Conference vmsnet::hunting$note:hunting

    Mark,  I've found the same thing with the Gore-Tex clothing I have. 
    You pay a lot of money for it and it doesn't hold up.  The first year
    it seems to work fine, but as it gets older, it tends to leak.  This
    year I picked up a set of Kool-Dri rain gear from Cabala's in Tree-Bark
    camo.  It comes in several paterns including hunter orange.  It cost a
    little over $100.00 for the jacket and bibbed pants.  It's guaranteed
    not to come apart at the seems for the life on the suit (what ever that
    means).  It's light weight, tough and most of all, breathable.  I
    haven't had a chance to try it out yet so I realy can't say too much
    about it, but it looks like it will hold up.
    Anyone else had a chance to try this product ??  I wish I had brought
    it with me last saturday morning when the skys opened up. Soaked to the
    bone in thirty seconds.
    
    Bruce

    I've tried a different approach.  Since rain gear tends to be somewhat
    noisy in the woods, I've begun to wear a Gore-Tex wind-breaker type
    jacket *underneath* my wool hunting jacket.  This keeps me dry and
    warm, but doesn't give me the swish-swish every time I walk through
    the brush.
    
    Mark.

    Hi, You might want to try cleaning your gore-tex clothes with a special
    cleaner sold specifically to clean gore-tex. From what I understand the
    pores in the goretex get clogged and thats what causes it to leak. I've
    had gore-tex for quite a few years and mine still holds up to total
    waterproof-ness. Most magazines sell the stuff, I don't know what its
    called but I do know that CAMPMOR and Eastern Mountain Sports sells it.
    
    
    Don

    Re: the Kool Dry
    
    It's pretty good stuff.....initially. But it doesn't breathe as they
    say it does. Mine also started peeling. There's like a rubber coating
    on the inside, like a skin and after a couple years it started
    shedding. It isn't any good once this begin to happen. I had mine for
    about 6-7 years, so maybe they've improved it.
    
    I just bought a 10x Gortex  suit which I've yet to try out. It
    doesn't seem to be very quiet, but if it keeps me dry, I'll settle for
    that. I payed just under 200 for the suit, cause I had heard good
    things about the stuff. I was tired of spending 20 a year for a plastic
    suit, that rips within the first 10 minutes of the hunt.
    
    I like a little mist, but when it pours for longer than an hour, I'd 
    rather be inside by the fire!
    
    Barry

    I'm reply is simular to .2 with one exception. If the morning starts
    out at near the 100% saturation limit. I'll use a Military poncho with
    florecent vest. The 500 inch square inch vest made like a fine fish
    net.
      I've seen my partners buy the expensive gortex and not ware it out of
    the camp (because of to noise). I've also heard an evenings amount of
    excuses on how another buddy missed a buck cause of the noise his suit
    made.
      hope this helps.
    
    ken   
    

    Hi Ken (long time no see !) I agree that goretex is somewhat noisy.
    Last year I bought a goretex lined wool hunting suit. so it is
    waterproof and extremely warm. I have found that the newer goretex
    clothes are more quiet than they used to be. 
    
    I suggested in an earlier note that the cleaning material might help.
    The phone # for CAMPMOR is 1-800-526-4784, The stuff is called
    SPORT-WASH and the catalog # is 10601-E @ 4.99. I think its worth a
    try.

	Re. The last few.


	You guys probably all know this. Still, here is my
	$ .02. 

	Goretex is really a teflon membrane which has
	the micropores making it waterproof and allowing it 
	to breathe at the same time. The actual Goretex membrane
	is processed in some way to stick to a shell material
	(most often some sort of rip-stop nylon or these days
	increasingly Cordura - the DuPont stuff). It is actually
	the shell material which determines whether your Goretex
	clothing is noisy or not.

	As the technology in using Goretex has become better, it
	has become possible to use Goretex in ways which allows 
	silent Goretex clothing to be manufactured. Remington
	has a couple of products which are made with the new 
	production method allowing for "silent" Goretex.

	In the good old days when Goretex first appeared almost all
	products were using some sort of heavy nylon shell - pretty
	noisy. Also, the quality of the clothing seems to have gotten
	better in general (taped seams, no peel etc). I still don't
	know if Goretex clothing has been turned into an ever-lasting
	product (which it certainly was in the beginning) but I
	do know that my second Goretex raincoat has lasted a lot longer
	than my first (very early) one did.

	So, if you are prepared to spend the dough ...


							- Mike

    
      3 layers of wool topside (wool undershirt, wool shirt, and then a
    wool "jack-shirt") combined with woolen long underwear, and a good
    heavy set of Johnson wool pants will keep you dry for the most part
    and plenty warm all day long. Two sets of the above mentioned articles
    are best. That way, if you really soak one set, you can go with the
    second dry set, and let the others dry out for one day...
    
      Wool is the best thing going IMHO...
    
    
    Joe

After going thru many rainsuits I
purchased one from LL Bean in blaze orange.  It was
originally sold as a sailing suit, is durable, and
vents well.  It is some sort of coated nylon.

Since I bird hunt silence is not a top criterion, but
dryness and durability is.  Although I can't say it 
would stand up to briars it does handle rasberry, 
thornapples well.  It was comparable to Goretex 
in price.

It is outstanding in the way it vents perspiration,
and, of course, is very safe.  Poke around in the
general LL Bean catalog and perhaps they still 
carry it or have other colors.

Also, I use the Barbour-type waxed cotton coats and
overpants for duck and goose shooting.  They are 
very expensive now, but there are some sales on.
Gander Mountain has a "sale catalog" right now for
hunting that lists a number of these garments at 
*rock bottom* prices.  Example - lined overpants,
reg $100 -125, just $39!  Definitely on the 
hit list!  These garments are warmer and more 
durable than the sailing stuff... 

I have not found goretex to be a benefit.  Some
friends were invited to field test some Orvis garb
several years ago and sent it back with thumbs down.
It leaked as soon as it got dirty, even though they
used the special cleaner.  Now the stuff is 
supposed to be better.....