tarp dyeing?

  • Hey Guest, Early bird pricing on the Summer Moot (29th July - 10th August) available until April 6th, we'd love you to come. PLEASE CLICK HERE to early bird price and get more information.

Robby

Nomad
Jul 22, 2005
328
0
Glasgow, Southside
A while ago I bought a sunshadesail tarp from lidl. Good size and shape, but it's white! Looking for any hints or tips for dyeing it to make it a little less conspicuous.
 

Andy_K

Tenderfoot
Nov 29, 2014
74
0
Harwich
jackslrf.co.uk
Hi Robby.

Depending where you want to use a white tarp will depend very much on how well it shows up. A solid block of pure white may even stand out in snow, for arguments sake, as even snow has its shadows and darker / brighter areas.
The fact the the tarp will be stationary gives it a degree of camouflage. Look at the colouration of a rabbit or fox. Neither one blends in well in a field of short and long grass. Yet while that rabbit sits perfectly still, we tend not to see it, even quite close up. Same with the fox. So long as it's still, it remains relatively hidden to the human eye. But when one of these animals bolt and run for cover, we see them almost instantly. Even shooters will wait for that animal and try to ambush by waiting for the animal to come out from cover and then come to stop, rather than relying on being able to hit it whilst it's moving.

As such, if you want to use the tarp in the middle of a relatively "kept" area of grass, then sure. It will stand out - no bad thing if something bad has happened and you ware waiting on the air-ambulance to come get the person. But I would be willing to bet that if someone put that tarp up as a shelter in a wooded area and simply placed the odd small branch in the ground around it so as to help break up its outline (not even putting the material on the tarp, just standing up in the ground like its a small tree), then you would have trouble finding it because when you look horizontally through the wooded area, it would just seem like one of the lighter areas that are quite often visible between trees. It would be very unlikely that your eye / brain thing would distinguish the broken form of the tarp even when looking for it from a distance of say 100yds+. Even inside this distance you could well walk right past where it had been erected!

Look at this "Real Tree Camo". Fantastic stuff, I reckon! However, I was looking at a Jacket and trouser set in a "Go Outdoors" shop the other day. This stuff was being marketed at anglers who wanted to wrap up warm for fishing. I see a problem here because a fish is looking up, at whatever angle. ANY motion / movement on the part of the angler will give his presence away to the fish because his general silhouette will change / move and even the smallest of fish will see this. "Real Tree" is fantastic stuff for the hunter / fisherman who has a solid background behind them that their prey is used to seeing there, so long as that person stays still, they're "invisible". But if they move around and fidget, they will be seen. Such will it be (IMHO) with your tarp. So long as its still, it will likely go unseen in an environment where there is "stuff" between the viewing eye and the tarp. If there is "stuff" behind the tarp too, then all the better. Just look at how many hunters in the USA get their deer every year, yet they still have to wear these very high visibility tops. Its because the hunter stays still.

So, IMHO, I think you would be much better off just using the local environment to camouflage it to a small degree. Over doing the camo could well make it look completely out of place and therefore attract the attention of the eye. By that I mean that where there are no gaps for light to show, it will simply look like a solid block of too large a size as to be natural.

Just my thoughts on the matter and might even save yourself a few bob too mate. Good luck.
 
Last edited:

BCUK Shop

We have a a number of knives, T-Shirts and other items for sale.

SHOP HERE