Budget Ghillie Suit

Talking about camo, I am sure everyone is familiar with ghillie suits. Those hot and bulky, full body sniper suits that make you look like a bush? They cost between $40-150 (depending on quality and construction) and take up a ton of space. I’ve made a smaller lightweight version that packs down to about a 1-liter volume, and thought I’d share the idea. I call it a “sniper smock”.

My reasoning for this "smock" is that if I am in a situation where I need to use this item, chances are that I will be behind cover, and I won't really need my legs to be camouflaged, only my upper torso and head.

Step 1
Purchase a sniper veil, the one with large square weave. I like the ones from VooDoo Tactical because you can get them in Woodland or Multi Cam instead of just a solid color. This will serve as the base. These are 48”x36” and cost $10-14.
Amazon: Sniper Veil

Step 2
Purchase a bundle of ghillie thread, woodland blend or whatever colors match the environment you are going to be in. You’ll use this to tie strands to the sniper veil to obscure your outline. This is about $10.
Amazon: Ghillie Threads

Step 3
Create the hood. Find the center of the 48” length, fold in half. Measure 12”-15” (depends on head size) from the fold and using the ghillie thread, tie the edges together. This makes the face opening for your hood. Make sure this knot is strong, as it takes teh most abuse during wearing this smock.

Step 4

Create the sleeves. Spread the veil out again, with the hood at the top, and take the edge that was tied for the hood and fold it down 6"-8" (depends on hand size). Tie the corner of the veil to the edge using the ghillie thread.  This knot should be strong as well as you'll be sticking your hands in and out of this opening.

Step 5
Add Camo. Here's where your patience comes into play.  Start grabbing 2-3 ghillie threads at a time, ensuring they are all different colors (dark, medium, light hues). Fold them in half to create a loop, and pass that multi-strand loop though the square openings of the ghillie veil and tie a knot. I found that a simple Lark's Head knot was the fastest and secure enough for my purposes. You can use any knot you like.

Step 6
Fill-in the Sniper Smock. Repeat Step 5 many, many times.  As you continue to add the ghillie threads, try to remember we are making a lightweight item here. You do not have to tie the threads to fill every available space. I found that spreading them out about 1.5"-2" both horizontally and vertically is sufficient. You should make the threads denser around the sides of the hood and shoulders. To do this, decrease the spacing to about every inch.

After about 15-20 hours you should have something that looks similar to this. This serves the purpose of breaking up the human silhouette. As you use this the threads will become tangled, let them do so.  As you crawl around the smock will also pick-up natural camo in the form of twigs and leafs. Let them stay to achieve even better camo.

Play around with different base colors of the veil and threads, and you can match pretty much any terrain and season you need to, and you can do it on a simple $20-35 budget!