Shades of Green - Other Notable Green Colors - Rifle Green

The color rifle green is displayed at right.

The source of this color is the "Pantone Textile Paper eXtended (TPX)" color list, color #19-0419 TPX—Rifle green.

The first recorded use of rifle green as a color name in English was in 1858.

"Rifle green" is so named from the distinctive color of the uniform of rifle regiments (a form of light infantry) of a number of European armies, and is still used as such by rifle regiments in many Commonwealth armies, such as The Rifles and Royal Gurkha Rifles of the British Army.

Rifle green was originally adopted by rifle regiments in the 18th Century. As the traditional role of riflemen was that of marksmen and skirmishers who attacked behind the cover of trees, a dark green uniform was adopted as an early form of camouflage, as opposed to the colorful uniforms worn by other soldiers of the period.

Rifle green was the official uniform color of the Canadian Forces (CF) after unification; it was thereafter generally referred to as "CF green"; indeed, the Service Dress uniform of the day was referred to as "CF greens". After the introduction of the Distinct Environmental Uniform (DEU), rifle green remained as the uniform color of the winter Land Environment DEU; a short-lived tan uniform was worn in summer. After the demise of the tans, the rifle green DEU was worn year-round. Rifle Green was also the color of the uniform worn by the Northern Irish Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) until 2001 where the RUC was renamed the PSNI and while the uniform color remained the same, terminology changed to "bottle green".

Rifle green is 19–0419 TPX in the Pantone palette, or hex code 444C38 in the sRGB color space, as shown above.