Ok so me and my mate headed upto the peak district near Shefield yesterday morning and after lots of scouting around managed, with great difficulty, to find a nice secluded spot with no people,very rare! I decided to opt for my British Army Basha with a basic DD hammock hung underneath, something I have never tried overnight, I'd only hung them up as a mock run up until this trip. Well everything seemed to be going ok, I got them both hung and tensioned out, and the whole thing looked great, and then....... of course...... came the ultimate test, eight hours of relentless rain! well to start with it all seemed nice and cosey swaying in my hammock listening to the rain patter on my tightly taughted tarp, until after around half an hour when i realised that the middle seam that runs along the apex was getting wet, it was leaking! This progressivly got worse to the point where it was dripping onto my sleeping bag and my face, oh no horrible feeling! I couldnt believe it, is this what is issued to the British Army soldier of today? Il never again make the mistake of trusting British Army Kit on the assumption that it must be more than adequate for the job otherwise the MOD wouldn't issue it to proffesional soldiers. I don't understand why they dont make the whole tarp out of one piece of material, then it wouldnt have this problem because there would be no seam.
I didnt get a winks sleep in the hammock and im still not sure if hammocks are for me due to having a bad neck anyway, but being cold and wet all night did kind of distracted me from giving the hammock a fair chance.
I was a bit concerned when i bought the woodland dpm basha as the silicone mould along the seem didnt look to be glued 100% in some places especially around the ridge line hangers. I once tried a desert dpm basha when i first got into wild camping and that one leaked in the same place down the seam, however i put that down to not hanging it properly so that the water ran off.
Well the basha ruined my trip but it was a good test, better to find out now than later, say if I took it on a weeks camping trip and then discovered how incompetent it were, that would be disasterous! My mate's brand new tent leaked as well, he got a pool of water underneath thus making it's way into the tent, so that made me feel a little better knowing he got wet too haha!
I would be interested to know if anyone has had simlar experiences with these bashas and if it's possible for them to be re sealed. Im not sure If it is a genuine B Army Basha or a Milcom/webtex copy, the army surplus store where i bought it said it was MOD issue but im not convinced. It has no pop studs on it which i read somewhere else on here is a marker of an original one. Ive also heard conflicting debates about which side should face upwards to the rain, im pretty sure its the side with the silicone mould , the other side has a green tape seem but that gets soaked when water touches it, also the carry handles are on the side with the green tape and the ridge line holders are on both sides, so still unsure about it. Also can anyone recommend any other tarps possibly made from one piece of material not two pieces sewn together?
On a positive note the day went well and the weather was great until the night came, not much in the way of foraging this time and no road kill! I take back what i said in the last posting about nettles being ubiquitous, i couldn't find one nettle in these pine woods where i pitched last night! Plenty of wild rose bushes,and blackberry bushes but they berries weren't ripe enough to pick anyways.
I didnt get a winks sleep in the hammock and im still not sure if hammocks are for me due to having a bad neck anyway, but being cold and wet all night did kind of distracted me from giving the hammock a fair chance.
I was a bit concerned when i bought the woodland dpm basha as the silicone mould along the seem didnt look to be glued 100% in some places especially around the ridge line hangers. I once tried a desert dpm basha when i first got into wild camping and that one leaked in the same place down the seam, however i put that down to not hanging it properly so that the water ran off.
Well the basha ruined my trip but it was a good test, better to find out now than later, say if I took it on a weeks camping trip and then discovered how incompetent it were, that would be disasterous! My mate's brand new tent leaked as well, he got a pool of water underneath thus making it's way into the tent, so that made me feel a little better knowing he got wet too haha!
I would be interested to know if anyone has had simlar experiences with these bashas and if it's possible for them to be re sealed. Im not sure If it is a genuine B Army Basha or a Milcom/webtex copy, the army surplus store where i bought it said it was MOD issue but im not convinced. It has no pop studs on it which i read somewhere else on here is a marker of an original one. Ive also heard conflicting debates about which side should face upwards to the rain, im pretty sure its the side with the silicone mould , the other side has a green tape seem but that gets soaked when water touches it, also the carry handles are on the side with the green tape and the ridge line holders are on both sides, so still unsure about it. Also can anyone recommend any other tarps possibly made from one piece of material not two pieces sewn together?
On a positive note the day went well and the weather was great until the night came, not much in the way of foraging this time and no road kill! I take back what i said in the last posting about nettles being ubiquitous, i couldn't find one nettle in these pine woods where i pitched last night! Plenty of wild rose bushes,and blackberry bushes but they berries weren't ripe enough to pick anyways.
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