Even though the dirtier your ghillie suit gets, the better it performs, all the dirt, grit, snags, and mud can take a toll after awhile. Running through the woods and crawling on the ground can tear threads, snag the webbing, and wear down the suit material. Prolonged sun exposure will cause the colors to fade over time, to the point that it reduces the effectiveness of the camouflage.

Washing a Ghillie Suit

Although die-hard ghillie fans might tell you different, it doesn’t hurt to wash your ghillie suit once in awhile…and it might make your suit last longer. Most of the new lightweight synthetic ghillie suits are machine washable, and even traditional jute ghillies can be washed by hand. One of the best ways to wash your ghillie suit (synthetic or jute) is to lay it out on the ground (preferably on cement, asphalt, or other hard surface) and hose it down. Then allow the suit to air dry.

Storing a Ghillie Suit

Let your ghillie suit dry completely before storing! Don’t just ball up your suit and throw it in a corner. Listen to your mother’s voice telling you to hang up your clothes. Mold and mildew thrive in moist, dark places, such as your ghillie suit on the closet floor. If you want your ghillie suit to last, take the time to hang it up where it can air dry completely.

Repairing a Ghillie Suit

Occasionally you will find torn strings or leaves on your suit. To fix the suit, remove the torn string or leaf and tie a new one in its place. You can also replace strings with different colors to match new terrain or add more strings or leaves for thicker camouflage coverage. If your ghillie suit is beyond repair or if you’re ready to upgrade to a better suit, you can always buy a new ghillie suit.

There’s more than one way to add natural foliage to your ghillie suit. Here are just a few methods we’ve come across that might work for you.

Weaving Method

Most ghillie suits include a mesh netting overlay with jute strings or camouflage strips tied to the netting. To add foliage to the netting, simply weave grass, twigs, weeds, leaves, or other vegetation in and out of the holes in the mesh.

Elastic Band Method

Attach thick rubber bands or bicycle inner tubing cut into rings to the ghillie suit by knotting them to the netting. Then slip bunches of grass, twigs, and other foliage through the elastic bands.

You can use string to attach the foliage instead of elastic, but it will be more time consuming. Elastic bands allow you to remove and add new foliage faster than tying the foliage in place. They also let you add thicker bunches of foliage than you can when using the weaving method.

Ghillie Gun Wrap

To add natural foliage to your gun, add rubber bands or inner tube rings down the length of the gun. Then attach natural foliage to the gun, securing it in place with the rubber bands.

Tips for Adding Natural Foliage

• Try to follow the pattern and density of the natural vegetation around you.
• Focus on adding foliage to the parts of the ghillie suit that will be exposed. For example, if you crouch or lie prone, you only need to add foliage to the head piece and the back of the suit.
• Replace vegetation when it starts to wilt or rot, or replace it if you move to an area with different foliage.

Need some new tricks up your sleeve for turkey hunting this season? Check out these tips for turkey hunting in a ghillie suit from Landon, our resident turkey hunting expert at KillZone!

• “Pack the ghillie suit in. Don’t wear it because it gets caught on EVERYTHING!”
• “Wear a camo hat under the hood because it keeps the extra netting or string out of your way when aiming down the sights.”
• “Dress light because those suits can get hot.”
• “Don’t put the gun wrap on a pump action shotgun. Just bad news all around.”
• “The string ones go well in swampy areas, the netting ones go well in leafy areas.”
• “For spring – go mostly green. Fall – mostly brown.”

KillZone has a large number of ghillie suits to choose from, all at affordable prices and FREE shipping to the lower 48 states. For a limited time only, you can save an extra $15 on any KillZone ghillie suit, camo poncho, or sniper suit!

A camouflage pattern might look great up close, but what about from 20 yards away? If the trees-and-leaves pattern blends into a solid mass, the whole point of wearing camouflage is defeated. Too much close-knit detail means that the pattern will fill in as the distance between the hunter and his prey increases.

So What Makes a Good Camouflage Pattern?

For most hunting situations, how the pattern breaks up the silhouette is more important than the pattern itself, and contrast between light and dark areas is more important than color. In paintball, airsoft, and military use, however, color and pattern are more important, since you are disguising yourself from humans rather than animals.

Most experts will tell you to choose the camouflage pattern that most closely matches the environment you will be using it in. So what do you do if you hunt in a number of different environments? Or what do you do when the environment changes—for example, the leaves changing color in the fall or seasonal vegetation changing the landscape? That’s a lot of camo patterns to buy. Not to mention the variety of hunting blinds, clothing, ghillie suits, or other gear you’d need.

How Do I Choose the Best Camouflage Pattern?

Your goal should be to find a camouflage pattern that is adaptable to your environment. Look at the pattern from a distance as well as up close. Does the pattern turn into a dark blob as you back away? It will act the same way in the woods or marsh, outlining your silhouette instead of concealing it.

Ironically enough, a pattern that might look wild and intimidating up close can become completely invisible at a greater distance. The choice many hunters make is to select a camo pattern based on how attractive it is. Unfortunately, attractiveness has nothing to do with how effective a camouflage pattern will be.

Loose patterns often work better than complex, detailed patterns. Also, patterns laid out over an open or neutral background help break up your profile no matter where you are hunting.

Look for contrast between light and dark. If the pattern is primarily dark and complex, it will blur into a solid color and pattern from a distance.

The best camouflage pattern is one that breaks up well in a variety of different environments. Choose your camouflage wisely, and it should work well for you in almost any setting.

New Ultra Light Ghillie Suits are now available at KillZone Hunting! These camouflage suits come in 3 patterns: woodland, desert, and mossy camo. The suits are constructed with lightweight synthetic strands sewn on to a mesh suit. An ultra light ghillie suit is perfect for staying cool in warm temperatures and roomy enough to slip over layers of clothing in cold weather.

All of KillZone’s Ultra Light Ghillies are water resistant, rot and mildew resistant, and hand washable!

The 4-piece Woodland Camo Ghillie Suit is available in 2 sizes (Large and X-Large) with either a zipper-style or snap-front jacket. This set comes with a jacket, pants, hood, and gun wrap.
 
Special Price: Starting at $89.99!

The 4-piece Desert Ghillie Suit is available in 2 sizes (Large and X-Large) and is perfect for hunting, paintball, airsoft, and wilderness photography. This set comes with a jacket, pants, hood, and gun wrap.
 
Special Price: Starting at $84.99!

The 2-piece Mossy Camo Suit is available in 2 sizes (Large and X-Large) with a hooded jacket and pants combo.
 
Special Price: Starting at $84.99!