Remington Rand
07-07-2009, 01:59 AM
Here is a wholly unscientific observation on a couple of camo garments under a blacklight. I have no idea if a fabric's UV visibility makes it easier to see through NVG or other optics, but the Propper fabric's bright shine surprised me.
I use military camo for hunting, so you will see a couple of patters that arent military, but I included what they looked like anyway.
I am very conscientious about washing all of my camo in Sportwash by Atsko that doesn't have UV brighteners, so I definitely didn't deposit any UV brighteners after the fact. Supposedly deer can see some of the UV spectrum that we cant, so a lot of hunters use detergent without UV brighteners. That is the only reason I even care about how camo looks under UV. Who knows if its true but I guess I buy into it.
MARPAT Desert- no brightness at all under UV, it was dull and very difficult to see.
MARPAT Woodland- Same as MP desert, no glow whatsoever.
Propper 65/35 Multicam BDU, bought directly from Propper: Lit up like a Christmas tree. The small lighter sections looked almost neon.
Multicam fabric smock (bought from a Canadian company right after Multicam came out, I assume the fabric came from Crye since Multicam was very tough to get at the time): completely dull, just like the Marpat. This garment looked exactly like the Propper 65/35 multicam in normal light but with a blacklight on had no glow at all.
US military woodland ripstop fabric pants (15 years old from when it was issue): No glow, not as dull as Marpat, but pretty darn good.
Mossy Oak Shadow grass cotton shirt (bought from Cabelas): very little glow
Under Armour HeatGear UA digital camo shirt: Slight reddish glow, but hardly noticeable. It was slightly more visible than Marpat but not much.
I suppose the next logical step would be to test the infamous Blood Diamond Pants that have been discussed ad naseaum on this forum.
Anybody have any ideas why Propper Multicam seems to light up like a Christmas Tree in UV light? I expect that from cheap dyes and cheap BDUs, but Propper is a gov contractor and this surprised me a lot. Maybe UV makes no difference in how a garment gets detected, but I know that there are lists of "approved" detergents that dont have UV brighteners for MARPAT, ACU, and ABU so I assume it does make a difference.
RR
I use military camo for hunting, so you will see a couple of patters that arent military, but I included what they looked like anyway.
I am very conscientious about washing all of my camo in Sportwash by Atsko that doesn't have UV brighteners, so I definitely didn't deposit any UV brighteners after the fact. Supposedly deer can see some of the UV spectrum that we cant, so a lot of hunters use detergent without UV brighteners. That is the only reason I even care about how camo looks under UV. Who knows if its true but I guess I buy into it.
MARPAT Desert- no brightness at all under UV, it was dull and very difficult to see.
MARPAT Woodland- Same as MP desert, no glow whatsoever.
Propper 65/35 Multicam BDU, bought directly from Propper: Lit up like a Christmas tree. The small lighter sections looked almost neon.
Multicam fabric smock (bought from a Canadian company right after Multicam came out, I assume the fabric came from Crye since Multicam was very tough to get at the time): completely dull, just like the Marpat. This garment looked exactly like the Propper 65/35 multicam in normal light but with a blacklight on had no glow at all.
US military woodland ripstop fabric pants (15 years old from when it was issue): No glow, not as dull as Marpat, but pretty darn good.
Mossy Oak Shadow grass cotton shirt (bought from Cabelas): very little glow
Under Armour HeatGear UA digital camo shirt: Slight reddish glow, but hardly noticeable. It was slightly more visible than Marpat but not much.
I suppose the next logical step would be to test the infamous Blood Diamond Pants that have been discussed ad naseaum on this forum.
Anybody have any ideas why Propper Multicam seems to light up like a Christmas Tree in UV light? I expect that from cheap dyes and cheap BDUs, but Propper is a gov contractor and this surprised me a lot. Maybe UV makes no difference in how a garment gets detected, but I know that there are lists of "approved" detergents that dont have UV brighteners for MARPAT, ACU, and ABU so I assume it does make a difference.
RR