Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Best value in packable rain gear

Looking to buy some decent rain gear. I have bought brands that claim to be water proof and I end up getting soaked. I assume that it will need to be gore tex and not some dry-plus/bone-dry, etc.

I don't want to spend a ton on rain gear but would be willing to spend enough to get something of quality. Can I get something good in the 300 range? Certain brands or places to look for it?

What function are you looking for? Waterproof, breathable, and flexible? If you want all of the above your looking at least $250+ per each top and bottom. Take out flexible and the price goes down a touch. If you want waterproof only, and don't care about breathability (ie you are just looking to stay dry and won't be moving a ton) then look at the Sierra Designs Hurricane series or similar. Lots of options for $75ish per piece.

packable???


for me most packable, lt. weight that I've found is the Red Ledge stuff


next up in waterproof but still somewhat packable HH impertech

I'll be watching this thread for sure. I'm in the same boat, tired of so called rain gear that is mildly water resistant for a while, and then useless. I have my heavy weight PVC rain gear but its not flexible or quiet. I like my woolies, coat and pants, but some times the rain just don't quit and I need a little more.

Red Ledge is supposed to be breathable but I've found that wearing it while hunting, even when cold, it will get wetter on the inside than the outside.

Marmot Precip, hands down.

ime nothing breathable is waterproof, for very long anyways

venting is the only cure and it's only a partial cure


when it's raining you're gonna end up damp at best if you're out in it for long

seems to me the choice is it gonna be your sweat vapor or cold rain falling from the skies.

I go with the sweat vapor

I've used FrogTogs for years and love em. They are indeed packable....I can compress them down to just about nothing and they do shed water, although I don't know how. That fabric is so thin...it just seems like it would spring a leak in a second, but it's kept me dry for years.

I've looked at Frog Togs but the reviews I've read always say they're way too fragile. They tear easily in brush. They almost look like they're made of paper fiber.

+1 on venting. I pretty much lived in my Marmot Precips last elk season, along with some REI gaiters. I really got to like the full-length side zip on the pants, for both putting on/taking off over my boots, and also for unzipping at the top to vent when it wasn't raining.

Although I have lightweight rain gear, the best value by far is a heavy-duty, contractor-size plastic bag. They fold up into almost nothing, lay flat in the bottom of a pack and can be cut open to make an emergency wind break or shelter. Cut holes for head and arms and they make a passable poncho that is both wind and water-proof.

More often than not I use mine to carry out the straps and loins.

There is always a box of them in the trailer. Hard to beat that kind of utility for the price.

[Edited to add]
By the way, I look at the bags as emergency rain gear, not something I would want to start out wearing in the morning in a downpour and hunt in all day. We get so little rain during elk season, though, that has never been a problem. In fact, I don't recall using a bag for more than a short period of time on a couple trips since I started in '82. Most times we get light sprinkles if anything. I've gotten wetter walking through the pines when the snow is melting off their branches or through wet sage and scrub than by hunting in light drizzles of short duration.

Depends on how you define "elk season.". In mid-September in CO, rain is not rare.

I have tried the $90 versions of Cabelas Packable rain gear. And although when new, they did work, they were not very durable. Worthless if you had to walk thru sage brush and even kneeling in grass,holes were common.

I like to wear them in the AM when starting out, especially in ML season when the grass is wet and you can get soaked up to the belt buckle in a hundred yards. Then I wore them with snow on the ground. The first set I had lasted two seasons, but I bought another pair of paints last year and they didn't make it thru ML deer season in eastern Colorado.

I bought a new jacket at Bass Pro that was on sale during their grand opening and found a pair of pants at the Coleman Outlet store in Castle Rock. Both seem heavier than the Cabelas set. I won't be as disturbed if they don't hold up as I have less than $50 in the set.

I've used a set for 7 years in Idaho without any issues.

Not a lot of help, but just some random musings: I have tried many types and brands of rain gear and, in serious rain, you'll be wet no matter what at some point and need to wear good smartwool, synthetics, etc to keep warm while wet! Where I elk hunt, we get big time rain, sometimes for days/weeks on end and it's a drag to get started in it in the morning. If raining when I set out, I go with HH Impertech, if it looks like it might rain I take the Redledge stuff, but it only works marginally well for me. Unless raining hard, which makes a lot of noise in thick woods, noise from brush and your clothes is an issue where I hunt, so I also try the stuff with soft fabrics laminated over Gore-Tex - they work ok, but their downfall is weight and once soaked, very hard to dry out, if backpacking. If somebody has found a good set of this stuff that dries out fast, I'd like to know about it! Actually with heavy rain and all the noise it makes in thick woods, it is about the only time a guy can walk up on an unsuspecting elk in the heavy brush areas of northern Idaho and northwest Montana! It's a great time to just still hunt for elk. Back a few years, I did several backpack hunts in AK and found I liked the Redledge stuff because I could dry it out, even with no sun, but with a few hours of no rain and hopefully some wind, by hanging the soaked rain gear off the back of my backpack. The various soft fabric rain gear would get soaked and stay soaked for the entire trip - I couldn't get them dry. I ended up liking the HH gear and also taking a Redledge top, even on backpack trips. I had some doozy hunts with rain and bad weather for the entire time, but they worked out with good clothes that could generate some heat even while wet...

I forgot to add, a big down-fall of the various soft fabric stuff I tried (various Cabelas and Browning clothes), even if advertised as hydrophobic, would eventually get soaked and the soaked outerlayer would then block the Gore-Tex breathable effect and then just become another soaked layer - my theory anyway...

Where in Idaho? Here in so. central ID, I can sometimes go 7 years without every putting raingear on during the season.

Never had Precip soak through. As for Goretex "soaking through", it happens, but improper washing is 90% of it. You HAVE to use surfactant-free soap.

I have had good luck recently with the cabelas rainey river pac lite gore tex rainware..

My Precip has soaked thru but one round of ReviveX per the instructions gave it some new life. That said, when I know it's going to rain and rain for extended periods I take the HH Impertech for peace of mind.