The military uses face painting for hiding from the enemy. Shouldn't duck hunters.

DR. DUCK aka Dennis Loosier

I’ll never forget a story Billy (@thefowlhunter) told me about his oldest going through the now mandatory hunter’s education course here in East Texas. The instructor was a pleasant, older gentleman who was discussing the advantages of wearing hunter’s orange in the field.

The nine-year-old leaned over to his father requesting permission to raise his hand and ask the instructor a question. Encouraged that his son was engaged in the lesson, Billy says “of course.”

His son asks the gentleman “What about duck hunting? Do you wear hunter’s orange while duck hunting?”

The man eagerly responds with something along the lines of there are more injuries during bird hunting than any other type of hunting and it is very important that you wear hunter’s orange while bird hunting, especially duck hunting.

The young man leaned over to Billy and asked if he could raise his hand again. This time Billy said what do you want to ask and the attentive youngster said, “I want to ask him if he has ever duck hunted.”

I must admit, I have never seen anyone wear hunter’s orange in the field while duck hunting, and I understand why.

The term bird’s-eye view pretty much says it all. We use Sitka Gear to conceal ourselves, do all we can to blend in with our surroundings, why would I throw hunter’s orange on top of it?

While growing up, I was taught that if we were properly concealed in camo, our face and eyes are the two things that separate us from the rest of our surroundings. Eventually, we took it a step further and began to paint our faces.

That young man I talked about earlier is now serving our great country as an Army Ranger. Apparently when out on target, not only do they put away the hunter’s orange, some of his guys paint their faces. I certainly don’t put anything we do anywhere near the incredible level they perform at on a consistent basis. They risk their lives daily for us and they should use every advantage they can gain to ensure their safety and a win for the home team. With that said, why wouldn’t we emulate it?

We mostly hunt public land and do not use blinds so when I set up for a duck hunt I like to imagine the ducks are flying in with shotguns. It helps me be sure I select the best spot for concealment and make sure I am prepared to win that day’s battle. This includes painting my face to blend in with my surroundings, especially with the lack of cover in some areas that we have to hunt to get to the birds. Maybe it’s a result of watching too many military action movies growing up. Who knows if it really helps but I am pretty sure it never hurt my chances at fooling the birds. I make Billy do it just to hide the ugly.

We get many comments and questions on social media, thank you so much. Some lately have been on our use of face paint. I don’t care if you paint your face or not, in fact, I suppose statistically you would be much safer if you didn’t use it and added some hunter’s orange to your camo. As for my group, we are going to utilize every means we can to be sure we get the edge on every hunt and more importantly not get shot by any of those ducks that we trick in to visiting our next decoy spread.

What do you think? Is the paint useless, helpful? Is it just part of the great fun of getting out and winning the duck hunting battle?

Please share your thoughts in the comment section below or by reaching out to me on Instagram @dr_duck, FaceBook DR DUCK or on Twitter @dennisloosier (DR_DUCK).