Subalpine Sitka gear seemed proper at house in Colorado’s Flat Tops Wilderness, it appeared a bit misplaced within the deep, inexperienced, canopied Southern river bottoms that I hunt 60-plus days a 12 months. 

Western searching can feel like Hollywood right here within the South. On social media we watch the searching neighborhood’s celebrity celebrities hunt monster elk on alpine landscapes, which may make the hand-me-down again forty right here at house appear fairly tame compared. It’s no marvel the West appears to get a lot of the searching highlight. And never simply on social media and the pages of widespread searching magazines, but additionally by gear producers who spend severe bucks on product growth and promoting. Sadly, that effort is aimed extra on the common hunter’s aspirations than his precise wants. 

There are practically 3 million hunters within the Southeast, in keeping with the Nationwide Deer Affiliation’s 2022 Annual Deer Report. In the meantime, regardless of the social media hype and its large open wild areas, the West solely has roughly 744,000 deer hunters. 

Learn Subsequent: Let’s Not Forget, the Midwest and South (Not the West) Are the Heartbeat of Hunting in America

Nearly all of hunters aren’t packing up their Tacomas and heading off into the sundown to hunt these large open areas. They’re searching the large woods, swamps, and cutovers in japanese states like Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, which all recorded extra deer hunters in 2020 than any state out West. 

Opening Day Discipline Check

I used to be sporting Sitka’s Optifade Cowl when the primary morning mild hit my treestand opening day. I used to be proper: The colour shades on this sample completely match the greens and grays of the woods I do know so effectively. I wore the Core Lightweight Hoodie and Cadence Pant for the morning sit in sizzling, drizzly climate. I didn’t kill a deer, however was utterly surrounded by the wild turkeys that had eluded me this previous spring. They fed round my stand for nearly 20 minutes and had been utterly oblivious to my presence. It was a cushty and pleasing begin to my season. 

Whereas I can’t converse for what the deer will suppose, I felt like I melted into the panorama. There is probably not a technique to develop into completely invisible in a lush, shady Southern river backside, however I think that is about as shut because it will get.