Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Wet boots from wicking water

Wearing a base layer tucked into my boots and it keeps soaking my boots when it rains. I'm sure the answer is to not tuck them into my boots, but my socks still come up over the boot an inch or so. Anyone have an easy solution?

gators, easy.

I never have a problem with wet feet,and I hunt in a soggy rain forest. You sure your boots aren't leaking?

100% positive. Rained really good today for about fifteen minutes. Left leg was soaked from blocking the wind and right leg wasn't as bad. Stopped raining and within a half an hour my left boot was soaked.

I am not sure why folks get so worked up about wet feet anyways. I hike all summer in just trail shoes made by Salomon. Creek crossing in the backcountry happens all the time. Its just faster and easier to suck it up and get your feet and and keep on hiking. Really if your boots/shoes fit good and then you air them out every night there really isn't an issue. If I could find a quality mountaineering boot that fit will w/o gtx I would be all over it. Often I go over my boot tops and my boots get wet anyways, would be nice to not have GTX as they dry faster and are lighter when wet. They way I look at it is it is not a question of if but when my feet will get wet. Just give them time to breath at night and make sure your footwear fits and be done with it.

The problem I've had is that I would rather have warm wet feet than cold wet feet. I can't handle cold wet feet. I can't find a gore tex boot that does not leak at all, but at least the leaks are so slow that my feet stay warm and damp. If I go with no water proof cambrelle at all my feet seem to stay cold and wet unless I wear seal skin socks or something. I'm sticking with gore tex.

I don't understand. Where is the water coming in from? I have a tough gore tex pant that I wear over my boot. My inner layer is tucked into my boot. My boot is mid height. My feet stay warm and damp and I'm out all day in the muskeg and endless rain in the tongass.

My feet sweat so bad they get wet from within on warm days! What are you wearin Calvin? My hunt continues. Gators are the way to go especially in wet grass, etc.

I have come to the same conclusion. It is a rare set of conditions where I prefer a waterproof boot.

Been there....I've taken to wearing some kind of over-pants, light or goretex or whatever, outside my boots. Filled them with water several times when it was 38 degrees.

I don't get it. Are you wearing pants over your base layers? I mean, if your wearing pants, the water should run off the pant leg which should be hanging over the top of your boot, never touching your base layer. So, you are wearing pants that are not waterproof, too short to cover the tops of your boots, or don't wear pants when you hunt . Am I close here?

First time it happened I was wearing rain pants over wool Filsons over UA cold gear base layer tucked into my boots.

Second time I was wearing DWR treated North Face pants over UA base layer tucked into pants.

First time water wicked up the bottoms (and possibly the tops) of the wool and soaked the base layer which soaked my socks and then my boots. It was really pooring all day and I was soaked to the bone when I came back to camp.


Second time I should have been wearing a better outer layer, but crap, it didn't rain that much and my boot got soaked again. The North Face pants dry really quick, but the boots take a couple days w/o a Peet dryer. I know I have read a thread on here about the same thing in the past and an easy solution. Just can't remember what it was.

It's like shingles on a roof; if you allow water to run down your back through your neck line, down a gap between your pants and jacket, or you are wearing an outer layer that holds water and wicks to the inside, your base layer will then become saturated. At that point, gravity will take over and the water will run to the bottom. No different then soaking your base layer and then hanging it up to watch the water drip out the bottom. If this saturated layer terminates inside your boots, well then your boots will become water buckets.

Make sure you shore up your rain layer, top and bottoms, to run the water off and away from your inner layers. You can manage perspiration and dampness, but it becomes imposible to manage a flood of water inside your outermost rain layer.

Best:)

Any kind of rain pant with the exception of rubber and even then will probably eventually wet out and it can then wick into your socks. I think the simplest thing to do is to wear gators and I wear them under my rain pants. Then when my pants at the bottoms do wet out my socks are protected while we may not have the rain that Alaska does we have a fair share in the fall. I do think all leather boots are better but I have stayed dry in my Kenetreks using the above method in all day rain while hunting.

For starters, what kind of boots are you wearing & how high are they?

I wear Cabelas fleece with Dry Plus waterproof lining. I have been in absolute downpours and never have my pants transfered water into my boots via my under garments. If you're not wearing waterproof pants I see a few options here.

1st - as mentioned, get a pair of gators & wear them under you wool pants. This will not allow water to pass from pants to base layer.

2nd - wear knee high boots (rubber, neoprene, goretex). I don't see how water will travrl that far up & over.

3rd - buy some quailty rain gear. I love Cabelas Dry Plus. Its just as good as Goretex if not better IMO and cheaper.

I have a dry plus pullover I am sending back because it aint any where near water proof, let alone water repelant.

i am thinking your boots are leaking. try standing in a tub with 6 inches of water for about five minutes.

Done it. Aint leakin.

I hunt in 8 hours of rain, slosh around in saturated muskeg for hours on end, and my boats don't get wet. Your boots are leaking...

Haha. Nope. Ain't leakin. Dead serious.