deerstalker.308
Well-Known Member
I’ve never tried wearing a dead goat to be able to make that comparison, but I’m glad someone has, saves me the bother now, thanks!
GoreTex or waxed jacket for stalking?
- Thread starter Omega
- Start date
If your grandfather did anything on the farm other than mince about directing other people to do his work his jacket won’t be worth inheriting. I’m a farmer, I have a Barbour I wear to the pub or on some walked up shoots, and on the hill and in rank weather at work I wear goretex, ventile or analogy.
straightbetweentheeyes
Well-Known Member
What an utter load of rubbish, barbed wire will rip a wax jacket as easily as it will a goretex or any other jacket. Can't see how a jacket would come in to contact barbed wire that often anyway, unless you spend most of your time doing commando rolls over barbed fences...
Whilst I don't know every farmer in the land I do know a few and not one of them wears a wax jacket, inherited or otherwise.
I do own a Barbour wax but its for casual use.
Invest your money in a decent goretex and providing you avoid bailing over barbed wire fences it should last you a bloody long time. I brought a swazi smock direct from New Zealand, even with postage and import tax was still cheaper than buying over here. It cost me just under £350 and I've had it for ten years now, never treated it with anything and its still as wind and waterproof as they day I unpacked it. You don't need to be Carol Vorderman to work out that's cost me £35 a year, not bad i'd say?
J DAVISON
Well-Known Member
Gore Ted simple as that
Heym SR20
Well-Known Member
Ffs people can never take a joke or a bit of irony can they??
If you can get a good Barbour, Northumbria, Solway Zipper or Longshoremans Smock, second hand, then go for it. These coats were nearly bulletproof, Modern Barbours are lightweight thin & fashion accessories, designed for city folks in their Chelsea tractors. Get cinched up in one of these old barbours & back your way through a blackthorn hedge, scramble under barbed wire, get covered in mud & s88t and hose it down. Proper farmers jacket, nothing comes close. Apart from Filson, American jacket if you can get hold of one!
Heym SR20
Well-Known Member
What many forget is that until the early 2000’s Wax jackets were pretty much all that was available. A wax jacket or a vinyl jacket. As an agric student in the late 80’s most farmer's stores had a choice of different wax jackets - really tough and heavy work jackets, lighter barbours or vinyl. I remember standing on the back of potato harvesters with 6 of us riddling tatties with everyone wearing old wax jackets - thats all we had.
Barbours had advertising campaigns portraying their toughness and how the saved the lives of the wearers. Pretty much all country folk had older ones, yuppies and townies bought new ones.
Shooting or fishing in the rain - it was a barbour or similar that you wore with a towel round you neck - Barbour even sold towelling neckties / scarves for this very reason.
And if you were on for a Royal or Imperial Macnab (Grouse, Stag, Salmon and the cook or the laird or hosts wife or daughter) the Barbour was an essential item of equipment and protection. Also an essential it for any hunt or young farmers ball or for just going to the pub.
Nowadays the Sams, Harrys, Olivias and Henriettas that were mostly conceived on Barbours after such events are now inheriting those old jackets and now wearing them to the pub because they are so cool - little do they know of their history.
Meanwhile we all use expensive NZ and Scandinavian branded goretex clothing that portrays our outdoor prowess and ruggedness ( and the fact that it mostly works helps and I wear my Musto Stalking Jacket when it is wet rather than my Barbour). And courtship rituals involved trading photos via a Smartphone than having photos published in the Field or Country Life .
Barbours had advertising campaigns portraying their toughness and how the saved the lives of the wearers. Pretty much all country folk had older ones, yuppies and townies bought new ones.
Shooting or fishing in the rain - it was a barbour or similar that you wore with a towel round you neck - Barbour even sold towelling neckties / scarves for this very reason.
And if you were on for a Royal or Imperial Macnab (Grouse, Stag, Salmon and the cook or the laird or hosts wife or daughter) the Barbour was an essential item of equipment and protection. Also an essential it for any hunt or young farmers ball or for just going to the pub.
Nowadays the Sams, Harrys, Olivias and Henriettas that were mostly conceived on Barbours after such events are now inheriting those old jackets and now wearing them to the pub because they are so cool - little do they know of their history.
Meanwhile we all use expensive NZ and Scandinavian branded goretex clothing that portrays our outdoor prowess and ruggedness ( and the fact that it mostly works helps and I wear my Musto Stalking Jacket when it is wet rather than my Barbour). And courtship rituals involved trading photos via a Smartphone than having photos published in the Field or Country Life .
I ripped my Barbour on a screw protruding from a fence. Made a right mess but sent it up to them and had it patched. It was the special edition Cowan commander I got for my 21st. It stinks of wax and the wife won’t let it in the house 
Growing up I always had a wax jacket because it didn’t let anything impregnate the material. They were also cheaper than anything with a fancy membrane. I hadn’t even heard of membranes until I started working in a bike shop with fancy branded rain jackets and was shocked at the prices.
But now days it’s something in the end of season sale from one of the European manufacturers as they are quiet and supple. I have had the membrane of a week and coat disintegrate on me causing it to leak like a sieve.
But just like my first post on this thread. Wear what you want and feel comfortable in. The one thing I can’t stand is anything with a camouflage pattern. Camouflage is for human eyes and not animals. Concealment comes by using the natural surroundings because any movement is enough to spook a deer. Even if covered in camouflage, it creates something out of the norm and fight or flight instincts kick in.
Growing up I always had a wax jacket because it didn’t let anything impregnate the material. They were also cheaper than anything with a fancy membrane. I hadn’t even heard of membranes until I started working in a bike shop with fancy branded rain jackets and was shocked at the prices.
But now days it’s something in the end of season sale from one of the European manufacturers as they are quiet and supple. I have had the membrane of a week and coat disintegrate on me causing it to leak like a sieve.
But just like my first post on this thread. Wear what you want and feel comfortable in. The one thing I can’t stand is anything with a camouflage pattern. Camouflage is for human eyes and not animals. Concealment comes by using the natural surroundings because any movement is enough to spook a deer. Even if covered in camouflage, it creates something out of the norm and fight or flight instincts kick in.
I use an Austrian army jacket for stalking and walking the dogs, I have the long back version. Very comfy, completely waterproof, warm and big pockets. Would highly recommend, best jacket I have owned.
Waxed Jacket!!!, are you going to a 1970’s stalking reunion, Gortex, just say yes
Koenig
Well-Known Member
Turnips
Well-Known Member
I farm and have a wax jacket. It’s f***ed, sleeve hanging on by a thread, but it’s comfy and I wear it on odd dry winter days when I’m pigeon shooting. Other than that it lives by the back door for taking dogs out for a pee etc.
If I’m out shooting I wear something windproof and waterproof, because life’s too short to be wet through and miserable!
Ridgeline smock at the moment, had it a couple of years but it does get a bit hot if you’re working hard.
If I’m out shooting I wear something windproof and waterproof, because life’s too short to be wet through and miserable!
Ridgeline smock at the moment, had it a couple of years but it does get a bit hot if you’re working hard.
Cut+Squirt
Well-Known Member
I'm seldom on the SD anymore but still pop in occasionally for a sniff around.
After years of working outside in some horrendous conditions and spending a fortune on wet weather gear, the only thing I'll wear and buy now is Kiwaka.
It's a New Zealand brand and not very well known in the UK.
It is the only waterproof gear that I have ever owned that can sustain a full day of driving rain and wind.
I have found nothing else currently for sale on the market that comes close.
Expensive, undoubtedly yes.
But if you genuinely have no other option but be out in severe weather it's priceless.
After years of working outside in some horrendous conditions and spending a fortune on wet weather gear, the only thing I'll wear and buy now is Kiwaka.
It's a New Zealand brand and not very well known in the UK.
It is the only waterproof gear that I have ever owned that can sustain a full day of driving rain and wind.
I have found nothing else currently for sale on the market that comes close.
Expensive, undoubtedly yes.
But if you genuinely have no other option but be out in severe weather it's priceless.
Wax jackets are okay. They have their advantages. They are a bit more resistant to barbed wire, compared to a lightweight Berghaus jacket (other makes are available) that tears as soon as you look at it, but not even a waxed jacket is impervious to the dreaded barbs. It's got a fair chance with gorse bushes though.
No, the main drawback of wax jackets is their breathability properties. Which are on a par with bin bags. So not really the thing you want to wear where any walking is more than a saunter of a hundred yards or so.
However, they can be smart, or completely the opposite of smart, so either way, they can be a fashion item. Which possibly drove Barbour to outsource their manufacture. Simply because as working clobber, once waterproof, breathable and still robust jackets came along, their use as serious outerwear for the more mobile person was pretty much over. Over the last few years, fleetingly or otherwise, I've been involved with five pheasant shoots. And amongst the guns, beaters, pickers up, landowners, and other sundry characters, not one wax jacket was to be found.
No, the main drawback of wax jackets is their breathability properties. Which are on a par with bin bags. So not really the thing you want to wear where any walking is more than a saunter of a hundred yards or so.
However, they can be smart, or completely the opposite of smart, so either way, they can be a fashion item. Which possibly drove Barbour to outsource their manufacture. Simply because as working clobber, once waterproof, breathable and still robust jackets came along, their use as serious outerwear for the more mobile person was pretty much over. Over the last few years, fleetingly or otherwise, I've been involved with five pheasant shoots. And amongst the guns, beaters, pickers up, landowners, and other sundry characters, not one wax jacket was to be found.
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