The Clown is correct about the cotton. I do prefer that there Desert Night Camo jacket down here. There are all kinds of layers available and I do utilize them.

My issue with some of the things I have seen is just too much. While actively hunting, my body generates a lot of heat. When in the mountains, much of my hunting was on horseback and then on foot. I did wear long undies, merino wool socks, a flannel lined shirt and waterproof bibs. That would have been covered up with a green Columbia rain slicker and, of course, a hat. When sitting, glassing, resting or whatever (and especially when windy), I would pull on a neck gaiter over my head and down to below my chin. I could not walk with one on. If I needed to regulate my heat, the easiest way was to pull off my hat.

The only thing costly were the boots (400 grams of thinsulate) I wore. With my Eastman's subscription, I get to see tons of advertising from some of the higher priced, higher performing camo providers out there. I am certain it is all good stuff. I have been fortunate and can afford almost anything I desire. There is nothing wrong with buying the very top of the market. Nothing. I just don't normally do it. I had a tent collapse on me after a twelve inch snow during the night. That sucked, but I never got cold. Had none of the fancy stuff.

In addition to 1st hand experiences with all jazzed up paid hunters, I remember Johnson's favorite story and maybe it left me further jaded. An old buck went to take a nap and told a younger buck to be on lookout for hunters and other predators. Sometime during the nap, the younger buck spotted a hunter clad in expensive, state of the art camo with a nice, new, scoped rifle. He awakened the old buck and pointed him out. The older buck felt that hunter was nothing to be afraid of and admonished the younger buck for having awakened him. When the older buck went back to sleep and awoke again, he could see an old man moseying around in red & black flannel with a rusty, open sighted 30-30. The young buck noted he saw this hunter, but and considering his appearance, he was not concerned about him. The older buck immediately took off. When the younger buck caught up with him, the older buck got into him for not having pointed out what, to him, was a such a dangerous adversary.

I would not want anyone to put a trip at risk due to not being appropriately prepared. There was a lot game killed prior to the explosion of all this new gear.

^^^Sounds like good middle ground(or an olive branch).

We are same page, you are correct you don’t have to have sitka or Kuiu, a lot of good options like Columbia, Mountain hardware,Prana, north face, etc out there..

With Kuiu/Sitka/Firstlite/Stone Glacier you are paying premium for features and the best technologies. Although the best may only be 10% better then it’s closet competition that’s 20% less $. It’s kind of like Swaro VS (Maven, Tract, Meopta, Upper end Luppy etc). With that said you know Kuiu Stika etc arent going to be donating to anti hunting groups that Patagonia or North Face might.

I appreciate and well recognize the bino comparison.

I'm not much of a camo guy. My two mainstay's for hunting pants are the Carhartt Ripstop pants, and KUHL Rydr. I just stick to dull colors.


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As others have said, Rokslide would be a great resource for you. They are much more focused on western hunting gear and clothes.

You want some clothes that breath so when you sweat it makes it out to the surface of the fabric to evaporate. You need fabric that will keep you warm when wet and you need a wind blocking layer.
On a western hunt good chance it will be warm during the day and you'll need to take off layers to be comfortable while hiking in. After you hike in and work up a little sweat you'll hit the shade to cool down and rest , your layers will probably go back on in the shade.

Cotton will not keep you warm when wet but it does breath well, and that is a problem when its' chilly. You need material that will not chill you if damp.
When the sun goes down it will get colder fast. If you have on damp cotton clothes hypothermia is a real issue.
It doesn't have to be really cold to get hypothermia.

You don't have to spend a fortune on decent clothes. Look on Camofire and Black Ovis for deals. Might be quite the deals soon if things don'y change in regard to this virus. Last years models are probably on sale now.
You could very well get away with a pair of drab colored pants and camo for your top layers.

I did the same as you 2 years ago and checked out all of the brands mentioned and decided to go with Sitka and I will never look back. I have used it to hunt Colorado and Alaska and it works great. I chose the optifade subalpine which has the most green in it for where I hunt. Also, if you are a veteran or a first responder they offer a good discount for you and their customer service is outstanding. Sitka is a little more expensive but the quality can't be beat!!

They are no longer.

Surplus military fatigues have given me good service for over 50 years. I hunted deer from the Badlands of North Dakota, to the Hill Country of Texas, with Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico in between. Plus quite a few other states. .

You see DC, not all of us spent enough time in SE asia to have permanent crotch rot and jungle foot. Some of us like to have some feeling left in our ballsack after hiking for a few days and sweating in the process. Thats where technical clothing comes into play.
Yes, surplus fatigues/BDU/ACU/whatever initial soup they throw on these days is good tough gear for certain jobs and certain people, but it doesn't breathe well, is constricting to some in places we don't like to be constricted, and if you get them loose enough to not constrict in those places they are so baggy in other places they are almost unwearable.

So to rebut your post, my butt doesn't quite fit into those pants well enough to not have a serious chafing issue after a few miles and that isn't acceptable for me.

I generally agree that the high-end stuff is designed from the ground up for the activity at hand and is likely to be better suited than adapting or re-purposing clothes designed for other uses. I don't own any KUIU or Sitka gear but my SIL worked at Under Armour for three years and I used the family 40% discount to build a couple of good hunting kits. I see a huge difference between that stuff and the stuff I used to hunt in (old Cabela's, RedHead from Bass Pro, the near-canvas stuff from Academy, etc...). Nothing inherently wrong with the old stuff, but the new stuff is lighter, more purposely designed, better. I can only assume that it's the same case with the really high-end stuff.

My only caveat is that all consumer brands rely somewhat on "planned obsolescence" for sales. I just noticed yesterday that KUIU just introduced a new camo scheme that -incidentally- looks like it will be a much better fit for the terrain that I hunt (Central Texas) than their previous camo schemes that are better suited for the Western states terrain/elevation. That caught my attention and made me wonder if I need to treat myself to some new duds before this season (ha, sucker, just what KUIU marketing intended). Brands will continue to push for newer materials, lighter/better/technically-superior because they want us to keep buying gear year after year. That's why companies like Mossy Oak will discontinue camo patterns (have you tried to find the tied-and-true-for-Texas Mossy Oak Brush lately? Impossible). t's no different than what happens with bows. One cam. Two cams. No cams. Elliptical cams. Heilicoidal cams. Cams made of aluminum, titanium, carbon fiber, human cartilage, etc... Anything to create a desire and a belief that you NEED the newest bow. Otherwise, you're sticking with your tried-and-true Fred Bear bow that's killed more deer than CWD and didn't require a home equity loan, and that doesn't work for Matthews, does it? It happens every spring, every endorsed hunter or "brand ambassador" starts posting practice videos on social media with their newest "bow du jour" that is SO much lighter/faster/stiffer/stabler/better than their previous one that one wonders how the heck they were able to hunt with those obsolete (1-yr old) bows before! We all watch those shows where the hunter didn't kill the deer with his bow, he "smoked it with his <insert name of sponsoring brand bow here>! Cue the hard rock music, high-fives and grip-and-grin!

Buy what you can afford, knowing that the quality -and purpose-build- of gear varies pretty dramatically. I've worn surplus multi-cam BDU pants on many hunts but they're not the comfiest or lightest or warmest of pants. I can't justify $300 pants on my budget, but I'm not going to criticize those who can, everybody's different. I will just keep scouring the ads and waiting for a good sale!

Glad this thread got bumped up. I had forgotten that Bobo and Hud had good and lively civil discourse. I think they kissed and made up and maybe a link of sausage was used as an olive branch.

Jus to be fair to anyone buying clothes, camo sells the human on the clothes, not the clothes on the animals...plenty of animals are shot in solid colors or flannel or plaid. Point being, don’t buy based on the newest and greatest camo pattern, buy for fit function and form. Clothes that are technical are just that, technical clothes suited for a purpose. Solid colors have been requested out of these manufacturers and they are listening after losing sales to non-hunting companies that don’t use camo. Why? So people buying can use the clothes for more than just hunting. Good idea. Most of this gear is very practical for things like sitting out in weather for football or baseball games, hiking, etc...places you don’t want to be seen as a GI joe.

So buy for fit form and function, don’t buy for camo pattern.

He won a ribbon!!! who wouldn’t indulge. and it was exceptional

Written word doesn’t always translate the same message. HUD and I where actually on same page. I’m big fan of Prana and Khul pants because you can find them for 50-60 on sale.

Also he doesn’t know it yet, but I’m going to help him put on a sausage making THF get together. Thinking about getting a bunch of kids together to help and learn

^^^If you do this, please send out an invite as I would love to help and see the process. I have never made sausage, I know it isn’t terribly difficult, but much better to learn in good company than by oneself.

100% of my hunting is done from a blind where I am completely concealed so I make sure to dress comfortably. Most of the time that is jeans and a Carhartt.

One of the stupidest posts I have ever read. Obviously someone don't knows about Gold Bond.

While I have a plethora of military utility uniforms and hunt in them occasionally (they fit well), I have found that BDUs/ACUs are too noisy for deer hunting, especially in close quarters with a bow. This is why I've tried to purchase high quality hunting clothing that's quiet and warm during my hunting life. I actually have a set of First Lite Catalyst jacket and pants (R&D discount) being delivered tomorrow and after trying them out, I'll report back to the group.

I guess if all you do is sit in a box and shoot animals from 100 yards away, you can wear whatever you want without any detrimental effect to your hunting success, as long as you stay warm enough. And while I do hunt that way a lot, I also hang out in a lot of trees about 20 yards away from a deer trail or funnel. In those situations, I need the best I can get.

I like to spot and stalk. That's what bipods were built for. Also like to hunt out o' my rack. Scent wafers and slow methodical movement are what its about.

when i'm a bow blind I wear a pair of camo cargo pants from bass pro and a shirt with a hoodie over it.


In a blind you can wear whatever you want for the most part as long as you are warm

A very interesting discussion. When I look at those US-Hunting clothing companies it feels like a bad rip-off. I guess that is the price for the camo pattern they develop. I also don't quite understand the purpose of camo for hunting.

How about traditional hunting clothing, I mean leather? All this stuff they offer is made of plastic, it can't be as good as real cowhide, or?

Camo was originally designed to break up the outline of a person. Depending on pattern it can work pretty well or not well at all. By and large its not necessary for rifle hunting. I like camo because it doesn't stain with blood and dirt like solid color clothes but i wear both.


When bowhunting, you need camo, including gloves and facemask or wear paint.


I've never wore leather clothes but i wouldn't imagine it would breathe too good and would be heavy....we have better materials now

Ive never wore leather clothes either but yesterday at Bucees in Denton I saw a girl with a black tshirt on that said in large print "Kinky as F***" and it was spelled out...... Blue hair and tatoos too so maybe shes the leather type........

I know what Camo is made for, we invented it lol (didn’t help though)
Unfortunately is Bowhunting illegal in Germany so I can’t comment that need, but I have doubts.
Every animal has different Vision, every landscape is different, and so it’s nearly impossible to have the
Right Camo for the game and landscape.

Surplus is great for many things and I like it for hiking, work around the house or play with the dog. But
Getting in the Bush or deep in the forest there isn’t anything that protects better then leather-
It may need maintenance but other then that, It’s awesome.



I don’t think that’s quite the same leather clothing /
But now I think I should spend more time in Bucees.