Summary: Three of the more common brands of grass mats that you'll find today are FastGrass, Real Grass and Quack Grass. These products are extremely versatile and can be used on boat blinds, permanent blinds, laydown blinds, and portable blinds. They are lightweight and durable and can be attached to almost anything, or it can be rolled up and carried to a hunting location where they can be use as a camo mat or material for a make shift blind.
As good as these grass mat are you can make them even better if you customize them to fit the surroundings you'll be hunting. Here's how.
FastGrass, Real Grass and Quack Grass tend to be very dusty right out of their packaging. Remove this dust by either shaking it out like shaking out a doormat or hang it and spray it off with a garden hose and let to dry.
Natural Method: Thoroughly soak the grass mats with water and loosely roll the mats up. Now place the rolls in a cool area out of the sun such as the north side of a building, or right on your garage floor. For 1 to 2 weeks keep the grass mats very damp. This natural aging process will result in a much more darker realistic look.
Dye Method: The second method that we recommend is to dye your grass mats in with Rid™ dye. Rid dye comes in many different colors and can be found in almost any grocery store, hobby store, fabric store or Wal-Mart across the U.S. and Canada. The process is extremely simple and the directions are spelled out very clearly on the bottle, box or packet. This method may be preferable to those of you who cannot afford to wait for the weathering process to take place or if you want or need a permanently darker color.
Spray Paint Method: The third option we recommend to make grass mats look more realistic is done through the use of spray paint. This method can also be used in addition to the natural method described above. Although some brands of grass mats are more accepting of paint then others your grass mats can be painted. Not only can they be painted, in most instances they should be painted. The four most common colors of spray paint that we recommend are: flat black, flat brown, flat primer red and flat olive drab. Based upon the color of the cover you'll be hunting in, use your paint to help you blend in more closely.
We recommend starting with the darkest color first and then adding the lighter colors. Spray your grass mats with up and down strokes that mirror the lay of the grass. Also keep your spray can far enough away so you leave light coats rather than heavy streaks. Customizing your FastGrass, Real Grass or Quack Grass in this manner will allow you to more closely match the natural surroundings you'll be hunting in.
From our experience using the different brands of grass mats above we still recommend the original FastGrass. It's easier to naturally color and holds paint the best.