A little off-topic but this reminds me of three tales in one.
(Caution: very lengthy post from new user!)

When I was studying in South Africa in 2006, my landlord (and environmental education lecturer and shooting instructor) had 750 acres of hunting land, full of steep kloofs (gullies) with dense, often thorny undergrowth of acacias, prickly pear cactus and so on. Challenging terrain to hunt in.

I shot a bush buck there and when I set off with my landlord to the other side of the gully, I took the bolt out of the .25-06 Ruger model 77 and put it in the pocket of my jacket, which I left close to the rifle. This to make it a little safer to leave the rifle behind. I carried my friend's Garand to follow up on the buck (botched my first shot a bit and eventually headshot him in very dense undergrowth as it was still alive and bush buck have a fearsome reputation when injured and cornered) while he went off to drive the toyota hilux up around the other side of the gully.

My landlord and I field-dressed the buck, took its head off and put it in the chest cavity to make it easier to carry, and slowly made our way out of the gully, leaving the Garand propped up against a tree.

When we got back to where I'd left the .25-06, the bolt was missing from my jacket (zipped up pocket, no holes) and when we made our way down the gully to pick up the M1, it wasn't where I'd left it either... I was nervous, thinking baboons might have taken off with it, but ended up finding the Garand almost hidden, next to another tree. We had to return another day with a borrowed metal detector to find the Ruger's bolt buried underneath a nearby patch of leaves.

That friend of mine turns out to have bouts of kleptomanic and obsessive lying behaviour. Never go hunting with someone like that!

I tied the buck's head to a tree to let ants take care of the cleaning up, but the skull eventually vanished. The taxidermists that I left the skin with, went out of business.

All I have left are pictures of that hunt and a slightly sour after-taste.

Edit:

Notice the missing bolt.

Regarding colour choices: "wild camping" (i.e. not on a registered camp ground) is illegal here in Holland, so when I do it (often) I use/wear gear that is fairly inconspicuous (Army surplus poncho as a tarp, neutral coloured or green backpacks, etc.) and try to keep track of everything. I keep my wallet (containing bare minumum) in a zipped pocket of my pack.

I recently noticed a TV ad for Honda portable generators that featured a camouflaged generator. I wondered why anybody outside the military ever needed to camouflage a generator. At least it is unlikely that anybody is going to lose a running generator!

- because it looks "cool".

Every piece of emergency equip I have is either orange or yellow, I need to be able to find it. In fact I own nothing that's "camo".

Agree with Danny that because it looks cool,

But have you heard one of the honda ultra-quiet generators run, they are quiet enough to stand next to one and have a conversation without raising your voice. This is one that you might lose even if it was running.

I too am torn between the desire to be 'stealthy' when camping, and the practicality of bright tools. For things that are normally kept inside my pack or pocket, especially very small things like lighters, I usually go for bright.

I have a bunch of gear that is mostly black but one brightly colored part, such as my gerber saw with an orange locking screw, and even that little bit of brightness helps a lot(without much reduction in 'covertness). I find that fluorescent yellow parachute cord is highly visible under most conditions and great for lanyards, and without a flashlight I find it easier to spot than retro-reflective cord. Retro-reflective cord for tent guy lines is wonderful.

I also have tritium trasers on all my backpacks, which do not stand out in the daytime but at night are visible at close range. They're nice because if I wake up at night groggy and disoriented, I immediately know where my pack is, and remember where my other gear is relative to that.

This post has me thinking, I should probably buy the orange rubber tailcap switch for my all-black Fenix...

I just use small pieces to bright orange electrical tape or that tape you use to mark out a driveway, sprinkler, etc. I also have a 20 ft piece in my PSK. THat way, if I need to travel while lost, I can indicate which direction I went. Small pieces attached to small items can make a big difference, and I don't get tired of looking at it.
Nothing like watching the alpenglow...
then looking down and see the day-glo!

I never realized the value of even a small amount of reflective material until we were trying to find a primitive campsite "just off the trail" when coming back to camp one night. When we set up the tent earlier in the day, it was clearly visible from the trail. "You can't miss it".

Well, we took a little walk after supper, looking for a stream that we knew was nearby to fill up the water bottles and the coffee pot for the next morning. We left before dark, and found the stream. It was nice, and we were sitting talking, soaking our feet in the stream, listening to the burbling, and time got away. Yup, we had to find camp again in the dark. My old backpacking tent, unfortunately, doesn't have reflective material, like my larger one does.. We found our way back to the trail, and could have sworn we were at the right place where we went off trail with the tent, in fact, over the course of an hour, we were certain that 3 places were the right place... (Note to self, mark where you go off the trail next time.) We each did have flashlights in our pockets, but, back then, they were probably just AA maglights or something similar, not much throw. Our "real" flashlights were in camp! We could not see anything very far off the trail at all, funny how night changes things.

Eventually, the thing that got us back in camp was a little reflective logo on an EMS stuff sack that we were using as a food bag that was about 10' off the ground hanging from a tree. My buddy say what he first thought was a firefly.

That episode was back in college, and many moons have passed since then. My gear, much more modern now, typically has something pretty bright attached, orange paracord pulls, things like that during day, and a few swatches of reflective stuff for night. Seems like new gear comes with reflective trim anyway now. The reflective lanyards sound good, I have a couple things with reflective zipper pulls. I wonder how durable the little strands of reflective material will be in such a heavily used thing as a zipper pull. Time will tell. Still, I always remember how that "firefly" guided us home.

I've dropped my stuff in the leaves, and didn't like it much.

Even on a sunny day, had some trouble finding it (if it had been a snake...).

Everything I carry gets some sort of color augmentation.

Depending on what it is (size/shape) I use some blaze orange duct tape or I've bought some neon yellow scotch-brite strips from the fabric store and glued them on to my pack, first aid kit, stuff sacks.

The smaller things get a neon yellow mason's line lanyard.

I even put a little piece of yellow mason's line "tassels" on my zipper pulls and rubber bands... hate trying to find those suckers when they fall out of my cold fingers....

I never could make any sense of selling hunting and camping gear green or camo colored except maybe they'll be easier to lose then you'd have to come back in an buy some more...

Hi Folks,

Some excellent ideas here folks; I am going to try the reflective cord for use in camp and as lanyards.

About 10 years ago my younger sister worked as a chemist for 3M, they had a Factory Store and the entire family got really neat stuff for Christmas. One year she gave me a giant roll of orange reflective tape; I use that on a lot of my outdoor stuff and on the neighbourhood kids costumes at Halloween.

"Bright Eye Tacks" are something I (and many other hunters) use to mark the trail into a hunting location. They are thumb-tacks with a small piece of reflective tape on them, seen here but there are many other versions (white is the best colour). At dawn when walking into your stand (gun unloaded/encased) they are amazingly bright, much better than flagging tape. The trouble with flagging tape is that on public land other people walk into your location while you are hunting and spook the game.

I know of 2 people who have drove a truck over their firearms (one shotgun/one bow) because the lost them in the grass while setting up a spread of decoys or blind.

Mike

Personally, I don't care for either bright colors or the camo/tactical look. Most of my gear tends toward low key, low observable earth tone shades of green, tan or brown, as can be seen in my photo.

When backpacking, I really don't want to see others or be seen myself. In the wilderness, I consider bright neon colors a form of visual pollution. The safety aspect some would raise may be over-stated, except maybe for young kid's clothing or in active hunting areas. I carry a blaze orange bandanna in my pocket, and consider it sufficient for my emergency conspicuity needs.

However, I do like reflective guy lines around camp, since I dislike tripping and crashing into my tarp setup. Also, a tiny low power LED strobe left flashing temporarily in camp usually makes returning from night time forays a cinch, and is often more effective for that purpose than a lumen cannon in one's pocket. I also use orange colored paracord on small items as a lanyard or wrist cord. I even have GITD skull beads on some flaslight lanyards.