Winter coat/jacket


Apache

Apache

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(Wow, I haven't posted here in a while! Things have been busy, lately. Good to be back, though)

What is your preferred winter coat or jacket to wear when you are going out into the bush?

I use to have an old deerskin leather jacket, but it finally felt the weight of ages and more or less fell apart. I'm a bit torn as to what to get as a replacement. Pea coat? Down? Gortex?
 
I wear my home made wool hoodie or a barn coat. I got a Carhartt with a hood for when it's really too bad to be out but have to be.
 
if it is colder than -18c, I wear three-four wool sweaters with a canvas parka/anorak to cut the wind, but let my sweat vapour escape.

Warmer then that, two wool layers with a more water resistant coat. Used to wear a snowboarding parka, because it had that skirt to keep snow from coming up your back.
 
my preferred is my awesome wool-blanket Jackpine Vest from Empire Canvas Works - over my 'regular' all wool shirt jac.

it's just not gotten cold enough to wear it yet this year.... so far, it's been just the wool shirt jac.
 
I used to swear by my Swandri but it started dying.
Recently I have been gifted with a new Dutch army wool blanket, and I have another regular army wool blanket that I am going to make up into a shirt.

This will be worn over a cotton shirt usually (mole skin ideally) which sits over single or double layers of merino base layers, Usually a 150 and a 200 weight. If I want more heat as in I am sitting around in the cold and it's windy with no fire and no movement to generate heat and its in the negative degrees.

I will take a buff and wrap this around each wrist over the shirt/skin junction, add a shemagh between the merino and the shirt. This will give me a few more degrees.
Down to about minus ten Celsius and I am usually okay.
 
Picked up a Columbia wool camo coat that seems to be working well. It has a hood and I can layer in it. The Woolrich shirt jacked with extra material on the back and front has worked well for years. Now I have two layers.
 
Currently the ECWCS gortec Jacket and fleece inner jacket . Want to get a wool blanket shirt and anorak someday
 
Layers of wool. It wool gets wet, it still maintains a lot of insulating ability. Might not be important sitting in front of a computer or driving around in a pickup, but it sure is important 5 or 10 miles into the woods with a sprained ankle.

My top layer is a Filson Mackinaw. It is made of very high quality wool from the northwest, it has 4 four pockets in front and a huge cargo pocket covering the back with entry flaps on either side. When it gets warm I can take off a woolen shirt or vest and stuff it in the back pocket.

I don not wear cotton in the winter here in the Rockies because when cotton gets wet, it stays wet and it robs your body heat.
 
A swanndri if I'm just bumming around. For hiking and backcountry travel I'll take synthetics to save weight: mountain hardware compressor jacket or Patagonia micro puff jacket with merino wool long underwear as a base layer.
 
FWIW, you can freeze in wool if you are wet and then exposed to severe freezing winds.

Wool itself is not a complete safeguard against cold and wet. It just helps, compared to wearing all cotton clothing...
PMZ
 
I made an Anorak out of an old german army blanket. It's a heavy kind of clothing, but it keeps very warm even at very low temperatures.


Army Blanket Capote 2.0 von wildhog9910 auf Flickr

The anorak is lined with a coarse linen cloth and the seams are hemmed with buckskin leather, the breast pocket is closed with 18th-century-style pewter buttons.

by the way: the print "Bundeseigentum" is german for "federal issue" or "government issue"... but I don't care... I'm a public servant :20:
 
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wildschwein said:
I made an Anorak ...
Click to expand...


I love the look of this coat! Any chance we could get a tutorial or this or a set of plans?

ETA: In my excitement I forgot to say in the winter around the ranch I usually wear either Carhartt or Levis jackets along with flannel or wool shirts. I use the same thing for camping only because I don't have anything else for now. Hope to get a Filson Double Mac eventually though.
 
Hawkcreek said:
I love the look of this coat! Any chance we could get a tutorial or this or a set of plans?
Click to expand...

uuh... sorry mate... I have some pics from the "making of", I try to load them up. It's difficult for me to write in english but I'll do my very best :20:

But: I don't have descriptions or drawings from the pattern: It's a "Fairbanks Pullover" pattern from "the green pepper" which style I changed a little bit.

Give me a few days :-D
 
Wildschwein, that is an extremely handsome wool anorak. With the pockets and pouches as you've arranged them, it appears to be very utilitarian and warm.

I believe that would stand up to some serious winter wear.

S.M.
 
You guys rang a bell in my dim memory with all this talk of wool coats etc.
Years ago my wife worked at a sort of high end clotheing store and they would discount some of their slow movers to ridiculous levels .
So anyway she bought two of these Italian made " Structure" coats for dimes on the dollar . She said they were about $300 originally .
They are 60 % wool and 35% polyester 5% other .
They have these cool fake antler buttons fastened with what looks like para cord .
They are easily buttoned with gloves on etc . I think thats why I hung on to this one all these years ( about 15 or 20)
Now all I have to do is lose some weight .

IMG_0870.jpg
 
I have a wool jacket frm the GAP that is 70% wool 30% nylon with a 100% polyestor liner. Very warm and even when it has light rained or had wet snow has kept me warm and feeling dry.

Best part I got it for $5 at the goodwill :dblthumb:
 
All I can say is layers and layers. Wool is preferred, but other materials have good use too. I ususally start with the cold weather under armour base layer. This holds as much body heat as wool but can hold to much at times. Then i layer a light layer of wool then a heavier layer. Then an adoronak or wind proof layer of some kind.

Remember: You can always remove what you dont need.
 
The last time I did winter bushcraft activities, this is what I wore on my torso area:

1)Merino wool T-shirt (almost cotton soft!)
2)USGI 5-button sweater
3)USGI M1951 wool button up shirt
4)French Mil-surp v-neck sweater

I recently bought a couple of Swedish Military Surplus Anoraks to go over the above, however all of the sizes are too big!
 
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If it's dry I wear a German military 80/20 cotton/poly parka, over a wool sweater, over a base layer. If it's wet, I wear a German military Gore-tex parka as the top layer.
 
I like layers of wool and fleece and my outter layer jacket is a Columbia Wool coat. Very warm and can always dress down or up depending on conditions.
 
For serious cold and wind I wear a version of Kevin Kinneys at ECCW hooded wool Boreal coat under one of his Perma Frost canvas parkas. I have been out for a couple of hours in -20 F checking cows and calves with no problems. I have a lot of winter coats including Filson Macinaws and Down jackets but the Boreal is the best coat for brutal weather I have ever worn.

If its wet I throw a Gore-tex parka over it in place of the canvas.
 
Like everything around here, it depends on the weather and the season of the year.
Winter, snow, cold: waterproof (gore-tex) shell over fleece and wool layers. I have an old Woolrich that is especially comfortable.
Summer: hot, no coat, light jacket at night in high country, either fleece or wool.
Spring and Fall: rains, hot days, cood or cold nights, sometimes snow: See winter and summer above, add rain gear.
 
Unfortunately not really the bush, but I at least get to some of the more remote sites around Kabul, Afghanistan.

I really love wool, especially my Swanndri, but I've been very impressed with the newest issue of the Army clothing system in OCP (Multicam). Weather wasn't as severe in Iraq or my shorter tour to southern Afghanistan a couple years ago. Temperatures have gone from lows in the single to negative single digits on up to just above freezing. Precipitation has been consistent every other week or so. I don't spend a ton of time outdoors here, but I have with the Soft Shells back in GA, and they work well for rain showers less than an extended down poor.

System consists of:

Level 1: Polartec Silk weight tops and bottoms
Level 2: Polartec mid weight tops and bottoms
Level 3: Fleece Jacket
Level 4: Windshirt
Level 5: Soft Shell jacket and pants
Level 6: Gore-Tex jacket and pants
Level 7: The big'ol Marshmellow suit (the “extreme cold weather parka and trousers)

I really haven’t used the Gore-Tex pieces as the Soft Shell jacket and pants have been more than adequate with the amount of wet/dry snow we’ve received. As it heats up, the Wind Shirt has really become my favorite; I didn’t think I would like it, but it’s lighter than the regular OCP shirt and really does well at blocking the wind. I’ve used the silk-weight thermals and the mid-weight top the most. I haven’t been rolling in the country side with this clothing system, but I’ve traveled around and hiked some of the hillsides. I’m pretty impressed with the performance and designs. I’ve only been tempted once to grab the Level 7, Extreme Cold Weather Parka. If I was spending extended time outdoors on a check-point, it would come in handy, but layering often consists of Silk-weights, Mid-weight top (think of a fleece pull over), OCP trouser (just the new multicam pants that have some older BDU features mixed with ACU uniform features), and the Soft Shell parka. I’ve been pretty comfortable in single digits, but I’ll make sure I have plenty of insulation when I fly as it’s often like a freezer box with a fan blowing.

All in all, nothing is really “traditional”, but I’ve been quite impressed considering I came in with only the old M65 Field Jacket and the corresponding jacket liner…it was and still is a good jacket, but doesn’t compare to the variable conditions the new system now offers.

I wear my own wool socks that (Smartwool) and they are toasty. I often wear the coyote brown fleece watchcap...another highly recommended clothing accessory. When I travel helo, fixed wing or convoy, I'll wear my Mechanix gloves, but outside of that I'm using some decent Outdoor Research glove liners that are thin enough to manipulate equipment but take just enough off the bite to tolerate the cold. Lastly, I have a thinner polypro neck gaiter that is one of my other select pieces of clothing...my locally purchased shemagh is nice to really wrap up, but is a little too bulky for me.

ROCK6
 
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