View Full Version : I love my smock! what about yours?
Melonfish
15-09-2010, 12:51
Today seemed like the day to dig out my 94 pattern smock, the wind was blowing and it was spitting a little and at 6:30 in the morning all bleary eyed the last thing you want is to be cold.
the weather has already turned for most and the chill is starting to set in.
its really kept the elements off today and i'm just really appreciative of my old jacket. its not one of these rip-stop, mesh, lightweight, muslin jobbies with IRR coatings and bells. its good old thick cotton twill.
granted in a decent shower it'll turn into a sponge but then thats what my CS2005 MVP stuffed in my bag is for :D i suppose i could waterproof it mind.
what about you lot? you a big fan of the british army cast offs? i know its been done to death about surplus but on blustery days you can't beat em.
Mines 94 pattern, are there any other types you prefer and why?
Pete - hmmm warm.
Rabbitsmacker
15-09-2010, 13:02
hiya,
i always loved my 94 smock, but have moved onto the sas smock, have 2 original issue, 1 sass version, and 2 ww2 jobs, and a private purchase made out of para smock material, just like the layout and cut, baggier under the arms, and got the built in hood which i really like. i also have a german parka, in flecktarn which i really liked but the slant pockets did my head in and have now dropped it. also have a swedish snow smock but needs the underarms modding imho as they are restrictive.
but, i don't even consider any other smock now. just the sas variant. trousers wise, love US army trousers for toughness, both the standard and the m65 over trousers, bombproof. but for british i have some og lightweights that are perfect fit, and again, some windproofs which are excellent.
and you can't beat the older stuff for durability except the 85 patt stuff. i also have a 94 patt gortex i think it is, bivi bag material, wired hood, and button chest pockets, bit sweaty inside but still excellent quality.
cheers
Rob
I've got a Navy deck smock, It's a big warm blue thing with a thick cotton liner, ventile build and very comfy, I don't care about gortex/aquatex perttex stuff when it's cold,wet and windy, just gimmie my deck smock.
sasquatch
15-09-2010, 13:52
Nice one, I've got a 94 pattern but haven't worn it much the last year or two. I might dig it out when I get home today as they are sound...
My Survival Aids SAS style supposedly Ventile smock, I say supposedly as was sold as ventile from silvermans but at only £50 and without a label saying ventile I do wonder! Very tight smooth weave though so could be. Love it, one of the few pieces of kit I won't be changing! So windproof and very water resistant but obviously it does get wet through but with right under layer its great. Massive pockets, great hood, very comfortable, tough, I could go on....
UltimateSurvivor
15-09-2010, 14:13
95 pattern artic smock.
Great jacket and it's served me well! I've not used it for a while now but i missed dig it out after reading this thread!
Regards.
Country Innovations Kestrel (http://www.countryinnovation.com/kestrel-smock-1.html) smock for me when the weather is pants. Also go the Swazi Tahr but I only tend to use that for canoe trips now.
95 pattern artic smock.
Great jacket and it's served me well! I've not used it for a while now but i missed dig it out after reading this thread!
Regards. Dug my pre 95 pattern one out last weekend after being stored in a mates garage. Unfortunately his garage had sprung a leak and said jacket had gone mouldy. Washed it, and it ended up full of holes. Absolutely gutted! :( Now trying to source a decent replacement as this was easily in Grade 1 condition. The only one I've seen is close to £60 and I only paid £15 for mine, although it was a few years back.
Ha! I've got my RAB Vapour Rise jacket! That does for me.
I'll get my coat! <ashamed smillie>
Just one question, what are the options out there for this kind of stuff but without the military look? I mean I am not into cammo or anything of that kind but was wondering if there are manufacturers of jackets, smocks and other types of coats that have the same constructions as what you lot have listed?
Rabbitsmacker
15-09-2010, 14:38
sass make the smocks in any material you want to provide them with, you could take down the wifes curtains and they'd make a smock out of them if you wanted i reckon!
Now that would be an idea, stuff your realtree cam, I'm in the pagonia's stalking the family bunny.
Melonfish
15-09-2010, 14:51
A m8 got a plain OD smock off'f fleabay, its a copy of the S2000 smock but in plain OD. looks alright but we haven't really put it through its paces yet.
these arctic ones aren't the Gerbadine ones are they? 80's style?
Aren't SASS in Lancaster area? A googling I must go.
these arctic ones aren't the Gerbadine ones are they? 80's style? Yeah, that's what mine 'was' :(
Radix lecti
15-09-2010, 16:10
I have a black police dog handlers windproof smock which was given to me in the early summer,good bit of kit which i may also have to dig out now. Cheers.
Rabbitsmacker - Do you know how much SASS will charge for a custom-made smock? (I am dreaming of an orange one in Ventile.)
Regards
Erik
I had a gaberdine para smock that i really loved in my teens. Left it out all winter when I got to warm sawing and chopping enough logs to see us through winter. Found it when the snow melted, put it on and wore it till it fell to bits!
Rabbitsmacker - Do you know how much SASS will charge for a custom-made smock? (I am dreaming of an orange one in Ventile.)
Regards
Erik
You'll have to supply the Ventile, then they will charge you about £100 to make it up, depending on how fancy it is.
NS
Ok. Thanks for helping me on this one!
E
Rabbitsmacker
15-09-2010, 17:21
like the other guy said, you supply the material, then they charge you the fee, which i would guess at around 80-100 probs, but give them an email, they will probably get straight back to you. i had one of their ventile type smocks, that was £125, and had to get shot due to the sizing, my military size at the time was 180/104, the smocks for that chest size from sass go from 102 to 107, and mine was on the smaller size and never got on with it, now just after i bought that one, a original garbadine sass smock came up on ebay, with the fron chest zips, and the longer pockets that take an os map, and shooters pads in the backs of the arms, got that for 40 quid brand new, and same chest size, 102-107, but its bigger than the other one and i still have it and use it a lot. they are excellent, but everyone raves about the customer service, imho i just found them to be average, good on the phone and a quick turn round, but silly little things couldn't be accomodated. eg, i wanted the regular buttons put on it like the old smock, and they couldn't do it because they no longer had a button sewing machine, and i didn't want velcro down the front, i wanted buttons and they couldn't do that either cos it wasn't on the options list. basically you can pick and choose the spec, off the list, don't get creative. you can howvere always subtract standard features, as some guys on their website have done buy not having pockets put on, but anything else is not usually available.
Rabbitsmacker - Do you know how much SASS will charge for a custom-made smock? (I am dreaming of an orange one in Ventile.)
Regards
Erik
Rabbitsmacker
15-09-2010, 17:25
having said all that, i'll have another when this sass smock has had its day, because its a 'made in ENGLAND' thing!
I mainly use a 94 Pattern with three buttons sewn on the collar to take a 68 pattern smocks hood. Once in a while I treat it with TX 10. Its a good piece of kit and cheap as chips.
When the weathers a bit harsher I've a SASS Kit Karry smock, I forget which mark, that made up for me in cotton modal as I'd asked for something tougher than the gaberdine, if less weather proof. Later on I found a DPM parka that someone had trashed and chucked and I sewed the snorkle bit of it's hood onto the SASS one. Great for messing about in the woods with although with hindsight I would have gone for plain OG.
ATB
Tom
Melonfish
15-09-2010, 19:08
I mainly use a 94 Pattern with three buttons sewn on the collar to take a 68 pattern smocks hood.
Flippin damned good idea is that! what size button do you use? the same as the epaulettes?
I have a titanex smock.
Im so happy its proof against most weathers, if it gets too wet, I put a poncho over it
Aristotle
15-09-2010, 20:32
Today seemed like the day to dig out my 94 pattern smock....the weather has already turned for most and the chill is starting to set in
It was the same just down the road in Altrincham this morning. I wore my Nikwaxed black M65 replica (presentable enough for the office) and it kept the moderate rain off nicely. I just wish that the poly-cotton was a Slightly tighter weave and that the hood was better -although that what my waxed hat is for.
Maybe an Alpha Industries M65 would be better cloth?
steven andrews
15-09-2010, 21:05
My favourite is my customised Snowsled Stormshirt.
http://img704.imageshack.us/img704/2448/snowsledstormshirt.jpg (http://img704.imageshack.us/i/snowsledstormshirt.jpg/)
Ryan Woods
15-09-2010, 21:20
Still liking my S95 smock (I think) I got issued as a wee cadet. the one with four pockets and two vertical inner pockets with zipper closures. the thing is body hugging without being restrictive. Just a shame it isnt waterproof and not OG... (HATE wearing camo in civvy land)
My favourite is my customised Snowsled Stormshirt.
http://img704.imageshack.us/img704/2448/snowsledstormshirt.jpg (http://img704.imageshack.us/i/snowsledstormshirt.jpg/)
That! is a cracking catalogue stance, you should have a chong moustache, and be in red Y's.
Hehehe, I must admit I saw it and thought "Man from C&A" :)
steven andrews
15-09-2010, 21:59
Many fanks :). We joked about that when we took the photo. My poor wife.
That! is a cracking catalogue stance, you should have a chong moustache, and be in red Y's.
Sort of like this....
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1298/561683413_a1a1d851cc.jpg
I think the bloke on the left is the same fellow who chases James Bond at the start of the spy who loved me....
Ok onto smocks...
Had a Bison Bushcraft Ventile smock based on an SAS smock design. the chest pockets got in the way of rucksack straps etc...
I now use a 17yo Berghaus Lightining Goretex as my main smock type jacket thingy.. Works ok...
I've got an Arktis Windproof smock in OD. The only thing I can't get along with is the fuzzy waistcord, which sticks to the velcro windflap that covers the main zip.
2 chestpockets with a map pocket beyond these, left arm pocket, 2 pockets at waist height and an inner. I'd like to have a poacherspocket, but alas ...
http://www.armsammo.com/upload/iblock/f4b/f4b90bc6e5ddf462f254cfc6a802fe 93.jpg
I'd like to have one of their Commando Smocks in Tan (which they don't make) or flecktarn (but that wouldn't see any use, as it's to military ... ).
Melonfish
16-09-2010, 12:07
Whats a poachers pocket? a google search simply brings up restaurants? i'm pretty sure you can't get a restaurant in a smock :D
i know what you mean about velcro and fuzzy cords tho i have another jacket like that.
pastymuncher
16-09-2010, 12:28
I love my Newlyn fishermans smock, not much good in the wet, but I use it all the time when working and playing, if it's dry.:D
Whats a poachers pocket? a google search simply brings up restaurants? i'm pretty sure you can't get a restaurant in a smock :D
i know what you mean about velcro and fuzzy cords tho i have another jacket like that.
A pocket at the bottom backside of the smock - well, that's what I know of being referred to as a poachers pocket, could well be known by you under another name :) - lost in translation so to speak on my part ;)
To illustrate
http://www.asmc.de/images/product_images/popup_images/10201_2.jpg
nope thats a poachers pocket alright although they are often inside the smock
I've been looking longingly at repro WW2 windproof smocks of late - thinking of getting a Tan one and dying it a shade or two darker
Melonfish
16-09-2010, 13:35
Ah, you learn something new every day :D
i have an odd pocket on the inside back of my 94 pattern smock. at the base, its held with two buttons and i have no idea what the hell its for? anybody know?
Poachers pockets are on the inside or else they would be noticeable.Not sure if you can call an obvious, outside located pocket a Poachers pocket. My Dad used to get waxed jackets for his site jackets (civil engineer on highways) and as soon as I was big enough to wear them I got last years hand me downs. They often had a pocket on the inside lining at the side. Even when looking inside the jacket it was not always obvious where the pocket opening was. It could have had one both sides to balance it out and take more. I must admit that when out walking we very much looked country types (hunting and shooting types with money if you know what I mean) in that we wore those waxed jackets and Harris tweed caps (they weren't quite the same so we didn't look like a mini-me). I still cringe now but at least it kept me warm and dry besides the cap (a really good make bought at a point to point bought cheaply wiht my own moey) the coat was free.
Rabbitsmacker
16-09-2010, 18:30
paul_B is correct, the poachers pocket has to be on the inside and concealed. in case said poacher is stopped by police or landowners. SAS type smocks, arctic and newer windproofs have them. they run along the hem on the back of the smock, inside obviously, and are divided into 2 sections, one small one large. poachers coats were often longer length with a deep pocket either side in the lining, you could tie two rabbits at the hock or similar with the game birds and hang them via a cord around your neck and down into the pockets, a bit like when yr mum tied yr mittens thru yr sleeves? only the poachers cord goes down yr sides into the pockets, this stops it being obvious you have anyweight in the pocket, or just stuff the pockets full if it's a large haul and you are sure you won't get busted.
Melonfish
17-09-2010, 12:03
Poachers pocket, mint :D
also bit of a heads up, Eliot Military (no affiliation) have 66, 85, 95 and 2000 pattern smocks at VERY good prices and are selling 66 pattern hoods seperate to, so you can mod your current smock Tombear style (as i'm about to do)
they also sell 58 pattern webbing too, worth checking out.
Ryan Woods
18-09-2010, 15:33
any rare 58' pouches on offer?