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Camouflage clothing is nothing new. Armies around the world have been using camo for decades, and hunters started using the stuff in the years following World War II. Today there are so many camo patterns that if you had one garment printed with each, your biggest closet couldn't hold them all. Several years ago, I tried listing all the commercial camouflage patterns, but gave it up when the list passed 80. I'm sure that more than 100 must be on the market today.

And no question about it: Camouflage is important for the turkey hunter. It doesn't make us invisible the way some companies claim, but it does break up a hunter's outline and makes his movements less noticeable.

That's the real bugaboo for the turkey hunter: movement. The trouble is that you can't hunt turkeys without making some, and every time you move, you run the risk of being spied by a sharp-eyed, paranoid turkey.

Camouflage can help with this problem; choosing the correct pattern for the conditions at hand can help even more. A green-leaf pattern won't blend as well into the winter-like woods of opening day as well as will a brown pattern, and a sage-brush desert pattern won't work quite as well in the woods as will something that looks more, well -- woodsy. Give some thought to the terrain and cover you'll be hunting before choosing the pattern you're going to wear.

Pay particular attention to your face, hands and feet. Some hunters use face paint -- not a bad idea for the hardcore hunter, because you'll never get caught with your facemask out of position. However, paint isn't such a good option if you're making a short pre-work hunt; a headnet and gloves are more commonly used. Make sure your pants legs or boots cover your shins and white socks; test this while you're sitting down with your knees raised. More than one gobbler owes his survival to the white flash of a hunter's shinbone or sock.

Of course, you can take this whole camo thing too far. The old-time turkey hunters "nearly wiped 'em off the face of the earth wearin' blue bib overhauls," as one old-timer told me nearly 30 years ago. "If y'can set still," he went on, "y'don't need a suit that looks like a tree."

Or, as another old-timer put it to me just last summer: "Sure, I wear camo -- doesn't everybody? But I wouldn't trade being still for all the camo you could pack in a truck."

(Editor's Note: Jim Spencer is the author of Turkey Hunting Digest. With 336 pages, 47 chapters and more than 300 photos, the book covers the subject of turkey hunting in considerable depth. Personalized, autographed copies are available from the author for $24.95 plus $4.00 shipping and handling. Send check or money order to Jim Spencer, P.O. Box 758, Calico Rock, AR 72519.)