The style and fashion of clothing for shooting is an ever changing industry – In England, guns and country clothes go together hand in hand and are rarely seen apart. There have been many leaps and bounds of progression to the style and practicality that brands put into their collections in recent years, combining traditional styles with the innovation of modern fabrics, membranes and treatments.

Many styles that have been thought to have gone out of fashion are slowly creeping back, especially around the countryside. The most notable material is Tweed – a rough woollen fabric which has been established for many years as the fabric for gun enthusiasts to wear.
Tweed is a marvellous material which is thicker and more durable than common materials such as cotton and nylon. Swinging your rifle around poses no threat to the fabric, as it is tightly weaved to resist tearing.

It’s an extremely versatile fabric which can be worn anywhere and everywhere and is great for keeping you warm, while also being breathable enough to keep you from overheating – because of this is it popular for gun sportswear and it is not uncommon to see a handful of enthusiasts out in a field, sporting their tweed shooting jackets enjoying a game of clay pigeon shooting.

In the mid 1970’s an innovative new fabric was invented that changed the face of shooting clothing forever – Gore Tex prevents moisture build up by allowing it to evaporate out of the fabric, but not allowing it to seep back in, which is one area that even tweed has not been able to perfect!

Gore Tex is more popular with the younger crowd, as it’s multi-layer design allows it to be crafted into other fabrics, effectively meaning that almost any jacket could incorporate Gore Tex, not limiting its appeal to just those who find it visually appealing such as with Tweed.

Some brands are even starting to bring out shooting jackets which are a combination of both Tweed and Gore-Tex, such as with the Sporting Tweed jacket from Barbour – Offering the traditional and much loved styles of tweed jackets with the modern wonders of fully breathable and completely waterproof GT Membrane.

Due to its light-weight, this is often used for more active shooters who generally move around a lot, whereas if you’re a ‘standing shooter’, you might prefer the heat retention ability of heavy tweed.

One thing that no shooting jacket would be without is a handful of pockets for storing cartridges and clips. Several large pockets on the outside, a single breast pocket and two to six inner pockets have been such a popular essential for practicality purposes (holding an abundance of gun accessories), that most jackets will have the same layout.

What we can expect in the next few years is for brands to continue developing their styles of shooting jackets and clothing, putting a wider focus on more modern designs incorporating revolutionary membranes such as Gore-Tex, while also continuing to satisfy the thirsts of more traditional tastes.