output levels, and long stints of absolute stillness wholly unique to the
pursuit of wary quarry.
Plus, a January duck hunt presents very different challenges to
the design, function and fit of hunting apparel than an August sheep
hunt.
Sitka confronts every situation through a process they call
“purpose-built design.”
WHY DO WE NEED YET ANOTHER BIG GAME HUNTING
PATTERN?
For 2017, there has been a new addition to the Sitka “Big Game”
camo line. This new camo is different than the “Open Country”
pattern that everyone has come to know and respect. While the Open
Country pattern is here to stay, Sitka brought on a bevy of experts,
including hunting guides, and experts in animal vision, to create a new
“purpose-built” pattern for hunting ungulates. This GORE OPTIFADE™
Concealment Subalpine™ pattern is designed specifically for stalking
and ambushing ungulates from ground level in tree-covered and
vegetated terrain. The concealment technology is optimized for
engagement ranges of 50 yards and less.
This new pattern has been in “beta” since late 2014 and involved
an incredible amount of research and field-testing—Sitka even used
computer programs modeled on the ungulate eye so they could take
the 36 “subalpine failures” out into the field to test. They dressed in the
camo, took the camo into the areas where it was meant to be utilized,
and took pictures. Analysis and expert opinion helped to perfect this
new camo, which is built to fool the ungulate eye.
So why did Sitka think we needed a new camo line? Because a
niche group of hunters are close-encounter stalkers, guys and gals
out there on the ground, calling in their quarry to where they can
sometimes hear them breathing.
And this new pattern is here because Sitka asked a question that
may not have been asked before: “How do these animals see?” That
question lead to two years of development before landing on the new
GORE OPTIFADE™ Concealment Subalpine™ pattern.
The development of this pattern is a story in itself.
Photo by Tyler Johnerson
SITKA’S BIG GAME CAMO: HOW DO DEER AND
ELK SEE?
To get the new line of camo at Sitka, first they had to ask these
questions: How can I hide from deer? Do we really care if deer see
us? What if they do see us? Wouldn’t it be cool if they just went
back to eating acorns? What if we could get away with a little more
movement? How would we have to look to make that possible? What
would the deer have to see, or not see? And, finally, How do deer see
the world, anyway?
“Deer vision is very different from human vision,” says Dr. Jay
Neitz at the University of Washington Medical School who came on to
help Sitka research this project.
And he should know—he studies animal vision and developed
with his wife a gene therapy that cured colorblindness in a pair of
squirrel monkeys, turning them from dichromats – animals whose
eyes contain only two types of color receptors – into trichromats
– animals with three color receptor types, like most humans… so,
basically, he knows the animal eye.
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Photo by Sitka Gear