As you read from my previous blog entries, I?ve been duck hunting in a couple different swamps the past few weekends.  I took my camera to record the hunts and I also took my tripod to steady the camera for various shots.  After looking at my videos and pics, I realized that I need to camouflage my tripod a little because it was sticking out like a sore thumb.  When I?m deer hunting, I usually have my camera behind some burlap, camo cloth, or clamped to a piece of wood.  In those settings it usually works out well, but in more open settings like duck hunting it would be better if I could camouflage the tripod some.

The legs of the tripod go inside each other so I don?t want to bother the lower sections for fear that they would not extend smoothly or become tough to deal with. Many times I?m sitting on the ground or in a low spot and don?t need to extend the tripod out the whole way anyway.  My first thought was to spray paint the top section of the tripod with black, green, brown, and grey paint which I guess could work, but I?m not sure if it would hold up over time with as many scratches and wear & tear that I?ll undoubtedly put it through.  Would it be sticky, smell, rub off on clothing or my hands??? These questions were running through my mind when I thought about painting the tripod.  It could work, but I didn?t want to risk messing the tripod legs up so I held off.

Later in the week I went to Dick?s Sporting Goods and found something that was the perfect fit. I picked up two rolls of camouflage tape.  I used both kinds, but it was obvious that Hunter?s Specialties camo tape product called No-Mar Camo Gun & Bow Tape was the one to go with.  I?d never tried any camo tape on anything before, but this stuff got the job done.  I used both kinds of tape, but the No-Mar tape holds a lot better than the other (which I can?t remember the name of now), is more durable, and tears better.  One roll cost $7 and I came home and covered the non-moving parts of the tripod and it looks really good.  I went in circles on the first leg then realized that going vertical gave a better, smoother presentation.  So on two legs it looks really good and not as good one the other!  Though, I was really pleased with the overall outcome.  I shot a short video and sent it to a couple people and some of them thought that I had bought a tripod that was painted camouflage!  Obviously that is a good sign as it had them fooled! Hopefully it will also confuse any deer/ducks in the woods or swamps in the hunts to come.  

Below is a video of the tripod after applying the Hunter?s Specialties No-Mar tape

Get you some Hunter?s Specialties camo NO-Mar tape and cover whatever you?ve got that?s making you stick out!

Regards,

Clint