Republished with Permission of Author
Today we have more choices than ever before on the type of camouflage we wear. Many people are misinformed on what good camouflage is. So consequently people are mislead into buying sub-rate camouflage and never get to fully appreciate what a really good camouflage pattern can do for you. What works well for deer hunting, doesn’t work well for evading the ultimate predator, MAN!
I have found two good rules to follow:
1. No camouflage pattern works every where, or for all season’s.
2. Black works nowhere; black will get you killed….
To prove my point about black, for all you who are now getting pissed off, please keep an open mind. In the book The Ultimate Sniper by Maj. John Plaster, on
Black BDU (outline more visible)
page 305, he says that black BDU’s (Battle Dress Uniform) suffer from the same short coming as olive drab by making your outline even more distinct. He also goes on to relate a story from the 1990 Mississippi Tactical Officers Association competition where, EVERY BLACK ATTIRED competitor had been detected during there observation exercises. Need more proof? In the book Techniques and Equipment of the Deadly Marksmen – SNIPER, by Mark Spicer, who at the time of the writing had been in the British army for 18 years and a sniper for 15 of those years wrote on page 62, that black elastic should not be used because there are very few if any naturally black areas of vegetation, to attach this to your ghuillie suit is to court death. A trained observer or indeed another well trained sniper will spot black objects no matter how small or apparently insignificant. Wow! His words right out of the book. On page 71 he goes on to complain about the military issuing black combat boots and how they would greatly enhance the camouflage effect of the soldier by issuing tan or brown boots instead.
woodland pattern (Large Black Spots)
I myself played paintball for years, and have shot so many people wearing woodland BDUs, because the black splotches were so big and black they didn’t match the surroundings and were dead giveaway. The team I played on used Bushlan camo, we got made fun of more than once, because of its bright green and yellow green coloration. That was until we got out into the woods and started playing. Then everyone was like wow you guys just disappeared, with that stuff on. It is a great camo for dense areas in the late spring and summer, its’ only draw back is it is very terrain and season specific. Another little known fact is that the average human eye with 20/20 vision can see a 1 inch stark contrasting object at 100 yards. For example, a 1 inch black square on a white background. It works like the minute of angle principle were it is 2″ at 200 yards and 3″ at 300 yards and so on.
Ghuillie Suit (Not Always Practical)
With the proliferation of scopes and binoculars these days that means you have to be even more careful. Wearing a Ghuillie suit is not practical for everyone, nor is it practical all the time.If you want a camo that works as good as possible where ever you are at, we now know to try to stay away from black, and we now know we want a pattern that is one inch or smaller so we need to start looking at the digital patterns which are great. I find is hard to get them in the colors that I like.
One of the best camouflage patterns out there right now is the MultiCam
Multicam with US Army
camouflage is a really impressive type of camouflage pattern. Inspect multicam pattern’s website and, look at the pictures that they have of camouflage and notice how bad the black things stand out.
An additional, great site to check out, so that you can see a lot of different camouflage, at one time is www.kamouflage.net. Notice how the British went over to a smaller dpm pattern with less black in 1984. Feel free to comment!
