sorry if this has been discussed before. searched, didn't find any answers. so why is retro cammo the cool thing to wear and put on everything. the cammo patterns are older than a lot of hunters wearing it in the field!
i guess the best thing for me is some of my hunting clothes put me in the "cool" category now! seriously! and i am talking about my daily wearing clothes.
I grew up with retro hunting clothes til I carried out of college and had my own family. My dad has allways taught me when hunting it doesn't take a lot just enough to break up your outline and I have killed a lot of deer growing up. Though with that said I aint taking no chances my first year turkey hunting....hahahaha :OGturkeyhead:
I hunted in hand-me-down Greenleaf camo for practically my entire youth. My dad also wore it so it's the pattern I basically grew up on. When they started making it again, I jumped all over it. Simply it's just a reflection of my youth turkey hunting and it's my favorite pattern and always has been.
I think for some it's probably a fad. Some people really like those old bottomland and greenleaf patterns. I've never really cared for bottomland but the greenleaf looks pretty good. I usually try and match my camo to my surroundings especially turkey hunting. In the woods I hunt mossy oak obsession is perfect and I love it. To me it's the perfect spring pattern.
Personally, I am not a fan of wearing camouflage as a fashion statement... It has been a fad off & on for some 20+ years though...
Personally, as far as hunting... I am far more concerned with color and contrast than I am with the pattern... Especially for turkeys. Admittedly for waterfowl, I do like some of the "Kryptec" patterns as they do blend in well and the browns match the surroundings of where I hunt.
I use to wear the old woodland green quite a bit.
Not sure what you are calling retro, but I assume the MO patterns, etc.
I started seriously deer hunting (mainly bow hunting) in the late 80s and hunted with my Dad since the late 70s, so I was there when Trebark was first coming out and then Toxey Haas launched MO and Bill Jordan the same with Realtree and at some point ASAT came into the fold. It was all amazing stuff to a young hunter. I was always a Bottomland fan and then Greenleaf, Forest floor, all the early patterns, same with Realtree. I (and my friends) owned Realtree, Advantage, APG, etc. I still love ASAT and recently bought some First Lite gear and it was ASAT.
Then the companies began having "new" patterns almost yearly but I never felt they were any better than the originals. I was so glad to see companies come back out with the early patterns and I hope that my generation have proved to them that we will continue to buy the patterns that we like and started out hunting with. I recently bought a couple of Ol Tom vestless shirts, one in Bottomland and one in Obsession.
What you call retro, I just consider camo ;D
I have wondered the same myself but did not bother asking. I like original Mossy Oak Breakup myself which some might call throwback.
It ain't a fad for me. I'll wear Greenleaf/OG Bottomland as long as Mossy Oak offers clothes in said patterns. I have Obsession too and it's fine when everything greens up. However, during early season when there are no leaves, in river swamps where water has recently fallen, or in pine plantations (whether burned or not burned) you will stick out like a sore thumb in Obsession. That's just my personal experience/opinion.
I hunted in a Vietnam field jacket and some brown canvas duck pants when I started chasing turkeys, because the army surplus store was about the only place they sold anything camo back in the day. You could get woodland, sometimes tiger stripe, or WW II patterns and that was it as far as I knew. Most of the old timers wore solid color green or grey coats and just sat still.
I have some original TreBark from the 80s and some MO Treestand, but it is so faded, it's not very useful these days. I also still have my first turkey vest that is Spartan (predecessor to Realtree) that has the next to nothing-est seat cushion ever put on a vest. I don't remember exactly when I got it, probably the early 90s. It has button closures for the pockets and is made of cotton, though it has held color pretty well. It was such a big change from just stuffing a handful of shells & a knife in one pocket and my old Lynch call in the other of that field jacket & just hunting. I completely forgot about it until I saw this post.
Jim
Quote from: Cut N Run on April 12, 2018, 11:02:45 PM
You could get woodland, sometimes tiger stripe,
I don't know why but I have always loved the look of that old tiger stripe camo though I have never owned any.
I never spent a whole lot on camo, whatever is comfortable from the Army Navy store works for me.
Camo is too over rated and over thought. I'm a simple guy I just wear heks. Ugh that stuff is silly. Here's your sign as Bill Engvell would say. I've worn whatever pants the army/navy store has. I like the pockets, fit and durability. Been doing this since the early 80s. That's the last time I thought bout camo real hard. For shirts if its warm I just throw a bug saver top on, they're mesh so they breathe. Cold I wear a cheap top. There's no need to sweat or over think your camo to do so is giving into marketing nonsense. Wear whatever you want, if you think a certain camo has a coolness factor so be it. Most guys don't associate cool w hunting though. It's a way of life with no thought to what you're wearing
When I started it wasn't retro yet it was just the best we had at the time. I think there are better patterns available today but turkey hunting means Mossyoak Bottomland and Greenleaf to me. I also don't think camo is nearly as important as some think.
Everyone has their reason. Personally I believe some of the older patterns are just as effective as anything new so when buying why not be cool.
I have been wearing tiger stripe camo for almost 20 years, green for turkey season and now that I can find it desert tiger stripe for speckled belly hunting
It's just nostalgia.
I prefer new mossy oak bottomland because it blends really well with where I hunt. Killed plenty while wearing other patterns. The only camo I will not buy anymore is Realtree and that's because of my intense desire to try and never put a penny into Mr waddell's pocket. I am sure he feels the sting. :)
Quote from: stinkpickle on April 13, 2018, 10:22:36 AM
It's just nostalgia.
agreed, it is a throwback to good memories to those that wore it when it first came out and a longing of the younger generation to reach back and connect to the past.
Quote from: tha bugman on April 13, 2018, 11:05:51 AM
Quote from: stinkpickle on April 13, 2018, 10:22:36 AM
It's just nostalgia.
agreed, it is a throwback to good memories to those that wore it when it first came out and a longing of the younger generation to reach back and connect to the past.
There is some of that also. And on top of it all its cheap and still works. I have some camo that's almost as old as I am.
Quote from: Happy on April 13, 2018, 11:02:03 AM
I prefer new mossy oak bottomland because it blends really well with where I hunt. Killed plenty while wearing other patterns. The only camo I will not buy anymore is Realtree and that's because of my intense desire to try and never put a penny into Mr waddell's pocket. I am sure he feels the sting. :)
What does waddel have to do with anything?
I prefer mossy oak because they are associated with more conservation groups like nwtf and du. Realtree isnt and i think bill jordan is arrogant. I think toxy is more down to eart good ol' boy.
I grew up wearing Woodland, Trebark and Bottomland when it came out, it was good then, good now. I do prefer Mossy Oak Bottomland....
Quote from: outdoorsmen on April 13, 2018, 02:15:55 PM
Quote from: Happy on April 13, 2018, 11:02:03 AM
I prefer new mossy oak bottomland because it blends really well with where I hunt. Killed plenty while wearing other patterns. The only camo I will not buy anymore is Realtree and that's because of my intense desire to try and never put a penny into Mr waddell's pocket. I am sure he feels the sting. :)
What does waddel have to do with anything?
I prefer mossy oak because they are associated with more conservation groups like nwtf and du. Realtree isnt and i think bill jordan is arrogant. I think toxy is more down to eart good ol' boy.
If you don't know then don't worry about it.
I wear it because its effective and I like it. Now , if you want to buy my hunting clothes , I will wear what you buy. There is not a pattern better for down here in the river swamps of the south.
Heck, I'm still wearing a shirt in the original Trebark.
I have been wearing greenleaf to turkey hunt since it came out. I still have a bunch of the original made in the USA garments I have been wearing since the early 90s. I picked up some of the new made overseas stuff but still prefer the original for fit and durability. I often wear a leafy cover suit pant and greenleaf top hat and mask. If a gobbler ever picked me out I moved. I have had hundreds of turkeys inside 10 yards that looked right through me.
I love this stuff.
It's something different...back to the future,I never match any of my camo.I wear 3-4 different patterns at once while turkey hunting.
i prefer the original bottomland and greenleaf over a lot of stuff you see today. i also like predator spring green and asat a lot. it might be just my personal preference but i think the more geometric style camo with less details and more contrast helps break you up better. camo companies went away from that and got really into fine detail to appeal to the hunters eye.
When I was younger army surplus woodland was as good as it got. Like a couple others said the Trebark/Bottomland/Greenleaf worked great back in the day. It also brings me back to years gone (bye). Most generally anymore I grab whatever camo clothes i think i need on sale after season at Wal-Mart.
I like to match the camo to the area I'm hunting but the best camo is NOT moving. A deer might not even look at you but a turkey seems to know what you are even with camo and not moving. They are suspicious of what that thing is that isn't moving. It always seems one will be looking at you when all the rest don't notice you.
I'm getting older so buying what was coming onto the scene during my early years makes me feel young again. Same reason I take those little blue pills. :icon_thumright:
I like treebark and I would buy it if I could find it
Just keeping all my old stuff makes me in style again. Everything goes full circle. Just look at the hipsters today, the 1890's are back in style.
My first half dozen turkey hunts were sans camo of any kind short of brown duck pants and a green plaid woolrich shirt. If you DON'T MOVE camo in an after thought...
Which is why my favorite camo pattern is named "whatever is on sale".
I love the old stuff,mine is in great shape because I wear leafy wear suit over it. My favorite
If y'all haven't noticed, a lot of "retro" stuff and styles are coming back into popularity. Look at the way a lot of the hipsters are starting to dress and accessorize. I believe that has spilled over to hunting a little.
In addition, like someone mentioned, some people are old enough to remember the old patterns and its kinda cool bring back older memories.
It may be just me, but it seems that the turkey hunting crowd is more into the older stuff than the deer guys.
I like the older patterns like treebark as well, I used to have a real tree t-shirt that I would wear sometimes, but I got tired of folks asking me what I was hunting, or I didn't see you in that camo shirt! My BIL wears camo jeans, and a sleeveless camo shirts all the time, but I'm not crazy about it, and I'm just as redneck as he is, but it's to expensive to wear out camo just for the heck of it
Bottomland works perfectly in the terrain I turkey hunt......at the base of giant oak trees.