Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Sitka or other expensive clothes - are they worth the $?

Near as I can make out from the September Sports Afield which someone (probably my FIL) subscribed me to, I can't kill a deer for less than $10,000 in clothes, optics, firearms, etc...

Here in the Arctic, I struggle along with some insulated bibs (read Carharts type), synthetic underwear, 40 below Hogden Pacs, fleece pants, a synthetic hoodie, and a Mouton Eskimo-built parky in the coldest weather when I'm out traveling on the snow machine. The parky is now 39 years old -the wrist wolverine trim is pretty much gone- damned campfires!

In lighter weather(read above minus 15), the Eskimo Parka is exchanged for a Cabela's goose down jacket topped by a medium wt Gore-tex insulated parka.

My answer is no- cheaper stuff- appropriately chosen and layered is all you need. The fancy stuff is ego-fluff, effective, but not necessary.

People have hunted cold/inclement weather for millenium without it.

Fine, but after I shot my moose last month, we had 72 hours of mostly rain, when we had to quarter the moose and portage it twice over river blockages, often in driving rain. I have had varying success with different rain gear. Many will work well if you can put them on dry over dry layers and sit still even in driving rain. But when you start working like a mule in the rain, you eventually will get wet (sweating from the inside or raining from the outside). When that happens, you need to have good synthetic or wool layers that still work somewhat. You'll be wet nonetheless, but you still can be reasonably warm.

When hunting there are two things that are very important to me: 1) stay warm, and 2) stay alive, not necessarily in that order. Whether Army surplus or from Wal-Mart or wherever, the source of clothing is unimportant. Name brands mean nothing and cost is a secondary concern. The camo pattern means nothing to me, either, other than I go for fall colors rather than winter white. How the clothing works is the most important thing.

Good insulated and waterproof boots, good gloves, army surplus wool pants, a wool shirt and wool-blend long johns compromise my cold weather gear. Coats and jackets vary depending on just how cold and/or wet it is. As required by Colorado law, blaze orange is my outerwear for body and head. (It goes well with all camo patterns. )

If the weather is nice an insulated blue-jean coat and denim camo pants will be fine for my hunting. In my pack I�ll have heavy-duty contractor-size plastic bags, which serve as butt-be-dry ground cover, emergency rain wear and water/windproof emergency shelter. I also carry a waterproof rain suit that folds up small and occupies a small corner of my pack.

Cotton kills. OK if dry, but not wet.

If I am at all in doubt about getting wet/ sweaty, I wear nothing of cotton. I've been hunting 45 years in Alaska- on the Alaska Peninsula, mostly on the Kenai, some in Interior, a fair bit in the Arctic. More backpacking than from the ATV or snow machine.

OK- unless it's around the yard- then I can go in, change clothes, and have a hot buttered rum. Gotta plan ahead, ya know!

Here is what is currently in my hunting clothing arsenal:

A couple pairs of light weight/fast drying nylon pants originally designed for rafting I believe. My SIL sent them to me- she and her hubby run a rafting service out of Billings in season... Real nice for warm weather/ exertion hiking, or even as an under -layer.

One pair of LL Bean fleece pants- about 30 years old.
One pair of Cabela's Gore-tex rain pants- ditto - windstopper, not so much for rain anymore, or ever... I sent the first pair back after 3 days use in heavy rain/vegetation - no diff in second pair - but I kept it.

A couple pairs of 60/40 (synthetic/cotton) pants for cooler, but dry weather use. Or under my bibs when snow-machining. Don't work too bad in wetter weather, either.

One set of Under-Armour synthetic long underwear - I wear the bottoms in cold weather sometimes- the tops only twice - relegated to "not-wear". Too clammy and tight.

Several pairs of synthetic Cabela's briefs (MTA MTM ???)

About 18 pairs of synthetic T's - various earth colors - worn also on an almost daily basis. ( White cotton T-s are for dress-up, travel, or lay-about at home.)

I get these synthetic T's whenever they are on sale on Sportsman's Guide.

A couple pairs of synthetic, camo, long-sleave T's - pretty much worn out after 15-20 years hunting use...

A couple pairs of Cabela's synthetic long-underwear bottoms - loose fitting. Medium and heavy weights.

Synthetic insulation/ nylon covered bibs - cold weather ATV or Sno-go use. Sometimes I use the Carharts instead. Dry pretty fast if wet.

Top side wear, besides the previously mentioned T's - I have several synthetic hoodies. One, purchased last year, is even in camo! The other two are dark/light multi-colored- good enough for color-blind critters- and both about 30 years old...

A pale grey/green Cabela's down jacket.

A long-length semi-"urban camo" fleece jacket. Blends well in alpine rocky, or even the woods..

A Mad Dog? Mossy-oak (good tundra design too!) medium wt. "breathable" parka in large ( bought 6 years ago so I could put a belt around it and carry the late Dachshund inside - he loved to hunt, but not the wet so much.... ) But it works well alone, even better with the down or fleece jackets inside.

One Browning 50/50 camo shirt. Sometimes worn - mostly around home or as a camp shirt.

Cold weather/snow-machining/Arctic hunting pull-over Eskimo Parka, hand-sewn out of 6 Mouton sheep skins, skin out, wolverine trim, with snow and dress covers. I think it cost me $160 for materials back in '74. Emma Nashookpuk sewed it for me there in Pt. Hope - a perfect fit after she eyed me over for about 30 seconds.. She liked me, and was concerned for my dumwhiteass safety and that white-man's parka I had. Which was admittedly inadequate for going out of the village.

That mouton parka saved my butt in the Arctic at least twice in the last 40 years... including the time I put the snowmachine thru an overflow up to my nipples 12 miles from home in 10 degree weather, with light wind, and had to walk home. I did have a complete change of dry clothes (bibs and parka excepted) on the over-flow thing. Lots of fun stripping naked and changing!!! Those bib legs got a little stiff on the 5 hour walk home, but I never got cold ....

Parka is too hot to wear on the Kenai, mostly, or anything above a -30 chill factor.

I have couple other heavy parkas with synthetic fill/coverings. None camo, tho I do have snow-covers for them.

Rain gear - gave up on all the fancy expensive stuff. Fairly inexpensive light or heavy weight (depending on if I am hunting and/or river-running) Helly Hanson is all I use anymore, with the exception of the two "breathable" items mentioned above, and a 20 year old shell "breathable" rain gear parka from Cabelas, which again is (and was from the start - plus 3 days of weather - mostly useful as a wind-breaker - and those I mostly use in very light drizzle or snow... they'll work for that. The HH non-breathable stuff works well enough with all-synthetic understuff if you leave it open enough to ventilate or draft while moving (much like that heavy mouton parka!!)

I have virtually no use for "breathable" stuff based on past experience - with the exception of headgear and boots, and that Mad Dog parka, which, because it is so large, "breathes" as much or more by convection draft out the neck as it does thru the membrane, I think.

If you aren't moving - like in a drizzly duck/deer blind or snow machining in snowfall - I have found that "breathable" simply does not live up to the hype in heavy weather, dense wet vegetation, or exertion.

I seldom use wool, as it is too heavy when wet (or dry!) and too slow drying. Synthetic fleece works better, if you can keep the wind off it. Be aware not all things advertised as "fleece" is synthetic - some is cotton.

I generally use either wool glove liners or synthetic fleece gloves for hunting - Gore-Tex ones make my hands sweat and get cold. For cold weather use on the snow-machine, I wear heavy synthetic finger gloves inside military wool-lined mitts- the ones with the fuzz on the back for wiping one's nose.... I also have handlebar mitts, since neither the ATV nor the Bravo has heated handlebars.

Things get serious, I carry chemical hand warmers packets for gloves, boots, or to slip inside front pants pockets to heat the femoral artery as it goes by.... And sometimes in the sleeping bag.

I have yet to find it necessary to spend several hundreds of dollars on a single item of hyped clothing, but if you have the bucks and feel the need, have at it.

las -

I agree cotton kills. Your forays into the AK backcountry doubtless put you at far greater risk than typical hunts in the lower 48, especially hunts like my group does where we are limited to how far we can go by how far our legs will take us and still get us back to the truck by or shortly after dark - provided all goes as planned. Plus we are generally in an area where firewood or sage for a fire is plentiful and cell coverage is surprisingly good in much of the area.

The worst we've experienced in terms of threats to life was a few years back when an ex-boss joined us. He was hunting alone and fell into a creek. Fortunately his truck was just a couple hundred yards up the hill. No idea what kind of clothing he was wearing but I know he got pretty cold trying to get back up the hill.

A couple years ago my long time hunting buddy sprained his ankle coming out through the sage after dark. The sprain was so bad the doc said he would have been better off with a clean break. That ended his hunt and his wife drove out from Denver to take him home. Not life threatening but a painful walk a mile back to the truck.

My personal worst was on a dove hunt in September heat in SE Colorado. Left my boots at home and took a hit to my achilles tendon area from a rattler. Even though it only got one fang in me my foot swelled up like a football and was extremely painful for several days. Fortunately the truck was a close by and a hospital was 15-20 minutes away. Don't think I'll forget my boots again and will definitely pay more attention to what is on the ground. Boot might not make a difference, though, as the brother of one of the pastors I was hunting with took a hit just below his knee several decades earlier and nearly lost his leg.

Your point is well taken, though, and more poly would be welcome. Might see what I can find in the next week or two. It looks like I'll have a hunting partner (SIL) for the first few days of the hunt this year but if I don't get my elk then I'll be alone for the remainder. Wife wants me to get an emergency transponder, too, in case my hip gives out and I can't make it back to the truck.

Hopefully the biggest risk I'll face this year is having a heart attack while packing out. Seems I get most of my elk after everyone else has gone home.

I noticed Costco now has poly/merino wool underwear for about $18 each. Should work good.

I usually wear poly underwear, blue jeans and have rain gear with me. I make it a point though to stay dry. I don't hunt in the rain and hole up if it is snowing. I found out a long time ago, elk hole up in a snow storm but you had best be out there right away after it stops snowing.

Thanks for the heads up on that. Picked up a top/bottom set at the Parker store last night.

Also picked up a shirt, cotton outer with poly fleece liner, for $20. If nothing else it will be good when lounging in the camper, which is hard to heat.

Saddlesore, just noticed your comments above. Your comments about deer and elk holing up in rain are accurate IME when hunting the Rockies and inland dry BC mule deer country. Surprisingly, we've found that the opposite seems true for most animal behavior on the wet coast. The BEST time to hunt PNW blacktail deer is in a light long lasting rain (normal weather IOW )

After using synthetics for 20 years, I switched to Filson woolens and waxed cotton shells about 13 years ago. No matter what the conditions synthetics always left me feeling clammy....IMO they simply don't breathe enough.

Filson make a pretty darn good hunting boot as well.

Every hunting adventure comes with some risk. There is a big difference walking out to your trees stand 1/4 mile away from a cabin versus a drop off backpack trip in a remote area. The folks up in Alaska know this all too well and those who post here should be considered 'value added' to the forum. This is not to say a remote trip into the western lower 48 comes without danger.

I think back to our first western big game hunt in 1981 near Kaycee WY.. We wore a lot of cotton camo stuff and cotton thermal underwear. We got wet and cold but we didn't know any better and hell, we were shooting mules and pronghorns. Over the years we wised up to Eddie Bauer, LL Bean (pre-yuppy) and later Cabelas and so on.

My trips to Alaska in all seasons sealed the deal on the need for proper gear that is usually pretty expensive. But your comfort and survivability is much improved.
Put it bluntly, there is no reason to be routinely wet or cold with the high tech clothing and support gear available today. Buy smart - cause you generally get what you pay for. Forums like this help speed up your learning curve on what works and what fails.

I'm back to wool, myself. I haven't tried every synthetic product out there, but absolutely have not been impressed with the Kuiu or Sitka products, especially their pants. They are light, and keep you dry until you poke or wear a hole in them, and that ain't too difficult. I like plain jeans better when its not wet out.

I wear jeans warm weather, jeans with gators when I need them and wool when the snow is more than a foot or so deep, or the rain is coming down hard. I am all about Filson 100% virgin wool bibs and their tin products.

I'm a big fan of wool. I'm going to slowly move my clothing towards First Lite.

I use filson double tins for winter trapping, love them over a merino base layer.

I also prefer Patagonia over all the camo hunting garb out now days.