Boots That Are Made For Mucky Weather

© By Othmar Vohringer

Turkey hunting season, especially the early part, is notorious for constantly changing weather conditions, rain, snow and cold temperatures mixed with warm and sunny days are not uncommon. Quit often weather conditions can change during a single day from nice spring to cold winter conditions.

Because of that the avid turkey hunter has to be prepared for everything mother nature can dish out. For me this means, among other things, having a good pair of boots that can put up with the worst weather and still provide protection and comfort.

Is there such a thing? Yes there is! A year ago I purchased a pair of Muck boots and have grown so fond of them that I now own several pairs. I use to hate putting on rubber boots in wet weather because they made my feet sweat and cold. Another problem I encountered with rubber boots was that either they provided no ankle support or they when they did they were so tight that you needed Vaseline to in and out of them.

Muck boots are a very different story. These boots are made of Neoprene, of various thicknesses depending on the model, this fabric has a natural stretch that permits easy on and off despite the snug fit around the ankle. Neoprene also makes the boot much lighter than its rubber relative which in turn makes for less tiresome walking. This is especially important for turkey hunters as a lot of the hunting success depends on walking quickly from one to the next setup. For me a big plus of the Muck Boots is the fact that they a 100% waterproof and yet still breathable, which means, no more sweaty feet. Depending on the model the boots come insulated to keep your feet warm from departures as low as minus 60 degrees. While several features in the foot part of the boot make sure that your feet are comfortable. The aggressive sole of the boots lets you walk on just about any surface from a frozen lake to swamp without worries of losing traction.

Here I introduce you to the two models that I might use on any of my turkey hunts.

In cold weather with snow still on the ground, which happens often around here in early spring, I chose to wear Artic-Pro Muck boots (the brown pair in the image)

• Fully insulated with 8mm Neoprene. This provides the optimal warmth, comfort, and waterproofing that you expect from a Muck Boot.
• A fleece liner is added to keep your feet warm in down to -60 degrees
• We wanted to make sure your feet were warm so we added an extra 2mm of thermal foam in the foot area.
• The stretch-fit topline binding is snug around the calf to keep warm air in and cold air out
• The seamless construction allows for easy cleaning with the simple spray of the hose
• Double reinforcement in the instep, heel and achilles area where you need it most.
• EVA midsole cushions with every step
• Our specially designed Bob-Tracker outsole is molded to be rugged, aggressive and durable.

In warmer but wet weather I might wear my all-purpose knee high boots the Elite Stealth Muck Boots (camouflaged boots in the image)

• Anti-microbial treatment prevents growth of odor causing bacteria
• Inscentible® scent masking for improved concealment when hunting
• 5mm NEOPRENE bootie with four-way stretch nylon, 100% waterproof, lightweight and flexible
• Fleece lined
• Additional Achilles overlay for added protection
• 2mm thermal foam underlay added to the instep area for additional warmth
• EVA molded midsole with contoured footbed
• Reinforced toe
• MS-1 molded outsole is rugged, aggressive and durable for maximum protection and stability.

To find out more about Muck Boots visit their website.

Prois Hunting and Field Apparel for Women

© By Othmar Vohringer

There was a time when women hunters had no choice but to wear men’s hunting clothing. Thankfully, these days are gone and the growing number of women hunters can now wear performance outdoor clothing for hunting that has been especially designed for them. One of the leading companies specializing in women hunting apparel is Prois.

Prois prides itself creating the highest quality, performance hunting and shooting gear for women. Excellence is what sets Prois apart and they justifiably proud to find companies that create gear for the serious female hunter. The newest product in the Prois line-up of top quality products are Zamberlan hunting boots.

Zamberlan Boots was founded in Europe 82 years ago and the company remains family owned and operated to this day. The company offers a broad base of boot choices and Prois has found their line of women's backpacking footwear to be top of the line. The boots in this category are specifically designed to provide the comfort and support needed for long treks, backpacking trips, hunting and snowshoeing. They are tough and suitable to cope with all kinds of terrain and weather conditions. They feature high performance midsoles, which are stiff enough to ensure excellent stability and torsional rigidity on rough terrain, combined with high traction and high grip soles with cushioning systems for added comfort.

Visit the Prois website to view entire product catalogue.

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Christmas Gifts For Hunters And Anglers

© By Othmar Vohringer

Christmas is just around the corner and as every year I offer you my list of presents for the avid hunter.

I start the list with three books that will be much appreciated reading during the long cold winter days.

Fish Cops & game Wardens
By Bill Otway

Fish Cops & Game Wardens tells first hand account stories of game wardens, conservation officers and fisheries officers that Bill has met and befriended in half a century of involvement in the domain of wildlife and fisheries conservation efforts. The stories in the book are humorous, others make the reader think and still other stories are so hilarious they make you laugh. Whatever the story may be, humorous, thrilling or compassionate, they are all real live experiences and the stuff campfire stories are made of that will be told and retold for generations to come.

Read more.


Bear Hunting Book and Video
By Justin Ott

The book and accompanying video covers everything a beginning bear hunter needs to know and I am convinced that even advanced and veteran bear hunters will be able to pick a few things up they have never known or need to be reminded of. In 13 chapters the book covers information about the black bear and conservation and then moves on to important things like where and how to find bears. In other chapters different hunting tactics are knowledgably explained. There are sections on hunting bears with rifles and archery equipment. Hunting bears from the ground, over bait, from treestands and stalking bears is all covered in subsequent chapters.

Read more.

Inside The Wild
By L.W. Oakley

Inside The Wild is a detailed account of L.W. Oakley’s life as a hunter and nature enthusiast among a close-knit circle of hunting friends whose adventures into the wild world of northern Ontario have shaped his beliefs and opinions of what hunting and nature means to him.

I have read the book from the first to the last page and often found it hard to put it down. Oakley is a great storyteller while passing along some valuable insights for us to consider without sounding preachy. I particularly enjoyed how Oakley starts each chapter with a personal story he experienced with his hunting friends. Some of these stories make you think while others make you smile or even laugh.

Read more.

Apparel:

Dress In Style

How about some beautifully designed T-Shirts for your favourite hunter or huntress?

When I go out in town I like to spread the message that I am a hunter and angler, and that I am proud of it. However, I never wear camouflage clothing in town or even around the neighbourhood. There are other ways, much more stylish, to let people know that I hunt.

T-Shirts with nice hunting and fishing motives are one of my favourites. It is difficult for me at times to find something that suits my style and is non-offensive to people that do not hunt. Obviously I wouldn’t wear anything that says something like “Buck Killer” printed on the shirt. My choice of hunting “advertisement” is exactly what the Texas based company Field Dress offers to hunters and fishers.

Read more.

ASAT Camouflage designed to fool deer not hunters

Stan and Jim, the designers of ASAT, believed that a lot of camo available at the time had been designed like fishing lures - to catch the hunter rather than help catch the quarry. They knew that just because a pattern looks good in a store or in a small isolated field situation, it doesn't mean that it will work well under all conditions and at all times of the year. What Stan and Jim ultimately decided to do was develop a camo pattern that would be good at all times, in any environment, to fool any game animal or bird. It was a tall order, but the pair felt that they had succeeded with ASAT. Obviously, many hunters felt and still feel, the very same way.

As an animal behaviourist I did my own research on camouflage patterns and found ASAT to be the only one designed to fool animal vision. Consequently. ASAT is my choice of camouflage for the last 16 years. I wear ASAT on all my hunts in any terrain and in any season.

Read more.

Products:

Magnet Gun Caddy

The Magnet Gun Caddy is one of these rare “Wow” moment products that make you think, “Why hasn’t somebody thought earlier of that.” As with most of these exceptional products the genius lays in the sheer simplicity of the design that fulfills a real need. I lost count of how many times I came back to the truck from a hunting or fishing trip with both hands full of gear. I would have to lean the rifle, gun or fishing rod against the truck to free one hand up to get the key out of my pocket and unlock the truck.

More times than I care to remember the firearm or rod slipped and fell to the ground scratching the paint on the truck in the course of it. With the Magnet Gun Caddy this will never happen again.

Read more.

Heirloom Custom Game Calls

Anybody that hunts for a year or tow has learned one important lesson when it comes to calling game animals into shooting range. The more realistic you create the illusion of real live animal sounds the more likely it is that you will get a positive response.

Brian Warner, founder and operator of Heirloom Game Calls, is not only an avid hunter but also an excellent woodcraftsman with solid knowledge of natural animal sounds. Combining his talents he is able to create the most realistic sounding game calls available on the market. Each call is personally hand tuned by Brian before it leaves his shop. Just good is not good enough for Brian it has to be perfect. This same quality control extends to his woodworking skills. Each call is beautifully handcrafted to exact tolerances. Heirloom Calls are just that; Heirlooms that will handed down from generation to generation.

Read more.


Final Approach Eliminator Cargo Blind

I’ll admit it. When I hunt I like comfort. Especially when I hunt ducks and geese, which involves hours of sitting motionless in often wet and cold weather conditions. One aspect of hunting waterfowl that I never liked much is sitting in cold, wet, dug-out blinds.

With that in mind I looked forward to field-testing the new Final Approach Eliminator Cargo Blind. When the package arrived the first thing that surprised me was the relatively small size of an object large enough to comfortably accommodate a grown person. At the same time I was worried that I would have to do a lot of assembly work.

The Final Approach Eliminator Cargo Blind is without a doubt in my mind the most practical, comfortable and useful goose hunting blind I have ever had the pleasure of using and field-testing.

Read more.


This blog post has been brought to you by Othmar Vohringer Outdoors

Tags: Christmas, Gifts For Hunters and Anglers, Hunting Product Reviews, Books, ASAT Camouflage , Duck Blind, Game Calls, Hunting and Fishing T-Shirts, Gun And Rod Holder, Magnet Gun Caddy

Entrepreneur helps the future of hunting

© By Othmar Vohringer

Last week a parcel arrived at our home in Merritt, in it was a shirt Chad Rodevold, owner of the Field Dress
Company and writer of the Wild Side blog, had sent me. With that kind gesture Chad wanted to show me his new design line of unique hunting and fishing themed t-shirts he came up with.

I was impressed with the first designs and made that abundantly clear in an earlier product review “Dress in Style” on this blog. If I had been impressed with the first designs I was awed by the new design. Even my wife, a photographer and graphic designer, was impressed with the flawless design, clear lines and life like depiction of the trout jumping out of the water.

This is clearly the work of a man committed to quality and a great appreciation of the outdoors and the sportsman heritage. Just how deep Chad’s commit for the outdoor heritage runs I found out a few days ago when I learned that the Field Dress Company donates a portions of every shirt sold to the Pass It On – Outdoor Mentors organization to help financing their various admirable programs to introduce children to hunting and fishing.

How often can you say that a product does so much good in so many ways? The stylish and tasteful designs are a perfect way to advertise our outdoor heritage to the public. Made in North America these shirts contribute to our economy and provide work here at home and finally the donations made form the sales of the product help to pass our heritage on to the next generation and with that guarantee the future of the hunting and fishing heritage.


To view or purchase the Field Dress products visit their webite.
To learn more about Pass It On –Outdoor Mentors Inc click here.

Othmar Vohringer Outdoors
Founding Member of Outdoor Bloggers Summit

Tags: Field Dress Apparel , Outdoor Mentor, Outdoor Motive T-Shirts

Dress in style

© By Othmar Vohringer

When I go out in town I like to spread the message that I am a hunter and that I am proud of it. However, I never wear camouflage clothing in town or even around the neighborhood. There are other ways, much more stylish, to let people know that I hunt.

T-Shirts with nice hunting and fishing motives are one of my favorites. It is difficult for me at times to find something that suits my style and is non-offensive to people that do not hunt. Obviously I wouldn’t wear anything that says something like “Buck Killer” printed on the shirt. My choice of hunting “advertisement” is exactly what the Texas based company Field Dress offers to hunters and fishers.

Field Dress, nice play on words, has come up with some stunning designs that are very stylish and beautiful. In true outdoor community fashion the company has created different lines of apparel catering to different segments of the hunting and fishing community.

The Evolution Timeline offers beautiful designs of bowhunting and fishing trough the decades of evolution from the beginning to the here and now and what it might look like in the future, simply a stunning concept with different design for hunters and fishers.

The Discover Your Roots line comes with a monster buck portrait, or a flushing pheasant, or a jumping largemouth bass. Other designs feature bowhunting and flyfishing motives.

I asked the owner of Field Dress, Chad Rodvold to tell me a little more about his company and the idea behind it, and that is what he had to say:

“I founded the company in 2005 in one of those "what am I going to do with my life" moments. I grew up in North Dakota and the outdoors was my life. After college, I moved to Dallas, TX to train for the 1996 Olympics as a javelin thrower and settled. After some family issues, I really needed to get back to who I was and do something I am passionate about. I took my son to Bass Pro and it was there I realized I had never owned a t-shirt that said how much I love to hunt and fish. I think most of the hunting and fishing tees are a little too "bold" to put it mildly and I thought I could come up with something better. I came up with the basic conceptual designs and a close friend polishes it to what you see today. We coined the phrases "nock-up", "hook-up", and "load-up" and added the established dates of each respective sport and Field Dress was born.

Getting started in today's economy has been difficult, but I keep getting good responses, so I am going to stick it out. With your help and others I am confident Field Dress could be a popular name in the outdoor industry.”

Having seen all the different designs - of which I only show a very samll sampling here- and the quality of the artwork and material I am not surprised that the company gets good responses. I mean, who wouldn’t want to wear one of these t-shirts. I know I will in a heartbeat. Heck, I'll get a few of them and give some away to my wife and friends too. Just do yourself a favor and visit the Field Dress website and you know why I am exited about this new line of outdoors sports dedicated T-Shirts.


All images courtesy of “Field Dress”.

Tags: Field Dress, Outdoor Apparel, Hunting and Fishing T-Shirts

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