Reply To: Ghillie Suits

[Ed Ashby]

#33048

Though I do, at times, hunt from a stand I prefer to stalk. For many years I got by without much in the way of camo. After I had a kudu fall on my last good knee I found that, without being able to squat, kneel and crawl it was becoming difficult to get as close to animals as I would like. I had become restricted to being a ‘stand up stalker’. This makes one a lot more visible. That’s when I started experimenting with Ghillie suits (and DETAILED bow camo).

I wasn’t very impressed or satisfied with the Ghillie suits I could buy so delved into making my own. It was a long learning curve but once I ‘got it right’ I discovered that I could ‘stand-up stalk’ with a Guillie suit on. Done right the Ghillie suit is, without question, the most effective camo I have ever used, or seen used.

In the “Old Derelict” series of articles I wrote a pretty lengthy article on the Ghillie suits; how I design, build and ‘tune’ them to the location they will be used in.

Done right, and used right, I think they are the best camo possible for the stalking hunter. That said, while hunting from a static location (blind or stand) they are still highly effective, but do not give as great an advantage as they for the stalking hunter. With a blind there are many more options, such as noted in above replies. One place where I did find an great advantage of using a Ghillie suit from a ‘stand’ was when predator calling. The responding predator is looking for something to be there, and the predators have color vision, which aids them in detection the otherwise well-concealed bowhunter. In this application I found the Gillie suit a great advantage.

The best way to think of a Ghillie suit is as a mobile blind that moves with you. If you are interested I can send you the Old Derelict Ghillie suit article, along with one on the bow camo techniques I use but, again, they are more useful to the stalking and predator calling bowhunter than to those hunting deer, etcetera, from a static location.

Ed