Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Sitka gear

Too bad it's made in China..... if was made here, I'd probably use it.

Where was the device that you typed that on made?

Given a choice, I'll chose USA made clothing every time...sometimes there's not a choice, and that's unfortunate.

If your weather is relatively mild, then you may not need it.

I grew up hunting in Oklahoma in the 1970s. It's windy and cold there in the winter, well below zero with wind chill. My winter clothes consisted of jeans, cotton waffle-pattern long underwear, Sears work boots, wool socks, down vests, and field jackets. None of it fit well and I was miserable most of the time.

The Army sent me to Washington state in the mid-1980s. Fall weather here hovers in the 30s and low 40s so it’s not terribly cold but it rains for days on end during deer season and rains hard for days on end during elk season. Hypothermia is a constant threat. Issued GoreTex and polypro were a godsend but we had to wear cotton BDUs so I was still pretty uncomfortable. I used that combination plus bits of fleece, Filson wool, and military wool for the next 30-odd years. When a guide strongly recommended Sitka, I bought gaiters, rain pants, rain jacket, gloves, and a vest.

Holy smokes, that stuff just plain works.

As nyrifleman pointed out, wool keeps you warm when its wet but it gets heavy and you basically fight your clothes with every step you take. With Sitka, I wear light polypro insulating layer and boots, and I keep a fleece insulating layer or two in my pack in case I stop to glass a hillside. The weight savings is 7-10 pounds, more if my clothes get wet, so I'm not humping that kind of weight around all day when it’s 34 degrees and pouring rain. I guarantee you'll FEEL that at the end of the day. After several days, I can hunt through conditions that would have sent me back to camp when I was wearing BDUs and GoreTex. That matters because the woods seem fill up with animals when the rain stops or slows down between squalls.

A buddy (distributor's rep) fixed me up with a steep discount but it was still expensive so I only wear it to hunt. It will probably last me for the rest of my life.

You should give those Sitka rain pants a try even if you don't live in hypothermia country. For me, wool/cotton vs. Sitka has been like the difference between crappy iron sights and a good scope.


Okie John

I was stationed at Ft. Lewis, '78-'81, B2/75. We wore nothing but camo fatigues 12 months out of the year up there. Winters in the woods,(though not that cold) were wet as phuque! If one survived that without knowing what "spooning" was , one is a lying SOB!

All of my Sitka gear says "Made in Vietnam". I don't think that is in China.

Best improvement I have noticed in sitka and kuiu are the pants. Huge diff in having stretch pants if you are climbing/scrambling all day. Otherwise you can find very similar stuff in nearly any brand these days, esp if you aren't married to one particular camo pattern or color. It's an embarrassment of riches, gear wise, compared to 20-30 years ago.

I usually end up buying clothing made for alpine climbing/ski mountaineering. I like to start choosing by fabric and construction/design mad by a reputable mfgr. Modern fabrics when well constructed are amazing, water and wind resistant stretchy and tough. Kuiu made its rep by providing amazing fabrics that were well constructed. For me hunting means hard work so moisture management is key and for me synthetics rule.

I shop all the discounters and own good stuff from Mammut, Arcteryx, Outdoor Research, Mountain Hardware and Marmot, all purchased for about 50% of msrp. A good example of function at a low cost is The Marmot Precip raingear. Pants and jacket for about $100.00 and good enough to be recommended by one of the biggest guide services on Denali. You tube has loads of reviews on about every everything you can imagine.

Get on the E-mail list of all the discounters and shop year around and don't be too color sensitive.


mike r

Just don't pick a fight with any of 'em......

The choice isn't just WWII surplus wool or Sitka.

There are so many good choices I guess "in between." I've never hunted in Alaska or Canada so maybe it's different. And no matter what if the money is no big deal and/or you just want Sitka than have at it.

I spend a decent amount of time with hunters every fall in Wyoming who are in Sitka head to toe and I just can't see the value. Yes I like effective clothing. I'm not really that old and when I started bowhunting as a kid I was hunting in clothes that weren't much more than camo pajamas.

For the record I have one Sitka base layer top that I bought for $25 I think, at STP. So yeah I'll buy and wear it at those price levels.

Had a hunter in camp last year bragging about his Sitka many 100s of $ down coat. I wanted to pull out my Brooks Range down puffy that I bought on close out for $80. In the last year I bought a synthetic puffy for $7 and a grid fleece pull over for $25.

Shop around, look outside hunting companies, is camo really necessary, but really just get what you want and what you can afford.

I totally agree.
On a 2018 Afognak Island hunt I brought some relatively cheap Cabela's synthetic pants and some mid-level rain gear. The rest of my stuff (including socks and shirts) was all cotton. It worked just fine, even in some horrendous rains. Only 6 of the 15 tag holders even bothered to hunt, and only 4 were successful. There was a Kuiu warrior that I talked to that was tent bound during the storms, and didn't fill his tag. That's my way of saying: person's mental state has a lot to do with it, beyond their clothing quality.

One could make the argument that I could have gone even further in those rain storms if I was wearing Sitka or Kuiu. I won't argue with that but the cheaper stuff was good enough to pull two Roosevelt herd bulls off of that horrendous, bear infested Island.

I like wearing my kuiu jacket when traveling more than hunting. Easy to strike up a conversation with a fellow hunter and repel the snowflakes.

Come to think about it, I never wore my fancy jacket this year. I hike in a t shirt in the early season up mountains and a pvc rain jacket in the later season. In the early season I hike up in shorts and change to kuiu pants up top. Late season kuiu chugach pants. They pants are pretty good.

I thought I was the only guy hiking up in shorts and tshirt😀
First season with the Chugach set and don’t regret buying.

my legs get scratched to hell but it's so much easier to hike with shorts on when it's hot out. I don't alpine hunt in the rain. This year I did two trips and never changed out of my shorts, just put on some base layer bottoms on under them at the top. Want to find some better shorts with a good flexible belt for next year.

I don't like KUIU tops but I love their pants. I rarely wear anything else when hunting late fall to spring.

I've tried hiking in shorts here in the desert for coues, once.....

I almost bled to death ...grin...

Thanks for the tip, my wife is a teacher so she is in the process of applying for LEOAdventures...do they offer 40% at Sitka?

There is a lot of gear of these brands in our camp also. We hunt late seasons, hunt at or above treeline, and hunt sheep and goats when we can. All in all you tend to get a little more performance by giving up a camo pattern.

https://www.marmot.com/sale/men/jac...-eco-jacket---tall/AFS_889169478185.html

$60 marked down from $120 right now direct from Marmot

I’d be one massive poison oak scab if I hunted in shorts....lol....

Interesting thread...learning a lot.