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Rob72 wrote: ↑Fri Aug 10, 2018 8:06 am In context of carrying a long gun "covertly," pick a handful of clothing covers (think ripstop wind breakers, or FrogTogs-type light rain gear), and a coloring on your long gun that fades nicely into those. The visual image then becomes more innocuous, what you're carrying blends with you, not necessarily with the surroundings.

I like this thought. You become the defining background. While I might not always be able to put it on, having a light weight cover garment that the gun will blend into should work well.

Now to find a good color scheme and a cover garment.

Even though grey man does not mean you wear grey all the time, I didn't want to put any color out there to skew anyone's thinking thus I didn't want to refer to "grey".

We've jumped pretty quickly to "camo" with splotches and patterns. Something was hoping to stay away from initially, thus the Part 1.
I was going to introduce patterns, textures, ect. in Part 2.

What I was fishing for is what color(s) are going to blend in with most environments most times, even if everyone is wearing Hawaiian shirts and orange pants. Yes, Hawaiian patterns and orange paint would blend in great but stand out like a sore thumb anywhere else.

My thinking is, like y'all have said, muted colors in browns and greys, seem to blend in with most environments fairly well and, maybe more importantly, are harder for the eye to pick up or focus on. Primer grey just seems hard to focus on. My AR Pistol is Magpul FDE and I think it works OK but just OK. I might can do better.

Since we've already broached the subject of patterns and camo, I tend to think soft open pattern splotchs and texture seem to break up shapes better than photo-type or hard lines and angles. Or maybe a base coat with a light overspray of the second (or third) color. Now I'm getting into painting techniques, of which I am not experienced.

So I'm thinking a grey or brown base with shadows of the other color blended in. The tints would need to be something that is fairly middle ground between dark and light so they don't stand out in the dark or bright light. Something that's just a blah color that is hard to focus on. I've even been looking at a set of dumpsters on my way to town that is an interesting chalky taupe with a hint of pink or amber or ?? They are almost impossible to "see".

Being familiar with and trying to practice the grey man theory I was holding off on it to try not to introduce a color bias. The grey man is what got me to thinking about weapon color. I agree, a black gun stands out and not any color will be best in all cases but is there a middle ground? I think there is.

I started pondering as sometimes I do and pondered this up, what color(s) is/are the most neutral, blends with all but extreme environments (i.e. totally white well-lit room), inside a building to out in the open, under bright light to inky darkness, no matter what color of clothes I wear? This has to consider at least color, contrast, and gloss/matte. Let's also throw in distances from contact to say 100 yds or so.

We've had several discussions about EDC/Truck rifles. If, for whatever reason, I have to deploy my truck AR pistol, and maybe move with it exposed, what color (not camo pattern) would be the hardest for the human eye to pick up, or at least focus on to determine what I'm carrying? What's going to be the hardest for the BG to see (assuming we aren't already engaged with each other), observable by bystanders (whether in a firing position or held low against the body while moving or staying discreet), and possibly less observable by LEOs as they arrive (with the thought that it gives you a little extra time to react before they pay a lot of attention to you)?

I realize this is an odd question but I got to thinking there should be at least one color that can do a decent job of blending in from desert, to forest, to urban, day or night or there may be several with similar optic qualities. I don't expect it to be hidden as we think with camo, just harder to discern what it is that you are carrying, assuming you're not pulling the trigger at the time. I also realize that there are some instances where being back lit or some other silhouette situation will negate any color.

I want to avoid camo patterns, at least for the moment, as I feel a lot of camo is like fishing lures, more to catch the fisherman's eye and wallet than fish. I also what to do what is likely the impossible, ignore AO. While my AO is mostly dry grassland and red dirt farmland there is urban and, sometimes, lots of green or even snow.

I have my initial hypothesis but I thought it might be a good discussion. So look around you while you go through your day and try to figure out what color will fit the Jack-of-all-trades role. No fair using the cloaking device.