Best rifle Camouflage pattern for California

[Dr.Mavashi]

Basically Mono Lake to San Diego, what is the pattern that will be good enough year around. I know during snow storms in the Sierras it’s not going to be that great obviously, but outside of that ? Thank you.

[Ki6vsm]

You say "best"? How fancy are you willing to get with the pattern? And are you thinking of green environments or dry?

FWIW, Multi-Cam or the Army's equivalent, Operational Camouflage Pattern, OCP, fades well into sage covered hills of inland San Diego County. Haven't tried it in the desert yet. It'd be a challenging scheme to duplicate on a rifle though. But anything in an earth tone scheme that breaks up the object's outline will work well.


OCP_Swatch.jpg

[jarhead714]

There is no camo but Woodland, and I am it’s Prophet.

[SDDAVE56]

[RAMCLAP]

MARPAT Desert.

[Big Chudungus]

You say "best"? How fancy are you willing to get with the pattern? And are you thinking of green environments or dry?

FWIW, Multi-Cam or the Army's equivalent, Operational Camouflage Pattern, OCP, fades well into sage covered hills of inland San Diego County. Haven't tried it in the desert yet. It'd be a challenging scheme to duplicate on a rifle though. But anything in an earth tone scheme that breaks up the object's outline will work well.


OCP_Swatch.jpg

pretty much everything he said. driving and hiking around SF Bay Area hills and valleys, I'd swear CP was custom perfected for CA. Sure it not perfect for open "Golden Hills" of dry yellow grass, but it ain't bad once you lay down, and its perfect for shrubs, trees and rocks at the border of open fields, which is where you gonna be.

NutinFancy did a youtube where he showed just plain FDE works great on guns, due to shadows created by the various surfaces of the gun. Same reason Olive Drab is under rated as single color camo. It looks not that great when you compare a digital flat square against great outdoors, but its really good Real World on uniform or vehicles, with shadows.

[CamW]

I'm thinking of doing a rifle like this.



I also like this but it has a little too much black, but it breaks up the profile of the stock well.



This is a pattern that McMillan is doing again on a limited basis, Desert Smear.

[Ki6vsm]

MARPAT Desert.

That would be my #2 choice, after the OCP. It would be #1 if we're sticking with desert areas. Note how well the covered parts of the scope on the left disappear. It's wrapped with "digital desert" tape. And the bipods have a similar coloring done in paint.


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[RAMCLAP]

That wold be my #2 choice, after the OCP. It would be #1 if we're sticking with desert areas. Note how well the covered parts of the scope in the foreground disappear. It's wrapped with "digital desert" tape. And the bipods have a similar coloring done in paint.


image.png

Good looking rifles.

[Ki6vsm]

Good looking rifles.

Thanks. The brown one I Duracoated in Magpul FDE. It's a 20" 6.5 Grendel. The other one is a collection of components I painted with various mixes of FDE and Foliage. Maybe a little OD in there. It's got an 18" GMR barrel. They're both great shooters.

So anyway, FDE is great for blending into many natural environments, though I wouldn't call it a "pattern" of course.

But you can't go wrong with MARPAT in a desert. Nor with CADPAT Desert, which I guess is what MARPAT was adapted from? This below is CADPAT Desert obviously. Not quite the same as MARPAT, but very close.


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[Ki6vsm]

NutinFancy did a youtube where he showed just plain FDE works great on guns, due to shadows created by the various surfaces of the gun. Same reason Olive Drab is under rated as single color camo. It looks not that great when you compare a digital flat square against great outdoors, but its really good Real World on uniform or vehicles, with shadows.

Yep. I remember that NutinFancy vid and took it to heart. Solid colors are not to be ignores as good camo. See my pics above.

Here is another upper I painted recently. I don't know why but I got a hankerin' to do something very different with it. I built it with a 6.5G 22" Wilson Combat barrel. I was originally going to do it in Duracoat's "WWII Olive Drab" color, but decided instead to do something wilder with it. I had a bottle of Duracoat's RAL-8000 sitting around. The Germans officially refer to RAL-8000 as Grünbraun, or Green-Brown, for some reason. Doesn't look all that green really. I just call it panzer yellow.

And I don't know if I'd consider it a camo color exactly, but some European countries use it on their weapons, so maybe yes. It's a bit like their version of FDE or Coyote Brown. Probably not everyone's cup 'o tea I'm sure. In fact my wife saw the pic as I was typing this out and declared the rifle "an abomination". Hah.

This phone pic doesn't really show the true color of the upper, which is a little darker, browner, and with maybe a touch of green as the name indicates:


image.png


This pic I got off the web shows a more accurate idea of RAL-8000, for those not familiar:

RAL_8000_sample.jpg

[SVT-40]

[Dr.Mavashi]

Most of the time I will be in NorCal, but do want some coverage for SoCal so looks it’s between OCP and FDE ?

[Ki6vsm]

How do you plan to get it painted?

[Ki6vsm]

BTW, I also have a soft spot for flecktarn. Never tried to paint anything in this pattern, but I love the look. Got a couple of surplus German army shirts in it for cheap. However, I can't say it's actually better than what's been shown so far, though it will break up any object's outline and shape.

Technically, both shirts are the same. I guess the colors shift according fabric/die lots maybe, or which part of the roll the cloth came from?


In shade:

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In direct low-angle sunlight:

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