Last year I did a bunch of posts on my testing of UV-suppression in relation to deer hunting. You’re welcome to go look. Use the search function and look for on keywords like “UV-Killer” “elephant repellent” “useless” and so on. I had several posts last Fall , all the way into December. Let me know if the links to the pictures are not working– I took a lot during the tests. I’m posting this, because I’ve had a bunch of questions regarding the issue again, and I don’t want to re-hash the whole mess.

As to the whole idea of this being a washing ritual, my answer is yes. Sure, go ahead. Have a ball! As the guy who runs around with an antler headdress and a rattle, who am I to poke fun? I just think you can get the practical side of it done with baking soda and some common sense. UV-suppression on its face is goofy.

. . .

ooops. Gotta go. OT just came up the road and wants to chat.
. . .

OT showed up to chat. I thought we were going to lose OT over the summer. His lungs are going, and he’s just not getting around like he used to. He turned 79 a few weeks ago. I hadn’t seen him in a while. He missed turkey season this year– most of the time he was in the hospital. However, I’m glad to see him doing as well as he’s ever been.

If you’re around reading my stuff, you’ll know I write a lot about OT, the old turkey hunter that runs the mower shop as well as OD, the old deer hunter that lives up the road. They’re all part of the same clan somehow, and I know they’re all vaguely related to my wife, KYHillChick, but then most of Kentucky is in one way or another.

OT was showing up for his letter of permission to hunt grouse.

What was I saying? Oh yeah, this UV-suppression hooey. Look, I’ve been walking around during deer season for decades in an alleged UV-Radioactive poncho and hat. Out of all those tests that Atsko had me do, one thing is sure: if you put my hunter orange poncho under a black light, it’s bright enough to read a book off of. On the other hand, I’ve had big bucks come in that were completely oblivious to me. If they can’t see a 4X6 piece of eye-sore bright hunter orange they’re not going to worry about a little bit of alleged glow or a little streak of zinc-oxide in your Mossy Oak pattern. As to the general glow induced by detergents, all I can say is that at the normal times we see deer, dusk and dawn there is no UV bouncing around to reflect. When UV IS around, midday and thereabouts, the deer are normally holed up. Furthermore, let’s say you’re down on the ground and wearing your alleged UV- infested camo and you’re stalking deer– the worse case scenario. What makes your glow any different from a bit of dappled sunlight if these deer can see UV so much better?

Let’s just say we take some of y’all’s idea that it it’s just safe to go ahead and do it. What if I started buying booths at outdoor shows and started telling you that deer could sense your telepathic thoughts and that you needed an aluminum foil coated baseball cap to shield your thoughts from scaring the deer. Would you pay $14.99 just to be safe? What if I paid for advertising and endorsements on TV? At what point would you buy the hat? This isn’t something you can necessarily prove. All anyone has shown is that deer might have sensitivity to the UV range– not that it particularly affects hunting. Remember too that the dyes and all that are fluorescing in the VISIBLE range, not the UV range, otherwise you wouldn’t be seeing the dang glow. Some things are like that: you hit them with one wavelength and they fluoresce in another. This right there might be a hint that something is up. All the pictures, all the tests all the marketing is supposed to show glowing, but it’s glowing YOU can see.

When somebody comes back with REAL experimental data that shows that UV-inhibition actually improves hunting success, I’ll be the first to repent. So far it’s all been supposition, and extrapolation, and . . . and . . . elephant repellent. In the meanwhile, I’ll be in my day-glo orange clown suit . You’ll know where to find me: look for the orange glow on the horizon.

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