Unissued 1970 jungle boots

[wclracer64]

Hi all; I picked up an unissued pair of third pattern jungle boots, and want to know if I need to do anything special before wearing them? Date of manufacture is 2 70. I’m thinking using neatsfoot oil & conditioning several times over a couple of months. Any thoughts?

Thanks!

Bill

[larry1096]

Not a bad plan. Does the leather feel dry?

 

 

Larry

[Constabulary]

I´m collecting Vietnam War items for many decades. If it was me I would not wear them. first of all when it is a common wearable size (f.i. 9R, 10R and so forth) I think the collectors value is higher than the value of wearing them. If you don´t care (your choice) keep in mind that the rubber sole is 55 years old ant it may crack sooner or later when wearing. If it was me I´d sell them to a collector (maybe on Ebay) and buy a new pair of jungle boots.

[DieselTech]

Use a wax on them canvas tops. The kind to rejuvenate waxed canvas. 

 

You might want to have them valued before you go kicking around in them. 

[chuck123wapati]

I've worn a few pairs of those out. They couldn't give them away, hardly back in the day, I used to buy them because they were the cheapest boots you could find. lol.  They aren't the most comfortable things in the world, so consider them a collectible before good footwear. They may have worked well for jungle use, but that's about all imo.

Did a quick internet search (Vietnam era jungle boot care) and there's actually a forum on this stuff,  "US Milatria forum", plenty of good info. What I did learn is that these boots were not polished during that time in history, so doing so would lessen their value and make old guys laugh at you when they see you.

[billybopp]

48 minutes ago, chuck123wapati said:

I've worn a few pairs of those out. They couldn't give them away, hardly back in the day, I used to buy them because they were the cheapest boots you could find. lol.  They aren't the most comfortable things in the world, so consider them a collectible before good footwear. They may have worked well for jungle use, but that's about all imo.

Did a quick internet search (Vietnam era jungle boot care) and there's actually a forum on this stuff,  "US Milatria forum", plenty of good info. What I did learn is that these boots were not polished during that time in history, so doing so would lessen their value and make old guys laugh at you when they see you.

Ahhh.  The good ol' days, when Army Navy Stores sold tons of surplus, and weren't camping gear stores.  I remember in the mid-70s, you could still find some WWII and Korea surplus, and of course a LOT of Viet Nam surplus.

[chuck123wapati]

18 minutes ago, billybopp said:

Ahhh.  The good ol' days, when Army Navy Stores sold tons of surplus, and weren't camping gear stores.  I remember in the mid-70s, you could still find some WWII and Korea surplus, and of course a LOT of Viet Nam surplus.

Oh yeah, when i was a kid we would make a yearly trip to Fort Collins to JAX army surplus store , they had tons of milsurp and only milsurp, most of our campiing gear was military. Sadly now their surplus is in one little area in one little room af a huge multi-building sporting goods store. On top of that, my dad was a commander in the local Civil Air Patrol. I still have stuff from the Korean War era and before that i still use. We have a surplus store here, but its friggin crazy expensive.