Anyone ever made their own ghillie suit? I was thinking making a poncho style one for stalking / sitting in ambush. Any tips?
Ahh.. I should have searched the site first. I see some old threads on the subject. Maybe someone has some new ideas?
ghilliesuit.com has some great kits and I love the synthetic material I got and hand sewed onto an old ratty, sparse "leafy suit" that was awful. Now... :) It works.
There was a thread not to long ago about it.Defiantly do a search on Ghillies
http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=000113
at this late date you'd be better off just buying one. they take an ungodly number of hours to make from scratch. i started mine in june and it ain't finished yet!!!
best of luck!
QuoteOriginally posted by carbonflyr:
at this late date you'd be better off just buying one. they take an ungodly number of hours to make from scratch. i started mine in june and it ain't finished yet!!!
best of luck!
Nahh, its not that tough or time consuming really. You don't necessarily need a full suit(they are cumbersome and a general PIA anyway), just some burlap, some sail twine and needle, and some local foliage.
Just finished mine and was wondering do you throw it in the washing machine to help clean off the loose jute hair and dust and crap or do you just shake it out a little bit and put it behind the four wheeler and drag it through the woods?
Made one a couple years back. Used one size larger hooded sweatshirt, commercial fishing net, heavy thread, green and brown jute cord, half dozen burlap sacks cut into strips, five cans of spray paint, and glue. Took about a year of working on it here and there.
I've always wanted to try out a real ghillie suit. Making one sounds like a good winter project.
I have a cammo net suit "supposed to be a bug suit" & I've been thinking of doing just this with it, now I just need to get the other materials together & get to work.
Agreed, looks like a winter project for sure.
ckanous, I ended up taking all the jute rope out of mine....it was constantly shedding a ton of "hair" all over everything, and everything!
Thats what I figured Curt, a never ending battle! Well I guess its a good reason to start another one then, it took a while but was pretty fun to build. Like anything you do, the first time just lets you know what to do different on the next one. Jute is at least half of mine so I won't try to take it out just deal with it Sept 11 (opening day), I can handle it.
I will be getting mine out and smoking it very soon as season is now fast-(but not fast enough)- approaching. The way I count it I have 16 days until I'm in the woods for real.
God bless,Mudd
Took the easy way and ordered one online. Maybe I'll make one as a winter project... Anyone have any issues shooting while wearing one??
Trim the inside of the bow arm so nothing is hanging to catch the bow or string on the shot. That is the only problem I ever had with one.
Mudd,
How do you keep it lit?
Keep it lit!! Thats funny!
Brings up a serious subject though. They are real easy to light. Ain't all that easy to shuck if you light one up either.
Keep away from children with lighters!
What do mean by smokin it Mudd?
I am getting a cheap bee smoker and will make sure I saturate my ghuillie with smoke.
I'm hoping this is easier than making a small teepee with a tarp and funneling cold smoke over to it via a piece of metal down spout.
God bless,Mudd
They take some getting used to. I suggest dry runs wearing it. Everything you usually do might be impacted by wearing it. That said. . once you've learned the tricks you need to use your suit, they are awesome.
As was said, i trimmed and trimmed. I finally trimmed the inside of my bow forearm arm down to nearly nothing. I wear an arm guard that holds down some of it.
I also acquired a set of gloves, made by someone else, can't recall who, but they have sewn in ghillie material, so my bow hand is also ghillied up. I had to trim nearly all of the stuff on the top side of the hand, that part that is up when holding the bow..
I don't wear the ghillie face mask, rather use another that is a bit tighter. The ghillie boonie hat is great, but i wear it twisted around to the left a bit with the string around behind my left ear. When you go to shoot, it tends to work itself around and in the way. That move keeps it in place. It takes a while to trim away all the bad stuff so keep at it.
I also found that by wearing light waders underneath (I cross a small ditch that is about belly deep)it seems to contain my scent (imagine that. . waders. . ) and I have had deer all but step on me. That said, I still use a wind string and watch it religiously.
This year, when it is ghillie time, I am gonna make a piece like Guru did. . great idea.. to mask my movement of drawing the bow.
I like it. BTW works on skwerls too !
ChuckC
Here's a pic of my homemade ghillie suit I made especially for Alaska. Worked pretty well as long as the wind didn't switch on me...
Cost about $25 total. $18 veil from ghilliesuits dot com and an old GI cap sewn in with serving thread and superglue plus three strips of velcro. Two on my bow arm and one on the shooting arm.
(http://i639.photobucket.com/albums/uu112/ZekeB/100_1322.jpg)