Camo Hunting Clothes

Hunters should take special care to wash their camo hunting clothes for several reasons.

Why You Should Wash Camo Hunting Clothes

1. Human scent contaminates any camouflage clothes that you wear even for a short time
2. Human body oils and sweat absorb into the fabric and make it impossible to just "air out" your scent
3. Poison ivy/oak/sumac oils can stay on anything it touches for weeks and will cause an allergic reaction in most people when it touches human skin
4. Seed ticks often find their way onto hunting clothes when you’re in the woods during the early fall and spring

Washing your camo clothes regularly eliminates these issues.

How to Wash Hunting Clothes

Washing camo hunting clothes is as easy as doing any other kind of laundry. You just need to know how to wash your hunting clothes so they don’t get brightened by regular laundry detergent or have scents added to them, because this is a big no-no. Deer have a great sense of smell and sight and can often pick out from their surroundings the clothes that have been washed in detergent with UV brighteners. So no Tide or Gain, or any of these kinds of detergent or you’re begging that deer to run away!

Know how to wash your hunting clothes the right way.

To do the most thorough job of washing your camo, you need some special laundry supplies just for hunters and their camouflage hunting clothes.

Even regular scent-free detergents will usually contain the UV brighteners so scent-free laundry detergent isn’t a good option. You want scent-eliminating detergents without UV enhancers, which isn’t the same thing at all as regular laundry detergents.

What Supplies You Need to Wash Hunting Clothes

• Scent-eliminating laundry detergent with no UV enhancers like Atsko Sport Wash or Hunter’s Specialties Scent-A-Way Odorless Detergent
• Scent-eliminating dryer sheets or alternatively, a drying rack or clothes line and clothes pins

Best Way to Wash Camo Clothes

• Use cold water so you don’t fade your camouflage patterns
• Use the correct amount of scent-eliminating detergent so it will be able to remove the most odor
• Don’t dry in a dryer that has recently had fragranced dryer sheets used in it
• Don’t hang dry near a source of strong human scent, such as the kitchen or bathroom

I hope this article on how to wash your camo clothes has given you the information you need to know how to wash your hunting gear before your next hunt.