Does anyone wear wool anymore?

dotman

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Feb 24, 2012
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I have slowly moved away from wool outer layers, they are just too heavy and bulky and the newer tech gear is just as warm, drys quickly when wet and is less prone to absorbing moisture.

I'll always wear merino wool baselayers but my cabelas wooltimate gear is collecting dust.
 
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These are the wool pants I wear for hunting.

M1951 Korean Wool Field Pants are excellent quality military army surplus wool pants from armysurpluswarehouse.com

U.S. Army Wool Field Pants made for the Army in the 1950s. Perfect for skiers, hunters, etc. The nice thing about these pants is they have buttons inside of the waist so you can button in arctic pant liners for below 0 temperatures. Pants have an adjustable waist and are army green color
I've always wanted a pair of these but they don't seem to come in men's sizes :)

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Agross

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Love my merino base layers . And being here in Michigan I really love the cabelas wooltimate. Warm and quiet . I have the pants , vest, and jacket. Great stuff.
 

Gumbo

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King of the Mountain hooded sweatshirt and glomitts are two of my absolute best buys ever. They simply can't be beat in the snow. I also wear cheap army surplus wool pants, I wasn't too fond of the weight of the KOM bunwarmers and the lighter KOM pants ripped to easily. I also bought the KOM gaiters but they got too many snow dingleberries. Wool is all I trust to keep me dry and warm in snow, but for earlier season hunts I prefer techy outerwear.
 
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I have a patagonia reclaimed wool sweater that I wore a bunch this year as both a mid and outer layer. I also wear wool for skiing, hiking, and fishing. Its a comfortable material that has some pretty big pluses over synthetics.
 

bigdesert10

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I might be missing the mark since most everyone on this thread is not talking about merino wool, but I'm a huge fan of the First Lite Kanab 2.0 pants (as well as their base layers and various mid-weight items). I'm excited to try the new Obsidian pants and the Sawtooth Jacket as well.
 
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I still wear it for later rifle hunts and the like. In my view, when the weather is nasty I want clothes I know are going to work and I don't get that with new uber materials. With wool I know it can get heavy when wet but it'll still provide heat. Some of the newer stuff I'm not so sure I want to risk my life on to perform the same way when I need to count on the Gortex type raingear not to fail. All my current foul weather gear is around 15 years old and still going strong, with maintenance here and there it'll be going strong for probably 20-30 years. That's something I have yet to hear about any of the new stuff that has a reputation for being good out to maybe 5 or 6 years.
 

Rope14u

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One of my favorite pieces is a core 4 element merino hoodie. Although I don't wear them much early season I have a few Pendleton flannels that see a lot of late season use. Stop at the goodwill in any mountain town to stretch your legs on the drive and you'll find wool for pennies on the dollar. I have 2 new Pendleton shirts that I paid $10 for.


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dotman

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I might be missing the mark since most everyone on this thread is not talking about merino wool, but I'm a huge fan of the First Lite Kanab 2.0 pants (as well as their base layers and various mid-weight items). I'm excited to try the new Obsidian pants and the Sawtooth Jacket as well.

I with you on the kanab pants, they are my go to but feel this thread is more about traditional wool garments that tend to be heavy and bulky.
 
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I wear my Columbia wool hunting pants and shirt jacket when I go back to Pa and stand hunt. If it's going to be really cold. I also have a Columbia hooded jacket but I rarely need it because the stuff is so warm. I love it but I like my Kryptek layering system if I know I'm going to be moving a bunch.
 

5MilesBack

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The only "traditional" wool that I still wear sometimes is my heavy wool pants for late season. But my insulated Microtex pants are so much more comfortable than these, that I generally don't wear them much anymore.
 

bigdesert10

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I with you on the kanab pants, they are my go to but feel this thread is more about traditional wool garments that tend to be heavy and bulky.

That's the impression I got. I still use my old wool pants on occasion for late season elk. They're especially nice on horseback.
 
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Just started wearing wool, I love it. I can be a little reckless in the woods with it. I don't use a puffy or a rain jacket anymore because I kept tearing them up. I bought two KOM pants, a jacket and bowmen shirt for under $600, eBay was nice to me.
 

LBFowler

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These are the wool pants I wear for hunting.

M1951 Korean Wool Field Pants are excellent quality military army surplus wool pants from armysurpluswarehouse.com

U.S. Army Wool Field Pants made for the Army in the 1950s. Perfect for skiers, hunters, etc. The nice thing about these pants is they have buttons inside of the waist so you can button in arctic pant liners for below 0 temperatures. Pants have an adjustable waist and are army green color

The M1951 wool is really the bomb. Super dense, tight weave keeps all kinds of weather out. The shirts are awesome too, but only if you are a midget. I had to buy two shirts and sew them together to get one that fit, but it offers most of the protection of a modern softshell. I also have had decent luck with the "wool serge" and "tropical wool" surplus pants. The tropical are a wool/poly blend and I can wear them all summer.

I use quite a few wool pants, I go for as thin and tightly woven as possible. To me the main advantage is a wide comfort range in regard to temperature, while synthetics are much warmer and tougher for the weight they seem to require more active layering or venting as temps change. The thicker, looser woven stuff (like classic woolrich and filson makinaw) is much less useful for me as it gains a ton of water weight, takes DAYS to dry and is more restrictive on movement just from sheer thickness.

occasionally I will still wear a pendleton button up shirt if I don't have to layer too much as it sucks to layer over. It does however have a HUGE comfortable temperature range and block just enough wind and weather for a good chunk of the year.
 

wytx

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Been wearing King of the Mountain for 20 years. Not many newer fabrics will last that long. My Bowman and Bushman go hunting every year. Quiet and retains warmth when wet.
 
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