When To Move And How To Move Pt. 1

No doubt most of you have seen ghilley suits. You put one of those things on, stand in some bushes, stop moving and you suddenly become part of the landscape. No doubt you've also see the prices they charge for those things. Quite a pretty penny to say the least. What would you say if I told you that you can make one for very little money and depending on what you have on hand or can dig up somewhere, you might even be able to make it for nothing? They aren't that hard to make, but it is a bit time consuming. You start with loose clothing that you already have. Now get a large needle, say one big enough to do embroidery. Then you need something like embroidery thread, 50 lb. lacing cord or something like that. get ready to spend some time. Start about six inches below the waist on the pants. You will begin by sewing six to eight inch long horizontal loops going around the pants. I mean all the way around, front, sides and back. You go from below the waist to about eight inches above the ankle. Around the lower body and then down each leg. Do the same with the shirt, from shoulder to the hem and down both sleeves. When you are done with that it should look kind of like a striped prisoners clothes. Now what I used to make mind was burlap. Any burlap will do, but I used a couple of hunting blinds I picked up on sale at Walmart after the end of hunting season. Now again, be ready to spend some time. Unravel the burlap strand by strand. Cut the unraveled strands into lengths of about eighteen inches. Since the burlap is already brown you will only need to die about one third to one half of it green. I used Rit die I bought at the grocery store. Pour the die into a metal container and bring it to a simmer. Place the material you want to die into the water. and stir occasionally. Twenty minutes to a half an hour should be more than enough. Remove the burlap and let it dry. Now you simply take small bunches of the two colors of burlap, (Eight to ten strands per bunch.) fold it in half. Push the folded part under the loop sewed onto the clothing and pull the loose ends up through the fold and pull it tight. As I have said before, do this RANDOMLY. Do not make any king of set pattern that might be noticed. Continue this from shoulder to ankle. Any strands that might be too long and get under your feet while walking just trim off with a pair of scissors. For my head covering I used one of those mosquito screen head covers and did the same, leaving just enough room for my view slit, and I wear a floppy hat under it to hold it out away from my head. In all honesty, while wearing my home made ghilley suit I have had other hunters walk up to within ten feet of me while I was standing in front of a bush without any attempt to hide, and they didn't know I was there until I coughed at them. Even then it took a minute or two before they spotted me, if I didn't just wave at them first. It's been a few years but I seem to recall my total investment was less than $30. Quite different from the more expensive store bought kind of suit. And there is no store receipt, credit card charge or video footage of me buying it.

Escape and Evasion

I can't tell you how to escape from people who want to take you someplace you don't want to go. That will all depend on the situation you are in at the time. I can tell you that the longer it takes for you to get away from them the smaller your chances become. Your best chance to slip away is as soon as possible after capture. The closer you get to the place they want to take you, the more obstacles you will have to overcome to break free of their control. However once you have gotten loose the first thing is to get out of sight. Most searches follow the same pattern. They start at the point of excitement and spread outward in a ring like fashion. Sort of like ripples in a pond when you drop a pebble into it. If you are running in front of that ring, well as they say, a moving target attracts the eye. And there will be those who will happily inform on you so that those unfriendly people won't bother them. The best trick I have found is to hide and allow the ring to pass you by, once they are a good distance ahead of you come out of hiding and follow them. They are looking it the direction you were last seen going. They are not looking behind themselves. Follow them until the ring has gone as far as it is going to go. How far depends on how badly they want you. Then hide again as the ring turns around and starts back to the place where all the excitement started. On the way back they will not be as alert, figuring that you are long gone and you got away in an area that someone else was searching. Allow them to pass and wait for a while to be sure they are gone before you come out of hiding and go your own way. If at all possible, while waiting for them to pass you by on the way out, change clothes. If they are looking for someone in a red shirt, find one that is any other color. If your pants are anything other than the most common type (jeans as an example of the common type) try to change those as well. Do your best to not look like the person they are looking for. If they are looking for someone wearing a baseball cap, lose it. If they are looking for a bare headed person, get a hat. And again, blend in. Look like everyone else around you. Get lost in the crowd. Have them looking for a particular needle in a stack of needles.

When I was growing up and we went camping we played a game called 'Sneak Attack'. The idea is simple, it is played at night and will go a long way towards sharpening your skills. Depending on the size of the camp one or two people stay in camp with flashlights. The limit of their movement is the ring of light put out by the fire. Everyone else goes off into the dark with a piece of paper with their name on it. The object of the game is to sneak into camp without being seen and place your paper in plain sight of the fire. Then sneak back out again and walk boldly down the road into camp, minus your paper. The people guarding the camp watch for the people sneaking in. If they spot someone, or think they do they shine the light on them and call out that persons name. If they are correct, the 'attacker' is caught and must give up. Next time it is their turn to guard the camp until they catch an attacker. If they are wrong, they must turn off the light, count loudly to ten and start over. Sweeping the area with the light searching for attackers is not allowed. This game teaches you two things. How to move quietly in the dark and how to spot things moving in the dark. Both valuable skills.

When it comes to seeing in the dark, most people don't realize just how much they can actually see in the dark. The reason is because they are looking for things they see in the daylight. A light blue shirt becomes almost black. A red one becomes grey, and so on. Understand that you perception has changed. Don't look for colors, watch and listen for movement. If you have just left a well lighted area, give your eyes time to adjust to the different lighting and DON'T look at bright lights, like the campfire you just left behind. If you do that you have to start all over again allowing your eyes time to adjust. It has been said that all cats are grey in the dark. That's not true. There is an unlimited variety of shades.

Aug 4, 2019