Whatever you decide to wear, it has to meet a few essential requirements before it comes anywhere near the perfect solution. It has to be warm. There's always the possibility of getting lost or injured. If you can keep warm, you've got a good chance of making it out alive. If you can't keep warm, chances are you will die of hypothermia on the first night.
You won't stay warm if you're wet. Even wool loses much of it's efficiency when wet and most other materials are worse than useless at keeping you warm once they get wet, so another essential clothing requirement for this type of hunting is the ability to keep you dry, under any conditions.
Most of us realise the need for ultra quiet hunting clothing, particularly when hunting an animal so highly attuned to danger as the sambar deer. If your hunting method involves moving from one point to another, you really need to wear something that doesn't rustle or make scratching noises everytime you push past some scrub.
Lastly, most of us would prefer to wear something in an effective camoflauge pattern. I'm not saying that you would be wasting your time hunting sambar when wearing plain colours such as olive green or brown, but let's face it, we need all the help we can get with these wary deer, don't we? I don't particularly like wearing camo, but if I'm about to seriously try and stalk a sambar deer, I can overcome my feelings of dislike for this type of gear in the name of expediency.
I believe that almost anyone hunting in this country at this time of year would opt to carry some sort of pack, probably a day backpack, so you can carry your raincoat and other supplies in comfort and without the need to wear it all if the conditions turn out to be more pleasant than expected.
So what's my idea of the "perfect" solution for hunting in cold and wet conditions? I like to wear Polar Fleece when hunting. It's warm and lightweight, but most importantly, it's almost totally quiet to move around in. If Polar Fleece gets wet, the water can be rung out quickly and easily, restoring much of it's former thermal efficiency. If you happen to have Polar Fleece that has been treated to make it water resistant, so much the better. I particularly like the Ridgeline DWR (Durably water resistant) range of fleece clothing. The New Zealand Fern camo blends in pretty well in southern bushland. I've got a couple of pairs of these trousers and tops and in my mind, they are almost perfect for this sort of hunting.
I carry a top quality "Gortex" full length raincoat in addition to the water resistant polar fleece gear, just in case the water starts to creep through, but it hasn't happened yet. The Gortex jacket is my insurance policy and my "life jacket" should a find myself in a real fix one day. I wear thermal underwear underneath to reduce the build-up of sweat and subsequent cooling effect of sweat laden under garments, once you stop working. I also wear a good rain shedding hat and good strong bushwalking boots.
Admittedly, the camo pattern isn't anywhere as good as one of the flash 3-D suits, but by the same token, it's not too bad either.
What's your perfect solution?
Mick
not just walked but hunted! It is very comfortable noise levels on the top end shooters jacket are minimal but there, the sambar jacket is very quiet and a good compromise. I have the two in one backpack which i roll my shooters jacket up and tie to the straps in the bottom. I like the zips under the arms on the tops too for when you walking back to the camp faster lets you keep that little cooler......da da da da.