While making your own ghillie suit from scratch may seem like a great idea at first, few people who start this project realize just how much time and energy it takes to make a high quality suit. From cutting out strips of burlap to tying on each strip one piece at a time, the project can take weeks or months to complete.

Unless you have time to kill, purchasing an affordable, high quality ghillie suit might be a better route to take. Ready-made ghillie suits are just as effective and can be customized to fit your needs.

Ghillies come in 2 basic styles: ponchos and suits. They are made from several different materials. Netting, mesh, or a BDU suit is often used for the base, and burlap, jute twine, or synthetic material are used for the strands.

How Ponchos Are Made

The ghillie poncho is made from netting with either natural jute, burlap strands, or synthetic strips. The extra holes in the netting allow you to customize the suit by adding or rearranging the strands or by adding leaves, twigs, and foliage from your surroundings. If you want the lightest weight possible, choose synthetic rather than jute or burlap.

You can easily put on or remove the poncho as needed by slipping it over the top of your clothes. If you need to move through an area of dense brush, simply take off the poncho and roll it into a small bundle.

Most ponchos include a large hood with extra strands that hang over your face for concealment. Since the poncho only hangs down as far as your knees, you can walk through low brush and step over branches without getting caught on every little twig. The downside is that it’s difficult to crawl on the ground or move through dense brush while wearing a poncho.

Another advantage of the poncho is that it’s easily adaptable. You can drape the poncho over any object or stretch it overhead to provide cover and camouflage in a variety of situations.

How Ghillie Suits Are Made

The second type of ghillie is a suit, which includes pants, a jacket, and a hat. The base can be mesh (which is lighter and cooler) or a BDU suit. The strands can be made from jute, burlap, synthetic, or other materials. For the lightest weight possible, choose a mesh ultra light ghillie suit with synthetic strands.

The biggest advantage of a full suit is that it provides full coverage from head to toe. The BDU suit is designed for crawling on the ground, with strands located only on the back half of the suit. The BDU suit is lighter (with only half as many jute strands) and easier to run in. Depending on how you plan to use your suit, you will need to decide whether a ghillie suit (with strands on front and back) or a BDU sniper suit (strands only on back) will best meet your needs.

This type of suit is best for covering open ground. Walking through dense brush is difficult, since the strands tend to get caught on everything. Also, wearing a 3-piece ghillie suit can get fairly hot, so wear light clothing underneath to stay as cool as possible.

Advantages of a Poncho	Advantages of a Ghillie Suit
Slips over clothing Lightweight Simple (one piece) Adaptable	Provides full coverage Available in lightweight synthetic Stays on at all times Provides good camo cover in open terrain

For a limited time only, KillZone is offering a discount coupon for all ghillie suits, sniper BDUs, and ponchos. You can get an extra $15 off any ghillie suit in our store! Simply add the item you want to your shopping cart and enter the code KZG153 in the Discount Codes section before proceeding to the checkout page.

Check out our ghillie suits to shop now!