a side to side features comparison between Crye Precision Assault Ghillie and the ProApto version of this concept
This is article is a side to side comparison between Crye Precision Assault Ghillie and our ProApto version of this concept. The scope of this brief article is to inform our customers of the features we can provide proposing our revised concept. At ProApto we admire Crye Precision and their products, and our intention is not to diminish their work or damage their brand in any way. Throughout this article we only provide our point of view together with objective data on the two products.
Rationale behind the ProApto Pattern n.18 BELLICUS
During the last few years, every so often, we have been contacted by Crye's customers and asked about any possibility to reproduce the Crye Assault Ghillie. In the beginning we had not considered this as a viable option, but with the increasing demand we eventually decided to work on our own version of Crye's lightweight ghillie concept.
The ProApto Pattern n.18 BELLICUS was therefore developed on the basis of our ProApto waterproof Ghillie bases by using 3D lightweight netting as 3D camouflage. However, we avoided sewing such netting on our base, deciding to handcraft it as conventional 3D material to maximise 3D camouflage, while greatly disrupting and scattering the human silhouette.
SIDE TO SIDE COMPARISON
In the image above are summarised the main features of the two products. At first glance, the main differences are weight and packability. Crye Ghillie packs in a extremely small package (250ml glass - which is less than an half of ProApto), and it is insanely lightweight (150gr - which is 37% of ProApto's weight).
These are great features which allow to bring the ghillie in any situation and condition. However, such great aspects inevitably bring relevant side effects. Indeed, in comparison with the ProApto Stalking-Hood + extension made in Pattern n.18 BELLICUS, the Crye Ghillie ends up lacking on several fronts. One of the main ones is certainly the durability: the Crye Ghillie, due to its very low weight, appears fragile and susceptible to rips when compared to the ProApto base. Indeed the ProApto base, not being made of fabric, can withstand up to 50kg of traction in each mesh. This results in a overall capability of 250kg of traction for the whole Ghillie structure, which markedly minimises the likelihood of tears and rips.
In addition, due to both the different design and the material used, the Crye Ghillie is not designed for the application of vegetation, while the ProApto one is. This aspect highlights the different conditional uses that the 2 products can face. In the same vein, the shape disruption provided by the 2 ghillies is quite different. The Crye ghillie, having less 3D material and being more adherent to the body, results in lower silhouette disruption than the ProApto Stalking-Hood in BELLICUS pattern. We believe this factor deserves consideration, particularly for military use.
Another contrasting aspect is water and smell retention. The ProApto Stalking-Hood + ext. in Pattern BELLICUS is fully breathable and waterproof while the Crye Assault Ghillie is not. Indeed, the use of fabric by Crye opens to water and smell retention when compared to the ProApto Ghillie, which is not affect by water. This aspect deserves consideration primarily for hunting uses rather than military uses, because the extremely low weight of the Crye Ghillie even if soaked with water would be negligible and irrelevant.
It should be noted that both Ghillies offer modular design. In fact, both ProApto and Crye have removable back covers that can be used to cover backpacks or sniper hides. Nonetheless, Crye extension is doubled and can offer back and frontal cover simultaneously, while ProApto has a face cover and a singular back extensions that result in slightly less overall coverage.
Finally and unexpectedly, regarding near infra-red reflectance, the Crye ghillie results deficient in this domain. As a matter of fact, in comparison with the ProApto BELLICUS pattern, the Crye Ghillie has a high NIR reflectance, too bright to match natural environments. In the pictures above you can appreciate the difference between the low-proper NIR reflectance of ProApto (on the left) and the high NIR reflectance of the Crye (on the right). The images were taken with photonis echo tube: the left image is without IR illumination, while the right one was take with active IR illumination.
In conclusion, we appreciated the outstanding packpability and weight ration of the Crye Ghillie, but we believe that our ProApto Pattern n.18 BELLICUS offers enhanced features, such as durability, the ability to incorporate vegetation, waterproofness, and a low near-infrared reflectance compared to the Crye Precision Assault Ghillie. However, we have to acknowledge that Crye excels in weight and packability, despite falling in all the other key domains. Customers seeking a ghillie suit should properly consider their intended uses when choosing between ProApto and Crye.
