John Bezzant disappears into a ready made Ghillie suit from Jack Pyke.
If your kind of shooting involves ambushing your quarry, whether that be pigeon rabbits or even deer, I have discovered the perfect camouflage system and it comes in the form of the Jack Pyke Ghillie suit. Way back in the times of Queen Victoria highland estates were losing a large amount of deer to the activity of poachers and the ghillies (gamekeepers) were having a tremendously difficult time catching them, until they came up with the idea of the Ghillie suit which enabled them to become invisible and allowed them to take the poachers by surprise. The Ghillie suit of today is made from a light mesh covered in a mass of small pieces of different coloured cloth that have been cut into very thin long strips. This produces an incredibly lightweight garment that totally breaks up the human outline. Even when laying down on open ground the Ghillie suit enables you to merge with the surroundings. I was going to provide some pictures with me in areas of moderate cover but there was no point as the Ghillie suit merges so well that I couldn’t be seen. A suit like this really does have the ability to make you disappear to the point where you become virtually invisible to the quarry.
Naturalists have used suits like these to observe deer and have had the deer come to within feet of their hiding position. The suit I tested has a three quarter length jacket, knee length gaiters and a hood. I personally found the gaiters unnecessary and just used the jacket and hood. Even in the coastal environment where I live, which lacks much in the way of cover other than a bit of gorse and a few trees scattered here and there, the suit was incredibly effective allowing me to get within easy air rifle range of rabbits and pigeons. When wearing a Ghillie suit it’s as if the quarry see you as a part of the landscape or a giant bush, and providing you don’t move, they just ignore you. Despite looking rather cumbersome the Jack Pyke Ghillie suit is easy to move in; not only is it very roomy (you can in fact wear thick winter clothing underneath it and still have plenty of room for movement) it is also lightweight. I know that a lot of shooters use hides, which involves lugging the hide to wherever you want to be, but with the Ghillie suit you have a mobile hide that will go anywhere.
I know the Ghillie suit may look odd but that’s a small price to pay for having the ability to disappear into the undergrowth whenever you choose. This is an incredible piece of kit and I am very impressed. The price is good too and it’s available in two sizes M/L 38-44in or XL/XXL 46-52in.
This article appeared in the April 2008 issue of Gun Mart, and is reproduced here with permission.
You can buy the Jack Pyke Ghillie Suit directly from this site.
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