Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Hunting garment recomendations

mr308,

Try one of those Woolrich Alaska shirts, they work for me.

Tony.

I wear a ariety of things on top, but the one constant is wool pants. I bought a fancy pair from Columbia, padded seat and knees, which is nice, but feels like a diaper if you walk alot. The best wool pants are made by codet, a Canadian company available fromWholesale sports in Edmonton for $60.00 cdn. Cheap, plain green cargo style, you can walk all day,mud and snow just sticks, and you can brush it off. I highly recommend them.

Wow how interesting, I had no idea wool pants were still so popular! I gave up on em several years ago, in fact I remember an old river guide asking me on a 10 day float trip "What you didn't bring any woolies?" Nope, none never do anymore, supplex nylon of varying weights is all I use for sheep, moose and caribou. As for rainwear I use the Helly Impertech but as of late have switched to the Dutch Harbor brand as it's cheaper and seems to be the same stuff just a forest green instead of olive. It only lasts 2-3 seasons but that has been seasons of 30 days minimum so just hunting for yourself if careful you might get 3-4 but it will eventually develop little pinholes that you can see when you hold it up to bright light looking at the interior of the coat. If I'm using hip waders (and most times I am) I use cheap rain pants, cut off the legs and make them shorts, they go on over the hippers easier and the waders are already protecting me from rain. Plus they dont bind at the knee when walking like full length rain pants over hippers. Rivers West sent me their catalog with the fabric sample, just figured the fleece would get wet and add weight, but it might have merit for a bowhunter, I'm more a fill the freezer type hunter, but I admire GOOD bowhunters. Interesting to see that wool is still so popular. 1akhunter

Yup! Still popular! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />
I use Helly longjohns, but wool pants and sometimes overshirt , also.
I was surprised when Martin offered me a spare pair of pants for my son, however, because I thought only us die hard, old school type hunters used wool still! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />
Catnthehat

I can second the recommendation for Codet wool pants. Down here, just below Alberta, I have purchased them for as little as 35 American dollars, and they are great.

MD

Codet's suck. They don't last much more than a winter, but at the price I guess that's OK.

Chuck

I like a quiet gore-tex lined outer layer if it's wet and wool pants if it's not wet and or windy. I use thin polypro long underwear and military long underwear over the thin layer if it's cold. Fleece drys fast and the cheap fleece tops that are thick work well in cold weather. You can get the pull over zip mock turtle necks for $15 or less when they close them out for the winter if you look around.

The heavyweight wool pants such as Codets, some military surplus and Filsons are too heavy and hold water too well for my taste; I find them uncomfortable to hike in for extended distances and impossible to backpack. In cold dry climates, such as Alberta or Montana, that might not be a problem, but in B.C. it is.

For wool hunting pants, I prefer the Filsons whipcord, worn very loose and stagged very high. Then I can wear differing underlayers depending on weather conditions. I prefer Merino wool underwear, but, find some synthetics very good, too. I prefer either a wool "commando" sweater or a fleece pullover on top and carry light rain gear.

anyone try the under cloths that football players use? think its called under armour. They have for cold weather and hot. The local sporting goods( no hunting stuff) sells them for 430 each.

Chuck--

At present I have three pairs of wool pants that I use under different conditions: light whip-cord Filsons, medium-weight Codets, and my heavy Woolrich bibs. Have worn out two pairs of Filsons and one Codet over the past decade, but still have the Woolrich bibs, which are about 15 years old.

Don't wear any of them all hunting season, obviously, but the Codets have worn as well as the Filsons costing much more. Of course they are heavier weight, too, and I wear the Filsons more than any, as it has to get pretty cold to switch to the Codets, much less the Woolrich bibs. Mostly all are used in relatively dry cold, here in Montana or somewhere else bordering such as Alberta, Wyoming or the Dakotas.

One of my problems, if you can call it that, is that I have too darn many hunting clothes, since I'm always searching for the perfect solution. Thus a lot of my stuff works a long time, unles it proves excellent in many climates.

MD

I have to agree with the Codet fans. I bought a reversable blaze/green coat in 93 or 94 for Elk hunting.

I must admit that I have poked a hole in the orange side; probably barb wire. I have had no problems and have had it cleaned every couple of years.

I wear the green side out as an everyday winter coat.

Mule Deer--

Your comment about traditional vs. camo made me grin. I also like traditional, mostly natural materials during rifle season. I Like silk bottoms with Filson whipcord wool pants regardless how cold, silk top under a wool or syn shirt, a wool vest and depending how cold some sort of wool or fleece jacket.
But your comment reminded my of an old George Gobel line: "Have you ever felt the whole world was a tuxedo and you were a pair of brown shoes?" <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> I've felt that way a time or two in a rifle camp where my compadres looked like special forces snipers while I sat around in my Woolrich jacket looking like Elmer Fudd <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

GDV

Was sitting in the airport in Kuujjuaq, Quebec, not quite a year ago, surrounded by a bunch of people that can only be described as "diverse." But the bunch that stood out as conformists was the 40% or so who were outgoing or incoming caribou hunters, who almost all were dressed head to toe in camo. One of the airport personnel, a guy in his 60's, was strolling through the crowd, quietly singing, "We're in the army now, we're in the army now....."

Nothing wrong with being in the army, but why is camo the only hunting "color'?

MD

I wonder what the proper camo for Northern quebec is, MossyOak or Reeltree. I live in Northern Alberta and during November the best camo for the bush would probabaly be prison grey. I can't imagine you would find many Oak trees in the arctic region of quebec.

Maybe gist here for an article in Succ Hunter about the proliferation of gadgets/gear and camo clothes put before today's hunter by the "hunting industry".
After all, the Indians and other hunter-gatherers dressed "only" in earth tones presumably as determined by the hides they wore and let's say they hunted close . I am not saying I'm against all this stuff, some of which I use and subscribe to but I'm convinced that much esp in the way of the camo is uneeded by the one who knows how to hunt. One need only peruse a few old pics of Fred Bear and his duds to see an example of this.
Where aggressive, "you've-got-to-have-this" marketing meets inexperienced neophyte you have the fellow in camp with two 80 lb duffels which includes camo underwear and tp <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

GDV

I hate camo. A few years back a local photographer hired me to "model" (hold on to the snickering!) a bunch of the stuff for a national chain store. One of the perks of the job was getting to pick out whatever I wanted from the mountain of camo at his house... I turned him down! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />



I own one camo clothing item, a 12 year old goretex parka from 10X. I like it because it's quiet, has a detatchable hood, is oversized and has no vlecro. The rest of my stuff consist's of a variety of fleece, down and wool uppers (one windstopper piece) and varioius wool and synthetic pants (basic climging/backpacking stuff).



For all-around pants I doubt Filson Whipcord's can be beat. A nice thing, besides wearing like iron, is they can be worn itch-free without long underwear. Also, you can increase their warmth by adding underwear layers including "Expedition Weight's."



Like Mule Deer, I've had the same red plaid wool/thinsulate parka from LL Bean for about fifteen years... I LOVE that parka! It's too bulky and heavy for backpacking way in, but for stand hunting or low-key-walkin-aboot it's great.



BA

If, there is ONE maker of REAL hunting-outdoor clothing in the entire freakin' world that can outfit you for the real bush in stuff that works and lasts, Filson is it, period. Their stuff is incredibly expensive here in Canada, but, I buy it anyway because nothing works better. Most camo is for novices who buy it to impress their buddies, one sees "Elk Hunters" covered in this stuff roaring up closed logging roads on their quads all the time, here in B.C.

If, you go to the pharmacy and buy a jar of lanolin, used to soften woperson's skin and rub this into your Filson whipcord pants, they work better than raingear in the most violent storms and remain quiet. I fully intend to get one of their custom whipcord cruisers jackets as well, this stuff will handle a wider variety of climatic conditions than anything else I have ever used since I started hiking in the Kootenays in 1956.

I have worked on "misery slippers" on seven feet of snow in -40* weather, all day long, wearing this stuff and it ROCKS!

Kute, that's a GREAT tip about lanolin. As you know I'm all about "High-Tech" when it comes to clothing... for my legs though I've never found anything for hunting purposes that beats wool. Aother aspect of clothing is what people in the biz call "handle". That is, how a actually fabric feels... wool wins on that count hands down. For all the fleece and synthetics I have laying around, none feel quite like quality wool.

Filson has been courting the hunting market for a while now. Though most of their stuff is very good, I suggested to their marketing guy that there might be a market for classic-styled hunting clothing made of cutting edge synthetics. Maybe call it something like Filsynthetic. He didn't even consider it, saying Filson had always been known for totally "natural" fabrics--son instead they're starting to make some of their waxed canvas and wool in camo!

MD

hope they remember to add a hood.