Hi Guys,
I'm thumbing through the Filson catalog and the Waterfowl Upland Coat has caught my eye. I'm wondering if anyone has bought one, and if they could tell me if they got the Shelter Cloth or Tin Cloth version. I'm inclined to get the Tin Cloth, as I'd use it everywhere. However, I'd like to know just how durable the Shelter Cloth version is as well. I'm assuming weight is the only difference between the two? (Or maybe the Tin Cloth version is a bit more stiff at first?) They cost the same, and since I haven't gotten "over the hill" yet, I figure this would be the last coat I'd buy (unless my waistline expands, but a diet is cheaper than an new Filson coat.
)
Mike Doerner
Thing about that coat...if you get tired of wearing it you can 'stand' it in the corner.
Filson makes durable stuff...not the warmest or most comfortable but durable.
I've got three Filsom hunting vests two Tin cloth and one Green one I think that's the shelter cloth...it's only a few years old and getting pretty ragged.
Mike:
I don't own a Waterfowl coat, but I have many of Filson's products. Here in the South, it has to be a terrible day weather wise to wear the Tin Cloth. But given a nasty day here, wearing Tin Cloth with an oil finish will repeal about everything but Black Locust tree thorns. Shelter Cloth is just how they describe it as being material from a tent. There's like 3 or 4 oz(per yard I assume) difference. I mostly use their Featherweight shirts and boots on a daily basis. When it's cold here or if I'm hunting in Kansas, I pull out the Shelter Cloth.
Kind Regards,
Raimey
rse
Most of their stuff seems fugly, stiff, heavy,...... fit only for commercial fisherman. Who want's a piece of clothing that lasts "forever"?
Mike,
I have tons of Filson Stuff including tin cloth coats and shelter cloth. I find the tin cloth to be over kill for the most part. Both are best used in cold weather. If it is hot out you will sweat your but off in either. The shelter cloth will protect well enough from most briars in my expierence. I have the shelter cloth pants with the tin face for many years and they are still going strong. The longer you have their stuff the better it looks and the etter it feels. BTW I like stuff to last forever.
Bill G.
After further reading, shelter cloth is more water repellent than tin cloth. That does it for me, I'll get the shelter cloth.
Mike Doerner
I have a "packer's coat" which is made from Tin Cloth. 'had it for maybe 10 yrs. It still stands up by itself (stiff as a board). The colder it gets, the stiffer it gets. It also is like a fresh licked totsie-pop dropped on the ground for picking up debris. I've never thought it provided particularly good insulation in the cold either. All said, it's an expensive coat that weighs a lot, uncomfortably stiff, and does a poor job of keeping you warm. But it keeps you dry.
I've never tried to shoot a long gun with it on, but I doubt it'd be easy or comfortable.
Those English "oil rags" are expensive and may have feel of used condom after exposure to wet weather, but at least that stuff is comfortable and allows plenty of freedom in arm movement.
My mother uses one for gardening. She had it for about 15 years.
As for most of that Filson stuff they would have to pay me to wear their drabs.
I have a packer coat that Chuck describes. I got it on a return or some kind of "misplaced item" deal when I sold Filson. It is a tad too small for me so I can't wear it with an undergarment such as a sweater in cold weather. It really has no use. I wonder if the Tin Cloth can be softened up a bit if it is washed (not recommended in the directions)? I wonder if it can be washed about five times and show some sign of a more friendly garment? Anyone ever try this?
They'll keep you dry...only till the sweat from your body condenses on the inside.
Filson makes nice bags...game vests, long johns and hats....and cloths for lumber jAcks.
Bill,
I've given some thought to washing it too. I'd be a little worried about fowling the Mrs.' machine though.
I have several Filson pieces and the shelter cloth waterfowl jacket is the best designed and most functional. Easy to shoot in.
Tin cloth is good for pants and chaps,OK for vests but I find the jackets a bit constricting. They're like Vanson leather jackets, by the time they're worn in you're worn out.
I have a Filson duffel bag. I never use it as it is too stiff and most of all it smells and makes my clothes smell.
I think we could hand wash in a number two washtub in very hot water with mild soap to attempt to remove some of the imbedded wax. The material should soften as the wax is removed. I think the "no wash" instructions are meant to address the deterioration of the stitching over a period of time rather than harm done to the material. I'm going to give it a shot because the coat stinks and is worthless to me in its present condition. I don't know why it stinks because it started as a new coat and I haven't given it any different treatment than I have given any other Filson garment.
I have the Waterfowl coat in Tin cloth.
Yea its a bit stiff,,but if ya really want to stay dry,,you cant beat it.
I havnt had trouble with perspiration condensing on the inside. Maybe climate here?
I did buy it a tad large, and in cold weather will layer with fleece.
Nice coat!! BUT DO NOT WASH TIN CLOTH!!!
Washing will remove the "wax" and ruin the waterproofing!!
Gooser
I'm going to wash mine as well. The new spray waterproofers work very well if several coats are applied. I've waterproofed a Carhart barn coat that would double as a rain parka while on horseback.
Chuck, keep in touch concerning the results. I will do that as well. Murphy
I have a waterfowl coat (tin cloth), which I wear hunting ducks in a layout boat in a bay in December and/or January. Sweating is not a problem the way I use it. I like it.
Rich
Bill,
It'll go in the wash tonight. Hopefully, I won't run into problems contaminating my wife's new washer.... I think hot water and Dawn dishsoap should cut the oil/wax. I plan to spray with one of the modern waterproofers later
I own the Filson Waterfowl coat in camo, I didn't think there were two versions available. In any event, I own a number of Filson clothes and they are just about industructable.
The Waterfowl coat came with a zipper and snaps. As such with the coat opem shooting doves last year the zipper/snaps scratched my gun. Sent the coat back to Filson and the zipper and snaps were all replaced with buttons, no charge.
Two things have happened recently at Filson, one I don't think the present designers are hunters and the company has been sold to a holding company.-Dick
You can always take it to a Laundromat...they don't mind if you screw up their multi-thousand dollar machine.
Bill,
It'll go in the wash tonight. I think hot water and Dawn dishsoap should cut the oil/wax.
Should work. I got a terrific closeout buy on a Filson Shelter Cloth hunting jacket a few years ago. Like all Filson products, it was overbuilt, stiff, heavy and trapped sweat inside - but I knew that (having already learned the hard way), and the price was too good to resist. So I washed the jacket in hot water and detergent.
I think washing it got rid of 5 pounds of wax and gunk, turning it into a breathable, wearable, practical field jacket for late season grouse hunting.
Of course, it lost all its waterproofing - but I've become a fairweather hunter in my old age, anyway!
I still use a Filson game bag, but got rid of most of the Filson stuff I've had over the years. Jackets, vests, hats - they never wore out, because I learned not to wear them. Too @#$%! heavy for field use, IMHO.
Nice looking dog you have.
I've had my oiled Tin Cloth for about ten years ..... It took a year or two to conform to my body. It was never waterproof in a downpour but no matter what I do to it, or where it goes it takes a lick'en and keeps on tick'en..... At the end of the season I wipe off the mud, roll it up and dump it on the back shelf. ( If you hang them in a warm place all the oil will migrate to the bottom.) Mine is fit a bit roomy so I can wear it with a wool vest and a turtle neck, whch for me is fine for active days above 30 F. Colder than that I switch to my 20 year old Barbour Northumbria .... it's wool lined and is large enough for quilt lining. Both coats have a lot of pockets and a game pocket .
Al
They have been known to walk around in the night.
(nothing inside the coat, just it's own stiffness in a house in the 70+F range.)
I had a double tin coat for many years which allegedly was a "Long", but it in fact was 3-4" shorter in the body that my wool Filson Coat. I inquired "why" to Filson, they said "Send it back ,and we'll have a look" (Remember this coat was at least a dozen years old) They looked at my coat, said "Wow, that's old, must have shrunk up over time" and sent me a new coat. Hooray for Filson, I didn't ask for a coat, just wanted to understand why they sized different coats differently.
Point of the story is that, if the cotton coats are subject to shrinkage, be careful about washing it
Not just washing shrinks Tin Cloth - the sleeves on my old TC Filson started out with cuffs down to my knuckles, and six seasons later were halfway to my elbows! The only water that ever touched that jacket came from heaven. Luckily my partner was a shrimp, so he had it for another 6 years until it was spray-washed by a skunk. That scent was tougher than Tin Cloth, and the jacket went to the local landfill.
PS for HoJo - Kerry the springer says "thanks for the compliment!"
I recently bought the "Pro Guide Vest" a real heavy duty strap bird vest. I think I will outlive that one (as well as all my other bird vests) but I had to try a vest that has form fitted water bottle pockets right up front now that we have learned to carry bottles for the pups rather than just carrying jugs in the truck. This vest is expensive but it is a piece of work with two layers of quick release buckles and gosh knows what else. Big double patch pockets in front with heavy flaps and rear and front access game pockets. I have worn mine twice so it's time to go shopping again!!
Actually my most used pieceof Filson gear is their hunting bibs. Mine are shelter cloth with tin cloth reinforcment panels at the high wear areas.
I have one of their old safari shirts for sale if anyone is interested. Short sleeve kahki, cartridge pockets, right side shotting pad and working epaulets, the real deal. It's from the early 1990's, new with tags, size 38.
I wish I was still a size 38.
I've mentioned it before, but I'll post it again. I hunt quail in rugged terrain and was often unknowingly dropping live shells from my pouch or vest with simple button closures. Velcro closure pockets were clumsy and awkward. I wanted a shell pouch that had a spring closure like some of the empty shell waist mounted net bags and the gunslips from Wild Hare. I didn't find one for years and was going to make one until I ran across exactly what I wanted at the Shot Show a couple years ago.
It's made by Drake Waterfowl and called a "shooter's belt and gun rest". It has not only a strong spring overcenter closure, but also another compartment for wallet/phone, meds, etc, that closes with a spring and a double security large velcro "lock". The shell pouch stays open on its own and closes with the slap of the hand or elbow. I don't hunt quail/chuckar without it anymore.
Cabelas and Basspro both carried it for a while and then dropped it. Must not have been discovered by other upland hunters.
http://www.drakewaterfowl.com/products/DW344.php#enlarge
I have original Duxback khaki shirts in Medium and Medium Long from the closing of the last Duxback factory in Maryland. Any of you skinny guys interested? Some are new in celophane or plastic. There is no more Duxback or anything like it. I will never fit into these shirts again, as a matter of fact I never did but couldn't pass up the closeout prices.
I have owned a Filson "Original Hunting Vest" for over 30 years and it has been used every season since I purchased it. It is warm in early season, so probably 15 eyars ago I purchased the strap vest and that is used in early season. along the way I have purchased three different types of their shirts. I love all of the above.
About 28 years ago my wife gave me the Waterfowl coat as a present. It is not lined, but is too warm in fall and too stiff in winter. It also felt too restrictive to swing on birds.
I just wear the Vest in cold weather and layer underneath. This works even in single digit weather when I am out pheasant hunting.
I've been suckered left, right and center by every hunting gear ad and marketing ploy that ever was, and high on the list has been those quasi-traditional items from Filson, and anything plastered with lots of pockets. More pockets = more gear, and that's about the dumbest equation imaginable.
Wish I had a buck for every $50 I wasted in the past half century on gear that didn't work out.
The older I get, the less cr@p I carry afield, and the easier hunting has become (Would have said 'simpler,' but you'd probably assume I was referring to myself
).
Nowadays, the gun, half a dozen shells, some TP, a pocket knife and a juicy apple is all I need for the day. A beat up old strap vest is ample to carry that and - hopefully - a dead ruff or two. Anything else is just excess baggage.
I softened up my Tin Cloth Coat a little bit by putting it in the dryer for about 100 hours with my grand kids teeny shoes. I used low heat. It is really stiff, but protects you from Mesquite thorns and natives with blow guns.
I have the Waterfowl Upland coat in the shelter cloth. Have had it for 15 years and love it. Get the hood for it.Filson products last a lifetime. Their gamebag is the best.
I love my tin cloth waterfowl jacket. Been through about 10 seasons of pheasant and duck hunting in every condition and cover and just needs to be touched up with a little new wax in the wear areas now and then. Gains character with use. Only compliant would be that I've had to replace a couple of buttons that seemed to have popped off due to poor sewing at the factory. Like Chuck's picture, it'll stand up in a corner but after a few minutes of having it on it softens up enough to shoot with just fine.
Now if it would just cool off enough to need a jacket! Record high temp today in DC...
This is all a good example of why I don't wear anything hunting related other than sometimes a shell bag. Jeans, a t-shirt or two, and whatever Carhartt jacket I find in the closet. Strictly old school!
The way I see it, the birds don't get to dress up so why should I?
Jagermeister,
We wear bright orange rain gear in commercial fishing, it keeps you dry (sort of). Since I run the boat I started wearing Filson rain gear, it was a lot drier but not as good if you fall in the water. (visibility) I sent the company a picture of the boat pulling some 8,000 pounds of salmon over the rail with me in my Filson coat in the foreground. (but they have not published it) I have been on the ocean for more than 300 days in some past years, but am currently retired.
I wear Filson when ever I go out in the local storms and stay rather dry. I do not wear Gortex (wet tex), but it is okay off the coast where they have less than 40 inches a year of rain. In Alaska we had occasionally > 160 inches.
My dog ate one of the coats and Filson fixed it free. Another one, the zipper broke and they sent me a free new replacement coat. The only disavantage I've had is with the re-coating the coat with "oil". I find the coats very warm, good wind breakers, and if kept up, very dry. I use a new coat as a dress coat about town and after it gets re-oiled it get to go hunting.
jas
Greg,
I'm a proponent of lightweight clothing as well. Of course, I live in Calif and can go with a shirt or two most times. But those Carhartts are pretty stiff themselves.
Bill,
The packer is in the wash.
Three hot water wash cycles and lots of Dawn and laundry detergent and the packer is still pretty stiff even when wet. I almost screwed the pooch and tossed it in the dryer. It's clear the wax/oil is coming out, but also clear there's still plenty in the material. The heat of the dryer might well have coated the inside of the dryer tub with Filson wax.
I'm beginning to think only Granny Clampett's boiling tub will get the wax out.
...yer wifes going to kick yer ass.
Carhartt jacket I find in the closet. Strictly old school!
I was under the impression Filson was Old Skool. It's all I wear and nothing can take a beating like a Filson.
Info alert, when you use the word school in "Old Skool" the spelling is with a K if your going to wear Carhertt then you have to get a little better with you street slang.
Bill,
I'll PM or email you on this.
Not really OT, wasn't Rabbit trying to waterproof a barn coat about this time last year with 'wash in' NikWax? How did that work out Jack??
I shudda just traded my packer coat for Jack's barn coat. I've taken a Carhart barn coat and sprayed it with whatever the latest modern aerosol waterproofing I had around and have had outstanding rain proofing. I also spray my expensive beaver cowboy hats used on the trail with the same. The hats retain their shape and bead water even in the heaviest of downpours, year after year.
I use very comfortable jacket, but keep "rain shell" from Hermes in my pocket. You see, when you throw your arms up your jacket shuld not move at all that's the test.
The only interesting product from Filson is their boots. I still like to see Made in USA label.
The Filson boots are very overpriced and tear up the backs of my ankles. You know, the backs of my ankles, whatever they call that area. I could never hunt grouse in those boots, although I probably will if I ever get them broken in. I paid $80.00 for the Uplanders on the "employee program". They retail for about $325.00. Way too much for this country boy.
Don't bother with the Nikwax from L L Bean. The very lightest misting sprinkle might bead up for a moment on cotton fabric. Wear wool, polypropylene layered (real good union suit as it transfers moisture outward) or hunt in the Astrodome.
jack
While yOu guys are all wet, greezy and stylish looking in your Filsons...I'll be dry and warm in my 10x Gortex rain jacket.
jOe - just don't walk thru Texas shinery brush or a mesquite thicket wearing that 10X - unless you want to look like you have been castrating panthers
Wow. This thread is approaching the famous "Best Way to Close a Double" discussion of recent memory. I've never tried the boots, but the low-cut shoes are very comfortable. My only complaint is the soles wore out too fast, but they are replaceable. Waxed cotton is way hot, but repels the briars. I'd rather be sweaty than scratched all to pieces.
I once interviewed years ago for a job with WR Grace, who makes GoreTex. They were really a bunch of egghead liberals up in Maryland. They offered me a job, but I turned it down. Then, they actually to stiff me on part of my travel expenses and hotel room I incurred during the interview. What a bunch of screwballs. I keep away from GoreTex.
You sure been missing out.
Not all their jackets have consistency of beef jerky, but the prices are insane for what amounts to drab Hee-Haw style outfits. The main problem is that those who could benefit from their clothing (like lumberjacks) simply can't afford it.
That English oilskin stuff is half way presentable. I would not wear it on Sundays, but it's not that bad for daily wear. It goes particularly well with that box on wheels called Land Rover.
Murph,
I hung the packer to dry lastnight and weighed it tonight. A good 6 oz lighter from the washing. It's also much more pliable. I expect a few more washes will make it pleasant.
I'd hang it outside a couple of days and then check it's progress....before you turn Tin cloth into Moleskin
I bought a nice field/barn coat from the Orvis sales tent in the middle of summer - it was good right from the box and saved a hundred bucks on the deal. I'm not a fan of cardboard water-proof material for coats. If it rains, I'll stay home and go out the next day.
If it rains....that's a good day to intertain those big breasted good looking lady land owners.
I hear those Tin Cloth jackets are the ticket in a Duck blind at about 15 degrees...once you raise your gun and hold it there for a few minutes the jacket will take a 'set' then you can relax and let the Tin Cloth hold up your gun.
While yOu guys are all wet, greezy and stylish looking in your Filsons...I'll be dry and warm in my 10x Gortex rain jacket.
Errrr....the failure of SEVERAL Gore-Tex garments to keep me dry in the wet is what's pushing me to try the Filson stuff. At least they call it water-resistant, not waterproof. I suppose that's what the PVC rainsuit is for......
Mike Doerner
Mike,
While I agree with those that say the Tin Cloth Filson stuff is waterproof and tough, HJ is also right with the comment about the stuff being stiff enough to hold you in shooting position. If you just want to walk thru briars while it's pouring rain, Tin Cloth is for you. If you want to quickly mount your gun on a flushing quail while in the pouring rain in the briars, I dunno what you need. Drop the briar part and I'd say get a thin raincoat.
Despite the claims for GoreTex
et al., there is no garment that will keep out hard rain without trapping sweat. Most of the Filson stuff will get you wet even on a dry day, if you hunt hard enough to raise a sweat. If you insist on vigorous hunting in all weathers, you
will get wet. Get used to it.
I've come to prefer fleece or tightly woven cotton garments which repel light rain, get wet in heavier rain, but breathe well and eventually dry out. Besides, you get to make your own steam bath by sitting near the stove when you get back to camp.
I've had success with spraying cotton canvas with the waterproofers and my old GorTex with the same. Also, I've used one of the mil surplus green ponchos with a gun under it, but getting a quick shot off is tough.
In a downpour I wear this Gore Tex parker .... It has a 500 denier shell and is very well designed. But in heavy brush stick to the Tin Cloth.
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templa...&hasJS=trueAl
I got my shelter cloth cloth waterfowl jacket the other day and my tin cloth chaps. The shelter cloth isn't too stiff and is supposedly more water repellent than the tin cloth. We'll see how this does soon enough. Thanks for all of your input on the subject.
Mike Doerner
Keep those tin cloth chaps waxed1 Filson wax is a petroleum wax and eventually does evaporate out.
I found out the hard way this morning. We were chasing pheasants in waist high sorghum early and my tin chaps soaked through. Last years wax...
Good to know. An August re-oiling will become part of the preparation methinks.....
Mike Doerner