Mark Fike
Farmers have a tough lot when it comes to making a living. They have to deal with rain, drought, seed prices, market prices for crops and fight to avoid disease. Simply put, the costs of farming often outweigh the profit unless the farmer is savvy and efficient. In this vein of thought, the equipment farmers have had available to them in the recent years has been very efficient at not only harvesting crops but also grinding up the stubble and stems that remained of the parts of the plants that hunters used to brush or camo their blinds when hunting in fields after the harvest.
We noticed this when we went to gather material to brush our blinds for the goose season the past few years. The farmer that worked the fields we hunted was using a much newer piece of equipment and method to harvest and prepare the field for the coming spring. Unlike years past, there was no bean stubble or corn husks laying in the field. That left us scrambling to figure out how in the world we were going to camo our layout blinds. Powder and random small pieces of plant material were all that was left plus some nice green cover crop of some sort that looked like a grass but was only a few inches in length.
The procedure we used to follow each fall included finding material such as stems or empty corn stalks and husks from the field we were going to hunt and inserting them into elastic straps on the blind to make it blend into the field and become part of it. This was a time consuming process and often worked well but with some drawbacks.
First, if we hunted a corn field but later wanted to go hunt a bean field, we had to strip out the corn stubble and change it to bean stubble and possibly change it back. Second, the material was heavy, especially if it got wet. Third, it regularly fell out and needed dressing up. Last, it could get moldy and for those with allergies, that can be a big problem to lay in a pile of moldy material and not have an allergy or asthmatic event.
So, in my search for a solution, I found a company called Arcturus online https://arcturusgear.com/. They specialize in camo and particularly Ghillie suits. However, they make accessories to include the threads that people can make Ghillie suits with. These synthetic thread bundles come in 9 colors. The thread is lightweight, fire retardant, waterproof so it should not rot or mold. The colors are bundled in half pound packages and are 18 inches long.
We found the dry grass color which includes some olive drab in it, matches very well with local farm fields and looks to be a great fit for field goose hunts. No more allergies and the whole blind weighs half what it did before! It does not smell and can be washed although I doubt I will wash mine beyond a spray down if the blind gets too muddy.
When we got the thread bundles, we found that two knots were effective at making our blind disappear. For the sides an overhand knot which allows the thread to hang down and overlap the row of elastic strips below it worked well.
On the tops or for areas that lay flat, a simple granny knot or basic knot worked well because it left threads hanging in two directions to cover our blind.
To use the thread, we pulled 10-15 threads in a tiny bundle and tied them as a group. To do one layout blind we took a few hours and 8 bundles of thread. But we could have went much faster.
A benefit to the Arcturus thread is that we should not have to redo our blind for years unlike the corn or soybean husks which needed done pretty much each year. No more scrambling to fix our blinds each fall!
So far the product Arcturus makes appears to be top notch. I like how it is lightweight, blends well and has a 3 D appearance. You can find them online to purchase some of their thread or other products for your blinds or hunting apparel. Keep in mind that you can add other material to your blind to really blend it in addition to the Arcturus thread. I think for archery season their products will be a big plus to have too!
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