What's your pattern of choice?

The single most effective camo pattern I've worn to date is Multicam. I have used this in Afghanistan, as well as the western US and it's the best all-around pattern I've used. Blends well in alpine areas of the western US as well as the open, barren desert of Nevada.

What's your choice of pattern based on the terrain/foliage where you live?

For where I am it is heavily forested so lots of greens, browns and shadows............

So far the hands down best for this area is the woodlands MARPAT, mutlicam is good during the winter seasons when most of the foliage is dead.

I also still love the old woodlands BDU's, they are cheap, plentiful and I still have like 6 sets of them that were free courtesy of Uncle Scrooge.

Marpat... Because it is simply what I am issued. I do think tiger stripes look cool and German flectarn is bamf looking too. I have no idea how effective they are to marpat or how great marpat really is though.

To be honest though camp in general seems to help immensely. I did a field op in the school house where we were wearing desert marpat in the Carolina woods and remained effectively hidden to launch an effective l shaped ambush on a patrol. Nobody had any idea we were there, and that included the instructor present because our instructor decided to play games. Lol

For my AO woodland MARPAT works ok during the summer months. The MARPAT desert on the other hand doesnt do so good in the fall.

I have also used the Multicam, and it works great in the summer even in barren spots with a lot of dead undergrowth, good in the fall but not "as" effective.

What I have been looking at is the ATACS desert and woodland. This desert pattern looks like one that will seriously fill my fall gap while the woodland I think will do just as good as the marpat and multicam.

Now for winter I wear white ski pants and a german overwhite poncho. Of course matching gloves and hat, but boots and making your rifle match are at times are more intricate of matters. But doable.

Speaking of rifles...is it super moto and boot of me to want to get my m16 style ar painted in marpat woodlands? Lol

Absolutely not, but it would be boot of you if you didnt do it yourself. There is a good article on sponge blotting your rifle over on AR-15.com that outlines the process pretty well. It really does come out looking like MARPAT. If I find the link I will post it up here.

Edit: Link http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_6_19/321800_.html

Good stuff! Yeah, I can definitely see Marpat working well back east and down south where you guys have such green foliage. A friend of mine when I was in Idaho had a set of Cadpat (Canadian digital woodland), and it worked great in alpine areas where there was a lot of greens. Half the time he wore that during archery season. As soon as we got down into some sage and dry grass areas it was pretty ineffective, though.

ATACs high desert pattern would probably work well where I live as well, but I have several sets of Multicam so I stick with it. I've got lots of old woodland and tri-color desert BDUs as well from back in the day, before we went to the gay ACU looking ABUs. At the SHOT Show Colt had a M4 on display that was done in ATACs high desert. Looked good...

I pretty much stick to khaki for urban, suburban, and rural settings. Can't afford specific camo for specific situations and have found that I blend in well enough, when using role camouflage in the urban and suburban areas, that going to the rural areas in the same clothes still works well enough for me.

For urban I like loose fitting blue jeans with cargo pockets. For the top I usually go with something natural like a long sleeve green or tan shirt, If its cold enough I wear a loose fitting black jacket or hoodie that my vest fits under nice and concealed.

thanks for the link, that does look great. I might have to do that next time I have libo and go home.

November Pappa. You could practice the pattern on a cheap airsoft depending on your bases guidelines on imitation weapons.

ParamilUSMC wrote:Absolutely not, but it would be boot of you if you didnt do it yourself. There is a good article on sponge blotting your rifle over on AR-15.com that outlines the process pretty well. It really does come out looking like MARPAT. If I find the link I will post it up here.

Edit: Link http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_6_19/321800_.html

Wow, that DIY makes for some good work. But then your rifle is only camouflaged for one season. That would be my concern anyway... Doesn't black pretty much blend into anything lol?

So here is the issue with black. Think to yourself on how many natural objects in nature are black. Not a whole lot. So each weapon I have ever painted have never had black incorporated into the design. So really any kind of paint or pattern is a better choice then keeping the weapon a solid black. And just remember you can always go darker but its harder to go lighter, so start off light and then slowly go darker. I always seem to start off with a tan base and work from there.

If you use krylon spray paint you can always use acetone or paint thinner to remove the coating with a rag. Just be careful of rubber seals or plastic parts that might get damaged by the thinner.

Your other option is to camouflage your weapon with material like burlap strips or netting. Incorporating natural vegetation helps to break the outline of a weapon as well. There are many methods to camouflage an object, and it is a real personal choice to do one thing or the other to your weapons system.

I will see if at some point I can post a thread about camouflaging a weapon.