Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Best hunting wool pants/jacket

Stick: What brand fleece pants do you use? I would like to try them, but all I see in stores is fleece sweatpants.

Anyone make a real fleece hunting pants with pockets and some sort of windliner?

Thanks.

Revolution Fleece,by Cabela's.

Thank me later......................

JJ,

I live on the westside, but hunt primarily the eastside. Your points are valid, but I still prefer fleece to wool. I was a wool user 20 years ago, but have since gone with the newer synthetics and find them better for all conditions and climates.

Fleece "is the best and or ultimate and wool is useless" <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> I'm that guy Mark!

dogcatcher223
Northern Habitat make's dam good fleece.It come's in most of the popular camo patterns.My pants are Real-tree hardwoods but i think Mossey Oak is available.

Wool was easily the best route a guy could go,for many moons.

Them days is over.........................

Thanks guys.

Big Stick,

I think your opinion is known by all by now and the one-liners are no longer necessary. You like fleece. We get it. There is no reason for you to make this thread unreadable.

Back to the topic at hand, I choose fleece when it's wet, wool when it's dry and cold. The two are not mutually exclusive, however. I wear fleece under wool all the time in New Zealand, and the combination works well.

There's laying to consider too. I generally have silk, either light to medium weight on underneath. It's lighter than most things for it's insulation value and seems to lay closer to the skin. It dries fast and holds a lot less odor than synthetics. Most of my synthetic long underwear gets a life of it's own in a hurry.

I think the weight of wool you use makes a difference too. My Swandri bushman's jacket (pullover) is thin enough that even when damp (only the bottom 6"ever gets very wet) it doesn't weigh much. Being that lightweight is also tends to allow your bodyheat to sort of keep it dry.

I've had six different fleece pullovers and a few pairs of fleece pants. Maybe I'm not getting the right stuff. My current pullover is the Cabelas with dryplus. I like it when it's cold and wet but those inbetween temps where I could keep wearing my Swanny just get me overheated in the fleece. I have the same problem with my nonlined fleece too. I spend a lot of time taking it off when I go up hills or into a more sunny area and putting it back on when I stop or hit a patch of dark timber. I'd rather just be hunting rather than playing dressing room at the mall.

One of my friends swears by fleece. He's been using it since it was mostly river running guides that had the stuff. His wet weather wear is two layers of fleece over regular long johns. He says he never gets wet against the skin. I never checked but I'll take his word at it.

I suppose the weather you hunt in make a difference too. I've hunted the west slope of the Cascades during Oct. and Nov. and more easterly areas from late Aug. on to Nov. It's never really bitter cold, nor is it pouring down rain. The weather is changeable though. Snow one day and 80 degrees two days later is common in the Oregon high country in Sept. so having something with a wide comfort zone, even if it's not perfect in any of them, is more important to me than being able to nearly scuba dive in the stuff in comfort.

When it's really cold, snowing, and windy my fleece bibs with silk under is hard to beat but then I'm wearing a Filson single cruiser, a neck gasket, and a wool flap hat too.

Change the channel,or Google some cheese for your whine.

I find that very readable and perhaps bordering on clairvoyant.

Thoughts?.....................

I like polypro undergarments.

Insulated fleece can easily be wayyyyyyyyyyy too warm,for anything active.

Thus the beauty of layering and I only summons insulated fleece for the most trying conditions.

Light fleece,bolstered with HH Impertech is pretty bulletproof,veddy veddy quiet and permits a wide range of motion.

The layers seperate quickly/easily,for changing conditions...................

I use both.

Fleece is unbeatable for layering. I like fleece a LOT.

Wool itches me like crazy. I can't wear regular wool against bare skin. BUT, those N-Euro surplus green six-pocket wool pants are the cat's meow if you ask me. The thing I love about them is they keep me comfortable in a much wider range of temps than fleece. I wear a thin layer of Thermax or Capilene under the wool, and that sets me up. I like wool pants.

I wear a lot of different fleece up top, and most of it is sans dryplus or windblock, etc. I carry a good LW Patagonia Gore-Tex shell that comes out over the fleece if the wind or rain (or both) come calling. Otherwise, I mix and match 100 and 200 weight to get what I need.

On a hunt to rainy country like AK and PNW, I'd leave the wool at home.

But to the Rockies or plains in the fall, some wool will make it, for sure.

In the desert, except for a fleece hooded sweatshirt, I don't take much of either.

Rick

BTW: Anybody use Merino wool, especially socks??

I wore the Swede GI britches a bunch. Pards here are bragging up MicroTex,I've not drove any of it.

What I like about Revolution Fleece britches,is they are cut generously and wind/waterPROOF. They are of low nap and very little adheres to them and they are 100% SILENT. Also do well fending Devil's Club and the like.

When doing the Woolen Nostalgia Thing,it's generally outta a hardtop boat,Hunting early Spring Bear. Neither wind or water is truly a factor and it just amounts to slumming a little.

The HH polypro skull cap is one the best invents of all time,IMHO.....................

I prefer a synthetic/wool blended sock....................

I usually wear wool pants when we hunt here in Northern Alberta, it's usually cold, but not usually wet. I have a pair of gallatin wool columbia pants and they feel like you are wearing a diaper. I have three pairs of cheap codet green wool pants, they each cost about $60 cdn, i think cabelas sells them now as imported (from Canada). they re very durable, quiet, snow just bruches off and they are warm.
I like them alot.

I like Marmot panties/shirt,then fleece atop.

You can't get cold,wet or add much in the way of weight to the equation,due to water clinging aboard.

Breathes well and dries fast to boot....................

I used to wear all wool, but now wear a combination of stuff.

Around here, it generally doesn't rain or snow much during hunting season. Snow is just a dusting that you might have to sit in if you take a stand for a while. Rain's more likely a drizzle. Wool turns both easily.

I still like wool pants best, and have several pairs of surplus ones from unidentified countries that have held up well.

However, I'm switching to synthetics for the upper body -- especially because they're lighter when you have to shed and carry a layer. Also, it's easier to find practical designs in fleece -- such as pit zips (on the Rivers West jacket), and pockets you can use while wearing a hip belt (on my Patagonia R4).

I have a Filson Double Mack but only wear it around town now. It's just too hot to walk the hills in.

I think every Logger in the world,has a Filson Double Mack Dinner Jacket.

Mine's blue/black plaid....................

I never had that wool making me itch problem. Good thing too. I had a little incident that left me in a full length leg cast for just shy of 14 weeks and the only pants that would fit over it were my German woolies. I had to wear them from Feb. to early June that year.

Red-Black plaid for me.

I suppose I'd itch if I wore it next to my skin -- but I don't. I wear Capilene or similar ... still haven't found the Holy Grail of long johns.