best thing I've worn is carhartt bibs tough but still loose enough to allow convection of heat.

I've lived in Arizona for all my 71 years and jeans are what I wear when i hunt.

In the five African countries I've hunted I have yet to experience temperatures as hot the 110 to 125 degrees found where I grew up (Yuma, Arizona), or as cold as where I now spend my summers in eastern Arizona's high country.

As someone here said, animals (even in Africa) are more aware of movement than color. I bowhunted when I was younger, and was able to move up on elk, deer and javelinas with no major problem while wearing jeans.

Jeans -- of any brand, if they're washed and worn enough to be soft -- work just fine in Africa, thank you. If you are comfortable in them, wear them.

As for shorts, the medicine I take makes me super sensitive to the sun and I must wear long sleeve shirts and wide brim hats and cover myself with sunblock whenever I'm out in it.

Bill Quimby

Shorts for me every time. The tetse bites and scratches remind me of the hunt for weeks afterward, and cause major eyerolling by the wife. It's all good!

I have it on good authority that man eating lions love the taste of Wranglers.

465H&H

I've only been on one trip down south, but I enjoyed wearing the appropriate costume for the safari. I didn't spend any real amount of money, but I did pack three hunting shirts and two pairs of light pants purchased as "African Safari Gear".

It was very hypocritical for me to do so because around here I always giggle to myself at the non resident hunters that show up at our airport outfitted in the latest "Alaskan Safari Gear" purchased from Cabelas or whoever.

I don't think camo is needed, and to prove my point I think there are pictures in my hunting report of one of Mokore's trackers named Jeff in the field wearing some smashing teal colored pants and a bright red t shirt. Most of our game taken was at relatively close ranges and the game didn't seem to mind the bright colors.

As an added twist, if after this soul searching debate you do choose to bring Wrangler jeans to wear on safari, like me, you could well loose your luggage somewhere in transit and find yourself wearing borrowed and/ or purchased "Safari Gear" anyway!

Carhartts have worked well for me. Heavy, tight weave, pockets and good colors.

Damn Ray, I love it when you don't hold back! When I went to Tanzania on a hunt I booked through you, I wore shorts every other day and had zero problems outside of a few scratches. I have been called an idiot before, I definately was a Newbie, and with my level of shooting, noone will ever mistake me for a PH! The tsetse flies bugged hell out of my wife and hunting partner, but left me alone, I don't really want to speculate on where we could go on that subject! At least I did not wear sandals like Shakari, I'm just not that tough! Lee.

For my 04 trip to South Africa I bought two sets of Levi's in a brown/olive color that just got earthier with washing. I also took a pair of brown ripstop BDU style pants and they all worked fine.
I do believe that washing your hunting stuff in one of the soaps without brighteners helps no matter what color they are. Next time I'll take one of the blaze orange vests we wear here in the States and really frost the PH.

quote:

Originally posted by MacD37:

quote:

Originally posted by GeoffM24:

quote:

Someone else said not to wear jeans because they are the wrong color or not camo. Just lood at the number of big game animals shot every year in America by hunters in glowing pumpkin suits. I have alot of camo cloths, but I think much of the need for camo is pushed by the companies selling camo. My first elk shot with archery gear was a 5 pt bull shot at 10 yds while I was wearing blue Levis.

Sometimes I wear Wranglers, sometimes I wear Levis. I'll probably be wearing jeans golfing this afternoon.

The oranges and yellows are part of the light spectrum that most animals can't see. Blue is the absolute worst color to wear when hunting.

Geoff, where is it written that you have to have "BLUE" Wranglers, they come in many colors. Besides the blue is bunk anyway! I've hunted all over the world in Blue Wranglers, and have had zero problem getting close to game, hunting with a bow, or Muzzle loader, or handgun. Movement, and noise are far more important to avoid!

I wear shorts as well in hot weather,in fairly open country, but have you thought about being stuck in the legs by the same thorn that just stabbed the black tracker in front of you? Something to think about, my friend!

John Taylor hunted naked except for a turban and he got close to lots of game but I'm not going to go that route either. Just because it works doesn't mean it is the best way.

Check out this thread it is very interesting.

https://forums.accuratereloading.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/1411043/m/277109255/p/1

I also agree that movement is the most important but I want all the advantages I can get so I won't be wearing any blue.

I also don't plan on wearing shorts but I admit that I never thought about your bloody thorn theory, something to think about.

I wear jeans hunting in AZ all the time. I also work in blue jeans every day. Believe me it is hot on the helipad at Phoenix Sky Harbor in July and Aug. Here is a photo of my helipad last July. Jeans have there place. I would not wear jeans to Kodiak, AK!!!

I also wore jeans when I was stationed at MCAS Yuma, AZ. Believe it or not it is hotter there.

This photo is the hottest spot we found along the tar seam. The average surface temp was 168 deg F.

Crank up the Bell 212 and get both PT6T-3DF engines going the rotor wash make for a very effective convection oven.


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Looks like the Fashion Police have struck AR.

It's amazing how many "experts" come out so strongly about something as irrelavent as someone else's preference as to the color of their own pants.

Lee 440,
Oh how I wish that I could do that, but let me assure you that if I am in camp nobody else gets bit by the horrible Tetsi..All the flys are drawn to and attack me in force, I have had as many as 140 bites and ended up with fever and sick for several days, on on a regimen of antihistamine and doxy..

In your case and its rare, you are more than justified wearing shorts if they suit you, but be sure you get your tetnus shots and don't get a Mamba too close!

quote:

Originally posted by buffybr:
Looks like the Fashion Police have struck AR.

It's amazing how many "experts" come out so strongly about something as irrelavent as someone else's preference as to the color of their own pants.

Well, an opinion was requested.....

quote:

Originally posted by GeoffM24:

Check out this thread it is very interesting.

https://forums.accuratereloading.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/1411043/m/277109255/p/1

I also agree that movement is the most important but I want all the advantages I can get so I won't be wearing any blue.

I also don't plan on wearing shorts but I admit that I never thought about your bloody thorn theory, something to think about.

Geoff,

I wrote the first definitive article on how deer and other ungulates and birds perceive colors and the effects of UV brighteners. With various charts and graphs, the article covered nine pages in the July 1990 issue of Outdoor Life. In fact, it covered most everything Alf had posted.

I spent nearly two years researching it and even attended the session at the Univ. of Georgia Deer Research facility where they tested the color vision on live anesthetized deer.

And yes, movement is an alarm to game, but consider that the easier a critter can see that movement, the worse it is. That's why it is always better to blend in with one's surroundings than to stick out like the proverbial sore thumb. -TONY