Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Safari pants?

Went to the army/navy store and bought some surplus BDU pants in various camo patterns (digital desert, vietnam tiger stripe)....the knees are reenforced, and they are tough....I've had a pair since 1987 and I'm still wearing them. They come with with "straps" (for lack of a better term)on the side, so they are adjustable to a variety of sizes, and while not impervious to thorns, they are more resistant than blue jeans (or my bare legs).

Wrangler Riggs work pants work very well in the thorn scrub of South Texas and worked well for me in Tanzania, which was strinkingly similar habitat.

I just revisited my photos from my hunt, and damn if I didn't zip the legs back on when it got rainy and cool the last 3 days. So I got more use out of the Cabela's zip-off's than I at first stated.

We had crazy weather during my safari (Aug26-Sept6), up into the 110's-120's for Days 3, 4, and 5, and then plunging down into the 50's for Days 7, 8 and 9. It's not normally like that... but by taking the zip-off pants, I was able to pack lighter. Two pair of zip-off's and an extra pair of shorts did me fine for the full 10 days.

Like others have said, the thorn just wasn't that bad on bare legs, but I was there late in the dry season so that's got to be taken into account.

I researched everything before going to Africa and read about how you had to have cotton pants for noise reduction and so they could use a hot iron to kill the bugs that would kill you.

Brought cotton and synthetics. Next time just synthetics and prob zip off legs.

They will get ripped up more by the brush, but I really don't care in the context of flying to the other side of the world for a hunt.

What I thought was great was that you could walk in them without overheating.

F520112250 at the Command Post.

Brought along an old pair of Belleville mini/mils too, great hot weather walking boot.

10generation,

I have a pair of synthetic cargo-style pants with zip-off legs that have been on several safaris, including one of 18 days and one of a month. Oh, and have also worn them on a number of hunts in Texas in warm weather. They're stil totally useable, if not exactly new, and are more comfortable in really hot weather than cotton (and also dry out very quickly after wading swamps). So I guess the thorn-ressistance depends on the specific synthetic.

Their one disadvantage is they're no particularly warm on cool mornings in the back of the Land Cruiser, even with the legs zipped on.

If you can find some old Patagonia Stand Up pants or shorts, the canvas ones very tough.

I wear these to matches and classes I attend. they are very comfortable, they'll keep you cool but i'm not sure how they would hold against thorne plants

https://www.wearvertx.com/Phantom-OPS-Powered-by-Airflow.aspx

If I ever went and wore shorts I can't imagine all the sunblock I'd need for my white legs.

Two pairs of Cabela's cargo shorts for hunting. I only wore long pants at night for dinner. After a day or two you get used to walking through the thorns in shorts.

The Africans are more "cold blooded" than us. The trackers all wore full length coveralls over their shorts and, in the morning, often wore stocking caps and balaclavas. I never saw one sweat at all and they drank very little water as compared with the whites.

Real men, in this case my son, wear shorts.

A loincloth ought to do.

Yeah them things'll get ya killed.

mule deer!

What synthetic pants did you buy?

I need to get some for next trip.

Thanks

Or, perhaps a nice, leopard-pattern thong.... in colder weather, wear both.

I bought a pair of khaki Columbia pants to wear on the airplane which also would work to hunt in but when I hunt I wear shorts. I find it easier and more comfortable to walk in shorts than long pants.

I usually stop by Walmart and buy a couple of cheap, fashionable, military-style long pants with cargo pockets. They are light, cheap, and disposable.

Keeping track of expensive guns, scopes, and binos is enough of a hassle when in Africa, so why travel with several hundred bucks worth of hunting clothes? JMO

BH

Brown double front Carhartt's.

Like my son said, if you take new clothes over you come back in hand-me-downs.

10generation,

My synthetic safari pants with zip-off legs came from Cabela's, but Cabela's doesn't offer them anymore.

You can find something similar, however, from other companies. Columbia Sportswear, for instance, offers the Men's Backcast Convertible Pant in several safari-suitable shades for $45. It's basically offered as quick-drying fishing clothing, but if I recall correctly that's what my pants were supposedly for.

I think it was one Hemingway's short stories where our African hunter succumbed to gangrene secondary to a thorn wound in his leg. This picture is a reason I wouldn't wear shorts myself, particularly in the those prickly, thorny areas of much of Africa south.