Survival Skills 101: Camoflauge

I figured I'd be nice and give you guys one more skill to check out before I return to the woods. Obviously not the MOST important skill to have for survival but it can prove useful and lets face facts. It's badass. It's also been on my mind since I've been practicing it lately while bow hunting. The object is to make yourself, or something, less visible to the naked eye, be it that of your enemy or your prey.

Top Ways to Give Away Position

• shine
• shape
• shadow
• sound
• movement
• color

So with that, what we want to do is break those up to make things less distinguishable. Base things off your surroundings. If you're in the woods, use natural colors you'd find in the woods, etc. If your surroundings are dark, use darker camo. Stay as still and quiet as possible. Wear camo clothing if you have access. Feel free to let your creativity get the better of you. If you're a history buff or have ever seen a movie about Nam, you probably know how soldiers would often literally attach pieces of the local vegetation to themselves and their gear. Beyond that, practice using proper face camo because the human face is one of the most distinguishable physical features there is.

Make Your Face Disappear

• Create a thin layer over the entire face, ears and neck with green or brown camo paint, mud or whatever dark, natural colors you can find. This kills the shine.
• Break up naturally recognized shapes like the nose, ears, cheekbones, by using dark and light lines of varying thicknesses and shapes. I like to cover the top half of my ears with black and put black stripes down through the eyes and cheeks to help blend the irises/pupils. Put some through the lips to break up your mouth shape. Remember to cover the neck too.
• Use green and brown smudges to help break up the face shape and give it some nonhuman coloring.

Here's a couple pics to give you an idea:

Also, try watching the movie Predator. Arnie's camo might give ideas. It's not the best but it'll do. Have fun with it. Practice hiding from people. Even if you can't effectively dissappear, remind yourself how awesome you probably look. Mindset is the key to survival. We'll come back to this later.

Uses For Camo

• Hunting
• Breaking curfew
• Military operations
• Hiding stuff
• Zombie invasions
• Red Dawn?

 The point is, camouflage is one of nature's oldest deceptions and it's about time you learn how to use it! If these methods sound too complex you could always go the lazy route and just use camo netting found at a military surplus store and/or a ghillie suit. A lot of snipers wear th-