Camouflage

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When most people hear the word “camouflage” they think of the typical Army soldier in woodland fatigues. In a survival situation – one which perhaps you do not want your location advertised to the rest of the world – camouflage could become very important.

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Why? If you have “bugged out” from an area congested with desperate ill-prepared people searching for food and supplies – you may not want you whereabouts known. You may have supplies stashed somewhere and need to protect it from detection by using camouflage. Most common – you may want to camouflage yourself to reduce the chance of detection or provide a minimized visual target to an enemy.

I have been hunting in New Hampshire in full head-to-toe camouflage and had hunters walk within 20 feet of me and see nothing – they never knew I was there. In this post – I am going to describe a trial I performed attempting to camouflage supplies.

For this project I used a bright red cooler – figuring that if I could have success with that – anything else should work as well.

So – this is how it started:

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I went to a local hunting supply shop and purchased some Realtree Camouflage netting on clearance. I bought quite a bit – and took a small amount and draped it over and around the cooler – like this:

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Alternate View - Click to Enlarge

I thought this looked pretty good from 1-20 feet away. I decided to add some of the naturally occurring debris from the area to the cooler and netting. I took some leaves and spread it randomly around the netting, folded branches onto and around the cooler, and tucked the netting in under some of the debris around the cooler. I think it made it look better and blended in more.

Here are pictures of the final modifications:

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Overall – I think it looks pretty good. I believe someone walking by – from a distance – would not notice it. Now, if they walked up beside it – yes – it would be seen. Some additional covering with leaves and a few branches as well as partially or fully burying it would most likely improve the camouflage as well. I think a Woodland camo rather than the brown-based Realtree may also have been better. That’s the whole reason for this trial – to learn and start to see what will work, what won’t and what may work better. Not sure how well you can see the success in the pictures – but in person the camouflage worked pretty well.

It was a good trial – more to come…..

Rourke

Tags: bugging out, camouflage

bugging out, camouflage | Rourke August 26, 2010

10 Comments to “Camouflage”

By Craig, August 26, 2010 @ 1:55 am

When applying camouflage that you want to endure over time remember to consider what will happen both to your camouflage (if you use live plants they will die and change colors/textures…man made materials can fade if exposed to sunlight over time) and your background…will the background foliage die off, turn brown, green up, etc.

If you are camouflaging a supply cache in the wilderness, consider planting…or better yet, use what’s naturally growing to camouflage your cache. If the foliage screening your cache dies down (and still hides it) and recovers the next season all the better…just remember to mark it well using a landmark so that you can find it well.

I’d be interested in seeing what people come up with for camouflaging caches in urban or suburban settings…lot’s of opportunity for creativity there…a lot more challenging as well.
By Rourke, August 26, 2010 @ 2:41 am

Thanks for the comments – great insight and ideas.

Rourke
By Justus, August 26, 2010 @ 12:25 pm

Great post! The only way to find out if something’s really going to work is to just go out and try it. I’ve had good results with cheap canvas and burlap sprayed with Krylon or Rustoleum camo paints.
By Rourke, August 26, 2010 @ 12:27 pm

I am going to try some additional things hopefully soon.

So much to do……so little time.

Rourke
By Kevin, August 27, 2010 @ 11:01 pm

I am amazed how well that red cooler disappeared. Living in a growing city I would also be interested in what would work in a concrete environment. If we had to leave our home, then I would be thinking of something that would shelter and conceal. I’m new and guessing here but that’s what comes to mind. Isn’t there something for semi open area like an airfield?
By Rourke, August 28, 2010 @ 3:25 am

Well – I believe in a city environment – placing caches of supplies in area’s where no one would think to look.

A couple of examples – and I am sure there is more:
- Bottom of a trash can – with real trash on top – behind a house
- Underneath broken down car in field
- Of course – buried anywhere
- A hollowed out air conditioning unit with no internals (holding supplies inside)

Just a few thoughts.

Hope you keep coming back.

Rourke
By Kevin, August 28, 2010 @ 4:26 am

As to stashing the cache, those are good ideas and shows how much there is to learn. For now my home pantry has a supply laid in but I think getting other family members, maybe like minded friends involved in planning would be a good idea too. They would be my second thought if we had to bug out (wife first, then son who lives in another state). Hopefully that would cover safety and shelter if reachable. Otherwise it’s back to plan A.

I’m dismayed by the state of world, lucky to still have my own place in it and very interested in surviving whatever comes next. I’ve been looking into many avenues of information, especially on the web. While I can still buy juice to power it, this site is on the homepage of my iPad and bookmarked on my desktop. Thanks for putting the effort into researching and providing so much information.
By Kevin, August 28, 2010 @ 4:31 am

>” Isn’t there something for semi open area like an airfield?”<

I was kind of thinking about camoflauge netting or such covering.
By Rourke, August 28, 2010 @ 7:15 pm

Gotcha –

Yes – I am sure that stuff is available online from a variety of companies.

Rourke
By Rourke, August 28, 2010 @ 7:19 pm

It’s unbelievable how many people are like-minded in their thinking about the state of the world today.

Yesterday walking through WallyWorld ran into a guy that I coached my son’s football team with – and we started talking about unemployment, the monitary system, and what the future holds.

A lot of people are very nervous – I just hope a lot of those same people are taking action to prepare…..for whatever may happen.

Glad your liking the blog. Takes a lot of time to add to it daily. If you haven’t checked out the free download section – there is a lot of stuff there. Will be adding to it shortly.

Thanks – Rourke