Camo hats or hunting hats are an important accessory to your hunting clothing. Your brain can be negatively affected by exposure to the environment. So keeping your head covered can help you with concentration, which is vital to the hunter who wants to be successful. Hunting hats can warm your head when it's cold or they can provide relief from the sun when it's hot.
Along with the thermoregulating benefits of hunting hats, camo hats can also help by camouflaging your head. Some hats will disrupt the outline of the human head, further confusing wary game animals. Camo hats are especially helpful at close distances. Yet some species have quite acute eyesight, so it's a wise practice to keep your head covered when you can.
Finding the best hunting hat for your circumstances requires some forethought. Hunting can encompass many different climates, terrain and temperature conditions. Also, there are two types of hunting practices to cater for. These being:
Active hunting
Static hunting
Active vs static hunting hats
These hunting techniques are quite different from each other. Active hunting requires greater physical effort. As such you will often find yourself overheating if you're hunting tough country. On the other hand, static hunting generally means low physical effort.
Types of active hunting:
Backpack hunting
Mountain hunting
Stalking
Types of static hunting:
Treestand
Ground blind
Glassing
Still hunting (extremely slow stalking)
You may also combine both methods, such as spot and stalk hunting. This can occur when you first glass with binoculars from a distance (static hunting). Then stalk into range once you have located a game animal (active hunting).
When you take the factors of climate and physical activity into consideration. You can understand why you will need different hunting hats in different situations.
In cold weather hunting conditions, you should wear a hat to warm yourself. So it stands to reason that if you wear a hat in hot weather, this will also make you hotter. Right? Well, studies reveal this may not be the case when active in hot environments. Although wearing a hat does increase forehead skin temperature, thermoregulation is not affected.
This demonstrates that if you're active in hot weather conditions, wearing a camo hat won't raise your core body temperature. As an added benefit, you get protection from the sun while also camouflaging your head. So it's a good idea to wear a hat.
How to choose the best hot weather hunting hat?
Sun protection
Not only will keeping the sun off your head prevent sunburn, it will also help you concentrate. This is essential to the hunter as hunting requires high levels of focus. You can achieve this with a wide-brimmed sun hat. You'll need a brim greater than 7.5cm to get reasonable protection to your nose and cheeks. Another option is the Legionnaires style of headwear. Both will create good protection from the sun in hot environments.
Breathable fabrics
In a hot environment, you'll want to expel hot air from your head. Any restriction to this will make you feel hot, sweaty, and uncomfortable. This is the opposite of what you'll want to achieve in cold conditions. Fabrics such as mesh can create good airflow. Depending on their construction, some woven fabrics can also be very breathable. They have an added advantage over mesh fabrics in that some also offer sun protection.
Ventilation
When you get hot you'll begin to sweat. As the sweat evaporates off the surface of your skin you'll then begin to cool down. This process is commonly known as evaporative cooling. Hunting hats that don't impede the evaporative cooling process will provide greater relief.
If you are active hunting in a hot environment, sun protection can become an important factor. When stalking a bedded animal in the midsummer sun, you should always try to remain in the shadows. This will offer the best concealment while also keeping you from overheating. Sometimes though, you will find yourself pinned in the open, baking in the hot sun.
Wearing a camo hat with sun protection will be of great benefit in this situation. It can be extremely difficult to remain focused while the hot sun is scorching your skin. Oftentimes you will force the situation and blow the stalk. We have learnt this lesson the hard way over many years. Take heed, sunburn is not fun.
You should look for well-ventilated headwear using breathable fabric that offers sun protection. Using a well-ventilated design will promote the evaporative cooling of your sweat. Breathable fabrics allow the heat you generate to pass freely. While sun protection will help to keep the sun off your skin. All these factors will help to provide relief when you are hunting in hot conditions.
Recommended hot weather headwear when Active hunting
When static hunting in hot temperatures it is often wise to stay in the shade. This will not only protect you from the sun but will also offer better concealment. If you do need to be in the open, then using a sun-protective camo hat will be very important. Otherwise, the main consideration will be breathability.
Look for breathable headwear to help your body heat escape. If you're in the open in sunny conditions, look for sun protective breathable headwear. These will provide you with relief and help you to concentrate. You don't wanna miss that animal sneaking in because you are overheating and can't focus.
Recommended hot weather headwear when Static hunting
Cold weather hunting presents different challenges compared to hot weather hunting. Rather than trying to expel hot air and promote the evaporative cooling of your sweat. In cold conditions, you'll want to retain your body heat so that you can stay warm.
Sweating can also be problematic in cold weather. While this is a benefit in hot weather, as it will cool your core body temperature. In cold weather the opposite is true. As you cool down, any sweat will make you feel colder. This can soon lead to shivering and in more severe cases may lead to hypothermia.
How to choose the best cool weather hunting hat?
Insulation
The tiny gaps found within fabric fibres can trap body heat. The thicker the fabric or higher the pile, the more heat stored. Camo hats with a fleece-backed weather-resistant face are good choices for cold weather hunting.
Weather resistance
Wet fabrics can cool you down through evaporative cooling. Likewise, wind can penetrate breathable fabrics. Both these situations can lead to cold and discomfort.
What about waterproof fabrics? Can't they create a barrier to rain and wind? Yes, this is technically true. Yet they are not practical if you are undertaking physical hunting. Waterproof fabrics have limited breathability. This can lead to sweat saturating the fabric as you overheat under exertion. So you end up with wet fabric, with the same negative cooling consequences. But this time from an internal source.
A good compromise in these circumstances is non-waterproof wind-resistant fabrics. This is often achieved with a tightly woven fabric construction. It creates a good deterrent to the wind, while still being breathable enough to prevent premature sweating. The use of Durable Water Repellency (DWR) helps to repel showers and light rain. In this way minimising the risk of fabric wetting out.
Wicking fabrics
If you are active in cold environments you will need to avoid sweat-soaked fabrics. Sometimes though, this is unavoidable when in demanding mountainous terrain. In these situations, quick-drying wicking fabrics can be a great solution. The construction of wicking fabrics allows the sweat to disperse over a greater area. This increased surface area helps to promote faster drying of the fabric. In this way, fast-drying wicking fabrics can minimise the chances of being cold.
Active hunting cool weather headwear
If you are active hunting in a cold environment, you may at times find yourself overheating. At this point, the hunting headwear you are wearing may need to contend with a high sweat rate. This will likely lead to a saturated hat. Once your physical effort decreases you will begin to cool down. Now the wet hat you are wearing will become cold and uncomfortable.
You should look for breathable headwear with fast-drying fabrics. Breathability will help to reduce overheating, in this way preventing premature sweating. If you do start to sweat, fast-drying fabric will minimise the time your hat stays wet. These characteristics will lead to better comfort.
Recommended cool weather headwear when Active hunting
The main consideration when static hunting in the cold is trying to stay warm. Although the myth about losing 45% of your body heat through your head has been disproven, you'll still want to keep your head warm. Hunting demands a high concentration level, this can be hard to achieve if you're cold.
Look for headwear that will retain warmth. If you are in a breezy location then wind resistance will also be beneficial. Using a face mask can add an extra layer of insulation while also offering concealment. It can also cover parts of your head that most headwear cannot.
Recommended cool weather headwear when Static hunting
Wearing well-designed camouflage clothing can help you be a more successful hunter. It can both camouflage and break up your human outline. Yet if not covered, your exposed head can betray you to wary game animals. Camo hats can maximise your chances of success by offering extra concealment. But camouflage is just one component of being a better hunter. Understanding the pro's and cons of your gear can also help you to make better choices in the field.
Adjusting brims
Hunting headwear offers many benefits. Yet sometimes the benefits offered by a hunting hat can prove to be a nuisance in certain situations. For example, the peak on a cap is great for keeping the sun out of your eyes and rain hitting your face. But this same benefit can be a problem when trying to aim. For bowhunters, this can occur when the bowstring makes contact with the hat brim. While rifle hunters can experience similar difficulty with the rifle scope.
Hats with adjusting brims are a great solution that offers the best of both worlds. They protect from the elements while still allowing you to aim. As well as making aiming easier, they also help to maximise your peripheral vision.
How it works
With the brim down you can protect your eyes from the sun and keep the rain off your face.
By raising the brim you will see better with increased peripheral vision.
For example, picture yourself stalking within range of an unalarmed deer in a deep gully. Your focus is primarily on the animal ahead of you, but you still scan the sides of the gully. You do this just in case other unseen animals may spot you and alert the deer you're stalking. The peak on your hunting cap will only allow you to see a certain way up the gully slopes without raising your head. You don't want to raise your head because you're very close to the deer and any extra movement may alert it. So now you have missed another deer feeding further up the slope, hidden by the peak of your cap. The alarm bark sounds. The stalk is over.
To solve this problem, you can raise the peak of your adjusting brim hat. In this way increasing your peripheral vision and getting a better awareness of your surroundings. Next time you may just catch a glimpse of that unseen deer up the slope before it spots you.
Your exposed face can glow like a beacon and will be easily picked up by the keen eyesight of wary game. Face paint was traditionally used by hunters to camouflage their faces. This was effective and did not impede breathing. But it was quite messy to use and difficult to wash off.
Today with modern knitting and printing techniques we have lightweight camouflaged face masks. The neck gaiter design is quite useful. It not only allows you to cover your face but may also be worn in many headwear configurations. Offering multiple choices for the hunter. The knit construction makes it extremely breathable. You can easily wear it as a full face mask without it restricting airflow.
Ambush hunting, bowhunting, or stalking thick country can produce close encounters with game. If you expect this may occur, then a camouflaged face mask can be beneficial. Helping to hide your face.
Camo hats and headwear allow you to keep your head and face covered when hunting. Offering both concealment and protection from the elements. Helping you to maximise your chances of success in the field.
