What are the disadvantages of wearing wool?

[Cory Mattson]

Lots of good comments pro and con. For beginners I do think there is a misundertsanding of wet wool - try and avoid it. Wear a "wet" wool garment in legitamately cold weather and you are in trouble. I use a thin shell waterproof cover for the worst hits from rain - uncovered wool works ok in light mist or ocassional splash with no problems. I use KOM and love it but not for cold - I think it works best 25/30 degrees to 50 - in this spread of temperatures it excells. For COLD 0 to 25 I like Filson heavy tight weave - great for blind or stand but I can't walk in it - no kidding can't walk breaking full sweat almost immedaietly - I dress as close to stand as possible and move as slow as possible once dressed. Silk is my firts layer - wool/silk blend next - Filson sox in differet weights. I saw the comment about KOM shedding water - we have had this too - very good but only new stuff - when we washed our wool couple a years in ours lost that wtare shedding ability. Not sure if we had dry cleaned it would have held or not ? but one of the reasons we like KOM shirts and pants is we can throw it in a creek with a rock on it and it rinses clean quickly - say after working and elk. I have not had trouble drying wool - but the only wool I have had "wet" completely was a shirt and pants - a Jacket or coat would be a problem - bibs would be a disaster. For drying a couple 3 hours afternoon sun on a large rock or overnight near a woodstove has managed all our needs.
I am not a fan of cheaper wools - no offense but they were all a waste of money and time for us.

[jjwaldman]

You guys that live in the south like I do need to try the ASAT wool pants from first lite.  They are lightweight (I wear them from the end of Sept in TN to November/December), and they don't pick up burrs like normal merino wool.  Their zip up jacket and pullover are the cat's meow as well.  I have worn them in 85 degree weather down to the low 40's (with thermal underwear below 50), and they are great.

[Biathlonman]

I'll run good merino wool baselayers but beyond that I have little use for it.  For my body all wool itches, the stuff is crazy expensive, and I've found other products have a better warmth/weight ratio.

Part of my distain may be that I have to wear cheap wool at work part of the year.  Usually have hives by the end of the night...every night!

[Cato]

Disadvantage?  You will want to hunt even more than you already do.  

Seriously, I live in MS where its pretty warm most of the season.  I have wool hillbilly bibs that are far and above my favorite apparel.  I put it on the first time the temp gets under 60 degrees with silk underwear and let it roll.

[Hoyt]

Warm weather is the only one I've found meaningful enough to take into consideration.

The only disadvantage wearing wool that I have had was when I would wear my gray wool pants, my Filson wool shirt and my brown Filson vest.  I would always stop by the local Quick trip for a soda and something to eat for the hunt and the drive. The sweet and attractive manager, every time, would say "You really clean up nice, let feel that vest, you have such nice clothes, I SHOULD TAKE YOU HOME WITH ME." Scared me a bit, every time, at least I think that would make it a disadvantage or perhaps a danger would be a better word in this case.

[Bladepeek]

Pavan, now that's a problem I've never had to worry about. Maybe my wool is cut differently?

Hunting in Germany, where the winter temps are usually a little milder than here in MI, I always wore a wool shirt and wool sweater with a wind-blocker jacket over it. If it got too warm, I could always take the sweater off and stow in my rucksack.

For the milder days, when it was way too warm in the afternon, but turned chilly toward evening, I had a light-weight wool cape (yeah, just like in the 3 Musketeers). Turned rain showers with no problem, was big enough I could drape it over me and my pack and I could let more or less breeze through as comfort required.

I'm still wearing some Pendalton wool shirts that my wife bought me over several Christmases 25 - 30 years ago that are my favorite sport shirts. They breath, they are light weight compared to the same thickness cotton and still look like new.

But that's just me. I like lamb chops too.

[Jason R. Wesbrock]

Most of it I've seen isn't terribly windproof.

[Jeff Strubberg]

The only downsides I've run into are expense and wool is harder to clean up/de-scent that synthetics.  Other than that, it beats synthetic in every way.

[huntin_sparty]

Burr magnets
Washing PITA
Not the best if caught in a steady rain.

Pros out weigh the negatives.  I found Cabelas wooltimate good to get rid of the wash issues.  And I use my sitka stuff if it may be wet.

[Red Beastmaster]

If you get caught in the rain you will smell like a wet dog.

To avoid itching I always wear a turtle neck and try not to have any skin contact.

Wool gloves are pretty slick on a wood bow grip. I use the kind with the little gripper dots.

[ron w]

The down side of wool.....nothing! There is a reason it has been used for hunting and work clothing for eons...........     The ONLY thing better than wool is another layer of it!! JMHO!!  

[Mint]

I'm surprised about the posts of wool holding scent and cleaning. I have KOM wool and never clean it anymore. I just brush off the mud when dry and blot out any blood stains. It seems wool keeps naturally clean. As far as scent i just hang out on a line for a day and it smells fresh to me.

[Kevin Dill]

As a way of explaining how my wool held odors:

I was on a moose hunt in BC about 10 years ago with another die-hard wool guy. He was wearing KOM, and I had a full set of SI. The dilapidated little cabin we stayed in was heated by a woodstove. The weather was generally wet and cold. Our wools got really damp-wet, and were freezing cold in the morning. Our best option was to bring them inside the cabin where there was heat and hope they would dry. The woodsmoke and food odors permeated our damp wools to the point they were frankly awful. I could smell my partner's wools easily at 20 yards down-wind. The odor persisted when they were finally dry...both of us noticed it. After the hunt, no amount of dry cleaning, detergent, scent-blocker or other methods were effective at removing the smoke/food odors. My wools had so much odor I refused to wear them for whitetails that year. They had to hang for months before I couldn't smell them...and that's after 2 complete cleanings. I think my partner sold his KOM set, rather than deal with it.

This is no bash on wools, because they are fine. Most guys will never really abuse them with 10 or more days of constant daily wear in the backcountry with no real bath. I've done it both ways...wool and synthetics. At the end of such hunts my synthetics smell much cleaner. My wools would have a...shall we say 'richness'...to them that I disliked. That's why I no longer use any wool on those hunts, but I like it much for local whitetails and 'clean' hunting.

[Goshawkin]

I love to hunt in the cold and have no choice but to work in it. Wool works great for me! I bought a long(comes down to your knees) Swanndri wool Coat from New Zealand years ago. I liked it so much I bought another coat,sweater and a lighter jacket.I learned a long time ago if you find something you like,buy a few,because they'll quit making it for sure! In really cold weather I wear a poly Turtle neck,the sweater and coat with poly long johns and a pair of heavy Codet wool pants. Stay toasty warm.
Anybody remember these Swanndri coats?
 

For mild weather I just wear a wool shirt, but for the colder stuff the grade of wool makes a pretty big difference. The camo wool slicker,as pictured above, that I bought from Paul b. years ago is still going strong and with a light yearly lanolin treatment, it will shed rain all day and it is fairly wind proof. Then when we start with the Filson shirts pants and coats, that is in its own class for taking on diverse conditions.
In the northern half of the country, many of us have many bows to deal with, hundreds of arrows, some spend thousands on leases and then scrimp for the cheap stuff at WalMart and suffer for it when things get damp or when the first cold snap hits that starts the rut. One good bow is all that is required, but you just have to have a variety of suitable weight garments to match conditions and I have found that nothing covers as wide a temperature range and wet range as well as wool.  I wear the same thing when it is 70 out as I do when it is 50, try that with cotton or heavy poly blends, you will be chilled to the bone and ringing wet underneath.

[ron w]

Kevin Dill, a question.....are you saying other types of clothing [natural or synthetic] wouldn't have taken on the smells of camp under the same conditions......just wondering     !!

[wooddamon1]

Wool isn't perfect, but I can't wait to wear mine this year.

[Rob W.]

I like my long underwear with a high percentage of wool but that is about it. I love the looks of wool outerwear but don't like wearing it for some reason.


Rob

[The Whittler]

Archie, I don't know if anyone answered your question (will it shrink if it gets wet from rain or what ever). Only if you put heat to it like a dryer or you wash in hot water.