TAK Lightweight Down Jacket - How light? + How warm?

Hello there, welcome back. This is a quick video review for something that you have seen in quite a few of my previous videos, and that is this super lightweight down jacket. Now I got this on Amazon, the seller was Mountaintop, and it's I've just put this on my electronic scales and it only weighs 350 grams approximately. a Tac, T-A-C, down jacket. It's very difficult to keep it squashed up and actually on top of the scales but I think it's around about 350 grams which is very very light and it packs down extremely small as well so I mean when this thing arrived I thought that is a tiny bag and then I actually squashed the bag down to practically nothing. And I thought, that is never ever going to keep me warm. I pulled it out, and it was so, it just felt thin, it felt so light. I doubted it straight away, but when I put it on, within a couple of minutes, I was ridiculously warm. And I mean, even today, the sun's out, but it's just hovering above zero. I've got bare hands, and I'm totally warm in this. And all I've got underneath is a t-shirt. I've been very, very impressed. Now I'll just show you what is in it because when I press on here I feel it squash down and then it comes back up again it's almost like a polyester pad or something or a pillow you know you can squash it real down and it just comes back out that's what's in it 90% natural down and I'm assuming it's goose down so just to save anybody who bought one of these cutting them open just to check that it is actually a down jacket they actually give you this attached to the bag to To show you what's in it. I've seen a lot of these down jackets on people who make outdoor videos, and I'd never had one up to this point. I'd always just gone with a layered approach underneath a big waterproof heavy shooting jacket, and they often cost a hell of a lot of money. Just check out the Harkler Pro Hunter one that I've got. It's an absolutely belting jacket. But it's a hell of a lot more expensive than this and it's no warmer. Definitely no warmer. Yes it is waterproof and it's totally windproof but this one even when I'm standing out in the wind I can't feel the wind through it and to me that doesn't make sense because it is so light. I don't know whether it's just the down inside it but it seems to defy logic. It is too warm for the size of it but that's a very good problem to have. I'll just whip it off and show you how neatly it packs down inside this bag. There you go, it looks just like a miniature sleeping bag, and check this out, I mean it's about the size of a grapefruit there, that is very, very small, and if you had some compression straps, you could get it even smaller, I'm not particularly strong. Right, let's take a closer look at this, we've got a no-nonsense YKK zip, that'll withstand getting a lot of muck in it, and still work, it's nothing fancy. Everything is single-stitched, but it's stitched very, very well, no loose threads anywhere. See on the inside here, all these compartments with the down in. We've got an inside pocket on each side. And on the outside, we've got pockets in there as well. Again, with the YKK zips on. Now one thing I really would have liked to have seen on this is a hood. But that would add extra cost and extra bulk. This is a real lightweight down jacket. And as it is, the collar stands up quite well. Comes just under my chin and it keeps my neck warm with a decent snood, good woolly hat. The lack of a hood on this isn't really an issue. Now the sleeves are nicely elasticated. Now this is the large size. I'm reasonably rotund, although I'm not very tall. I'm only about five foot seven or something. So for a man, I'm not very tall. But I mean, my shoulders are reasonably broad. And I do have a bit of a gut on me as well, so a large is a really, really nice fit on me. Although it does say on the label that it's suitable for people up to 5 foot 11 in large size. If you're 5 foot 11, I would go for the bigger size. Otherwise, this is going to ride up a little bit. I like my jackets to be quite long, certainly to come over my backside. We've got little elasticated tighteners on the bottom, one on each side. And that allows you to keep it really really tight on you for that heat retention. So this is very light shower proof and as I said it will dry quickly. If you wanted to go one stage further you could actually wear this underneath a smock. I actually got that on underneath my Ridgeline monsoon smock. And I can tell there's a lot of people going to be saying oh you're going to sweat buckets in that. Yes if you do anything strenuous you are going to sweat like hell in this. if you're in extreme cold and you're not doing anything super strenuous this is unbelievably warm and it doesn't feel restrictive at all it's no more restrictive than having just an ordinary Polartec fleece on so really the cold weather solution would be to have your thermal top long sleeve down jacket over the top of that and then over the top of that a nice waterproof smock i'm baking hot already i'm gonna take this off Because this packs down so small in a backpack, you can just have it there for when you need it. So would I recommend this to you? Absolutely. I'll put a worldwide Amazon link in the video description. Check it out. It's well worth it. A very, very good lightweight down jacket. It never ceases to amaze me what is available now at a reasonable cost. We have small electronics, outdoor gear, all the stuff that I love for my hobbies. The price of it has just come way down. You know, years ago you would have paid a fortune for something like this. There's never been a better time to build up good gear for outdoor activities. Thanks very much for watching. Check out my other review videos on my channel. I'm going to go back to the panel. There's a range of outdoor videos and all sorts of things on there. So check them out. Thanks very much for watching. See you next time.