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Picture this … a starlit sky, the crackle of a fi re andme, wining and dining my wife Kath at a pictur-esque little shack in the middle of nowhere. I was

feeling pretty smug about it all … so smug indeed that anoutsider looking in could have confused me with ‘Pepé Le Pew’ from the Warner Brothers’ cartoons.

I had managed to secure a weekend away with mywife to recon a small property we knew. We were plan-ning a little fi shing, hunting and perhaps a bit of targetpractice for Kath, but mostly just lazing around and getting to know the country, trails, sign, vegetation and water points.

So imagine my surprise at 9.00pm on hearing the sound of an approaching vehicle to our campsite. Wewere 5km from the nearest road and permanent habita-tion. There was only one way in and we’d been assured that we would have this small riverside property all to ourselves. We had also been warned of the possibility of poaching roo shooters. The hair rose on the back of my neck and instincts took over: Battle stations!

A few tense moments later I came out of the shadowswhen I recognised that the guys in the car were asso-ciates of the landowner. He had unknowingly double-booked the property. Oh well … l’amour no more! r

Instead, we settled down to a few drinks and swap-ping of stories. I found out pretty soon that one of the guys had just got himself a bow—bells, whistles andthe whole shebang. (And, talking of bang, his mate had brought along a brand spanking new big bore rifl e. Twonovices and mixed weaponry—that put an end to my hunting weekend.)

We woke in the morning to do a quick walk up theriver to see what we could see. The look on Kath’s face told me every thing. One of these chaps had just unfurled his ‘ghillie’ suit from his carry bag. P-E-W! The smell wasoverpowering. A combination of stale sweat and camp-fi re smoke emanated from his synthetic fi bre Gucci suit.He may have thought he was the duck’s guts … andwell, I can tell you, he sure smelt like it. And I had justbeen trumped: I may have been the ‘Pepé’, but he wassure as hell the ‘Pew’! I had always been told that these

Gucci suits were treated with a chemical to neutralise the

smell and to wick away sweat. If so, I can assure you, it

wasn’t working! This brings me to the issue of equipment

maintenance. Over the years I have heard more and more

about ‘tune this’ and ‘form that’. However, I’ve heard less

and less about the art of bushcraft. It would seem that our

sport has become more attuned with its fi eld component.

By contrast, I am an advocate of putting the ‘B’ back into

ABA.

So why is it that this bloke had not aired out his suit? We

can recognise thousands of different smells. Our smell-

ing function is carried out by two small odour-detecting

patches, made up of about fi ve to six million cells, high up

in the nasal passages. However this number is dwarfed

by the game we hunt. For example, a rabbit has 100 mil-

lion of these olfactory receptors, and a fox has 200 million.

Is it common practice nowadays for people to just pull

Pepé Le PewScott Heiman

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putting a little of yourself into it I am sure you will look afterit a little better.

The need for camoufl age and concealment can, insome circumstances, interfere with the other needs of a bowhunter—such as the need to move freely and toeffectively use their bow, particularly compounds. Sohunting and camoufl age is, like any relationship, steepedin compromise.

The balance of such a compromise can only be judged from experience, the climate you hunt in, the animal you hunt and your knowledge of all of the otherfi elds of bushcraft. In general terms, shiny bits can beconcealed by covering or dulling those parts. Shapescan be distorted by loose fi tting clothing and appropriate colours for the animal being hunted.

Sometimes in the pursuit of a trophy, a hunter (whilst utilising a tree stand, hide or sitting on a damor game trail) will elect to use either a yowie suit or a ghillie suit. However, the design of the suit needs to besuitable for the task of hunting or it may hinder, rather

their gear out of their hunting kit bag and expect it to begood to go? Do people not wash these pieces of kit that they fork out good money to purchase? If they do, is itwith an ultraviolet brightening powder? (See the article Why are things seen, March edition.) And, besides, whydon’t people make their own?

An immense amount of pride can be taken in mak-ing your own ghillie/yowie suit. Yes, it can be a little timeconsuming but at least you know what you’re getting. Youcan make it to suit the terrain you most frequent, and by

Off the shelf. Ghillie suit.

Yowie suit.

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The main aim is to get rid of the ‘A frame’.

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Kath’s suit in progress.

advice on making her own ghillie suit—she is Scottish,

after all. So I discussed with her the pros and cons such

as how too much material in the front panels gets caught

in the bowstrings. I also told her about the basic elements

of the science of vision and how it applies to animals.

And voila! She has applied these principles to develop

her own version.

How to make a traditional ghillie/yowie suitObtain the following:

• Loose fi tting trousers and shirt (or overalls,

camo uniform, work pants)

• A baseball cap (unless your shirt has a built

in hood)

• 2 balls of twine

• Roll of hoochie cord

• Scrim or netting (cam net, tennis net, or mili-

tary cotton netting)

than assist, the hunter’s performance.The term ghillie is reputed to have come from Scot-

land and was applied to the gamekeepers of the aris-tocracy. The term yowie is, I hope, clear to all readers.Whilst the fi rst reputed use of a Scottish ghillie suit bythe military was during the Boer War in South Africa, theprinciple has been used for thousands of years by indig-enous populations across the planet.

Within the Australian context, the suits differ in thatthe yowie suit is made from scratch out of hessian andscrim to meet individual requirements, whilst the ghil-lie suit is made from embellishing existing clothing with hessian and scrim sewn onto it, once again to suit indi-vidual requirements.

Back in 2000, I had returned from military duty atthe Olympic Games to fi nd that my Assault Pioneer Pla-toon had been disbanded, and that I was now dutifullyappointed to both Recruiting Offi cer and Commander of the yet to be raised Recon and Surveillance Platoon. So to get in touch with my new role I kitted myself out with:

1. a home-made yowie suit,2. a home-made ghillie suit, and3. an off-the-shelf individual Cam-net ponchoMore recently, imagine my delight when Kath (loving

wife and ‘she who must be obeyed’) asked me to give her

Kath’s raw materials.

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Go to your previously reconnoitred pad, track or waterhole, choose a spot in the shade with shrubs/treesor a feature behind you and some form of concealment infront of you (log, shrub et cetera) and sit still for as long as it takes.

• A 25kg sized hessian bag• Quantity of hessian sheet or more bags (try

to get different gauges) • Fabric dye (a base colour to suit your

environment)• Any old torn cam clothing and netting you

have lying aroundSteps:

1. Cut your quantity of hessian sheet into stripsabout 3cm wide

2. Cut one ball of twine and the hoochie cord intolengths about 30cm long

3. Dye half of the twine and hessian strips in yourbase colour

4. Sew the scrim or netting onto the trousers andshirt to form a lattice on the outside with the other ball of twine as stitching

5. Cut up one side of the hessian bag 6. Sew the apex cut of the hessian bag to the

baseball cap as an outer hood to form a crossbetween a monk’s ‘habit’ and a Legionnaire’scap

7. Cut the old torn cam clothing and netting (oreven natural-coloured work clothes of a naturalfi bre) into strips of varying sizes

8. Randomly tie/sew onto the lattice netting (on thetrousers, shirt and hood) the:• Dyed and non-dyed v strips• Dyed and non-dyed lengths of twine• Lengths of hoochie• Strips of old cam clothing

To make a yowie suit, simply ignore the initial looseclothing and fashion an inner skin by using scrim or net-ting to make a ‘trench coat’ and repeat steps 1 to 8 above.These are best for summer and tropical climes.

But do you need a garment straight out of the movie‘Sniper’? No. Obviously, the principles outlined above forthe development of a traditional ghillie/yowie suit should be adapted to your specifi c hunting needs. Basically, you simply need something that will break up your outline and blend you into your surroundings through the eyes of your prey. So think about the principles of ‘why thingsare seen’ and use your imagination.

Once you’ve developed the garment, you then need to ‘season’ it. Wash it in the tub to fray the material. Dragit through the dirt, et cetera. Some people then treat it with fi re retardant and game attractants.

When you take your suit to the fi eld, add foliage from the area you wish to stalk/ambush and add this to it.Replace this every couple of hours as it droops (dead foli-age gives off a different UV signature).

Kath’s new suit.Kath’s new suit.