Vests

[Geronimo]

What do you guys recommend? Getting the plain black vest from dusty at jt or ordering online?

[Greg]

A plain vest is fine. All you really need is some GI web gear: something that will hold mags and misc stuff. You can get an LBV, tac vest, or chest rig depending on how much you want to spend, but some really basic surplus gear will do for a while at least.

Stay away from black unless it's specifically for CQB. Black is almost worse than bright orange for camo purposes.

[-Wraith-]

I'd say the plain vest as well, but Greg, why would black be bad? Black is like a universal color, it can go with just about an camo.

[Raven1]

I 2nd that Wraith, Black is Beautiful, so much so Stonewolf wouldn't even stand next to me at LC2, Sucka!  "Stay Black"  Geronimo!

[Greg]

Go look at game pictures for people wearing black vests. The vest is the most obvious thing about them. They will stick out of their surroundings like a sore thumb. I do have a black vest for cqb games (even as rare as they are). OD is a much more universal color than black.

[RickEJ6]

Black is NOT a tactical color.  Anyone with any camo experience will tell you so.  It does not blend in ANYWHERE.  The color black does not occur in nature, so it stands out in any enviroment. Stay away from black at all costs.  A coyote brown or OD vest will work in almost any enviroment.  

Rick

[delta_echo]

Black is NOT a tactical color.  Anyone with any camo experience will tell you so.  It does not blend in ANYWHERE.  The color black does not occur in nature, so it stands out in any enviroment. Stay away from black at all costs.  A coyote brown or OD vest will work in almost any enviroment.  

Rick

I second that. Someone will inevitably ask: "What about night games, though?" Think about it. If you're roughly the same color of your surroundings during the day . . . then you should be roughly the same color of your surroundings at night. I play a fair amount of night skirmishes due to my schedule, and even on the darkest nights, people decked out in black are MUCH easier to see than those in a more "neutral" color.

[IcePlatinumSky]

Black is NOT a tactical color.  Anyone with any camo experience will tell you so.  It does not blend in ANYWHERE.  The color black does not occur in nature, so it stands out in any enviroment. Stay away from black at all costs.  A coyote brown or OD vest will work in almost any enviroment.  

Rick

I second that. Someone will inevitably ask: "What about night games, though?" Think about it. If you're roughly the same color of your surroundings during the day . . . then you should be roughly the same color of your surroundings at night. I play a fair amount of night skirmishes due to my schedule, and even on the darkest nights, people decked out in black are MUCH easier to see than those in a more "neutral" color.

Than is the only time I wair my black vest is in the dark or a night game.

[r4nd0m]

I have a woodland camo colored vest from JT, its not the full one but the smaller one that looks crappy when your not wearing it  I can tell you that it has worked for me perfect, I can fit just about everything I need in it including 12 M4 mags, 4 quick loaders, and about 4000 BBs.

[Firehead]

Thing is: Black is an urban color, it was never meant to blend it. It as already been said, but it doesn't blend in with anything. Having been the owner of a vest, if you want to blend in, go with OD or Tan, if you don't care, black is peachy for you. It worked on for me on a number of occasions, but i wasn't worrying about blending in(it just needed to hold my mags:D). Like Rick said, it doesn't work that well at night either. It works to an extent, but that all depends on conditions.

[azsarge]

Here's what azsarge thinks:

Black sucks.  Older gear was made in Black because it was one of the first colors of that type of nylon to be produced.  It is old and outdated!

SO IS OD!  It is a solid color and therefore is terrible for camoflauge.  Pattern camo is better any day of the week for breaking up an outline.  Tan is better, since it's a bit more neutral, but still can be deteced quite easy if worn in a darker environment, or one with alot of green.

Subdued, neutral colors are the way to go.  Smoke Green/Ranger Green and Coyote Brown are the latest solid camo colors, and provide it better than darker colors like OD and black.  After all, look at the new ARMPAT for the Advanced Combat Uniform!  Mostly grey!

Think about how long OD has been around.  A long time!  The reason gear is still made in OD is mostly because of tradition.  All issue gear up until recently has been OD, so gear companies produce their designs in the same color to match.  

If you want ONE color to wear in all environments, do what the USMC did, and go with a light brown like Coyote Brown.  Not Tan, and not a light khaki, BROWN.  

Of course, if you want to be 1337, you'd get MultiCam.  Outerwear, LBE, pack, everything MultiCam!  Then again, that would require you to spend hundreds of dollars.

[Lightning_Man]

The army has been issueing it's new ACU (advanced combat uniform) which will have completely replaced the BDU within 2 years. They started issueing them last year to people being deployed to warzones, and to some people going to training centers. The new uniform has a "digital" pattern similar to that of the new marine uniforms and neither of them has the color black in them. Pure black is a color that appears rarely in nature and extensive testing and experimentation found that using a dark green or dark brown yielded a much better results.

No too ways about it, black is sexy, but it just idn't that good for field gear. No solid color is goig to be ideal, but if you must go with  solid, an OD, Tan, or even a grey if it isn't too harsh would be better.

[leadmagnet]

Just get OD so I dun have ta slap ya silly.

Lead

[busta_cap]

OD is the best in my opinion, that or woodland because it goes with any kind of uniform whether its Tan, green, black etc. And OD is just pleasing to the eye..Well to me atleast.

[azsarge]

The army has been issueing it's new ACU (advanced combat uniform) which will have completely replaced the BDU within 2 years. They started issueing them last year to people being deployed to warzones, and to some people going to training centers. The new uniform has a "digital" pattern similar to that of the new marine uniforms and neither of them has the color black in them. Pure black is a color that appears rarely in nature and extensive testing and experimentation found that using a dark green or dark brown yielded a much better results.

No too ways about it, black is sexy, but it just idn't that good for field gear. No solid color is goig to be ideal, but if you must go with  solid, an OD, Tan, or even a grey if it isn't too harsh would be better.

All field gear will eventually be issued in ARMPAT to match the ACU in a few years.  Everything from body armor, to pouches, helmet covers, etc will be in the new grey digital ARMPAT.  

Hopefully we'll get some damn matching nametapes first!