I don't think they see it as orange. However, I think they see movement in front of it. If you are perfectly still wearing orange, and move your arm or hand in front of it, I think that movement is accentuated. last year opening day of m/l I had 3 does at 10 yards for an hour, and they never spooked, and my vest was flappin in the breeze
Since we're now kinda debating this, I'll weigh in.
Back in the 70's when Orange became the required color to wear (everyone used to wear Red, Yellow, or Blue), I saw first hand how that deer would react to the color. Now what actually caused the reaction? Well as I've grown older and know a little more than I did back then it has mostly to do with how the fabric is prepaired to be sold to us.
Most new hunting clothes, whether they are Camo or Bright Orange, contain a product known as UV Brightners. The purpose of the UV Brightners is to make our eyes (the buyers) become attracted to the product. It makes the Camo look better and more defined. It makes Orange explode into our eyes, drawing us to it.
So how does these UV Brightners effect the Game we hunt? Well most deer species see in shades of gray, with tints of blue. UV Brightners make the clothes we wear Glow Blue to the deer that see us. So imagine a deer is walking along feeding and having a normal day. Suddenly he/she notices a Bright Blue Subject in a tree, and the subject is moving. What would you do if you were a deer? Flee.
Now it doesn't end with the clothes you buy. Laundry detergents also contain UV Brightners to make our clothes look cleaner to us. So everytime you wash your Camo you are replacing the brightners. There are products on the market that you can use to help remove the UV Brightners and detregents that you can wash your clothes in that do not contain them at all.
In the end, if you take proper care of your Orange Vest/Jacket the deer will not see it any different. I do believe in using Orange Camo when allowed to break up the solid blob look.
Yes I think it's more of the movement and the 'blob' of weird color moving. It only seems to hurt when I go out on foot away from my truck though which isn't too often.
When I was just getting started in hunting and my Dad was still alive, he came into camp one day and told us about a guy he had ran into and talked with for awhile. He asked the guy if he had saw anything and the guy repiled "No, but I got off a few sound shots". Dad asked him what do you mean by sound shots? Guy Replied "I heard something moving in the brush, so I shot at it". Dad left the area quickly.
Yes there are really people like that out there.
Oh and by the way, this happened on private gound about 1 mile in from the closest road.
