Need to get some new pants for my spring 08 brown bear hunt May 10-25. Would like some reccomendations from the guys here.Also what are ya'll thoughts on the hip boots that slip over your leather boots??
Thanks
Wesley

I recommend Rivers West H2P Gear. Absolutly the Best rain gear on the market today. They have heavy gear for cold conditions of Lighter gear you can layer clothing underneath. It is 100% waterproof and Breathable with a lifetime warranty on all garments to never leak, rip, or tear. I have been guiiding in the state for 10 years and without a doubt it is the best i have found.
Check out their site @ www.riverswest.com

Thanks MS, I have Helley Hanson rain gear I was asking mainly about hunting pants.
Thanks
wesley

Filson single tin pants are good windbreakers. If its raining I wear Swazi fleece under Peter Storm raingear. As for boots Lacrosse ankle fit hipboots is the norm for the penisula with Schnee packs for camp shoes.

quote:

hip boots that slip over your leather boots??

First Devils Club or sharp willow stepped on will render them junk

I prefer medium weight wool pants for my primary hunting pants. I use thin thermals underneath and put Helly Hansens over them if it is wet enough. Everybody hunts a little different than the next guy so equipment can vary, the Filson tin Pants would be great over thin wools or thermals. You really need ankle fit waders for sure.
Talk about your gear with your outfitter too.
Good luck on your trip!

I'm not a big fan of Rivers West H2P as it doesn't breathe. May as well wear a thin waterproof shell that doesn't hold moisture in a textured surface and allow it to collect and run back up your arms as you reach upwards climbing through wet brush. A thin shell with a better cuff design would give you half a chance to dry off on the outside at least. The only advantage of RW would be that it's quiet.

RW might be fine on a SE boat hunt where you could dry the stuff out overnights and may be ok for pants out on the Pennisula with the generally windswept rain squalls. Their "LAW" jacket sucks for goat hunting out of a tent though.

What does your guide recommend ? that should always be a first start.

Rivers West is tough and water proof but soaks up water on and becomes heavy and takes forever to dry in a tent and leaks over everything while it does.

Frogg Toggs are light, cheap and work great for the first month or so but are not as tough as HH or RW.

Wesley:

The hip boots that slip on over the leather boots, as said above, is a bad idea. What you want is, ankle fit hip boots from Cabela's or La Crosse, with insulation. I would not be surprised if the Cabela's ones were made By Lacrosse, neither will confirm nor deny it, hmmm.

As for rain gear, since we are now discussing that, The only thing better than H.H. is....KoolDry. It is also more expensive, you do get what you pay for and H.H. is not cheap. The kooldry breathes a lot better, is waterproof, does not hold water and is easier to put on. Impertech is like a 12-15 year old technology. Time to upgrade your gear.

That being said, I have used the H.H. for over 10 years and it has been my standby for a long time. You do , as we all know get wet from the inside out because rubber does not breath. Too bad they do not make the camo version anymore. I think Peter Storm is equal in quality to H.H..

Although I have no first hand experience with Rivers West I have read many bad reports on it and would not trust my hunt nor my life to that. May be fine for certain applications or guys who hunt from the trunk of their car , but a no go for Ak. style hunting.

As for pants for B.B. huntin', I would go with either a wind resistent fleece (not windproof), or a light weight pair of wool pants. Both are quiet and warm enough. Another option would be the new Sitka gear pants, they are G.T.G. as well.

Ankle fit LaCross hip boots have long been the standby for Alaskan hunting and I wear them at least have the time. I recommend the non-insulated ones for most applications as they are lighter and don't slip around on your feet as much as the insulated ones. For spring and Fall bear hunts though most people prefer the insulated ones.
I also wear Simms gore-tex waders much of the time as they are lighter and you can wear any type of boot you wish over the neoprene boot feet. I usually wear New balance tennis shoes or Vietnam style combat boots with mine. Simms ( and a few other cheaper models) also make
gore-tex hip waders that are very light and unless you are in water all day are the easiest to walk in and plenty dry as well.

quote:

Originally posted by 458Win:
Ankle fit LaCross hip boots have long been the standby for Alaskan hunting and I wear them at least have the time.

Aren't those what is known as "The Alaskan Sneaker".

Pants - SportHill 3Sp pants, great warmth for weight, dry quick, super comfortable nothing better under hip boots.

Helly impertect for rain gear, if you can find a 3/4 length guide coat buy it.

Phil has it all said about the hip boots

HBH

I thought the XTRA TUFF neoprene shoes / boots were the "alaska sneakers"

Various heights available, fit and wear well, protect feet fairly well - not great on rough, rocky terrain.

Wool rules except for absorbing water weight.

Ever see someone do the firedance in fleece ?

quote:

Originally posted by KMuleinAK:
I thought the XTRA TUFF neoprene shoes / boots were the "alaska sneakers"


Ever see someone do the firedance in fleece ?

No on the fleece. however, I did once burn up a piar of polypro sock liners over a fire while trying to dry them out.

The extra tuffs are in just about every Alaskan's closet.

Perhaps we can get a "sneaker" ruling from .458 win?

I'm not sure how or why I'm the arbitrator on the "Alaskan sneaker" ruling - or if I'm qualified - as I have heard both the La Cross ankle fit and the EXRA TUFF called Alaska sneakers.
I guess it might depend on whether you are from the SE or SW - a fishing boat captain or hunter.

I wear them both regularly but am wearing BATA Bunny boots now.

During this past Sept's moose hunt it rained most of the ten days we were out.
For the first time I remembered (always wanted to, but always forgot to pack em)to take my breathable chest waders and I was extremely impressed. Not to nosiy, very lightweight, water did not wick up inside the pant legs and I could walk through any water. After the days hunt I just turned them inside out and what little moisture was present quickly disappeared. I just need to play around and find a boot to fit over the waders that I like. But you can be sure the waders are my first choice now for breatheable pants.

For brown bear aren't you spending most of your time in a skiff glassing the shoreline for them? Seems like anything mildly waterproof and baggy (in case you want to layer under them) would work. The outfitter I went mntn goat hunting with implied it was a fairly easy hunt (he guides for bb as well) as far as any stamina was concerned. It's not like you're climbing the mountains. You're sitting in a boat trying to stay warm and dry until you see big brown daddy on the shoreline. Unless I've missed something I'd just get some inexpensive waterproof pants and hip waders.

With the exception of the SE, most brown bear hunts are nowhere near a boat and at least some - if not a lot - of walking is involved. Usually either in wet tundra. Plus there are usually numerous small streams.

Thanks for all the input. Looks like I will go with a polypro base layer and light/mid weight wool pants with fleece over them while glassing.Ditch the fleece when the stalk starts.The outfitter stated that 90% of the day will be glassing trying to locate a good bear then start the stalk. On my previous hunts in Alaska I have worn Walls mtn. pants but these are no longer made so I will go with the wool and layer with fleece. Will have my HH rain gear too. I am hunting with Kelly Vrem "Rough & Ready Outfitters"(after our first trip with him we joked that it meant "it going to be rough so you better be ready"), this will be my 4th trip with him but first to the pennisula.Not really looking forward to another long stalk in hip waders but last time I checked we did not have a huntable population of brown bears here in South Carolina so my father and I will have to tough it out in Alaska.
Thanks
Wesley

Wesley,
Good luck on your hunt. What part of Alaska and how many days are you going to be out there? How did you do on your last three hunts?

458,
I'm not a bear hunter so when I went to Alaska for the first time I asked my outfitter what's the difference between brown bear and grizzley. He said it was basically brown bear were coastal and grizzley interior. Therefore, I naturally assumed one would be hunting near the coastline - especially during the Spring. Was this not correct?

Bluefin. My father and I have hunted with Kelly twice in unit 16 on spring hunts and taken some great brown bears,in may 04 my father took his once in a lifetime brownie and in may 05 I took my once in a lifetime brownie. On the 05 hunt my father and I both killed bears the same morning about 20 miles apart with different guides but on the same morning and within an hour of each other not a bad morning.We hunted western Alaska in the fall of 05 with Kelly about an hour out of Anaik by plane. Weather was brutal and only scored a black bear but should have gotten 1 brown bear also but the hunting gods were not with us on this trip.
Kelly's guide area on the pennisula is the US Fish and Wildlife Service Becharof National Wildlife Refuge which allows 3 Brown Bear hunts per year.This is 30 miles across the bay from Kodiak. It is my understanding the camps will be on the beach. We will hunt May 10-25 so 15 huntings days. Hopefully we can score early. I have also hunted and taken tundra grizzly north of the Brooks Range in Alaska and mountain grizzly in British Columbia. Brown and grizzly are basically the same bear but have vastly different diets(salmon). Both can grow big but overall the browns closer to the coast can get to huge sizes much more often than the others.Boone & Crckett seperates the browns and grizzlies at the 64th or 62th parallel or something like that.
Thanks
Wesley

Wesley- Check out the technical pants sold at Barneys in Anchorage. You can Google them up and get to their site. Good stuff....

Wesley,
My outfitter made what I thought was a pretty good offer. A boat based hunt for $10k for brown bear off Baranov Island (just off Sitka). I'm still kind of considering it but I went to Africa (7 mounts)this year and have two hunts planned for Alaska in '08 (mntn goat and dall). I just don't know what I'd do with a brown bear in the mix as I don't have room for the Africa stuff coming in now! LOL

Again, best of luck to you. Hope the weather holds and you drop a monster!!

.......Generally Xtra Tuffs are called Ketchikan or Kodiak , Sneakers and Hip boots reffered to as Alaska Sneakers ....I call Ketchikan sneakers , Ketchikan Sneakers ,,,,what else would I call them ....Anyplace that gets 180 " of rain a year

A quick and direct answer to the original post. In 05 I did an AK bear hunt and used a pair of Cabelas's Dry Plus stocking foot waders with a pair of Vasque waterproof leather boots. They both worked great. When I got home I let the boots dry naturally and they look and feel like new. You wouldn't even know they had trudged through the waters of AK. And to top it all off, I still use the boots for hiking and the waders for fishing just waiting for a hall pass from my wife to go back one last time and find that big bear I didn't get last time. When and if I go, I'll use the same gear as I did before.

Many Alaskans use the Sporthill 3SP pants. The best pants I've found for hunting Alaska are the Mammut Champ pants.

Romo:

welcome to A.R.. I agree with your first post.

the 3SP pants are good pants. They are no longer the best. I have used the 3SP for many years and have been happy with them other than I am not a big fan of black and they do tend to come apart at the seams, eventually/

I have now switched to the Mammut Champ pants with suspenders and have found them to be lighter, just as wind resistent as the 3SP and they dry faster. They too are black, so nothing is perfect.

Part of life is the chase to continually upgrade your gear to something lighter, warmer, more wind resistent, etc. as technology continues to improve. The H.H. Impertech is another example of this.

As far as the Outer Shell HH and Rivers West are both sauna suits..They will not dry out after a few physical days of hunting.. If I was going to the AP I'd take 3 sets of Frogg's.. After this years trip to BC I'm going to retire my first set... That's about 500 hours of depending on them to protect me in the wild..
AK

Cold Zero -- Thanks. Just starting posting on A.R. after being a guest for a while. I'm a long-time member of Alaska Outdoors Directory and Pristine Ventures and I've seen you there.

BTW, Mammut now makes a Champ pant in olive green so you're not just relegated to black or carbon. Check 'em out...http://www.mammut.ch/mammut/katalog.asp?view=detail&did=5&dart=3&tid=51917&sid=2&picture=Champ_PT_dark_olive_black_bild1.jpg

I think that the Mammut Champ's in carbon(gray) would be the way to go as the gray would blend in well with the rocks above treeline. O.D. green for inside the treeline and black...for whatever black is used for.

I still like camo better. I feel more stealthy.