Ghillie Suit!

C

CanDo

Joined
Mar 10, 2006
Messages
913
Hey all,

I'm back! Getting my life back in order failed, so I may as well enjoy my time here.

A few days ago, I snagged a bunch of old Jute netting from a local theatre. It looks perfect; many irregular pieces and strips of netting. Thought I'd use it to make a ghillie suit. If you own a ghillie, or have pics, or tips on making one, please share here! My big question right now is whether or not to try painting the netting with various colors, or rather rely on weaving in elements of the environment. Do y'all think a couple layers of irregular netting will work OK, or will I have to find a way to make those strips.... I'm not a hunter, so the primary use of this will be paintball, and stalking animals for fun/learning. #1 concern is the local tick population, which carries Lyme disease. I just found four crawling on my dog, and the season has only begun. Before I go crawling around, I plan on drenching myself, all of my clothes, and the ghillie suit in DEET - if you have other suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

Regards,

CanDo

P.S. RescueRiley, I'm still extremely busy, and don't want to start the plans you sent until I'll be able to reliably commit.... next few weeks is looking hopeful. Thanks again, I'll let you know how it goes.

P.P.S.
Klippe (still looking for a name change) has a few more articles, and one new SysOp (Matt) who is very good with the mediawiki software. Pict, Quiet Bear, Pitdog, and Ethan are to thank for the articles.

http://funditor.110mb.com/wiki/index.php/Bark_Cordage
http://funditor.110mb.com/wiki/index.php/Sleeping_in_a_Hammock
http://funditor.110mb.com/wiki/index.php/Fire_from_a_Rock_and_Knife
http://funditor.110mb.com/wiki/index.php/Batoning_Wood
http://funditor.110mb.com/wiki/index.php/Dutch_Oven_Cooking
 
This is what I'm talking about, by the way:

Marine_sniper_ghillie_suit.JPG


On second thought, does anyone have any interest in them, thinking about making one?
 
Ghillie.jpg

A colleague of mine is reparing a trigger for a base camp perimeter alarm while unknown to him someone is observing him in a "G" suit...where is the guy in the suit?


Ghillie1.jpg

Ah here he is!




Ghillie2.jpg
 
It's better to rely on weaving. Paint smells anyway. Best way is to start with on old pair of cammies and put netting on the back. No netting on the front as you should never be standing up anyway, always prone. Then apply your jute, natural materials, etc to the suit. Make sure you change it when you move. Stirrups and suspenders help as do thumb loops and padding. Patience is key!

MIL_USMC_Sniper_lg.jpg


20070918-2510m-m-004.jpg


This is great and essentially the idea. I don't reccomend getting the set due to cost though.
http://www.diamondbacktactical.com/Roid-Cobra-Hood-2nd-Gen-P2939C0.aspx
 
Sharp Eye,

Just the stuff I'm looking for! I'll treat the suit with that, but keep wearing DEET on my person of course.

Quirt,

Awesome sequence. Maybe it was just luck, but after looking at the first pic for a bit, I was able to guess where he was. I can't tell what it was that tipped me off though, so probably just a lucky guess! (EDIT: Maybe it's the way that those shiny, round green leaves don't look to be self-supporting even though the other ones venture out under their own support)

Hammer,

Are you one of those guys? Your tips are quite valuable, thanks. Paintball moves faster than I'd like, but we'll see what camo and patience can do for me.


Now, I'm going to work on building a silencer for my (paintball) gun, and try to plan escape methods once my location is revealed. I think the best way to do that is to stake out a spot with super-thick brush behind it, I can run though, and have a couple extra places marked out.
Hopefully, I can get to a military surplus store soon to pick up some old camo shirts and pants.
 
I thought of making one for quite a while, out of burlap straps of various dyes mixed with jute loops for foliage as I went. I ended up not trying since I get so little dirt time as it is. Those are great pics and links.

It'd be fun to build one and get with a buddy to try and test each other as far as concealment abilities.
 
Here's one in progress using hessian, basically a photo blind that goes with you. There aren't sleeves so it'll be less obvious when using a bow or camera. Besides, I'm not about to wrap my lenses in cam tape to complete the ensemble.

I need to get some more hessian to cut into strips, but I'm curious to see how it works. It was this or cam netting...(which snags on gear and brush anyway). It's stitched up with jute and the lateral stitching gives a place to tie rags on and weave local veg into. It comes to about mid-thigh and it really DOESN'T look like some kind of Ozark ballgown in person....:D I ran it through the washer to fray the edges and it bunched up like that - it stretches out when worn but isn't baggy enough to snag on stuff.
0414081838.jpg
 
Great pics Quirt. Think I'd have thought twice about sneaking up on your friend with the big knife though!
 
Youtube has some WWII German Sniper Instruction videos that are technically interesting.

(Those are "ideological-content" free, I wouldn't talk about otherwise)
 
I have a guilly suit, that I used for paintball when I played.

Yes, tie different colors of jute string or burlap strips into the webbing.

Depending on whether you are going to be crawling alot, or walking on your knees, there are two ways to do it. Ideally you stay on your belly but paintball games don't always give you all day to crawl 10 feet lol.

1) If you have enough netting cut a hole in the center for your head and wear like a poncho.

2) Sew, or glue(shoe goo) the netting onto the back of a field jacket, and the back of your pants.

Head piece: Either way you choose, for the head, attach a piece of netting to a boonie hat, you can just tie the netting to those bands that go around the had. Make sure there is enough netting to go halfway down your back and that the front isn't so long it blocks your vision.

When tying in your material, do it in the area you plan on using it, to best match the foliage and terrain. When you are wearing the suit, tie in pieces of natural foliage to better blend in, but remove them when you are done, 'cause they won't last until your next use obviously.

Use a bundle of a few strips/strands of material, about 12-14" long and just overhand knot them onto your webbing. Get your basic layout down, then if you have enough material left over fill it in as thick as you can. No worries about making it super thick right away, the key is to just break up your outline, therefore the thickest area should be your head/neck/shoulders, that is one of the most noticeable human outlines.
 
I made a G-suit for paintball... worked well... only drawback was after you were spotted... it was difficult to run through thick brush. Also, the judges frowned upon it because some of the paintballs wouldn't break on me... I took about five hits at one exchange that didn't break... the ref finally called me out and a small argument ensued thereafter. I finally settled on making a less extravegant "fast moving" suit that didn't have as much bulk and draping material to it.

The suit was a hit with the army guys who played, too... so much so that I ended up making 7 more suits and tieing off 15 helmets for the local army reserve unit. It took me about 4 months to make them and got a nice fat government cheque for it. That was back in '92.

Rick
 
I also picked out the spot where the guy was hiding quirt....after looking at it for a while I think the problem was that the picture was focused on that little lump of plants, not on the guy...I couldn't say exactly what made me pick it out either...so I'm thinking that's what it was. We've all seen lots of monster movies and whatnot like that...at first you don't see the monster, but it's a pretty safe bet to think it's in the center of the screen. I don't know for sure though.

--BubbaThud
 
I didn't guess where the guy was myself...but regardless I don't ever remember being in a situation where I knew a guy in a ghillie suit was right in front of me, and I had all the time I wanted to find him, and that was my only goal!

I am not at all a ghillie suit expert but it seems to me that they're generally being used by guys like the ones with the Alice pack...that is guys with rifles that are going to shoot you from a long way off! So even if I could find the guy in the pic pretty quickly, I would guess that if that same guy was somewhere 700 meters away from me, even if I were really cautious and convinced someone was going to shoot me right in the tinfoil hat I wear, that guy would get me for sure.

And if I wasn't expecting anything or anyone, I bet the only way I'd find the guy is if I stepped on him and he grunted!
 
More awesome info! This is by far the best place on the internet to reach such a large group of intelligent outdoorsman. I'm totally psyched for making my ghillie suit now.

+1 on the german videos. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMapXX3ky40

aceofblades, we'd love to see it!

Any reason to not use fabrics other than jute and burlap? I snagged a bit of green felt, and I think that with heavy, irregular coffee stains it will turn a nice color. I actually think it would be pretty cool to make the suit of all sorts of scrap fabrics and twines. From what I've been seeing, the thicker the suit, the more effective it is. It will be interesting to find the compromise between camoflauge and mobility.
My current design is a shawl/cape with a head piece like described by stingray. I'll try winding a piece of jute string around the gun, and weaving material into it - won't go too crazy, but it should help more than just camo-tape.

~CanDo
 
Remember, you'll be crawling around in, what amounts to, a huge amount of tinder.
 
Sharp Eye said:
For insect protection consider permethrin.
Here is a link: http://www.afpmb.org/coweb/guidance_targets/ppms/TG36/TG36.htm#_Toc6820321
Click to expand...

I strongly second this! although i love the DEET in the morning (i reallllly like the smell of DEET :D ), its harsh on your body and clothes. Permethrin is the cats ass for tick protection, and dirt cheap,.

as for ghillie suits, i borrowed one last year and crawled around the woods for three days, some hikers i could have reached out and touched them.
 
Bushman,
I'll definitely be picking some permethrin up. What exactly were you up to that you were feet away from hikers? :D
 
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