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rhino

Over 16 hours so far.. Ghillie Suit...

By rhino, in The Bonfire

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Tonto    1

Tonto
Just a question...

Why jacket and pants?

I built some of my suits out of a one peice overall, and that was after experience gained in either filling my pants with sticks, grass and leaves when moving forward, or the jacket pulling up my torso when moving backwards. An itch is not your friend when you're trying to lie still and concentrate.

Also, I think you could do with a lot more padding on the front. Front of my suit, under forearms and elbows was canvas reinforced rubber matting. It looked stupid as hell standing up - but it worked OK and I could lie on big chunks of gravel all day.

Of course, Africa is a different place. Some stalks require a mile or more to be covered on your belly while you may be able to pull that off in an upright stalk depending on your surroundings. Same old story though. Dress for success.

If I were you, I'd go out and stalk weekends while you're building the suit, and maybe they'll help you to evolve the suit as you go along. I'd also make the stringy bits WAY longer. They're a lot easier to shorten than lengthen, but the same amount of work putting them in.

Enjoy.

t
It's the year of the Pig.

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rhino    0

rhino
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I'd also make the stringy bits WAY longer.




They are already between 8-10 inches in length? I'm basically building it now I was told to.. More padding? The entire front side is padded? Thin, very durable isomat "non-noisy" material slashed vertically and horizontally on both sides to increase its range of motion.. It is extremely flexible, quiet and insulating.. When the top gets done I have the while front padded and the elbows..

One of the guys recommended a flight suit.. I didn't have the cash for one.. Plus I want to be able to shed the thing if I need to in a hurry... You make a good point though... I will essentially be building in a tuck tab to keep the blouse from creeping back up..

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Tonto    1

Tonto
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They are already between 8-10 inches in length?



I found I needed them long enough so that if I was sitting on my foot, one knee up, or in any other raised head config they were long enough to bridge the shoulder to knee gap or else you look like what someone said earlier. You look like Bigfoot. Humanoid. You need to look lumplike. No sticky out bits like elbows, knees, and god forbid - head shoulders outline, so long stuff works well for this. There is a lot of long grass in Africa. It's basicaly covered in it. Short stuff stands out. If your stalk is more brush like, then the long stuff will get in the way and there is plenty of other stuff to use to break the outline.

It's pretty easy to build a suit that works well only lying down, but to build one that works kneeling, crouched etc is a lot harder. You should also be thinking about your strengths. Are you super patient? If so, a belly only suit will probably do the trick for you. If you have the strength and the flexibility to keep larger body movements very smooth when slow, then a suit with more upright aplication may be better and will score you more time when on the move.
Also, I'm seeing everything the same colour - but it's early days, and I have no idea of the bit of dirt you have in mind while building the suit.

I'm probably way out of date on the materials you're using in the front.
There are so many fabrics out now that didn't exist 20 years ago. Bottom line is that everything prooves itself (or not) in the field. If it works for you, inside your head, and in function, it's good enough. If you have doubts, if you beleive you're not invisible - your performance will surely suffer as a result.

If I were you, I'd still be listening harder to those teaching you than anyone else. We're a motly collection of dreamers, movie buffs, has beens etc. You're training to be the real thing.

t
It's the year of the Pig.

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LouDiamond    1

LouDiamond
Just a few points that haven't been covered. Your already 16 hrs into it but if you have to do it again I recommend the following:

1.Use a desert set of BDUs. You can always go darker but it's next to impossible to get lighter. Dark masses stand out more than light ones and are easier to spot when scanning, even by untrained observers.

2. Your building the wookie suit which will eventually weigh 20 lbs,be incredibly hot and take up precious space in your ruck. believe it or not, you do far better with less jute/burlap then many think. Use the jute to break up your outline and rely on natural camo for the the back and other areas. It looks far more realistic and doesn't snag like a wookie suit will on all the branches and prickly things in nature.

3. Use the gut from 550 to do your sewing and a big curved embroidery needle that you can get at Walmart or a craft store. liquid nails is also tan and fantastic for tacking netting down. Your netting looks rather small, a normal camo net works best as the squares are big and allow you to insert foliage under it eaisly. you can also attach rubber bands to the netting and you don't end up looking like a hook latch rug when your done.

4. Build a smock. the night desert parkas are perfect. they have a hood and they can be secured around your legs. You essentially have a 3/4 suit in a light weight jacket that will fit in a butt pack. it works great in urban/built up areas and can also be used on hotter days when you don't have to stalk great distances or plan to be stationary. Get it slightly big as they are great for slipping on over your web gear, allowing you to keep all your kit with you and not stashed in an ORP or LCC some where.

5. Don't sew or glue the fly up on your BDU pants bottoms or the top. I have seen more guys sew the jacket up and cover it with one piece of canvas and have to slip their tops on like a straight jacket. Others sewed the flys shut and ended up with piss all over themselves at the end of the stalk.


6. If you use a boonie hat or a hood, build yourself enough of "bangs" to cover or drape over your scope while observing. Hiding the scope from a trained observer is the hardest part as there are little to no round black circles in nature. Same goes for boots. Use a tan desert pair as even the soles are tan and blend more readily than black. Black is not a common color or is in very small quantities in nature.


7. Less is always more, forget all the shit you see in the movies and definately anything written in john plaster's books, it's crap. The gee-whiz gizmos in the catalogs are a waste of money.

8. no matter how much time you spend on a suit or spend on gear. if you choose poor firing positions or don't do adequate route planning before your stalk, you'll get picked up and have a walker on your ass in no time.
"It's just skydiving..additional drama is not required"
Some people dream about flying, I live my dream
SKYMONKEY PUBLISHING

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Buried    0

Buried
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have y'all killed many people, particularly while wearing these suits?



Bad form man.. No military person with trigger time will brag or talk about this...

Next subject.....



Good response.



NEXT!

Where is my fizzy-lifting drink?

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