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Secure shopping & payment
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Lots of expertise
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This is what defines hunting trousers
A pair of hunting trousers will be the most durable set of outdoor trousers you can find. Durable is often interpreted as stiff and uncomfortable, but manufacturers of hunting clothing do a lot of continuous research on modern materials for fabrics that are not only incredibly strong, but also offer comfort, lightness, breathability and even waterproofness.
All these qualities are perfectly easy to get with lots of fabrics, but developing a fabric that offers them all… It’s the challenge manufacturers have been facing to get fabrics that are suitable for hunting trousers. In short: the fabric needs to be light, smooth, wick moisture from your body and keep you dry, whilst also enabling you to dash through brambles and nettles or sit in the dirt. Hunting trousers can be subjected to quite some abuse, while also having to perform delicate duties as moisture wicking and waterproofing. Being able to do all of that, makes them quite the royalty amongst outdoor trousers.
Hunting trousers are also available as hunting shorts. These won’t be able to protect you from scratches, dirt or rain, nor from nettles and mosquitos. But what they are perfect for is making you feel very comfortable in really hot weather. And they are very quiet too, as you’ve got no long trouser legs rubbing against each other.
Why hunting trousers
Hunting trousers, whether they are women’s hunting trousers or for men, have to meet certain requirements that will all help in making things as easy and comfortable possible for you as a hunter. You can almost go as far as saying a pair of hunting trousers should assist you in your hunting.
Durable
Hunting trousers that’ll rip open on the first strand of brambles will be useless. That’s why you need the fabric to be durable. By combining strong materials and a fine weave, hunting trousers fabrics are able to withstand some abuse.
On areas that are prone for wear, hunting trousers can be strengthened with another fabric or an extra layer and seems can be double stitched on stress points.
Camouflage
While wearing fluorescent yellow trousers during outdoor activities certainly has its benefits when emergency services try to find you after falling down a mountain, you definitely want something that blends into the surroundings a bit more when hunting. This means most hunting trousers are a natural shade of green or brown and some even feature camouflage patterns.
If you already browsed through our collection of hunting trousers, you are right to notice we’ve got some bright orange ones too. These are specifically for the driven hunt, so fellow hunters and beaters will definitely notice you. Game like red deer and boar can only see colours in the yellow and blue spectrum (and a bit in the UV-spectrum) and as orange falls under the red spectrum they can’t see, orange will appear like just another shade of green. This makes you surprisingly well-camouflaged.
Camouflage also means you shouldn’t be heard. That’s why hunting trousers are made from fabric that isn’t very noisy when rubbed together. Some manufacturers have even developed fabric that is extra silent.
Comfort
We already mentioned the comfort that hunting trousers should offer. This means the fabric needs to be smooth and light, and the design needs to enable you to move freely without restrictions. This can be done with allowing room for movement, but also with using stretch materials in certain areas or by pre-forming parts with smart stitching, like on the knees.
Comfort also means a good fit. That’s why we sell both women’s hunting trousers and men’s hunting trousers, as only a perfect fit will enable you to fully enjoy the advantages that hunting trousers have to offer. The basic fit is important, but adjustability is too. Like adjustment around the waist (or the use of elastics) and adjustment of the ends of the trouser legs. A good fit around the ankles can prevent dirt coming in or ticks crawling up. Often, hunting trousers are quite high at the back, to keep your back warm when crouched.
Some hunting trousers feature inner pockets on the knees to make use of knee pads. These thin layers of foam can be slid inside the pocket, acting as a comfortable cushion for when you’re kneeling. They also will form an insulating layer over your cold knees.
Breathability
An important quality of hunting trousers is for them to be breathable, so moisture can be wicked away from your skin as soon as possible. In cold weather, a wet skin will let you lose body heat rapidly, as evaporating sweat will draw warmth from your skin. And in warm weather, a moist skin will feel sticky and uncomfortable. Breathable fabric will make sure your skin is kept dry, to create an optimum comfort and the best thermoregulation. And lets just mention it: the crotch is always the most hot and moist area, that’s why some hunting trousers feature venting openings on the sides there.
Waterproofness
Wicking away moisture is one thing, but to stop it from entering from the outside is another. Lots of the hunting trousers we sell are water-resistant or even completely waterproof. The latter is often established by using a breathable membrane, but a layer of wax is also used sometimes. In the rain, waterproof hunting trousers are perfect, but the membrane and taped seams will add a bit of stiffness. And using a waterproof coating or layer of wax can affect the breathability. A good compromise can be to only waterproof certain areas, such as the rear and the lower part of the legs, as is done on some hunting trousers. It enables you to walk comfortably through wet grass or sit down on wet leaves.
Practical
The design of hunting trousers is such, that practicality always comes first. Besides all of the above, practical requirement number one will be pockets and lots of them. They should be placed in practical areas, as a pocket for cartridges on your bum for example, won’t help you at all. Some pockets have zippers, making sure you don’t lose things like your car keys. Other pockets have a flap with push buttons, making them easy to quickly to get inside. Some brands use special quiet push buttons in their hunting trousers and magnets are popular too.
Very practical can be the addition of tiny hooks on the leg ends, these can be hooked onto your shoelaces. This way, your hunting trousers will stay fitted nicely over your shoes and dirt, muck and ticks don’t get the chance to enter. And speaking of fitting nicely, often the leg ends can be adjusted for a tight fit too.
Hunting trousers maintenance
Of all hunting clothes, hunting trousers will have to endure the most and will get dirtier too. Dirt will nest itself between the fibres of the fabric, where it speeds up wear and can even damage waterproof layers. That’s why we recommend washing your hunting trousers often to ensure their longevity.
When cleaning your hunting trousers, it’s smart to use a special detergent. Not just because we sell it, we purposely sell it because conventional detergents can negatively affect the breathability and waterproofness. Even more important is that normal washing powder/liquid and softeners contain UV brighteners that will put a layer over your clothing that’ll be visible for animals that are able to see part of the UV colour spectrum (such as deer or birds). It’ll make you rather stand out, so to keep the neutral colour of your hunting trousers effective, you really need to use a UV absorbent detergent.
We’ve also got special impregnation spray that’ll make your hunting trousers water resistant without -like with conventional waterproofing spray- affecting the breathability of the waterproof membranes. Yes, it might sound ridiculous, impregnating your hunting trousers that have a waterproof membrane, but it’s quite sensible. It prevents the outer layer of the trousers from quickly saturating with water, making the fabric heavy. And the spray also forms a UV absorbent coating.