Military PCU Gen 3 cold weather clothing

[sfotex]

I was digging around for some puffy pants for winter camping and I hit upon the new military cold weather gear. Looks like a lot of it is made by Patagonia, Wild Things, Arcteryx, etc. and uses a lot of high end fabrics: Epic, Event, Polartec, Primaloft, soft shells....
http://www.militarymorons.com/gear/clothes.1.html

I ended up ordering a pair of the level 7 pants - primaloft and epic fabric for $60 new off fleabay. Has anyone else used any of this stuff.

[mtnwriter]

i entered "wild things" on ebay and found a really bad movie with denise richardson, but also found a bunch of these hunting / outdoors e-tailers selling wild things cold weather gear for much cheaper than even wild things sold their things in north conway, NH on sale. i bought the whatever crazy military designation named pant equivalent was for about a third of the price it would have cost at wild things. same pant, epic, primaloft, etc. slightly uglier grey color. good deal for me, since winter camping gear gets used only so often and abused when it does and i have no need to look good in it.

[zion zig zag]

Usually that stuff is expensive as shit, especially if it is Berry compliant (made in NA). As far as I know it's just as good as their other lines.

[zeroforhire]

In years past I have used the Patagonia military stuff. The das parka I had was fantastic. Nice olive green as well. As far as I could tell it was basically the same as the regular parka, except for the color.
Sometimes the military gear will be more robust than the civilian stuff, it just depends.

[Boomer28]

Stuff is a mixed bag depending on generation and manufacturer. The Pattagucci & Arcteryx LEAF is clearly the balls but as ZZZ said, expensive as all hell. Uncle Sam has a habit of giving multiple contracts for same/similar items to keep the lobbyist contingent happy (sad but very true), I mean there are upwards of a dozen companies making variants to the M4 carbine right now.

I had some of the older ECWCS (extreme cold weather combat system) gear that a my operator friend gave me and it was ok. The base layer stuff was warm and fit nice but pilled like a bastard and the elastic wore poorly. On the other hand I also got a jacket/pants set that I use to this day when hunting/fishing in shit weather up north and it is bomber, but I have no clue who actually made it as the tags say shit like "jacket, cold weather, waterproof"

[mtnwriter]

pretty sure that ECWCS stuff was wild things - they had the contract for cold weather gear for special ops.

[Hugh Conway]

The Pattagucci & Arcteryx LEAF is clearly the balls but as ZZZ said, expensive as all hell.

The Patagonia stuff regularly shows up on their Web Specials and outlets:
http://www.patagonia.com/us/shop/mens-web-specials?k=1D-ga
at low prices. Some of it's "stock" some of it's not, like the jacket here:
http://www.patagonia.com/us/product/patagonia-mens-slingshot-jacket-special?p=19057-1-984

[sfotex]

The Patagonia stuff regularly shows up on their Web Specials and outlets:
http://www.patagonia.com/us/shop/mens-web-specials?k=1D-ga
at low prices. Some of it's "stock" some of it's not, like the jacket here:
http://www.patagonia.com/us/product/patagonia-mens-slingshot-jacket-special?p=19057-1-984


DOOOH! That's what that stuff is, I noticed the bland color specials awhile ago but never put 2x2 together.

[sfotex]

Got my pants yesterday. Pretty basic but a lot of insulation and they compact down to a bad slightly bigger then the BD skin bag. I'll have to try them out but they seem like they're going to be warm.

[ulty_guy]

I'm generally not naive at all, but I have to admit to being surprised that Patagonia would make gear for a military and a government that they often are against (not to mention war etc etc). I guess 'do as little harm as possible' doesn't really extend to warfare :confused:

Vice-versa it's nice to know that our troops are getting good stuff to use out there, even if the gov't is massively overpaying (as always).

[sfotex]

I'm generally not naive at all, but I have to admit to being surprised that Patagonia would make gear for a military and a government that they often are against (not to mention war etc etc). I guess 'do as little harm as possible' doesn't really extend to warfare :confused:



I would bet they figure someone has to make stuff to keep our troops warm and comfortable, so they might as well use enviro friendly manufacturing techniques and donate some of the $ to save the environment.

[coreshot-tourettes]

The M1965 trigger finger mitts are good as well.

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTfSoHgdSGsUwbOKcY-elnNvPPhwPfKnlK-hRoHAqY7rXKWv6JP

[DeepHelmet]

The level 7 stuff I have says it was made by Halys. Super warm. The Patagonia softshell seems like a decent coat too. The base layers are nice, but maybe give up a little in comfort and warmth to be fire resistant.

[DoWork]

Military surplus store FTW. I can't even tell you how hard it is to not drop dough when I go in there.

[Brewski2]

I have all that crap, ie the 7 layer system. Its actually pretty nice. The Vermont Guard and members of the Army Mountain Warfare School here helped test and develope it. The puffy stuff is from Wild things and the "waffle" base layer is Pataguch R1. Its good stuff but gets trashed easily. BTW none of the cold weather gear is nomex. Also the Arc Teryx stuff is not standard issue unless you're 18 series(and then you get whatever you want), you can buy it and use it if you want to though. We just need some decent boots now.

[XavierD]

on the dirt cheep thing:
http://www.uspatriottactical.com/polypropylene-thermal-top.html

[skiing-in-jackson]

I have an old M-65 field jacket. Think "Stripes". Complete crap. Cotton shell would be deadly in real conditions.

Last year I saw a few soldier types skiing in these sweet jackets. Turned out to be ECWCS gear. I bought one on eBay for 99.00 a few weeks before Christmas. I've been wearing it every day. Really nice. Glad to see our boys are getting stuff this nice.

Big burly zippers, tough materials, made in USA, and well... Built for combat.

[ulty_guy]

I would bet they figure someone has to make stuff to keep our troops warm and comfortable, so they might as well use enviro friendly manufacturing techniques and donate some of the $ to save the environment.

agreed completely, that's why i put the 'vice-versa' bit in there

[scottyb]

I just got some US issue brand new polypro base layer here. http://www.colemans.com/coldweathergear.htm

Have not had the chance to use it yet but it was a decent deal.

[DeathVan]

We have a Navy SEAL Winter training base out here, they all wear the no branded Patagonia gear, great stuff and they go through a lot of it so it gets passed down all around town.

thanks for the links to those sites