• The SH Membership has gone live. Only SH Members have access to post in the classifieds. All members can view the classifieds. Starting in 2020 only SH Members will be admitted to the annual hunting contest. Current members will need to follow these steps to upgrade: 1. Click on your username 2. Click on Account upgrades 3. Choose SH Member and purchase.
  • We've been working hard the past few weeks to come up with some big changes to our vendor policies to meet the changing needs of our community. Please see the new vendor rules here: Vendor Access Area Rules

Hand muff using alpha direct

S

shotacoffey

New Member
Joined
Nov 4, 2019
Messages
12
I thought I'd make a hand muff to tryout when hanging in the cold. That way I can hopefully still use my lightweight archery gloves when its cold. I used some calendared ripstop poly in ATACS camo that I had some scraps of, plus some foil backed xpac vs75 I had. So it should be decently windproof as well. For the insulation I used two pieces of polartec alpha and 1 piece of polartec alpha direct (for the interior next to skin side). I used some 1.5 inch grograin for the cord channel on each side. The loops on each side are so I can clip it to my bridge, pack or whatever. I decided to have the ability to unroll it so I can use as a sitpad for chair or when I setup the predator as a seat.
It was a fairly quick and easy project that I was able to knock it out in a few hours, from drawing to finished piece. All pieces were cut to the same size, so really simple. I think it was 16.75" x 12.75". The vs 75 makes it a little noisy, but I don't think it will be a big deal when up in a tree. Still hoping that it will break in somewhat and quiet down. I might make another version without the vs75 and sewn it shut instead of using velcro. That will make it pack down a little smaller.

20201127_074419.jpg
20201127_080824.jpg
20201126_141033.jpg
20201127_074337.jpg
20201126_135837.jpg
20201126_135849.jpg
 
How noisy is that foil insulation? Looks like a cool design.

Sent from my ASUS_Z017DA using Tapatalk
 
Its not as bad as I was fearing. It still is noticeable to the user, however its only when moving my hands and trying to make noise. I'll have to see if the kids can hear it from 10ft away or something. The poly shell is more noisy than I'd like too. I layered the vs75 next to the shell. Maybe putting some of the alpha insulation between the shell and foil/vs75 would soften the sound some. Most of my fabric stockpile is more suited to general outdoors as it isn't the quietest stuff out there. I've got some power dry coming that might work well for a quiet shell. I also have some more alpha direct coming. I should be able to make a much quieter version.
I'm on kid duty this weekend, so i had some time to try hooking it too all the things today. Worked well with one or each end clipped to the bridge of my phantom. Worked great clipped to the side straps of a bino harness and a few of my backpacks. Could work well setup for one hand, with one end cinched closed and clipped near your trigger hand.
 
I got them from the jens_buys ebay user (https://www.ebay.com/usr/jens_buys?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2754). Some of her items have a picture of the label on the bag. The item# should have a 4 digit number like 4004, 4409, etc. You can use that to look up on discovery fabrics - https://discoveryfabrics.com/collections/insulation/ or the polartec site for weight and other specs. Even then the color and weight doesn't always seem to match the label. IIRC she buys these from polartec as 2nds, leftovers or whatever.

The two I used for this project are:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Polartec-A...eece-fabric-BTY-buy-6-get-1-free/324173449087 - 4004 supposedly 2.5 oz/sqyd | 85 gsm but listed as red and royal colors on discover, black is 4008 and 3.54 oz/sqyd | 120 gsm

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Polartec-A...2-9-oz-sqyd-98-gsm-white-2-yards/352976755972 - 4404 2.9 oz/sqyd | 98 gsm listed as white on discovery and white here, so :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top