Shooting Jacket Sizes.

[zooma]

Since first starting this thread I have moved all of the buttons out by one inch and it is now possible to get the jacket to fasten around my chest - when wearing my regular sweatshirt (!), but it was hard to get my arms into the sleeves and it remains very tight across the shoulders.

This would appear to be a standard "off the peg" jacket with the manufacturers size 52 label sewn into it.

The close grip on the arms is not helped by the elasticated bellows around the elbow and shoulders as they grip fairly tightly and have no slide at all on the undergarment (sweatshirt).

Getting the jacket off is very difficult and needs the help of a second person to pull it off of my shoulders and then to help drag it down and off of my arms - definitely not good if you are in a hurry!

The difference between the fit of this size 52 HTX jacket and my size 52 Gehmann jacket is significantly different - it is smaller and fits much tighter (especially around the arms and across the shoulders) and I fail to see the advantage of having elasticated tight fitting bellows around the arms - or having the sleeves made so narrow that it needs bellows to allow some arm movement!

Wider fitting sleeves (like my Gehmann jacket) would be much better for me and a lot easier to get the jacket on and off. Sadly I do not have large arm muscles, but if I did, I doubt that this jacket could be pulled on over my arms at all!

Such a variance in sizes and fittings makes it difficult to shop for a shooting jacket online with any degree of confidence that the size that arrives will actually fit - unless you are already familiar with the make and type.

Buying a secondhand shooting jacket is a risk (with such variances) as you can't exactly go back to the seller and ask to try a different size or type (!) - unlike when I bought my first jacket new from a good and helpful supplier!

I will wear this jacket as often as I can to try and "break it in" but the difference in fit has been quite a surprise and the tight fitting sleeves will take a bit of getting used to.

The HTX jacket is well made and looks smart, but my guess would be that a size larger than normally chosen for a Gehmann jacket would help, but I cant help but wonder if the sleeves would be any looser?