Wash your ghillie suit occasionally to make it last longer.

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.

A sniper suit is designed to let you crawl on the ground without getting caught on twigs and brush.

Remember the cartoons where the character sneaks around with a bush over his body for cover? Well, that’s sort of how a ghillie suit works, except it’s designed to be a lot easier than finding natural cover and a lot more mobile (and comfortable) than wearing a bush.

A ghillie suit breaks up your outline with three-dimensional camouflage that moves with you when you move. It’s mobile enough for walking, running, and crawling, and it’s available in a variety of styles that combine comfort and function, including synthetic materials and ultra lightweight suits.

Mobility

How much mobility you need will help you figure out which type of ghillie suit to buy. A full-length poncho provides good coverage but restricts your legs and makes it harder to run or crawl. A shorter poncho makes it easier to run but provides less lower body coverage. A sniper suit is designed for crawling, running, and walking, with camouflage strips only on the back of the suit.

Coverage

How much coverage you need also factors in to which ghillie suit you should buy. A three-piece ghillie or a full-length poncho provides the most coverage. A sniper suit provides three-dimensional camouflage only on the back side, and a shorter poncho leaves your calves and ankles exposed.

Ghillie Materials

The stickers and twigs picked up by natural material are good when you want to “naturalize” the suit to match the surrounding terrain but bad when you’re trying to get through thick brush. Synthetic materials are less likely to get caught on every bush and tree.

Natural materials such as jute require an extra layer next to the skin to avoid irritation. Synthetic materials with a mesh base can be worn comfortably with next to nothing underneath. Synthetic suits are lighter in weight than suits made with natural materials.

Budget

Cost and time are also factors in choosing a ghillie suit. Kits are available for those who want a custom-made suit, but it will require hours of tedious tying. You can find ready-made ghillie suits for almost as cheap, with extra jute strings or synthetic ties included for customizing the suit to your taste.

Adding native vegetation to your ghillie suit helps you blend in with your surroundings.

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.

Hunting in a stubble field during late season is a challenge,
but a rewarding one if you can figure out what works.
Don’t hesitate to try new techniques.

Hunting geese in an open field has its challenges, even in the early season. Add in the gun-shy geese towards the latter part of the season, and it’s even more challenging. Here are a few tips on concealing yourself in an open field and outwitting late season birds.

Hunting Techniques in a Layout Blind

Instead of setting up your layout blind in the middle of a large field, try setting up near the fence line at the edges of the field. For one, the birds will be less wary of landing there, since most hunters set up in the middle of the field. Besides that, the stubble along the fence line gives you natural cover that can be difficult to find in the middle of the field.

Better concealment means that birds will be less likely to spot you, especially during the late season when birds are wary of anything that smacks of danger, including any hint of what may resemble a blind or pit.

Stalking Geese in an Open Field

Another trick for hunting late season geese is to stalk them. A ghillie suit—used by snipers in the military—lets you go to the birds when they won’t come to you. A sniper suit is free of strands on the front side to allow you to crawl low to the ground without catching on brush and stubble. With the camouflage strands on the back side of the suit and on the head covering, you can move around while staying completely concealed at all times.

If you’re hunting in a big group, split the group into two teams. One group hides in thick cover downwind of the geese. The other group stalks the geese until they are close enough to open fire. When the geese take off, they will head straight for the second group of hunters, who can pick off another round of geese.

A wide variety of ghillie suits, ponchos, and sniper suits are available from KillZone Hunting. The two charts below outline the features of each suit to help you decide which suit is the best one for your needs.

Poncho, Sniper, and Ghillie Suit Buying Guide

Ultra Light Ghillie Suit Buying Guide

*Free shipping applies to the lower 48 United States only.
**Note: All specifications are based on the manufacturer’s stated price and product description at time of posting. Prices and specifications are subject to change.

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

Poncho Style

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

Complete Ghillie Suit

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.

Ultra light ghillie suits are lighter, cooler, and more comfortable.

• “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!

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!

To take advantage of this great deal, enter the above coupon code in the DISCOUNT CODES box on the shopping cart page.

Another creative use for ghillie suits. Check out this music video by OK Go, featuring the Notre Dame marching band.

Ghillie Suit with Natural Jute Strands

As a general rule, wash your ghillie suit only as often as you need to. A dirty suit with an earthy smell will work to your advantage on the hunt or on the playing field. Also, keep in mind that the more often you wash your ghillie suit, the faster the material will break down and the less authentic it will look.

If your ghillie suit needs washing, you have three basic options:

1. Hand wash the suit.
2. Hose it down with a low pressure hose.
3. Send it to the dry cleaners.

How To Wash A Ghillie Suit

Hand washing is the easiest way to spot clean a ghillie suit. If you just need to get out a stain, only wash the area with the stain. Spot cleaning is gentler on the material than washing the entire suit. If you only wash the area where the stain is, the fibers in the suit will not wear out as quickly.

Use cold water to wash the suit. We recommend using only water, but if the stain is too stubborn to wash out with water, then you can use a mixture of cold water and mild, unscented soap. Detergent and scented soaps are not recommended, as the scent they leave behind can give you away.

Ghillie Suit with Synthetic Leaves

If the entire suit needs to be washed, you can gently hose it down with a low pressure hose. Then allow the suit to air dry completely before reapplying fire retardant mix.

Dry cleaning is also an option for cleaning your ghillie suit. It’s the gentlest way to clean your suit and doesn’t require reapplication of fire retardant mix.

Any time you wash your ghillie suit with water, you will need to reapply fire retardant mix. Natural jute is a flammable material. Your safety requires a fresh application of fire retardant to the ghillie suit after it is completely dry. Synthetic materials also require reapplication of fire retardant.

How NOT To Wash A Ghillie Suit

NEVER wash a ghillie suit in the washing machine. The jute or mesh material will not hold up to the vigorous movement, and the strands can easily get snagged around the agitator. Machine washing causes the jute or synthetic strands to degrade prematurely. These materials may rip, shred, or take on a fluffy or fuzzy appearance.

NEVER dry a ghillie suit in the dryer. The heat from the dryer will damage the natural jute or delicate synthetic material and cause it to degrade much faster than normal. Allow the suit to air dry instead.

How To Season A Ghillie Suit

The jute netting on this sniper suit is detachable,
and the BDU suit is machine washable.

Exceptions To The Rule

These ghillie suit washing instructions apply to suits made of natural materials, such as jute and burlap, or delicate synthetic materials. If you have a suit with detachable mesh netting, on the other hand, the suit itself (often called a BDU suit) may be machine washable.

The sniper ghillie suit from KillZone Hunting includes a BDU suit with detachable netting. The BDU suit is machine washable with the jute netting removed. Please read the clothing tag or check with the manufacturer to see if your BDU suit is machine washable.