Ghillie Suits, Easy Guide To Making A Ghillie Suit

A Ghillie Suit is a very effective camouflage technique that uses strips of material to break up the outline of the wearer. This fools the eye of the enemy -- the brain sees no recognizable shapes. By adding strips of burlap, or camouflage netting, or branches off bushes to your clothing, you create the three-dimensional pattern disruption I was talking about above. The advantage comes from creating patches that are nearly the same color as the environment, while simultaneously creating ultra-dark shadows alongside. Printed fabric cannot create black patches as dark as real shadows -- the shadow is about 2 orders of magnitude darker than the darkest printed black fabric.

How to make a Ghillie Suit:



1. Obtain an old pair of coveralls -- this is called the foundation of the suit. In a pinch a fatigue blouse and pants will suffice.

2. Get some burlap from your local fabric store (about 4 yards). The more burlap you use the more effective (up to a point) will be the Ghillie Suit -- however, it will rapidly become heavy (Army and Marine sniper suits weigh up to 20 pounds or more).

3. Dye the burlap some dark to medium green (Rit dye -- try to match foliage greens). Instructions are on the dye package), Dye a little (half a yard) brown (use sparingly).

4. Cut the burlap into strips 2-3" wide and anywhere from 6" to 12" long (mix up the widths and lengths)

5. Sew one end of each strip to the outside of your foundation -- all over it. Space them so that the ends of the upper strips will overlap the attachment points of strips lower down. The sides do not need to overlap. Fill in by tying vines, small foliated branches, grass, etc. to the suit by knotting the strips around it, or sew strings or cord at random over the suit to tie these material in.

6. Crawl and enjoy!





TACTICS:

Ghillie Suits are used for stealth -- move as slowly as possible, if at all. If one hides in bushes, and uses single shots, the enemy won't be able to find you unless they are looking almost directly at you when you fire. Be careful that muzzle blast doesn't disturb foliage or raise dust.

An effective technique is to hide in the base of bushes near a path, let the enemy go past, then pick them off with single shots from the rear.

A gun cover can be made using the same techniques and should be used to disrupt the shape of the weapon.

Hope This Helps

-Ryan
Moderator

Awesome guide Ryan!! Do you think we should put this in the Sniper forum too?


-Eric

i was going too but figured i should put it in one or the other...i dont see why not tho. I will go put it there now.

Cool, my team has 3 snipers on it and some guys have been wondering how to make a suit since they are usually so expensive. Great info.

glad i could be of some assistance. good luck in the field

-Ryan
Moderator

sticky-fy this one eric

You got it!

-Eric

do u have a suit?, that you made?

oh this thing is very heavy