I sent out my check in the mail the very next day and found the custom made suit on my doorstep 10 days later. The only complaint I had to this point was that Mr. Muirhead mentioned he would shoot me an email to let me know the tracking number as soon as he shipped the suit, but he failed to do so. Not a problem for me, though, since I was in no hurry whatsoever to get it and it is something easily forgotten.

    The suit is quite well made. The full suit consists of US Woodland Cammo BDU pants and shirt with netting (like a volleyball net is made of) machine sewed down at intervals. The jute twine is nicely knotted throughout the netting and there is a hood of just the twine and netting for draping over your head that will easily accommodate a hat or helmet as well as covering the face when needed. Some of the twine occasionally comes unknotted and you could put Shoe Goo or some other cement at the knots, if you wanted, but not a lot falls away that the added weight of the glue may not be worth the effort.

    You could easily augment the suit with local flora and fauna to help you blend better in the environment you are in at the time. All of the pockets are accessible (though they can be closed off if you prefer) but take a bit to get into from under all that twine. The wrap is a longer strand, about 1 foot wide, of the netting with twine. Plenty of holes for tying in or strapping down the netting in whatever way you need to help camouflage your rifle.

    One thing that you will probably want to do when you receive one of these suits is to get some water proofing treatment. The twine is not water resistant and the suit is a bit bulky on its own. If you end up in a puddle somewhere you'll be carrying around a lot more weight than you might have expected when the twine soaks up that water. So I would recommend considering some water proofing. However the water proofing treatment will add some weight as well, so it is certainly a trade off. I have learned that Mr. Muirhead is looking into a fire-retardant/water-proofing/fixer-agent to add to his dye baths and this may prove to be the best overall solution if it becomes available.

    The suit itself had no ventilation holes. Here in the southern United States things can get pretty hot in the summer, and at times even in the winter. It means we can get out to camp any time of year, but with something like a ghillie suit on you just might die of heat exhaustion before you walk 10 feet!

    It is an easily rectifiable situation, though. There are large panels where the netting is not sewn down onto the shirt, nor does it need to be. Simply cut away the shirt material higher on the back, being careful not to cut the netting and jute twine, and hand sewed a sheet of mosquito netting to replace it. You can do this in several places to help let some of the heat out and give you a bit of breathing room. You may also consider cutting out the armpits of the shirt as well if you will be in any kind of heat. Of course the current offerings seem to be mainly just the variety of Ghillie Ponchos which consists of just the netting and twine and no backing material and should provide a significantly cooler outfit, but you will lose out on the closer fit and mobility of a full suit. (Although I believe the full poncho has actual sleeves.)

    Finally this is a FULL suit, which means the twine is all over the suit. Many snipers will spend a great deal of time crouched, crawling or prone. Most of the time you may not really need the added weight and concealment provided on the front side of the suit. Without such cover on your front you could also put padding on your knees and elbows for better padding and protection when crawling, which the suit in its current form does provide to some extent, but could easily be modified for more if you wanted that configuration. In fact you could see if a "partial" suit like this could made from GhillieSuits.com by special order if you wanted. They now have several Ghillie Ponchos available which appear to leave the front of the legs free for this purpose.

    Overall I would definitely recommend Ghillie Suits.Com as a courteous and responsive company that puts out a product that is certainly worth it if you are in the market for the best in sniper and camouflage gear at a fairly reasonable price. You may want to do some modifications to your suit when you get it, but you might be pleasantly surprised by what you get for your money. And if you want to give it a go on making your own ghillie suit, check out the site for some decent directions on how to do it. You can even order supplies, such as pre-died jute twine, from there as well. In all a very worthwhile place to visit!

Happy Hiding!