Any one got any experience of this jacket?

How heavy is it oR wil it pack down to a small day pack?

I was thinking of his one or the Thar Anorak

K

Stay with Swazi Ridgeline is cheap crap

I wore a Monsoon 11 while hunting the Wicklow Mountains in Ireland last year... there were wet days aplenty to be had and the smock held its own...I stayed dry.
On the other hand my Irish cobber that spends the whole season on the Sika complained of his expensive Swazi jacket that failed him the previous week in that he was drenched through on one particularly wet day.

I am returning to Ireland later this year to hunt Sika...the Monsoon 11 is going back with me!

Swazi is awesome stuff.
Given my Wapiti some serious abuse for three years now and its still going strong (well a couple of small tears repaired with glue) but wouldnt be without it.

My findings are as per the Irish pro in the post above. My Swazi Tahr soaks up water through the cuffs like a sponge. Other friends of mine warned me of this before I bought mine but I really really wanted to look like the hard looking Kiwi fellow in the Swazi brochure so I continued with my purchase.

Over rated and not fit for purpose in my opinion. When I emailed Swazi about it they admitted a design flaw with the cuffs and they said they were improving the design. I notice since then they now have done away with any of the stretchy neoprene like cuff material and now offer the latest model with conventional goretex cuff so I would think the new one would be ok. Just don't get one with the stretchy cuffs.

The Swazi wapiti and Tahr jackets are very well made.... for a purpose. To my mind they are great coats where you are hunting bush and want to come back to a fire at night.
The outer layer keeps them quiet and does provide a small amount of warmth over a straight goretex style jacket. They stop being great in continous rain. The outer layer cant help but retain water to some level and this prevents the goretex from working properly.
They also hold extra water and get heavy if you want to stow them back in a backpack. For day hunts and summer they are great and offer a wide range of use. If I'm seriously heading into the mountains or longer trips in winter, I take a straight goretex jacket.
All that being said, any jacket will let the water in at the neck and cuffs... its unavoidable. Yes the neoprene got wet, but it did provide a tight fit around the wrist that stopped water traveling to some extent.

I agree with all of the Shankspony apart from your last sentence.

It is the tight fitting neoprene cuffs which exaggerate water ingress. The wet from the cuffs wicks up your arms, then down your back, on into your underwear and down to your socks and boots. My old Berghaus cag jag with conventional fold over and secure with Velcro cuffs would prevent this from happening.

As you say they are ok but just don't use them in the rain.