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Traditional wildfowling clothing


hedd-wyn
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I know that some of the old stagers here you here have been wildfowling before they could walk and remember the 'old ways'

We now live in an age of synthetic, lightweight, super camouflaged modern gatments designed to keep you dry. Neoprene also plays an important role in modern wildfowling but I have always wondered what the old fowlers would throw on before the age of technology.

 

Was there was such a thing as a 'traditional' outfit? I'm just curious

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I always used to use the old Barbour\Belstaff wax jackets. Did they do the job ? yes they kept yo dry, but there were problems with them. In cold rain they became stiff , difficult to swing a gun in at times and you could take them off on the kitchen floor and they would stand up by themselves. Once wet they could become very cold to wear and became very heavy. For most situations they were much too dark until the wax proofing wore off and many wildfowl owe their lives after seeing a fowler wearing them. I still have three of them upstairs , two are brand new , but I doubt if I will ever wear them. In contrast the modern max5 or advantage style shooting jackets were the things we prayed for after seeng photos\films of American waterfowlers and now we have them I would never wish to be without them new style jackets.

 

However remember no matter what jacket you wear keeping still is more important than the jacket type.

Edited by anser2
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I have to admit I'm not a fan of modern materials and that's partially why I started this thread.

I will almost always pick my woolen swandrii over my ridgeline. Although it is not waterproof it will keep you warm when it's wet.

I also own a few wax jackets that have seen many seasons & after some tlc still cut the mustard out in the field.

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This is from a fishing, beating, rough shooting as well as outdoor life and working on the family smallholding perspective not wildfowling: My first waxproof jacket was made by Bob Church of fishing fame. I was given it as a teenager in 1987, it lasted until I left Plymouth Poly in 1994 as. I re waxed with an aerosol wax proof spray every spring. I had Barbours later in life, and I think my Bob Church was the better buy, it was nowhere near as stiff when wet and was 1/3rd of the price! (although it did take longer to dry out)

Cheers

Aled

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Used to wear a navy issue great coat (made from the same stuff as duffle coats but 3x as thick) the collar came up past your head and the length of it was past my knees.... It weighed a ton when wet and took ages to dry, stank to high heaven and was so ingrained with mud it blended in quite nicely... I can remember a very cold frosty moon flight crouched in a gutter, after a hour or so with nothing coming my way decided to move and found I couldn't as my coat had frozen to the bank, managed to pull myself and coat out but ended up with a huge chunk of bank stuck to my coat... I was as warm as toast though........ I don't think I could ever go back to wearing anything like it as it weighed a ton but I still remember it fondly.. Ohh and also my NCB issue waders.... Steel toe caps and also weighed a ton, but never leaked "........................ Them were the days !!!!!!!!!!!!

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I can remember a very cold frosty moon flight crouched in a gutter, after a hour or so with nothing coming my way decided to move and found I couldn't as my coat had frozen to the bank, managed to pull myself and coat out but ended up with a huge chunk of bank stuck to my coat...

Hahaha 😂😂😂

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started wild fowling with oilrig cold weather overalls bright orange then put thigh waders on and barbour northumberland wax jacket on top .best we had in them days but youth was on our side and eagernest over rode the cold or are we a different breed of people to days shooters having said that wouldnt go back to that kit now.

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I still regularly wear my Barbour Longshoreman smock. Yes, it's get's stiff at time, but it keeps me dry in the worse rain and resists mud like no other coat and a simply wipe down with a wet cloth will clean the mud off with no mirco-pores to get blocked to encourage leaks.

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I still regularly wear my Barbour Longshoreman smock. Yes, it's get's stiff at time, but it keeps me dry in the worse rain and resists mud like no other coat and a simply wipe down with a wet cloth will clean the mud off with no mirco-pores to get blocked to encourage leaks.

I've just googled this & it doesnt get more 'traditional' than that!

I love it, now I need to do is tell the mrs that it's for sale for half the retail price. Sorted

💪🏼

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No longer made, but going for silly money on Ebay.

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xbarbour+longshoreman.TRS0&_nkw=barbour+longshoreman&_sacat=0

 

Apologies, looks as though they may have started again. Not the original colour though.

 

https://www.countryattire.com/barbour-archive-collection-men-s-new-longshoreman-wax-jacket-olive-mwx0870ol71-45.html

 

I've just googled this & it doesnt get more 'traditional' than that!
I love it, now I need to do is tell the mrs that it's for sale for half the retail price. Sorted

Edited by Penelope
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I`m old enough to remember "traditional" fowling gear from the late sixties.

 

Barbour wax jackets - hateful things. Too dark to be of any use as camouflage and about as waterproof as a colander. Essentially, eighteenth century technology, take a non water resistant material and then smother it in grease to block the pores. This keeps some of the water out for some of the time, but all of the sweat in all of the time!

 

They become stiff when cold or wet and the material regularly wears through at friction points, especially the sleeves, and the hood is/was utterly useless.

 

The zip up jackets weren't great being shaped like a bell tent, but the over-the-head smock was a disaster if you`d been rolling in the mud and would leave much of the filth smeared up the back of your woolly jumper and the back of ones head when removing it..

 

I think that Barbour did an excellent PR job with many of their products. They created the notion that they were somehow "traditional" when they were simply old fashioned and out dated as their ultimate sales and production collapse eventually proved.

 

Woolly jumpers were usually government surplus white submariners polo necks whilst long white socks were "mariners sea boot stockings" from the same source.

 

Thigh boots, no such thing as chest waders, were almost always the black "Bullseye" by Hood. Originally these lasted for donkeys years but the last pair I bought had increased so much in price and decreased so much in quality they proved uneconomic.

 

"Traditional" fowling clothing, along with paper cased cartridges - you can keep it! I`ll stick with the modern stuff that actually works.

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Used to wear a navy issue great coat (made from the same stuff as duffle coats but 3x as thick) the collar came up past your head and the length of it was past my knees.... It weighed a ton when wet and took ages to dry, stank to high heaven and was so ingrained with mud it blended in quite nicely... I can remember a very cold frosty moon flight crouched in a gutter, after a hour or so with nothing coming my way decided to move and found I couldn't as my coat had frozen to the bank, managed to pull myself and coat out but ended up with a huge chunk of bank stuck to my coat... I was as warm as toast though........ I don't think I could ever go back to wearing anything like it as it weighed a ton but I still remember it fondly.. Ohh and also my NCB issue waders.... Steel toe caps and also weighed a ton, but never leaked "........................ Them were the days !!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Was that the coat you had on at "Chiggys" in January? Carlos :lol:

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If the truth was known ,money dictated what you wore , in the early sixties I had a paratroopers smock which I rarely took off and as far as waterproof goes , it was fine until it rained and then it would let water in like blotting paper.

 

I then moved on to a wax coat made locally by Johnsons of Yarmouth , these were issued to Eastern Electricity workers who done all the outside work , I never worked for the company , but I knew somebody who did and a few bags of cement was a fair exchange for a wax jacket .

 

This was completely waterproof , but when the weather was below freezing it became as stiff as board and I can remember the winter of 62 / 63 when like answer2 was saying , when you took it off , you stood it up rather than hang it up.

 

The boots were Bullseye , normally a size bigger so you could put extra socks on as compared to the Hunter neo ones I wear today they were freezing when the weather got cold .

 

looking back we tried to keep as warm and dry with the gear we had , if we didn't have it , we managed to beg , steal or borrow it . :lol:

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Barbour Solway zipper was what we all wanted even though the elbows always wore through and the zips packed up. Bullseye sea boots and some oil skin leggings a knitted bally and mitts.

Have a longshoreman now that i love ,except pulling it off over my head sometimes results in mud on my face.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Wooden clothes and jumper with oil cloth/sail cloth capes ponchos or rubber storm coats in dark colours. Ex MOD was always my first choice for all my country sports. Just a shame I grew to a hieght and build that not many army folk are so ex army stuff is a rarity these days.

 

Years ago you got wet whether it rained or not as you sweated your tits off inside your clothes and froze when you sat. Not all that much different now but better camo.

 

In the 80's I bought a Russian army coat with high collar and green sheepskin type fur lining. It was the warmest coat I've had.

Edited by figgy
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