OK, check out the above attached Rit Dye PDF Recipe files. I am using the OD Green recipe.
When I was in my later years of military service and as a Quartermaster or in simpler terms a Supply Sergeant we switched to the ACU uniform and was in the beginning stages of issuing ACU field gear.
I left the service in 2006 and before and after I have very strong feelings that the ACU uniform sucks. So a little more than a decade the Army started listening to its soldiers and is in the process of replacing the ACU uniform. In my experience and opinion the ACU is a Grey ghost colored camouflage pattern. I feel that in a woodland environment the ACU will stand out and make you a target.
Alright here is the Prepping portion of overcoming and adapting. On different avenues and websites you can find military surplus. ACU uniforms and equipment is a large portion of of that. Now if you dye this clothing and equipment to your environment it would make it more useful.
If you use ACU clothing and equipment as is someone may cry Stolen Valor. Personally I would just tell them to piss of. If you are not portraying yourself as a soldier and you do not have the US Army patch on the uniform they can piss off. Dying the equipment voids the problem.
OK, back to the program. I dyed my uniforms and equipment OD Green. When I dyed the stuff it does not just come out solid OD Green but there are shades. Really it all comes down to you current dye bath and how often you stir the pot.
When I made the first pot I had a brain fart. I used 1 for 1 portions of Dark Green and Dark Brown when in fact the green was ½ cup and the brown was ¼ cup. So there was way to much brown. I added one more green to try and even it out. I figured I would experiment because it was a F up. I did two drop leg pouches, a flash bang pouch which make a really good GMRS/FRS radio pouch and I put in a hazmat suit just to see if it would take the dye.
Make sure you read the directions very well and all other guidelines and tips. For example it said do not dye fabric with a rubber backing. The drop leg pouch had a rubber like backing and as you will see the dye did not take that well.
I dumped out the bath and put in new water and dye as the recipe called. My first material was two sets of ACU's. It willed the pot and it was hard to stir. The instructions called for 30 minutes up to an hour and my average on all the following baths was 30 minutes.
As you can see the optical cases did not darken as much and instead of being OD Green they are more brownish. In person they look OK so I left it alone. All I want was to get rid of the grayish tone.
