Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Price of hunting apparel and gear

Those $20 Wrangler hiking pants have been a very nice surprise. They're the best way I know to keep a constantly growing boy in non-cotton outdoor activity pants. I resisted for a long time but finally sprung for Kuiu raingear; even the sale price made me angry but it's worked well so far.

Some of the best hunting clothes I've spent money on is this stuff; durable, warm, and quiet: https://asbellwool.com/

If you don't need camo you can find great deals on top shelf mountaineering and ski gear in the spring from the outlets like Sierra Trading Post. If you play hard outdoors in all weather modern gear greatly enhances your pleasure and safety. Lightweight, stretchy and very tough is the hallmark of good alpine gear built for hard use in the roughest conditions.


mike r

My hunting comfort has vastly improved with some of that fancy gear. What doesn’t work gets quickly culled.

I’m not comfortable in the rain regardless of what I’m wearing. Call me soft but unless I get caught out in it I’m not willingly going out in anything moderate or heavier rainfall. Thinking an old PVC camo rain jacket to wear for boat rides and when it gets really nasty over my normal water resistant outer layers is the more sensible route. My favorite coat is an Under Armour hoodie, that thing is lightweight and warm for its size but they no longer make it as they got out of waterfowl gear. I have a Columbia Widgeon shell that leaks like a sieve even after waterproofing so it’s going back but they don’t even seem to offer much for hunting anymore so who know what they would replace with.

I can definitely see the benefit of the higher end stuff for mountain or backpack hunting but I do neither of those.

Where/when I grew up in the 60's early 70's you wore old clothes to hunt in period. Buddies brother brought me an army jacket liner home from Germany where he was stationed. I thought I died and went to heaven.

Brown flannel lined pants from Costco are usually $19.99, down vests on sale for $14.99 and the jackets for $19.99.

They are so light that they are perfect for layering under any old light camo shirt/jack that you might have laying around.

Boots is where I don't mind spending a little $$$ though.

Sitka has always been priced at the top end & it's good stuff if what they have suits your needs...................kinda buy once, cry once. It doesn't suit my need very well in most cases.

But there's plenty of other decent stuff from all kinds of manufacturers at decent prices, today, if you look hard.

Just depends what your goals & expectations are.

I bought KOM & Sleeping Indian wool stuff 20 years ago, it only gets worn hunting & it will last another 20 years. Cheap, no............great product with long life, yes.

Friend of mine, a guy I worked with for a few years, started Scent-Lok.................he made a few bucks since starting that business.

MM

Used to love the hunting spammers on Outdoor Channel in full disappearance mode climbing into a dark blind, that cost as much as a used Mustang I bought at 19. Guess that was in case a critter crawled into the blind it wouldn’t see them.

EBay is my friend. Bought most of my hunting clothes there. No complaints yet.

By about day 5 of an early oct SE moose hunt you’d pay about anything for clothes that work…grin. For what we’d do your money is better spent on clothing than on rifles IMO.

What's the saying? There's no bad weather, only bad clothing choices.....

Now, I'd look like a commercial wearing Sitka in the woods I hunt.

I'll probably be wearing Carhartt during the ice storm this week.

^^^This^^^

Midway always has some great sales after hunting season.

I don't wear any super expensive gear and 25 below (and colder) along with wind is pretty common. I think the most expensive outer gear I have is a quiet, soft shell gore-tex from Cabelas. Quite often when it is nasty I am wearing a German Army Gore Tex surplus bibs and a shell as an outer layer. My expedition style Outdoor Research gloves are not cheap but they are not grossly expensive either. Keeping hands warm is a priority in my mind.




There is no reason (in my opinion ) to spend 500-600 on a big name camo. Elk and deer don't know Coolio camo from German Flectarn . But If a guy wants to spend his money on it, then that is their business. My Scottish heritage runs too deep. I watched a guy rip one of those jackets in a small town gas station in Idaho. He snagged it on something (on the display) walking by and it ripped. It tore open and from what I could tell it appeared to be pretty darn thin. I will stick with my military surplus polarfleece and Goretex

Get on this website's email distro list for Sitka close-outs, https://mountain-archery.com/sitka-gear-clothing.aspx.

I've bought several Sitka gear products at 50% off from these guys. I'm by nature rather skeptical, but having bought and worn Sitka brand technical clothing, it's good stuff. I'm still too cheap to pay MSRP, but when these guys run sales, that's when to buy.


https://mountain-archery.com/sitka-gear-sale-and-closeouts.aspx

If you do, please dont be offended if I see you and break out in a fit of uncontrollable laughter. But on the other hand you may have a great idea there (the camo parasol) to sell to all the spandex hunter types, you might become a multi millionaire..
To sell it would have to be made of graphite and spandex, and cost about 5 times as much as a regular parasol.

Sitka has ya' covered there too. It's actually a pretty nice tarp.

Sitka Gear Flash Shelter

BDUs.

fine in Sept bow hunts

Nothing like a bunch of losers whining about stuff they can’t afford. Who cares what someone else wears anyway?

Just like the macho hunters that brag about how nasty the hike was to get where they elk hunt and then say they wouldn’t shoot anything in that thick stuff.

Do you go to Rodeo Drive and throw rocks at all the rich people driving expensive cars too?

I also have the German flectarn army surplus camo. Got it from Sportsman’s Guide for cheap years ago. Hooded coat with removable liner and suspender coverall pants. I did eventually replace the zipper with a heavy duty YKK zipper on the jacket liner. I wear the liner more than anything, makes a great insulating layer and has a turtle neck that goes up to your nose.