My lightweight hunting pants are about worn out. Cabelas does not offer much these days for a guy my size. 44Wx34L. Any suggestions about where I can find a pair of hot weather pants? Thanks...

Next time I go over to Namibia I will be wearing the Wrangler ripstop cotton cargo pants. Can be had for less than $20 a pair at Walmart and they are really nice hunting pants.

http://www.wrangler.com/store/WRG_STORE_US/en_US/style/70l3.html#categoryId=17673

Your PH, gun caddy, tracker, skinner, and gutter will be LTFAO at you lack of attention to proper attire . . .

Check out some of the big outfitters for fishing pants...the kind that dry quickly.
The Caveat is that they don't handle thorns well....

No that happened last time when I wore cheap pants that couldn't stand up to the rocks and other elements.

Costco jeans for $16?

yuppie

Ed: Im sorry but you must have missed the threads that told us Jeans could:

A) Scare the game away, cause they're blue or

B) Cause you to get hypothermia and die in the event of cold weather....








( I missed the memo too....)

Carhartt dungarees in green or brown. They will handle the thorns.


maddog

IU've worn both Carhartts and jeans a lot, and they work great for most safari hunting, especially the typical African-winter plains game trip to RSA or Namibia. But anywhere it gets a lot hotter or wetter (as in wading swamps) shorts are not just more comfortable but more practical.

If you dunno what the conditions might be, pants with legs that can be zipped off are pretty handy!

I bought 2 pairs of the Cabela's safari pants with zip-off legs to take on my recent Zimbabwe safari. I wore them one day out of my 10 hunting days, and zipped the legs off by 10 am. Shorts are simply more comfortable than long pants, as Mule Deer suggests.

Columbia makes some real nice pants suitable for safari. I bought several pair from Cabelas and have used them three times in Africa

Doc,

Those Cabela's pants look ideal. Might have to pick up a pair or two, as my zip-off pants have seen better days.

When I went to the Selous in Tanzania in 2011 it got well over 100 some days, especially toward the end of the hunt. My hunting partner would NOT wear shorts, because of his snake phobia, even though he knows the long pants wouldn't make any difference if a mamba bit him. And we did see 4 mambas....

I like lightweight long pants when walking in the long grass and thorny areas.

Snakes may make a difference if they just hit the fabric as often happens. Not sure with a mamba though (the snake, not the swahili for crocodile, don't think thay would help then). My local guys also always wore long pants.

I also wear longs in the jungle due to thorns etc. Plus mozzies.

Mule Deer, what time of the year were you in the Selous? I was near there a bit in 2011 and 2012, not too hot though.

This is what I use as well. Great stuff.

rockdoc,

I was in the Selous for 18 days from late September into October, in the northeastern part where elevations are lowest. The temps were fine at the start, but as we got into October midday turned very warm, and the last few days the "short rains" started. Several downpours occurred, which felt good right then, but when the sun came out afterward it was both hot and humid.

I wore the same exact thing and they worked well. I'd probably opt for the zip-off leg pants if I were to go when it's hot.

Both the PH's I hunted with were pretty insistent that I wear shorts, as they were/are of the opinion that thorns/brush make less noise on skin as opposed to clothing. Fine by me, even if it's a non issue in that regard. I would have roasted in long pants. I'm pretty well acclimated to a cool environment. When it breaks 65F I sweat!

After the first couple of stalks, the blood and scabs helped to break up/camouflage my legs, which are similar in color to the white side of a halibut.

Jeff

I wear green BDU's. My favorites are the old schoold Bundeswehr moleskin type. Tough but soft. I used to have some lightweight ripstop BDU pants that were nice in the hot weather. Got those from Brigade Quartermaster.

Some guys like shorts, but I gave that up after getting scratched by the wait-a-bit and acacia thorns, not to mention crawling on hands and kneww through the burnt grass stubble and rocks.

RSA in late June - July can get chilly in the a.m. Heck, one July in Zambia we froze our butts each and every morning for two weeks, A very cold winter for them. High 30's at night and high of about 68ºf midday. The Norwegians in camp complained about the cold. No shorts worn on that trip!

My safari pants are shorts.

Mike

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.

Lightweight pant in a 44W

Isn't that an oxymoron?

Words hurt......