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Making a Ghillie Suit

3K views 9 replies 7 participants last post by  nerfninja 
#1 ·
When I first attempted to make my ghillie suit, I was worried I would mess up. I was told by my friends that it would be a waste of time and and that it would turn out bad. However, when searching the internet for a great detailed guide, I found this: http://www.huntingne.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17417&p=123137

It was written by a guy named "multistage". He really knows what he is talking about, and informs you of various options when making your suit. He talks about how to make it (including head piece), how to wear it in, and how natural vegetation is very important when using the suit.

I personally made my suit using what I learned from this site in the camoflauge section (before it went missing
) and also what he had written on the thread he posted in.

For all you first timers out there, he is very specific and will help you make a great suit.

Hope this helps anyone who is or will be making one.

Good luck!

Fuzzy
 
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#4 ·
2nd on the get new friends. that series is really good and one of the major resources i used to make mine. some things to consider as well...

what style of ghillie do you want to make?
how much work do you want to put into it?
and how versitile do you want to make it?

I opted for a crawl suit, that cut down on the build time by half comepared to some of the full ghillies. the other big thing is to look at the fields you play at or want to play at. that will dictate coloring and blending ability. It really does not take that long. I saton the materials for a long time before making mine because i was daunted by the hours i thought it was going to take... and then one night i was really bored and made the whole thing while watching shooter and drinking a brew or two and it only took about 4-5 hours of actual build time (the rest of the time spent was oogling the cheytac
)

some things that I learned:
1. use bigger netting. i used a 1" and a 1.5" netting on mine and it is a pain in the butt to blend since the squares are so small to shove grass through.
2. a good ghillie is only 40% home made and 60% indigenous growth. people get afraid of making a ghillie because they see the movies and thing that someone took the time to do that in their garage (wen realistically it was in their living room
) when really you should be getting to a field at least an hour early to blend your ghillie before the game and have time to site and zero.
 
#5 ·
Bobgengeskahn, we have a few things in common. :) I too used very small netting (1in by 1in) and found attaching veg is somewhat difficult. I never really used the elastic band technique and found myself attaching large portions of veg by tying it in the jute.

Also, the build time would have been very short for me if I did not sew and then glue. If I would have only shoo glued the entire thing it would have only took about an hour for that portion of the ghillie. However, once I finished that grueling part (sewing and gluing), I knew attaching the jute would be more fun ;) and less tedious of work.

Another thing to consider is do not worry if the suit is too light. I forget who said this but since the thread was deleted awhile back I will say it again. If you find your suit is rather light, just find and attach some darker vegetation to it to compensate for the light color of the jute material.

People also underestimate the part where you need to break in your suit. I put mine in mud, let it dry, and hosed it down. Then I started to drag it around on some driveway gravel, and the jute has begun to fray and look less artificial.
On a little side note though, be careful when breaking in the suit. When I hosed mine down to get some of the excess dirt out, I put her on the porch to dry. A few hours later, I went to inspect my ghillie, and found two little earwigs nice and cozy in the jute. It freaked me out, and I thought there would be like twenty of them in there. Luckily there wasn't. That being said, I now always make sure my ghillie is only outside to dry when its hot and sunny. Most bugs do not like it hot, and they will either leave or stay away. After all, its important not to let the bugs take over your ghillie and make it into a little love nest of theirs ;)
 
#6 ·
Here is a another video I tried to find earlier to post but i wasnt on my computer at the time. This video is kind of cool and it has some good shots of what the ghillie should look like when youre blending it.



General rule of thumb: lay your ghillie down in an area that you want to blend to, then WALK AWAY, pull blending material from a DIFFERENT AREA, and then come back to your ghillie and blend it so that you cant really see it where you have it laid down. It is too easy to blend it if you have your ghillie in front of you and you pull the plants next to you because you end up pulling what you are matching to


Also, Fuzzy, what is this "elastic band" technique that you mentioned. I have about 12' of small elastic cord laying around that I was going to tie around my rifle, but i got lazy and used a real leaf wrap instead... so if it could make working my ghillie a little easier I'm all for it
I still need to get around to getting the poison oak out of it though too....
 
#7 ·
I bought a few feet of elastic and would cut it to short lengths. It also had to have a width small enough to wrap around the netting (we both have that small 1in netting). Then go get some natural veg and have the elastic wrapped around the veg to keep it in place. Kind of hard to explain, if you want I can post some pictures. I never really used this method, as I would just tie it to the jute but I plan on trying it again in the future.

Let me know if you need a more clear explanation. ;)
 
#8 · (Edited)
I was just browsing this category (concealment if you hadn't noticed) and found this thread on the very first page, as in the very back of the category. Talk about a necro post, huh? Anyway, I think it has a wealth of information and the link that Fuzzy posted at the very top was a very very good read. Just we warned, it is a very LONG read. So I thought I'd just dig it up so everyone can read what's on here.
 
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