Hi James,
When considering camouflage at your retreat what are some of the things
you have taken into consideration. I'm just starting to research this
and the choices available are a bit overwhelming. Here are my thoughts
as they currently stand.
The first choice is whether you want to go with a military pattern
or a commercial pattern such as RealTree, MossyOak, or similar. Then
there are the in-between patterns like MultiCam that were developed
for the military but not yet adopted so they are commercially available,
at a premium price. I'm leaning more towards the commercial patterns
as their use before the SHTF would
not draw as much attention as mil patterns. The big plus in my mind
is that after the SHTF these patterns
would not be confused with the patterns worn by any military units
in the area. Hopefully, this could save you from being identified as
a military member and prevent incoming fire from a like minded individual
taking out military targets of opportunity. While I've heard good things
about MultiCam, but I think I would shy away from it because of the
above reason. It's currently in use in the Future Force Warrior program
and could be adopted and found in widespread use in the future.
I've yet to see a scientific review of the various patterns and their
effectiveness; most of the information I've been able to find has been
on various survival related forums where individuals do their own impromptu
tests. It seems to be universally held that the current ACU is
horrible in nearly all terrain, with the possible exception of sagebrush
country
that you've mentioned in the past. Oddly enough, from some people's
accounts, the original olive drab (more on the brown side then the
green you picture today) still works pretty well, especially when in
a mix of light and shadow found under the forest canopy.
When considering your camo, do you pick one pattern to work with all
seasons or do you have separate patterns for every season. I live in
the northeast, so I figure one pattern could cover you for fall, early
winter, and spring. In the dead of winter with a lot of snow on the
ground a winter camo with some amount of white would probably work.
Then again, you could just add some lighter colored cloth strips by
using safety pins or make a white shell as the situation warranted.
Movement of the additional cloth in the wind would obviously need to
be taken into consideration. In summer, you could still be able to
get by with your main pattern as the increased foliage adds to your
general concealment. From my understanding patterns that are heavy
on the green don't do as well because the greens unnaturally stand
out more often then not. Deer are brown for a reason.
What is your view on various fabric weights of camo for the different
seasons? Layering makes the most sense to utilize your gear as much
as possible but a water resistant (preferable breathable fabric like
Gore-Tex) outer layer is important to keep you dry, especially in the
winter. If it is uninsulated it will be usable throughout a larger
portion of the year.
Thanks in advance for any insight you may be able to provide. - Jim
in Vermont
JWR Replies: In my experience, the finer points of camouflage patterns only make a difference in recognition at distances of 25 feet or less. Beyond that, plain earth brown or good old olive drab--supplemented with gloves and either camouflage face paint (or a British camouflage net "sniper's veil")--work remarkably well. Avoiding rapid movement is ten times more important than color, pattern, or shading. I recommend just using one pattern, nearly year-round. (Except when there is snow on the ground, as discussed later.)
In addition to the basics of the effectiveness
of camouflage patterns in breaking up the human silhouette,
consider that post-collapse
retreat security presents some unique challenges. One of these is identifying
friend
from foe,
while maintaining a perimeter of security. You will want to be able
to distinguish "the sheep from the goats" with just a glance
at long distance. (By long distance, I mean distance too great for
facial recognition without aid of optics.) For this reason I do not recommend
that survival groups standardize with
any
of the
most ubiquitous
patterns, such as BDU Woodland
or brown RealTree. It would be far too easy for one or more would-be
looters to take note of the pattern
that you are using, and dress in that pattern in an attempt to sneak
in to your perimeter. In fact,
I recommend buying all matching clothing for every family/group member
in a pattern that is: 1.) uncommon,
2.) distinctive,
and 3.) inexpensive
to
purchase in quantity. For example,
I know
of two different retreat groups that standardized with Swiss
Alpenflage (which has a lot of red blotches in it--hence it is very distinctive),
and one group that standardized with German
Flecktarn.
Military surplus uniforms in these patterns are
available
from
U.S. vendors
such as Cheaper
Than Dirt and Major
Surplus, Canadian vendors like Global
Army Surplus, and British
vendors like Flecktarn.co.uk.
In your particular situation--in the woods of New England--one military
surplus camouflage pattern that might work particularly well is the
British DPM pattern,
and/or its first cousin, the very reasonably priced Dutch
Army pattern (the two look virtually the same
except upon close inspection.) OBTW, Dutch camo uniforms are also
available in England from MeanAndGreen.com. It is even
possible
to do a
bit of uniform "mixing and matching"--for example
buying all
DPMs
shirts and smocks, and all East German Raindrop pattern pants. OBTW,
if you have a big budget, the
commercial All-Season, All-Terrain (ASAT) pattern is
remarkably
effective. Use of the
ASAT pattern is so uncommon that the chances of someone finding a set
of ASAT clothing
for an attempt at perimeter-probing subterfuge is practically nil.
You are correct that switching to snow camouflage is as simple as cutting up bed sheets. But I know of one group that made very simple snow camouflage ponchos (serape style, with no hood) out of Dupont Tyvek. (Yes, you can order it in rolls of plain white--so you won't look like a walking "Dupont Tyvek Housewrap" advertisement.) The drawback is that Tyvek is considerably noisier than cotton sheets, but its advantages are that it provides semi-durable and waterproof ponchos that cost less than $1 each!
