# Blending In - Camoflage



## john10001 (Mar 20, 2013)

Just wondered what your views are on different types of camoflage clothing.

Do you think it is better to get the clothing to match your environment exactly but stick out like a sore thumb when outside that environment some of the time, or to get multi-cam clothing e.g. one colour fits all, although it may not really be as good as dedicated camo for that environment?


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## Meangreen (Dec 6, 2012)

I went out dove hunting tonight and as I was sitting waiting for the dove, I couldn't help but notice how well my camo matched my surroundings. I believe the camo for your area is important and there is no good enough or middle road. I own a lot of camo so I match the season and area. In short, dedicated.


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## lgustavus81 (Aug 12, 2013)

I would say dedicated myself. Some situations or scenarios may not exactly fit into the camo type that you have available at that given time.


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## Deebo (Oct 27, 2012)

I feel that some form of pattern break is better than nothing. My camo selection is pretty limited, but would say that it is adequate, could be better. 
My favorite camo, is total blackout, black everything, and hiding in the midnight shadows....


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## Deebo (Oct 27, 2012)

Meangreen said:


> I went out dove hunting tonight and as I was sitting waiting for the dove, I couldn't help but notice how well my camo matched my surroundings. I believe the camo for your area is important and there is no good enough or middle road. I own a lot of camo so I match the season and area. In short, dedicated.


Meangreen, hows the hunting? Man, I havent had a bacon wrapped grilled dove breast in about 12 years.....MMMMM. hope you did well!


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## Inor (Mar 22, 2013)

Deebo said:


> I feel that some form of pattern break is better than nothing. My camo selection is pretty limited, but would say that it is adequate, could be better.
> My favorite camo, is total blackout, black everything, and hiding in the midnight shadows....


In the wilds I absolutely agree with Meangreen, dedicated camo is best. When in an urban environment, I favor dark red rather than black. With limited ambient light, red is as dark as black. With full light, it looks much less threatening. Just a thought.


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## tango (Apr 12, 2013)

For hunting, blend with the background
For urban times, blend with everyone else


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## wallyLOZ (May 12, 2013)

Adaptive camo. The gilly suit used by our snipers is the hands down best, IMO. They make their own suit, and it is adaptive to add twigs with leaves or bunches of grass as need be. Their life depends on it, so it's definitely good enough for me!


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## roy (May 25, 2013)

Don't wear your gilly suit to the mall.


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## csi-tech (Apr 13, 2013)

As an avid sportsman I change with the season. Shadowleaf in late summer along with Mossy Oak new breakup. In fall I really like fuzion 3D and when the foliage is on the ground you can't beat Realtree Extra Grey. I live amongst southern hardwood forest though. Gillie suits snag on every damned briar around and if you have to egress in a hurry you may as well abandon it. It ain't hard to spot the bush that's hauling ass to it's extraction point.


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## Fuzzee (Nov 20, 2012)

There is no perfect camouflage clothing that works for everything so you're basically left suiting to your environment. Multi-Cam is one of the best all around for outdoor to me, but your going to stick out like a fat man on stage at a Victoria Secrets fashion show in the urban environment. I like OD. It's not the best, not the worst and when you mix it with a pair of jeans, you don't stand out overly too much in a rural urban environment. I know when shtf there's no way I'd be in an inner city environment, so in small country towns it's fine. The cities are either going to be death traps, burnt to the ground, or locked down at some point when it gets bad enough.


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## GTGallop (Nov 11, 2012)

Personally I prefer the ASAT pattern.
ASAT Camouflage LLC - All Season All Terrain

But here is a tid-bit of advice where camo and blending in is concerned - If you are moving around, it doesn't matter what pattern you are wearing. And if you don't move, it still doesn't matter what pattern you are wearing.

Fortunately for you (and unfortunately for Stacy and Clinton), camo has become a normal fashion trend. So I think you are safe wearing camo pants and a tan shirt about in the grocery stores and other places where you mix with the tactically impaired.

I did learn something this weekend - wavelength of light is a big factor in creating contrast from the environment. Was talking to a park ranger about poncho colors and here is what he told me. I carry a bright yellow poncho so I CAN be seen when I want to. I bought it when I lived in East Texas and was surrounded by green foliage and swamps and river bottom - he says it was good for there because of the dis-similarities between the green and yellow wavelengths and dappled sunlight. Now that I live in the desert, the harsh sunlight and tan background does not provide a significance in wavelength separation. He says HOT PINK is a more visible color and so is HIGHWAY SAFETY OSHA ORANGE, but that here in the desert, pink outperforms orange and in the wooded areas, orange outperforms pink.

I know that is contrary to your original question, but moving the discussion back that way, I think you will find that if you are in a forested area, any green is sufficient, and in the desert, any tan will do. Does MagPul Flat Dark Earth out perform Khaki, Coyote, Brown, etc? Maybe... But is it enough to justify any special effort to find one over the others or pay more for one over the others - probably not.

Your digital camo patterns work on the same theories of wavelength that I mentioned above. So many little patches of color make it hard for the shirt or pants to have one wavelength and it disappears in more environments - but you can train your eye to spot it better over time. That's why I like ASAT. I think it is harder to train for.


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## PaulS (Mar 11, 2013)

Dedicated clothing and colors are the best way to go. In town I wear brown... nobody notices the color and it blends in just about everywhere.


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## alterego (Jan 27, 2013)

I am in wheel chair so camp clothing only goes so far. If you are stationary the best camp is some broken branches. I love to stick corn stalks in my wheel chair. Best damn camp around.


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## alterego (Jan 27, 2013)

Camo stupid tap talk.


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## Meangreen (Dec 6, 2012)

Deebo said:


> Meangreen, hows the hunting? Man, I havent had a bacon wrapped grilled dove breast in about 12 years.....MMMMM. hope you did well!


Deebo it has been great getting out with the wife and friends but it's been really tough this year because there is water everywhere. Most years there is only a few spots for them to water up but this year they are spread thin with it being such a rain soaked year. My favorite recipe for dove is to pound the breast flat and wrap green chile and cheese in the center and wrap the whole thing in bacon, cook on the grill. I was hoping to fill the freezer but it's going to take some doing this year.


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## csi-tech (Apr 13, 2013)

Man, I have tried dove and to me its just too gamey and has the consistency of liver.


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## Prepadoodle (May 28, 2013)

I don't own any camo. I don't own any jeans either.

Just about everything I own is either black or some fairly dark earth tone.

To me, camouflage is more about outlines than colors and patterns. If I were to add a few strategically placed branches to obscure my shape, you wouldn't see me unless I moved. Moving objects are visible no matter what camo you use.

Us ninjas can blend in with anything anywhere.


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## StarPD45 (Nov 13, 2012)

Does anyone remember the story of the WWII US GIs who were getting picked off in the snow in (I think) Belgium? The people of the village gave up their white sheets for them to use for camouflage.
As I recall the story, sometime after the war, a bunch of the guys got together and went back and donated a bunch of sheets, etc. as a thank you. 
If anyone has a link to this story, please post it. I'm going from memory of what I read a long time ago. (NO, I wasn't there. Not *that* old.)


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## rickkyw1720pf (Nov 17, 2012)

There are a lot of people with thermo scopes around now, that makes someone in a ghillie suit look like a glowing christmass ornament in the woods. You must think of camouflage in today's time not 10 years ago.


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## Meangreen (Dec 6, 2012)

rickkyw1720pf said:


> There are a lot of people with thermo scopes around now, that makes someone in a ghillie suit look like a glowing christmass ornament in the woods. You must think of camouflage in today's time not 10 years ago.


Add some mylar to the interior of the suit and you can greatly reduce the signature.


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## Meangreen (Dec 6, 2012)

csi-tech said:


> Man, I have tried dove and to me its just too gamey and has the consistency of liver.


Soak the meat in water with a little vinagar overnight and it won't be gamey.


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## rickkyw1720pf (Nov 17, 2012)

Meangreen said:


> Add some mylar to the interior of the suit and you can greatly reduce the signature.


I seen some of those videos where they use a reflective Mylar but that just works when they put it on and it is still cold and only part of your heat loss is by radiation you still have to deal with convection and conduction. 
What I have found is wet clothing works much better as the evaporation cools the garment. But if I had to get past thermo I would wait for rain as it pretty well wash all the temperature differences out and most thermo doesn't see real good through rain any way. Thermo takes a picture and everything in that frame is either colored or brightened compared to everything else in the frame. So telephone wires against a clear sky will look white hot but against a tree background will look cold black.


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## PaulS (Mar 11, 2013)

IR won't penetrate glass. Just carry a big pane of glass with you and stay behind it! :roll:


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## Meangreen (Dec 6, 2012)

rickkyw1720pf said:


> I seen some of those videos where they use a reflective Mylar but that just works when they put it on and it is still cold and only part of your heat loss is by radiation you still have to deal with convection and conduction.
> What I have found is wet clothing works much better as the evaporation cools the garment. But if I had to get past thermo I would wait for rain as it pretty well wash all the temperature differences out and most thermo doesn't see real good through rain any way. Thermo takes a picture and everything in that frame is either colored or brightened compared to everything else in the frame. So telephone wires against a clear sky will look white hot but against a tree background will look cold black.


I know for a fact that a mylar blanket inside a blanket works really well.


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## rickkyw1720pf (Nov 17, 2012)

Meangreen said:


> I know for a fact that a mylar blanket inside a blanket works really well.


It could work for quit awhile maybe keeping it damp would work even longer. Some day I would like to do test to see just how good it works. But you got the ideal in this day and age you can't just think conventional camouflage.


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## Prepadoodle (May 28, 2013)

I don't get it. (again)

Do we somehow know there is a sniper in the area with a thermal scope and, for whatever reason, want to go where he is anyway while avoiding detection?

Or are we gonna walk around with a wet blanket and Mylar over us all the time, just in case?

My plan for this is simple: if there's a sniper with a thermal scope aiming at me, I plan on getting shot, or at least shot at.

<shrug>


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## Inor (Mar 22, 2013)

Prepadoodle said:


> Or are we gonna walk around with a wet blanket and Mylar over us all the time, just in case?


I used to "have a thing" for wet Mylar but gave it up after I kept getting arrested.


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## Verteidiger (Nov 16, 2012)

Realtree Mossy Oak for me dawn to dusk. Black at night.

In urban settings, tan polo shirt and khakis, light brown belt and hiking boots. You essentially disappear....

Be the grey man in the cities. In the woods or fields, blend in or go hungry....


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## GTGallop (Nov 11, 2012)

rickkyw1720pf said:


> It could work for quit awhile maybe keeping it damp would work even longer. Some day I would like to do test to see just how good it works. But you got the ideal in this day and age you can't just think conventional camouflage.


What if instead of trying to make yourself look cooler to IR, you found something HOT to stay near? Engines, fires, manifolds, exhaust vents, asphalt, power gen, etc...


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## rickkyw1720pf (Nov 17, 2012)

GTGallop said:


> What if instead of trying to make yourself look cooler to IR, you found something HOT to stay near? Engines, fires, manifolds, exhaust vents, asphalt, power gen, etc...


Actually I had that happen and if someone is standing by a hot object like a truck that is running they are hard to pick up with thermo, and in that case you wouldn't want to cover up your heat.


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## srtayl (Sep 8, 2013)

There are two thought here in my mind;

1. Initial Bugout
2. Defensive Site Position

For the first, I would wear neutral colored clothes that reflect the region... tans and browns for pan handle texas; polos and pants.

For the second (once you have hopefully gotten to your bivuac), I would wear camo suitable to the environment (mossy oak, desert camo, jungle green).

When you are traveling towards, you need to look like a regular, dumb-assed american in order to avoid a shot to the head. once you get where you need to be/destination, you need to blend to the area and be a soldier.

IR is IR... it is very difficult to beat.


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## oldmurph58 (Feb 8, 2014)

I still think of my time in the service, cover and concealment. keeping some brush in front of you,to break up the human outline, using sticks and grass to blend in with your background, stuff like that. woodland camo worked great if you did that, but if you stood on a ridge with a blue sky as background, you definately would be seen.


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## MaterielGeneral (Jan 27, 2015)

I'm a big fan of the German Flecktarn pattern. I have enough for the whole family for uniformity for after a severe SHTF event.


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## sparkyprep (Jul 5, 2013)

Best camo in a SHTF scenario- dirty, possibly ripped blue jeans, dirty grey t shirt, old boots.


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