... Embrace Coyote/Peanut Butter/Dookie Brown.

With two decades of fighting in the desert during the GWOT, Desert Tan/Flat "Dark" Earth (which is actually pretty light) understandably dominated in both the military world as well as the civilian market.

But how many of us are actually living/working/hunting/shooting in light-colored sandy desert, where a light tan color works best? Some of the FDEs out there are so bright that they're approaching white, and actually stand out noticeably. (Looking at you BCM...)

Coyote Brown, on the other hand, is a darker earthy tone. It not only looks better to my eye, it works better in more situations than the lighter tans/FDEs, with dark earthy browns like Coyote being present in desert, woodland, transitional, grassy, mountainous, urban, and even arctic environments. Which is one of the reasons why the USMC picked it as their universal gear color to go along with their varying camo uniforms.

And alongside the darker greens like OD Green/Ranger Green it can also serve as a form of camo to blend and break up outlines, without using an actual camo pattern. Dull greens, dark khakis, and earth browns had been the go-to military uniforms for over a century for a reason, before camo predominated in more recent decades. There are still a few militaries out there that haven't adopted a camo pattern, instead continuing to rely on good old earth-toned uniforms.


Luckily, more manufacturers are jumping on the Coyote Brown bandwagon lately, with darker brown parts and finishes becoming more common alongside the continued lighter FDE offerings. Even Magpul recently released Gen 3 PMAGs in a new "Medium Coyote" shade, which while not full-blown Coyote Brown is at least trending darker. (It's about halfway between their earlier FDE and true Coyote Brown.) Hopefully the Brown Renaissance continues.

Glock was one of the first I can recall to release a darker brown tone for their guns, rather than a lighter tan like everyone else was doing at the time. I bought this Glock 21 back ~9 years ago, and added some matching VTAC parts.



And now B5 Systems is offering Coyote Brown AR15 furniture, along with their lighter FDE offerings, so I grabbed a set to put on a rifle I just finished building around 12131's recent generous Karma to me.



Now I just need to rattle-can the rifle with some dark greens and browns to match.

It's all beige to me. They look good.

Yep, all shades of brown/beige. But Coyote is noticeably darker and earthy, while FDE is lighter and sandy.

For comparison, here's a smattering of B5's stock colors, with Coyote in the middle just below their FDE (which is a match to Magpul's FDE and just about everyone else's). Really highlights how noticeably darker of a beige/brown tone it is.

I’m an OD green man myself! <pops collar>

Well, you're in luck... The rifle's got plenty of that too.

I have a Coyote Brown RMR and an Aero AR with some Kodiak Brown parts.
Much more appealing to the eye and while I am not in the desert but a pretty woodland environment. I bet it would blend in much better.
Once we get some foliage back I’ll have to try it out.

Was going to post a comment about the G21 being a weird looking rifle, then scrolled down to read the rest of the OP.

If I were doing a non-black rifle, it'd likely be green over tan.
Helped a coworker assemble his lower & mount a RDS. His turned out looking quite good, IMO.
Much darker green than the typical ODG

Black still works.

I prefer the OD green and darker coyote colors for year round use in my area. On the flip side, desert camos work well in dry grass and leaf bare vegetation.

quote:

Originally posted by fritz:
Black still works.

This. If I want to go camo, I'll paint over it.

quote:

Originally posted by flesheatingvirus:

quote:

Originally posted by fritz:
Black still works.

This. If I want to go camo, I'll paint over it.

Racists! . Let the minority AR colors have a chance!

If concealment or breaking up the outline is the desired effect, it certainly works better than an all black rifle… but I agree, a rattle can finish will do better

quote:

Originally posted by OttoSig:
Let the minority AR colors have a chance!

Aww, c'mon! We know you want yours to be orange!

When I was shooting a lot of NRA Highpower there was a guy who shot with us often, who had his AR painted in rainbow colors. No, he wasn't gay or anything, just a little eccentric. He used to wear earbuds for music when he was shooting, until the range officers made him stop for safety reasons.

I was trying to describe FDE to my wife, and finally had to resort to a color she would understand, which was “baby poop brown”.

FDE still works. If I want black I'll paint over it.