Hunting in period gear....

[hedgeapple]

I made the coat from 4 deer hides I tanned.  The yoke was from a coyote, not tanned just salt treated.  I ran out of material while making the coat and used the coyote.   I have since removed the coyote yoke.  It feel apart.  I think I wear that coat next season.  I had gotten away from much of the primitive hunting.  It's time to return to my roots. 

[hawkbow]

Great job brother, for me any harvest taken in the old way with honor and integrity.. is well worth the effort it takes to make the harvest...what an old warrior that hog was.. Hawk a/ho

[JackCrafty]

Hunting in buckskins is something I've wanted to do for a long time.  Soon I'll have enough leather stockpiled to make myself a nice shirt.  Gotta start somewhere.

[Stonedog]

Wow!  It's good to know that I am not the only weirdo that like to dress up and hunt!

[stickbender]

     Well it looks like I might have to make some dress up stuff too.  Hawkbow, how did the Grizzly get a hold of your sleeve?
did you do the Montan three s's thing?  Shoot, shovel, and shut up.   Or for me S%$t, Scream, and Scram!   Nice outfits, guys.
Brain tanned, or commercial?  Unfortunately I can't wear moccasins, due to super sensitivity and plantar's facieitis, or however it is spelled.  So I have to have something more substantial, with padding.  I'd look like a pigeon on a hot sidewalk, in a pair of moccasins, walking across the ground.   Ever get any weird stares from other hunters?  I think it was Jim Hamm, I read about in Sports afield, or Outdoor life, years ago, and they did a story on primitive hunting, and it showed him all decked out in his finest buckskins, with bead work moccasins and all.  Not sure if it was him, but I think it was.  Anyway, I thought it was a bit much to go hunting, dressed like you were going to Pow Wow.

                                                                        Wayne

[hawkbow]

something about the color and shape of buckskins.. I don' think the animals can see me as well as when I am wearing camo.. I have had elk at five yards with the wind right and they never saw me.. this has happened enough times for me to believe that the elkskin breaks up my human form just enough to become invisible. While hunting with Wolf watcher last year He was right next to me mostly in the open, and I never saw him until he moved.. he had his buckskins on .... The bear was a cub.. it ran up my tree when I took a picture of it and it's momma and two siblings, i tried to push it out of the tree and got slapped for my efforts. momma then began tearing that tree down.. in her fury she knocked my bow from my hand and nearly uprooted the tree.Finally I shot the cub with bear spray and he left my tree.. momma was so furious I used the rest of the spray on her with little result. let me tell you having a mad momma grizz two feet from your moccasins tearing tree parts off as big as you are is one scary deal. she finally left, that was one long walk back to my camp. miles back in  the wilderness and bleeding.. my bow, tomohawk and knives did little to comfort me that long night walk back to camp... but the elk were bugling so i stayed another two weeks.. other hunters usually are intrigued by the fact thatI hunt primitive.. I will say that one guy around here hunts in tandy leather style golden colored buckskin shirt.. I can see him from miles off .... every time... so can the elk.. he hasn't got one yet in nine years of trying.. I believe it is his bright golden buckskns... among other things..  Hawk 

[Stonedog]

Hawk-

I agree.  When I am in my naturall dyed wool and linen....for whatever reason....it tends to just make me vanish.....my clothes are cut roomy (just like the clothing of the period)...and are all some shade of tan, brown, green or grey....only dyed with natural dyes....not Rit!

I rarely see another hunter....if I see another human I hunker down....let them pass.....or avoid them.

As far as foot wear....I wear 10t anglo-saxon tunshoes.....they are made from heavy oiltanned leather.....

[predatorcaller]

i wear a lot of wool and now bucskin...moccasins, and a lot of plaid...i killed a smart ole boar groundhog wearing a bucskin shirt with a flintlock. and i killed a few deer in alaska wearing a wool plaid shirt and black wool pants...i dont really wear camo or modern hunting gear...mostly old style, it dont feel right wearing gore tec or scent lok     heres some pictures of some animals ive trapped or killed wearing old style gear   http://primitivehunter.blogspot.com/

[huntertrapper]

thats me that posted as predatorcaller on my dads name on accidnet..... pic of me with my first kill with a flintlock and wearing traditional garbhttp://bp1.blogger.com/_n0mwegGn3K0/SHJu0Nz5whI/AAAAAAAAAAc/8PbwVHmjEZY/s1600-h/IMG_0292.JPG

[stickbender]

     When I hunt in Montana, I wear wool.  Surplus Swedish wool pants, and coats.  They are a bluish grey.  I have had deer walk right up to within four feet of me.  I think some of the camo stuff has the ultra violet rays due to the detergent, and the animals can pick up on that.  I have sat in a rain, with a green waterproof poncho, over my head, and looked out to see deer feeding within a few feet of me.  I have seen deer watch someone in a stand, and sneak off, only to come by me and never seem to notice.  Could be something in the light wave length of the material.  As for the Tandy leather, could be chrome tanned, or just the color is like the safety vest to the deer.  Anyway, you guys looked great, and I will start looking how much leather I have accumulated and start planning on a shirt, or pants.

                                                                               Wayne

[JW_Halverson]

Modern dyes often contain UV spectrum enhancing compounds to improve colorfastness.  Deer pick up on the UV wavelengths and it just looks like a black light poster in a headshop to them!  Modern laundry detergents also have the UV enhancers/dyes. 

I stopped washing my historical reenactment clothing in the modern wash because I was laundering out all the historically correct "patina".  Few frontiersmen had access to Kenmore washers and it's a good bet the local sutler didn't carry Tide.  Nowadays the best they get is a healthy swish in the creek, slapped on the rocks a few times and then hung on a handy bush whilst I splash some more creek water nearby my own hide. 

Another nice thing about the natural dyes is that they do not tend to come out really even, but have some streaks and subtle variations in shading that helps break up outlines. 

[huntertrapper]

very true j w.

[The Burnt Hill Archer]

ive been wanting to make a buckskin shirt to hunt in for years now. my only problem is i really havnt got the time (or skins) to tan my own. and i refuse to use chrome taned skins.

well i went over to my dads house the other day and was telling him about my plans for a shirt. he said, "wait here, ill be right back."

wouldnt you know he came back out with a grocery bag FULL of buckskin! there has to be 7 or 8 hides in there. apperently what happened was my grandmother got them at a flee market for like 5$. not a piece, thats for all of them! my dad used to go to blackpouder rendezvous back when i was a kid, and he made himself a pair of leggings from a couple of the hides, and just packed away the rest.

i already claimed his leggings for hunting, and he says it would be great if i could get some use out of the others.


now the point to all my ramblings. i havnt got a clue what to model my shirt after.

 Mike, ive always enjoyed reading your storys in the mag (especially this last one with your boys, very well done), and i love your shirt with the medicine wheel on it. what did you pattern that after, of was it just from scratch? I was looking in Crazy Crow trading post the other day and found a pattern for what they called a "Plains War Shirt". it looks similar to yours, other than a few bead decorations that i would leave out. i was contemplating that, but if you have some better advice id be willing to listen.

and just to keep things going, does anybody else have  pictures of their period clothing, namely buckskin shirts? 

Phil

[mullet]

  Phil, a simple wone is to think of a poncho or Capote and make one like that.

[hawkbow]

I patterned mine after a plains Lakota style war shirt... all the decorations and medicine are mine from different hunts and adventures... I would suggest using the plains style no sewing .. only leather ties holding the shirt together... good luck with the shirt brother, I have been asked by several brothers of the bow about my shirt so will ask Stacey to post some pics for anyone who wants to copy the design..Hawk