[matt green]

it's that time again when walking through knee high wet grass and crops makes you look like you had an accident on your walk home!

anyone wanna start recommending some affor..erm,hah i was then going to say affordable but the only trousers i've seen so for that look as if they would last any amount of time are the country innovation ventile trousers
at £70,bill oddie seems to like them.

ideally i want something like a regular pair of trousers with extra waterproofness rather than pull over types,even in winter i would find my movement restricted and might well start to overheat after about three or four miles.

breathability is also a priority.

matt

[Chris Oates]

Originally Posted by matt green

it's that time again when walking through knee high wet grass and crops makes you look like you had an accident on your walk home!

anyone wanna start recommending some affor..erm,hah i was then going to say affordable but the only trousers i've seen so for that look as if they would last any amount of time are the country innovation ventile trousers
at £70,bill oddie seems to like them.

ideally i want something like a regular pair of trousers with extra waterproofness rather than pull over types,even in winter i would find my movement restricted and might well start to overheat after about three or four miles.

breathability is also a priority.

matt

I always wear gaiters plus water resistant trousers - Regatta, Craghoppers & Peter storm are all OK

Regatta link

Craghoppers & Pete storm link



Get yer gaiters here

[SiG]

After decades of using expensive state-of-the-art kit from outdoor shops I use ex-military stuff now. This is partly down to fieldcraft - on my patch, as well as a few hides and flaps I find some of my best days include an hour or five out on the marhses, dunes, or in the woods. So I use camo gear in different styles depending on where I'm going, and the season. I don't really care what I look like to other birders when I'm out, I care what the birds think! So with patience and the internet/a good rapport with a local army surplus place I can get most things I need on a very limited budget. I should point out that I don't get by on "normal" sizes - footwear 14/15, outer shell 50+ inches, 6'6" tall, etc.

Ventile's great where rustle's *really* a factor - but it isn't always. I've just bought 2 complete new goretex camo outer shells (jacket/trousers), one desert and one woodland dpm, ALL for the same cash price as I paid for one of the first ever Berghaus goretex outer shell jackets 25 years ago! For kex, cotton dpm trousers are around £15 - coared with something like fabsil or one of the other polarising spray treatments you get a decent degree of water-resistance. When it's like today and teeming down, or if you're going for concealment on a marsh (I wouldn't want to lie in a bog for three hours with a single layer ventile trouser that had cost me £70 as my only protection), throw on the goretex over-trouser.

If you're sold on ventile there are still options in ex-military stuff: I have a woodland dpm special forces smock in ventile. I paid £52 new, thus saving £200 on the (to me, inferior) Country Innovations equivalent. It's also a far more appropriate piece of kit for most genuine outdoors birding situations if less fashionable in the visitor centres But I'm not aware of a ventile trouser equivalent.

The gaiters link above says it all: you can get similar if not superior products for half those prices.

[SiG]

Having said all that, I haven't yet gone this far, although I believe this is water-resistant:

[Richard D]

Walking friends rate the Paramo Cascada's as very comfortable, but they're not cheap... Personally I use cheap Craghoppers Pakka Trousers (not 100% rainproof or breathable, but better than the Regatta and Peter Storm equivalants in my experience), but only use them if I really have to, generally relying on proofed poly/cotton walking trousers that keep the worst off and dry quickly.

[Dipper]

Trousers in summer? Shorts! Get wet, dry instantly, no problem. You soon get used to thistles, nettles etc.

[Ruby]

Whilst out birding the other day in the 'drought', I discovered that my waterproof trousers are, in fact, trousers.....