Ghillie Blind Cover

There may be no such thing as the perfect camo, or the perfect cam net, but that doesn’t stop us looking! My latest find is the Ghillie Blind Cover from Tacfire Systems. It costs £36 and comes in two colour schemes: leafy green and woodland. In each case what you get is a rectangular net in brown nylon 1” x 1” mesh, covered with clusters of hand-tied nylon threads to create the classic shaggy-dog ghillie effect. Though the netting is only 30” wide, the threads hang down a further 6” or so, effectively increasing the width to 36”. Lengthwise, though, it’s much more generous, stretching a full 9 feet.

The all-synthetic construction of the covers means they repel water, so they don’t get sodden in the rain and won’t rot. It also makes the covers lightweight, at just 1.75 lbs each. The fibres have also been treated to be fire-retardant and the colours used are free of UV brighteners, so that they blend in naturally, even to birds whose vision is sensitive to the UV spectrum.

I bought one in each colour and began by using them as supplementary hide netting, stretching/suspending them over a regular pole-and-net hide, with the leafy one at the bottom to blend with the grass and the woodland one on top to blend with the hedge. They’re surprisingly snag and tangle free, which means they’re easy to set up and take down and can be simply bundled up and stuffed into a bag with the rest of your gear at the end of the day.

I’ve also used the ghillie blind covers successfully to camouflage chair and ground hides, whose camouflage base often does a poor job of eliminating shine or concealing their shape on its own.

Ready to Wear - Almost

You don’t need a hide to use a ghillie blind cover either, since it’s a perfect size to drape over your head and shoulders when stalking along field edges or lying in wait opposite a warren. The only issue when wearing the blind covers is that the threads will stick to any exposed Velcro – though this also means you could add some Velcro strips to your gear to hold the cover in place (though I use a handy S-Biner connector from Nite-Ize).

You can also turn the blind cover’s propensity to stick to things to good use by dragging it briefly along the ground before use, since it will pick up bits of loose vegetation, giving it an even more natural look.

Rifle shooters may also be interested to know that Tacfire Systems also offer matching 5” x 6’ rifle wraps (£21.95).