The military-surplus version of Sportsmans Guide is sitting here in front of me and theres a pile of stuff I want/need/must have. Lotsa nice cold weather gear..including lined Austrian pants, with suspenders, for $15. One of the LMI’s purchased a couple pair and brought one by for me to try and they are *nice*. Quilted lining on the inside so these babies are gonna be nice and warm. Just the ticket for slow stalks and walks through the cold. They also had a nice deal on gloves, ski masks, some more first aid gear, parkas, H&K flare guns and a few other goodies that I simply must procure for the bunker.
I love military surplus…someone spends $5 million to desing pants that are comfortable, practical, wear well and cost $4 to make. Who wouldnt take advantage of that?????
question
i’ve been reading your journal off and on for a while now. it’s quite interesting stuff, but i do have one question: could you please define LMI?
I have a somewhat more jaundiced view of military surplus. When I was in the army in the mid 60’s, I worked at a mostly civilian quartermaster research and development post that developed stuff like sleeping bags, uniforms and shoes among other things.
One of my friends worked for the provost marshal, and one of his duties was to change safe combinations. Doing this one day, he heard the following from a meeting in an adjcent conference room: “Gentlemen – the average life of a soldier in combat is two weeks. Why should we make (this equipment) last any longer than that?”
Which is not to say that equipment was actually designed that way, but that there were people who thought it should be. But what got designed was made to be cheap, and things like overall efficiency and weight were strictly secondary.
For example, the standard army mummy bag was stuffed with chicken feathers, not down, because it was cheaper. And weighed about twice as much. It was made of heavy cotton rather than lighter and more durable nylon. Army packs and frames are inefficient and heavy, but they’re cheap and pretty durable.
So I look pretty carefully before buying military. Some stuff, like their gloves and some of the boot socks, are great buys. But some things can be beat by stuff on the regular market, depending on what your priorities are.
Re: question
Like Minded Individual.
People who share the same ideas on many things.
Re: question
It says, rather plainly, in the User Info section what it stands for. Theres also several other Frequently Used Terms listed there as well.
Well, right off the bat, most of the military surplus (U.S) is alot less than 40 years old. Most of it is less than twenty years old. Theres still some Viet Nam – era stuff floating around but not much. In short, I think the crappy stuff has pretty much disappeared, probably from its own relative fragility.
Soviet stuff is usually pretty crappy. Alot of Warsaw Pact stuff is too. Swiss, Austrian, W. German, and Swedish stuff is great. For example, im wearing a W. German field jacket and liner and it beats the US one for warmth and comfort.
However, I think alot of the current issue stuff, and the recently surplusses tuff, is going to beat anything that was issued in the 1960’s in terms of quality. Howver, yes, you still have to be a careful shopper. But, then again, theres alot of military surplus stuff out there that has no civillian counterpart.