Camouflage or camo for short, is all around us, both man made and mother nature.

English Oak Camouflage Design From Jack Pyke UK

Camouflage hunting jackets are great for helping the hunter blend in to the surrounding countryside, but how did camouflage patterns & Camouflage Hunting Jackets come about?

Mother nature and camouflage

Animals and insects evolving over millions of years, both in water and on land have developed a fantastic range of many different camouflage patterns. Camouflage in nature allows astonishing survival techniques, allowing animals to move in on there pray unnoticed & equally to blend in to the surrounding area so not to be seen by the attacker. Some animals and insects can even change their colour and shape to Camouflage & disguise themselves helping them blend into the surrounding areas, or to simply warn off predators.

Early man and Camouflage

Even early humans, used camouflage techniques for hunting and gathering food. For example mud, foliage and even dung would be used to help camouflage & blend in to the surrounding areas. Extraordinarily it took the armies across the world a very long time to catch on to the camouflage techniques. Armies have not always disguised themselves from the opposition, it used to be considered shameful to hide from your opponent, instead of camouflage jackets they used bright coloured uniforms to identify themselves from the opposition. These bright coloured uniforms where a great visual target for the enemy!

Camouflage or concealment of equipment to help you blend in to your natural surroundings and/or terrain, dates back to the French term Camofler or Veil. Abbot Thayer an American artist in the early 1900's, studied how incredibly clever animals are in disguising themselves, using natural camouflage techniques. He was so taken back at how well some animals could just blend in to the surrounding area just using natural camouflage, he started to note down every animal which used this magnificent way in which to hide within the natural terrain. At the beginning of the first World war, a French artist was commissioned to design a camouflage pattern which could be used on soldiers uniforms & camouflage jackets to help them blend in and not be seen so easily by the enemy. The French also created a division in which they named, the camouflage division.

Camouflage today

Although camouflage designs have really expanded over the years, specifically for army usage, in more recent years camo patterns have been adapted and used for the hunting and fishing fraternity. Many hunters used army surplus clothing for camouflage hunting jackets, these typically came in the British Army DPM pattern.

In recent years tastes have become more sophisticated with manufacturers designing camouflage hunting clothing lines to suit this every increasing demand. Jack Pyke is one such company that has come up with camouflage designs that really meet the demands and resemble the great British countryside, and not a USA forest. Such as the now famous English Oak camouflage, which can be found on the Jack Pyke Clothing range, along with the many other hunting items in this pattern, such as the large choice of gun slips, hunting bags and even English Oak Neoprene camo. For the summer and spring hunting season, they have also designed the English Woodland camo, this is available on a large range of Camouflage hunting clothing, game bags and other hunting items.