Its a good write up.
Allow me to add.
Studies have shown the human eye is attracted to "colors" off from the environment (duh)
Most of us carry AR15s.
In their most common "color" they have Black Stick effect and this attract the eye.
Two of my ARs are
a) fully camoed up or
b) I have simply made the points in having upper,lower,stock, rail, VFG, etc etc in contrasting shades.. a mix mostly of FDE and the "factory "charcoal..
Most of my magazines are either painted camo or in a non charcoal color from the factory. (usually olive drab or FDE), I dont have any studies to back this up but it seems plausible to me that a black banana under the "stick" might also be a distinctive indicator.
Both of these are much harder to spot when I lay them on the ground.
..even when I am close I noticed that it sometimes takes me a little extra focus to locate my rifle in the bushes befor heading down the lane when its my turn especially if its the fully camoed one.
The "Mixed trim" one has a similar effect albeit not as pronounced but still a noticeable difference in "noticibility" to my "stock" rifles.
And at night when laid against a bush they become near invisible ironically the dark stock "color" does not.
I have also oberserved this difference with NVGs
My advice is, as a minimum, to have a roll of camo tape handy for when "the balloon goes up".
Most might not like to "vandalize" their beautiful rifle with tape in peacetime... but it may be quite useful when its "on".
I've attached a pic of a rifle with mixed "colors" of components... this is an easy way to break up the black stick profile w/o attaching scrimmage, camo tape or going an expensive hydrodipping route.
