How effective is a suit like that (specifically like the one in the image)? The fact that it appears to be all brown seems like it'd be poor cover in a field or forest. Wouldn't you want something that has a mix of different colors in it? I mean, it looks like a rotting hay bale, which works if you're surrounded by lots of rotting foliage, but what if you're not?

[–] IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Depends entirely where the sniper intends to use it.

If you’re interested, look up Carlos Hathcock, a USMC sniper during the Vietnam war, and considered one of the best snipers for a very long time. I don’t recall the details offhand but one of his confirmed kills was a high ranking military officer. He spent something like 3 days in a gillie suit crawling something like 1000 yards across a field, took out his target, and successfully evaded troops searching for him that walked within feet of his location.

[–] FrostyTheDoo@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Keep in mind he's thousands of feet in the distance. Up close yeah it's fairly obvious he's not a real plant, but as a speck on the horizon you're fukt

[–] SomeAmateur@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

From my understanding it's easier to use brown as a base color and add natural foliage to green it up than it is to have a green base color and add dirt to tan it up.

Brown is a lot more common close to the ground than you might think even in summer but it's especially useful when you consider using the suit in fall and early spring.

Ghillie suits are meant to make you vaguely look like a grassy blob. Humans are really good at picking out the shape of a human head/shoulder area so the suit makes that disappear.

[–] PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago

An old favorite helps to answer this question:

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2014/feb/19/sniper-camouflage-simon-menner