How did "black and green" rifles become named "black or green"???

No the Army issued rifles that were primarily black. Then lots of folks decided green worked too. Of course with all the desert ops on going, we should propably add tan, or brown to the colour listing.
 
Black rifle is what the M16 was called and became pretty much the nickname for all "assault" rifles. Green came because greentips takes offense to the use of black for these kinds of rifles when green works better for camo then black does.
 
Vietnam. The Viets called the M-16 "the black rifle" since it had 'black' metal and black plactic in a world of wooden stocks.

Recently the stocks and hardware started going green as a primary second colour and the rest is history.
 
Because the millitary found out that mixing black and green paint was not netting a good result, they now decided to paint them black OR green.
 
The SG550 was green to start with, so were AUG and CETME L.

Black is a horrible colour, other than that it does not look as dirty after touched by millions of people. I would much prefer a dark grey or a coyote brown. On the other hand, people are so ingrained with black for some unknown reason ( probably due to TV/movie and the fact that in the old days bluing and parkerization are the only way to go)

On the other hand, anodization sometimes does not look natural with other colours - most of the time brown turns gold.

I also got a feeling that in the old days, mixing green paint is probably more time consuming than getting black.
 
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Here's another version: VC called M16 The Black Rifle. GI called M16 Rifles from Mattel.

Some G3s already had green stock & handgauard on them back in the 70's.
 
When i was in the nam we got rid of our M16's as soon as the supply sgt wasn't looking and got ourselves RED RYDER BB Guns. Hell they were quiet and alot of fun to shoot..............:D
 
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