can anyone tell me exactly how to make a ghille suit and were to get the stuff for them?

Answer 1

Snipers and hunters with extreme requirements for camouflage use a ghillie, or yowie suit. The ghillie suit was originally developed by Scottish gamekeepers as a portable hunting blind. The name derives from ghillie, the Scots Gaelic for "boy", in English especially used to refer to servants assisting in hunting or fishing expeditions. A ghillie dhu is a type of brownie which is supposed to disguise itself in leaves and vegetation.[1]

Ghillie suits can be constructed in many different ways. Some services make them of rough burlap (hessian) flaps attached to a net poncho. US Army Ghillie suits are often built using a pilot's flightsuit, battle dress uniform (BDU), or some other one-piece coverall as the base. Ponchos made of durable nylon netting can also be used. Unscented dental floss is used to sew each knot of fishnet to the fabric, in the areas to be camouflaged. A drop of 'Shoe Goo' is applied to each knot for strength. The desired jute is applied to the netting by tying groups of 5 to 10 strands of a color to the netting with simple knots, skipping sections to be filled in with other colors. Making a ghillie suit from scratch is time consuming, and a detailed, high-quality suit can take 100 hours to manufacture and season.

A ghillie suit is usually prepared by assembling it, beating it, dragging it behind a car, and then rolling it in cow manure or burying it in mud and then letting it ferment. This makes it very much like wearable humus. A ghillie suit that closely matches the actual terrain of the zone of operation will stand out less, so elements of that general environment (local foliage or other matter) may also be included in the netting.

An inherent problem with ghillie suits is internal (and sometimes, external) temperatures. Even in relatively moderate climates, the temperature inside of the ghillie suit can soar to over 50 °C (120 °F).

High quality ghillie suits can be purchased online, but traditionally, soldiers in the armed forces construct their own unique suits.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghillie_suit"

I have noticed that a lot of websites that have instructions of building ghillie suits, which give very little direction in making them. There are even those who will go so far as to pay for instructions on building one. I think that is the most stupid thing, because I right here am going to show you everything you need to make whatever kind of ghillie suit you would ever want, plus, helpful commentary and all of my opinions too.



When I first started out making ghillie suits, I really had nowhere to turn. At the time, there we a couple of websites that showed a brief outline of the construction of the ghillie suit, mostly without pictures, giving the reader a vague picture in his mind on the procedure. I thought it was an almost impossible task; with all the hard and long work I put into this thing, I should at least know what I am doing, and not just leave everything up to figuring it out myself. But hey, what was I suppose to do? I went into a lot of chat rooms, and visited a lot of paintball places (I normaly go to paintball anyways) and talked to some of the veterans. I even contacted some USMC Sniper/Scouts over the Internet and asked them how they constructed their suits. I asked lots of questions. I was determined to find out everything there was to know about making ghillie suits. This is why I wrote this website for, so that other people don't have to do all of the work I did.



Whatever your reason: military, law enforcement, hunter, surveillance or paintball, building a ghillie suit has many uses. But I'm not going to lie to you, to make a good, quality one, it takes some money and a lot of patience and time. Let me first start off by saying that ghillie suits are just a tool, they are just camouflage. They do NOT make you invisible. Used correctly however, they are the most effective camouflage in the world. I have had people STEP on me while I was wearing a ghillie suit; it's that effective.


HISTORY
Scottish gamekeepers were the first to create the "Ghillie suit". Their nicknames where "ghillie", hence force, "ghillie suit" (the pronunciation for ghillie is "Gee Lee", with a "g" sound, not a "j" sound). They figured out, if they attached strips of burlap to their clothing, and waited patiently enough, pouchers would never even see them. It has then evolved into military tool for snipers, adopted by the United States Army and Marine Core as an integral part of their camouflage and concealment.

Why and how does the ghillie suit work so well? When the United States was first considering regular issue printed camouflage for their soldiers, they thought of a plain color. After many years later, they saw the need for better camouflage in certain environments. They then added more colors and different types of blends and shapes for different environments, trying to match the colors and shapes in the inherent environment to the printed fabric. While the standard issue printed camouflage does a great job of blending in with its environment, it follows the human form to closely. This means, that while a person might not see you in the corner of his eye, he most certainly will looking strait at you, since his brain recognizes your human form. And while printed fabrics try to mimic its surrounding shapes as best they can, they can never make a 2D object look 3D. The printed fabric cannot create black shadows as dark as real shadows, "...the shadow is about 2 orders of magnitude darker than the darkest printed black fabric." (Taken from Randy Cox ([e-mail]), and his definition of a ghillie suit). The idea of a ghillie suit (and why it works so damn well) is that it can create the real shadows using 3D materials. Since your outline is broken up, the human brain cannot distinguish your human form. This only takes care of the "breaking up your human outline" problem. The real trick of the ghillie suit is the color blends and the addition of natural vegetation to it, which we will cover on later in this website.

I have personally built many ghillie suits, and can say that they all have been very demanding. First, lets cover why ghillie suits cost so much. One word, LABOR. As I have said before, building a ghillie suit takes a long time. How long depends on how much effort you put into it, ranging from 8, to 30 or 40 hours (well, not all at once). Even at minimum wage, a 25-hour suit with labor alone is a little over $130, not counting the materials and lets face it, I wouldn't want minimum wage for such a labor-intensive project. Done properly however, a good ghillie suit with the right materials and the proper care can last a lifetime. Also, (regardless of what you may have heard from other places on the Internet) ghillie suit does not always have to be hot and heavy to be effective, and you won't colapse from heat exhaustion if you wear one (and stay hydrated, of course). It all depends on how you make the suit. And why would you want to make a suit, when you could pay for someone else to make it for you? Would you let someone else pack you parachute? Well, not as severe as that. Matter of fact, there are people out there that could probably do a better job of making a ghillie suit than you could **(well, at least they claim they can).

** Just a little commentary before we continue. The (very nice people, don’t get me wrong) people at Custom Concealment Inc. (www.ghillie.com) have another thing coming towards them. While, their ghillie suits have been claimed to be very effective, and their website is very well put together and creative, they fall short on some of the things they claim on their website. They continually keep pounding in your head that you are not competent enough to make a ghillie suit by yourself. They insist that the method of dyeing and treating their burlap is unique and complicated, so that you the simpleton, could never understand the process, even if they gave you all of the machinery and instructions. They also insist that their seamstress is the best in the world, and therefore, you would be an idiot if you tried to make a ghillie suit by yourself. For those people out there who are a little more intelligent than that, you recognize right away that all it is is propaganda. They are trying to fool you into thinking that you can’t make it yourself, while at the same time promoting their own, "superior" product. While there is some truth to their machinery and method, and seamstress and product, United States Military Snipers have been doing just fine before they came along. Again, let me say that I'm not telling you that they suck at making ghillie suits, I'm just personaly offended by which the way they present there product.

Answer 2

Unlike others I don't have a problem with you collecting data, materials or building a ghilie suit sniper rifle combination, That is your right as an American Citizen, hell if you prove you are over 18 I will gladly help you out.

However I want you to take into consideration,

If you do something stupid and hurt people there will be a REAL SNIPER sighting in on you!

If you think you are stable and truly want to pursue this then Read, shoot, read, hunt, read, exercise then join the Marines or Army, I am an Army Vet so obviously that is my allegiance however the Marine Corp has undeniably turned out some of the best scout/snipers in modern history.

DON'T do anything stupid! ask others for help.

Answer 3

Ok. So from your questions, you're obviously a civilian.

You've asked whether the Armalite series is a good rifle.

You've asked How/where/what scopes you can obtain in a price range under $1000.

You've asked what a sniper needs to know before he pulls the trigger.

Now you're asking how to make a ghillie suit.

WTF?

At best: You play too many video games and need to understand that being a sniper is not an issue of pointing and clicking.

Somewhere in the middle: you have a morbid fascination with something that you don't understand, and asking questions best directed at a USMC recruiter if you're REALLY interested.

At worst:...remember the DC Sniper? William Kreutzer? Columbine?

I've asked you before: why are you asking?

Answer 4

A ghillie suit is basically a set of BDUs that have been modified. You can buy all of the materials you'll need from any military surplus store. You'll want to use high grade thread since you don't want the pieces to come off during use. Keep in mind that you'll get wear on certain areas of the suit, so you will want to reinforce those places. Essentially, you'll need the following:
- One set of miltary battle dress fatigues
- about 100-120 strips of ghillie cloth in assorted colors. (The terrain should dictates the colors)
- Sew-in knee, elbow, shin and chest padding.
- Sewing supplies and about three days to put it together.

Keep in mind that owning a ghillie suit is not illegal, makes you highly suspect. Especially in today's security conscious world. So unless you are using it to be a better animal hunter, I would seriously caution you against actually making one.

Answer 5

I'm with - rsantos19, what are you thinking dude.

I've wondered from the time I first started seeing your ?'s.

You want to be a sniper/hero?

Seriously man, get some professional, (mental counselling), help.

Killing isn't a hobby.

Answer 6

I am sure you can get some ideas from the source below. Good luck.