We don’t seem to be too bothered by the essentials of survival when discussing the boog. It’s all Night vision, more night vision, own the night, and “Oh sure do you have night vision”? We can discuss gear until the cows come home, but many new gun owners have never even overnighted outdoors. Camping is icky. Wet weather is icky. During the boog, how many people will be prepared with proper weather essentials and be able to adapt to changing conditions? A cold front blows in and will you need to call a time out and go home? You’re out in the woods and a rainstorm happens? You escaped the city and now you’re in farmland and suddenly its freeze balls?
Welcome to unplanned weather. Today we are going to discuss the wet weather poncho, its uses, and how important it is to pack since it doesn’t take up much space and has multitudes of uses.
Primary Use: Wet Weather
Angry Boogaloo Noises: The wet weather poncho can be a primary layer, with armor and support gear thrown over the top.
The name says it all. Wet weather poncho. What do you do when cold weather and rain blows in when you only have a minimalist plate carrier and a light jacket? That sideways rain gets awfully bothersome sometimes. The wet weather poncho packs tightly in your pack and covers you and your gear to below the knees (unless your a freakishly tall man) and that alone will make you much more comfortable than someone whose legs are soaking wet. Also your head will stay dry. The poncho can go over, or under armor, and provides protection from wind and rain… keeping your base layers dry. This is a no brainer and what it is used for.
Shelter:
Hood tied off to a tree, and a poncho liner (woobie) attached for some ground cover. Note the camo pattern on this poncho is pretty dang good on the ground.
The inside of the shelter is tight, and anyone over 6 ft may have their feet sticking out. It’s not comfortable, but it is warm and it will keep you dry.
The wet weather poncho also gives us the ability to hide from drones… and it makes a pretty good shelter too. So long as you are not TOUCHING the fabric, a poncho will block your heat from showing up on thermal imagers. Just a side benefit when using it as a shelter.
A dry weather lean-to with a single line of paracord from a tree to a ground stake, and two side stakes. This is by far the most comfortable configuration but it only breaks wind and light rain.
There are numerous ways to configure the poncho as a shelter, but the easiest to pack requires some paracord and basic tent stakes. The shelter can be configured for more coverage to more open configurations which will serve you well in mild weather.
No matter which configuration, the poncho liner is tight sleeping.
I replaced the paracord with shock cord on the eyelets to let the poncho flex a bit in windy conditions.
Sleeping Bag:
The wet weather poncho, when combined with the tropical blanket (woobie), transforms into a very basic sleeping bag. These liners are *rated* to 50 degrees per the military manuals, but online in bushcraft forums it seems a better fit for 60-degree weather. There are more robust woobies available, such as Kifaru’s woobie/doobie which has more fill and a better feature set… so it will keep you warmer than the GI woobie as temperature drops. When combined with the wet weather poncho you have a full windbreak and insulation layer. Just try not to get too swampy.
Wrapping Up: (haha)
A minuteman is more than a dude in a plate carrier and a goochie rifle with a Razor HD. If you are prepared to fight, you need to be prepared for the flight too. If things don’t go your way and you aren’t sitting on a throne of your enemy’s bones feasting on turkey legs being served by their women, then you better be prepared for the opposite scenario… You had to evacuate on foot after your squad got its ass kicked, and you are now innawoods trying to find your way to safety… it starts raining, and it’s cold. Welcome to the suck, population you. You have a USGI poncho liner right? No. Your night is going to be terrible. Sorry.
Thanks for reading! If you like gear reviews in addition to gun articles, sound off and I will try to incorporate some woodsball gear in more of the articles. If you like what you read, be sure to click on one of the banners on our site and do some shopping. We will receive a small portion of the sale and pay our authors, buy new gear, etc. Here is the link to the poncho used in this article: Amazon
No pop-ups. No members-only content, just us writing for you. Always free.
Lothaen OUT!
Can we maybe not use language that fetishizes another civil war? Especially language that the feds have actively been using to shut down content creators?
I don’t see it that way at all. It’s a little tongue and check about a situation that in the end none of us want to be in but should be prepared for. And fortunately for now, we can make light of it. Relax, this is still America.
This is the stuff we need more of. It’s too easy to lose sight of the basics. You don’t realize how much of a difference one little piece of gear can make.
Funny story when I was deployed to Iraq in ‘08 the first week we were there it freakin snowed. In the Syrian desert. Sitting on that rooftop with all of my cool guy high speed low drag gear and I was wishing I had my poncho and liner with me.