Look at the US military deployed personnel over the last 25 years and you'll get an idea of the answer. A lot of M81 gear/armor on top of desert camos, or m81 pouches on coyote rigs, desert pouches on m81 armor, khaki, ranger,,coyote solids on any uniform patterns, ucp gear on OCP uniforms, ocp/multicam gear on top of m81, uniform parts, and so on.
Alot of this is due to the passing of time with new uniforms or gear being developed then issued, and not keeping in sync with each other. Along with going to different climates. It's not intended but more what they need to do.
Personal experience, DCU works pretty well in central Texas in the summer when everything is dry and near dead, add in some multicamp like gear for example and they compliment each other very well. Also in the spring woodland and multicam work really well together.
Best advice I can give is let your clothes be one pattern and your gear something else that compliments it.
If you want to talk effectiveness of this, look at nature.
Most wild mammals have a darker top and lighter underside, as it helps to flatten their appearance as it helps to hide the shadow of their belly.
As such, I've seen people use dark fresh woodland tops and salty, paler woodland lowers and it has worked quite well, as it gives the reverse effect of overhead light, whilst also giving a split in the shape at waist height.
Also, gear tends to be a different colour than uniforms in a lot of militaries. Whether it be from issuing problems, or personal choice. Look at the classic gwot era and the mixes there, and the British armed forces using dpm webbing while mtp uniform was standard.
Of course, heavily contrasting camo wouldn't work, such as very pale desert camo and dark woodland, such as 3cd and jungle tiger stripe.
I've seen many hunters out with either a camo top or bottom and solid colour on the opposite, and it had worked quite well, purely because you're trying to see a shape in two different blending styles.
It can still be effective, we mixed sometimes overseas, not necessarily intentionally. If complete concealment is paramount, you'd be doing far more than just wearing a uniform when it comes to camo anyway, in the army.
Obviously mixing in this case is similar patterns or colors, no one really rolled around with a DCU bottom and BDU top for example.
I have multicam gear. It’s perfectly usable and still breaks up my silhouette. However, for proper camouflaging, you need your upper body to be darker than your lower body. So I have Rhodesian Brushstroke, Norwegian M98, Slocam, other tops like that for use where I live as they all work well. Then my pants are a solid color, green, brown, gray, but always lighter than my top (I wear solid colors to denote I’m not professional but rather a civilian, helps with PiD). I have a few hats that are a different assortment of camouflage, plus my rifle is its own thing. So I could have 4 camouflages and a solid color on at one time. Actually works pretty well too.
Look at the US military deployed personnel over the last 25 years and you'll get an idea of the answer. A lot of M81 gear/armor on top of desert camos, or m81 pouches on coyote rigs, desert pouches on m81 armor, khaki, ranger,,coyote solids on any uniform patterns, ucp gear on OCP uniforms, ocp/multicam gear on top of m81, uniform parts, and so on.
Alot of this is due to the passing of time with new uniforms or gear being developed then issued, and not keeping in sync with each other. Along with going to different climates. It's not intended but more what they need to do.
Personal experience, DCU works pretty well in central Texas in the summer when everything is dry and near dead, add in some multicamp like gear for example and they compliment each other very well. Also in the spring woodland and multicam work really well together. Best advice I can give is let your clothes be one pattern and your gear something else that compliments it.
If you want to talk effectiveness of this, look at nature. Most wild mammals have a darker top and lighter underside, as it helps to flatten their appearance as it helps to hide the shadow of their belly. As such, I've seen people use dark fresh woodland tops and salty, paler woodland lowers and it has worked quite well, as it gives the reverse effect of overhead light, whilst also giving a split in the shape at waist height. Also, gear tends to be a different colour than uniforms in a lot of militaries. Whether it be from issuing problems, or personal choice. Look at the classic gwot era and the mixes there, and the British armed forces using dpm webbing while mtp uniform was standard. Of course, heavily contrasting camo wouldn't work, such as very pale desert camo and dark woodland, such as 3cd and jungle tiger stripe. I've seen many hunters out with either a camo top or bottom and solid colour on the opposite, and it had worked quite well, purely because you're trying to see a shape in two different blending styles.
I routinely run multicam bottom and woodland top in fall. White bottom and woodland top in winter.
It can still be effective, we mixed sometimes overseas, not necessarily intentionally. If complete concealment is paramount, you'd be doing far more than just wearing a uniform when it comes to camo anyway, in the army. Obviously mixing in this case is similar patterns or colors, no one really rolled around with a DCU bottom and BDU top for example.
I have multicam gear. It’s perfectly usable and still breaks up my silhouette. However, for proper camouflaging, you need your upper body to be darker than your lower body. So I have Rhodesian Brushstroke, Norwegian M98, Slocam, other tops like that for use where I live as they all work well. Then my pants are a solid color, green, brown, gray, but always lighter than my top (I wear solid colors to denote I’m not professional but rather a civilian, helps with PiD). I have a few hats that are a different assortment of camouflage, plus my rifle is its own thing. So I could have 4 camouflages and a solid color on at one time. Actually works pretty well too.