5 Useful Tips to Choose a Perfect Ghillie Suit

complete woodland ghillie suit by ghillie suit shopHunters and other outdoor enthusiasts, while playing games like paintball and airsoft, need to harmonize with their surroundings and hide themselves from their targets or other players. In many instances, hunters’ camouflage saves them in life and death situations. It’s here where a ghillie suit steps in. It plays an important role to disguise the hunters and also regular campers in dangerous and life threatening situations.

Also called a wookie or yowie suit, a ghillie suit is a sort of clothing designed to imitate heavy foliage. Typically it has a cover of loose strips of twigs and leaves. Such a suit meets the purpose of regular campers and hunters to hide away because it creates a 3D image of the outline of the person rather than a linear one. Some suits are so well-made that they even move with the wind in the same direction as that of the bordering foliage.

Besides keeping you safe from dangerous animals in the wilderness, a ghillie suit can also protect you from harsh elements in the outdoors including cold, rain and winds. In the Second Boer War, the British soldiers wore ghillie suits particularly the Scottish regiment of the highland, and then it became the official uniform of the sniper unit of the British Army.

Since ghillie suits are very essential in keeping you hidden in your surroundings, it’s also important to choose a right pattern. To improve your camouflage, you can add surrounding foliage like leaves or twigs to your suit to get totally blended with the surroundings.

For bow hunters, a ghillie suit can even be customized to make their hunting experience easier. It should ideally be made of a lighter material in order to make movements easier. Also it should be created in such a way that the bow string won’t get in between the bow shot.

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Here are some useful tips for you to choose a perfect ghillie suit for you.

1. Consider the Way You will Use the Ghillie Suit

Consider first the purpose you will use your ghillie suit for and what extent of mobility you will need. If you are to move around a lot while being engaged in activities like paintball and airsoft, during your camping trip, consider purchasing a ghillie suit made of synthetic materials because these materials make the ghillie suit much lighter than the ones made from natural jute.

Players of airsoft and paintball usually shoot from a prone position or often crawl on the ground. A sniper-style ghillie suit would benefit them because it includes reinforced areas on its front side. Several hunters need ghillie suits that can offer full body camouflage, e.g. ghillie suit long jacket.

2. Outer Material

It’s important to consider which type of outer material has been used on the ghillie suit. Most ghillie suits are made from synthetic thread or natural jute thread. Both these materials can blend with the wild environment very well. However, synthetic thread is far more advantageous than natural jute thread. Synthetic thread is washable by hand, mildew resistant, fire resistant, non-allergenic and odorless. It also weighs almost half of jute thread.

3. Inner Material

A ghillie suit’s inner material is what the ghillie thread is tied to. This ‘inner shell’ is made of lightweight mesh, nylon netting or BDUs (Battle Dress Uniforms). Lightweight mesh and nylon netting let air pass easily through the suit and lightweight mesh is even bug-proof. BDUs are a pair of pant and jacket worn by the military. Ghillie thread is either sewn directly on the BDU or attached on to a netting sewn on the BDU. BDU canvas is more compact than mesh and netting; hence air cannot pass very easily through the suit. Nevertheless, BDUs are the strongest material for inner shell available and the most durable. BDUs are essentially used as the inner shells in all military style ghillie suits.

Some money can be saved by buying ghillie suits with nylon netting as the inner shell and tying the netting on their own pair of BDUs. You can get great deals on BDUs at army-navy surplus stores.

4. Color Pattern

While choosing color for your ghillie suit, consider the landscape of the camping area where you will wear the ghillie suit. A dense forest contains foliage that is tremendously different from an arid desert. Think about the shades of trees and land cover while choosing a color pattern for your ghillie suit. Most ghillie suits are available in at least three patterns viz. Desert, Mossy and Woodland.

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5. Size

Size is obviously an important factor to consider while choosing a ghillie suit. If you have your mind split between two sizes, usually the larger size is a more preferable option. Clothing which is too fitting can be too uncomfortable to wear in the outdoors. Larger sizes on the other hand can always work.

Remember these points and choose the most suitable ghillie suit for you and enjoy your outdoor venture.

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