Got some woodland camo pants and jacket for my gillie suit but where can I get a durable material for my knees and elbows like you see in some of the pics.
Fieldcraft making a ghillie suit
- Thread starter precision308
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Heavy Duty Fabric, Canvas, Vinyl, Webbing, Mesh, Grommets, Netting
I got some cordura n stuff from these guys ^^^
I got some cordura n stuff from these guys ^^^
Buy 2 duffel bags from a surplus store and cut out sections for your knees, elbows, chest, with some neoprene (not sure where to get that) underneath for some padding.
Use shoe goo for glue.
Done.
Use shoe goo for glue.
Done.
If you want it to last and be comfortable, avoid the shoe goo altogether, and don't add the knee reinforcement first. What I found works well on a conventional Ghillie suit approach (one I'll never pursue again) is to sew on your netting on the rear of the pantlegs first. Then anchor edges of the netting at the seams when you sew on the Cordura, so the edges of the netting are no longer exposed.
I take out the stitching on BDU pants when I do that, so I have a nice flat surface to work with on the machine, then redo the inseam inside out. Winter weight or intermediate weight BDU's made from 50/50 NYCO work better for durability, but suck for heat retention. I've never seen a 100% ripstop BDU suit last long at all.
If you're using the BDU base method, definitely go with 2 sizes larger and as comfortable of a pair of pants you can find as possible. The British DPM camo pants are way more comfy than US 50/50 NYCO BDU's, which tend to be stiff.
My first Ghillie was made on the old OD Green utility uniform, not OG-107 Jungle Fatigues, but the cotton/poly blend with exposed buttons. I used heavy OD canvas for the reinforcement material. There were a lot of things I didn't like about it, which led me to building my 2nd suit from 50/50 NYCO BDU's, and that one has lasted from 1994-present, but it's not comfortable for me anymore.
I put shoulder pads inside of it, and I always sew a strip of 1" webbing inside the BDU top along the top of your back as an anchor point for the netting, so your netting won't rip out through the weaker material. I cut out my vent hole and sewed in mesh before any netting was attached, and sealed my vent hole rim with binding tape.
I sewed a document pouch inside the BDU top for my maps and sector sketches, using the old BDU wrist tabs as a retainer for the side of the pouch, so I could just reach in and grab or replace them quickly with the Ghillie top unbuttoned halfway.
I reinforced the sleeves with elbow pads and canvas, and additional adjustment tabs for the cuffs to keep out weeds, twigs, ants, dirt, etc.
I sewed limited width strips of netting down the sleeves, since I already knew that you don't need a ton of netting on the sleeves to get good coverage if you want it there.
I cut sections of puss pad for the front before sewing on reinforcement, and attached them in place. The chest reinforcement areas overlap the groin to protect from twigs, rocks, etc. from piercing your junk.
The next suit I made was for my Recon Team Leader before he went to Benning, which was basic BDU with duffel bag reinforcement, rear ventilation, internal anchor points, and I think I put padded knees in it for him. It had cuff-thumb loops made from 1/2" webbing, rather than 550 cord.
The next suit I made used the Night Desert Parka for a base, which is my favorite for a conventional Ghillie, using the hood, sleeve pockets, reinforced elbows, two vents in the back on either side of the center seam, and integrated internal compression/storage system. The guy I made it for later went to 10th SFG, and his Teammates thought it was the best suit they had seen up to that point. I cut out sections of the hood where your ears are, and sewed-in mosquito netting, then attached the camo netting on the hood and back of the parka, using the internal anchor point webbing across the top as usual. Wish I had pics of it, as there were a lot of things I did that I don't recall. A lot of the ideas for it came from Ghillies I saw with Sniper Teams in JSOC from the early and mid-1990's.
Pics would be amazing but a better description of how and where your pouch is located would be great!
Thanks
If I was making another tree tux, I would probably leave it out. I rarely used it, because when I made that one, it was made under the pretext of being a good school suit, without wearing any load-bearing gear.
I would steer anyone who is seriously considering making a conventional Ghillie top that needs to be rugged enough for stalk lanes to look at a parka with hood, rather than BDU top. I really prefer the parka with hood approach over the BDU top.
In reality, for the rare times that I did use my Ghillie suit, I was wearing my home-made harness with all my normal load-out over it, except on a few occasions where leg rigs were all that were taken for R&S patrol out of the hide site. When you look at handheld Team internal radios, a few mags, optics, and maybe a few smokes (M18 Grenades for break-contact), leg rings can barely get you by. You are not stuffing all that crap in your cargo pockets and being successful.
Here's some video with me and my partner at FinnSniper 2008. This is the 2nd Ghillie Suit I made back in 1994-1996. I spent 350 hours on it.
FinnSniper 2008, Stage 4 - YouTube
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