Smocks/Jackets., page 1

Originally posted by Asktheanimals
Not to bust your bubble CX but a jacket full of stuff is
cumbersome. Load it up and try running around , stuff
will swing and jump up and down on you. A good tac
vest will accomplish what you want. The closer to your
body you can keep the weight, the easier it is to manage.
Nice jacket though. You might want to spray paint it a bit
to tone the yellows down, theyre rather intense. peace bro,

[edit on 1-9-2009 by Asktheanimals]

Cheers for the reply

As i said before, this one did me fine and i did a shedload of running, but you do bring up a very good point.

You are right, if you are not carefull, you can have stuff swinging around all over the shop if the jacket is too loose. I ensured mine was close fitting by getting the right size, the body armour underneath added to the close fitting.

On the issue you bring up, the only problem that i needed addressing is the need to quieten mags rattling around in the same pocket. A quick bit of tape sorted this and with the jacket being made of quite a soft feel material, this eliminated any "rustling" sounds which was handy if you wanted stealth.

I guess it depends on why you want the jacket. To be honest, like most contacts, ours were unannounced, and especially if we were in the base and had to run out to react to an incident, having extra gear to put on as well as the basic combats that we had on all the time, i didn't want to waste even a few seconds putting extra gear on like vests or rigs.

I had this on all the time, so when we got hit, it was helmet on, grab weapon and go.

As i say though, this is just my experience and opinion. It doesn't work for everyone and i can appreciate why.

So thanks for the replies, whether for and against, thats how we get the best lowdown on kit that might be of use to us...or not... when the time comes.

As for the "spray painting the yellows", i thought the same and already have that one covered.

It's not actualy as bad as it looks, so it was ok for my service use, but when i left the army i didn't particularly want to be running around in cammo all the time, so i stuck it through the washing machine with a machine wash Drayon black dye which has turned it a very dull darker green all over.

Not quite what i was after, and it didn't get rid of the cammo, but i found out that some of these custom smocks are made with a material that has been treated against the weather, and as a result not all dyes will work like they normally do.

Oh well, it does me. It's mainly used for wild camping and treks through the woods with the kids, so those extra pockets are ideal my personal gear, and for carrying all the crap they want to bring or what they find and want to bring back lol.

Thanks again for all the replies.

An extra tip for anyone who is interested, if you are not keen on any of the jackets you see, and have a fantastic super dooper custom design you have in mind (pockets/zips/buttons/loops/D rings/patches) where you want them, some people in the past have bought their own material and either sewed the smock themselves, or got someone profficent to do it.

Ventile is very popular, so if you know someone who can sew a pattern, maybe think about that option.

Most of us used to adapt the butts of our weapon so we had a strap and carribiner set up, so we could hang the weapon from your webbing/rig whilst you needed your hands free but didn't want your weapon away from your body.

The D ring above the top left chest pocket was easily strong enough for this job, and the strap was made just long enough so that if you suddenly came under fire with it still clipped to you, you could bring it up into the firing position easy enough.

One thing i have not used on jackets is waterproofing sprays or other products. Thats the one thing my jacket lacked so if anyone has used anything like this, i'd appreciate the info.

CX.