Widobender: Before you get your shorts in a not, I hope you realize how silly it sounds for someone to want to camo WOOD, when you are hunting for turkeys in the WOODS! That is why you are drawing comments that are poking you where it hurts. :surrender: :rotf:
Its not the color of your stock that is going to frighten away turkeys, or other game. Wood is wood. They see it all the time and ignore it. ITS THE MOVEMENT OF THAT WOOD that is going to alert a turkey or other game. Animals associate fast movement of wood with falling trees or limbs that can crush them, during storms.
Camo may or may not help you if you are one of these hunters who doesn't pay attention to the speed of movement of your eyes, head, hands, arms, and upper body. Prey species are programs to become alert to any sudden movement. Even a grass hopper jumping will cause a turkey to pause.
As for me, if you want to stain or paint your wood stock green, more power to you. I just hope you don't do such a good job that you can't find the gun again if you lay it down, or lean it against a tree. Go ahead a laugh. I know several different hunters who have spent hours looking for their guns, and one man who only has his shotgun because a friend found it and returned it to him a day after he lost it while taking a dump. All those men NOW have a strip of blaze orange tape either around the barrel, or around the wrist of the stock, so they can find the things again.
Years ago, the State of Arkansas conducted a study, to determine if requiring or even recommending Turkey Hunters wear Blaze Orange would reduce the chances for hunters to get their birds. 100 volunteers were involved in the experiment, with 50 wearing normal camo clothing, and the other 50 wearing Blaze orange Camo. The two groups had the same success ratio, but the hunters reported that seeing other hunters was much easier when they wore blaze orange camo. That is why blaze orange camo is still recommended to Turkey hunters.
If you have a bright finish to the metal of your shotgun, then I think you want to dull that down. You can use dust, mud, or any of the camo creams, shoe polish, etc. to dull the metal finishes so they don't " Flash " the game. You can make your own camo cream with cold dream and some lamp black, or brown and green pignments sold at art supply stores. You can tape it up with camo tape, or use brown cloth tape over the barrel and action.
Your primary concern should be to limit the amount of movement you do, on your stand, the noise you make that are plastic( crinkling plastic wrappers) or metallic. Coughing( belching, breaking wind, sneezing, talking, etc.) is also not a bright thing to do when turkey is in hearing range. In addition to limiting movement, practice LIMITING THE SPEED OF movement. The slower you move, the less obvious you are. Pay attention to the birds, and other animals in the woods around you. Listen to their alarm calls whenever you have to move from one location to another. Try to move as slow as a tree, by listening for alarms, and moving so slow, the animals don't even notice you. Move only when there is wind blowing, and then only for the duration of the gust of wind. Limit your movement to the distance the tree branches move, and move with them, and stop when they stop moving.
Bend at the waist to reduce your height and silhouette. To stand up, get right next to the trunk of a large tree, and rise slowly hugging the tree, so you don't present the small critters with " the boogie man " nightmare, and cause them to cry out in alarm.
If an alarm is sounded, freeze, and hold your position for at least 20 minutes. In that time most birds, and small game get bored, and distracted, and stop watching you, going about their own business.
Good hunting. :thumbsup:
) I am recommending the Cabots as it has a high resistance to weathering and I have tried it on exterior applications. You may want to consider a color other than just green as the woods were I hunt is green only a small bit of the available turkey hunting seasons and woods green is tough to match. I might try a grey as it will match more "woods" items for more seasons. Let me know how it goes!
