Thread: Whats your hunting footwear????

I used to go through a pair of leather boots every three months. I liked leather boots until I discovered Ashley gumboots 10 years ago, I find them the best boots I've ever worn.

I've owned several pairs of Scarpers, Island Pro's, Gri-Sports and Lowas in an attempt to replace the Ashley gumboots...but all of the leather boots now seem far too heavy and way to slippery in the bush or on alpine rock to hunt in for my comfort in comparison to gumboots.

FYI: I weighed an (one boot, not two) Island Pro and it was 1.2kg dry and it would probably be double that (2.4kg) when wet! An Ashley was only 0.8kg and there's no real different when wet! To me it just makes sense not to carry all that extra weight on each foot if doing a 30km alpine day hunt.

A couple years ago I did a Tahr trip wearing Mendle Island Pro's and I nearly fell to my death several times, they're like wearing ice-skates, so this May I wore my Ashley's against huge protest from fellow hunters who told me you can't wear gumboots in the Southern Alps & they were awesome, best decision I ever made...it was like they had glue on the bottom of them as they just stuck to the granite rock! I took a pair of Kovea cramp-ons just incase, but I never even thought about using them.

For some reason we get marketed all these boots that don't suit our needs in NZ? I spoke to a German hunter who told me that Island Pro translated into English from German means - ''Ice land Pro'' i.e they were made for volcanic rock and ice work with a cramp on fitted. Hence why the soles are so hard and slippery, the cramp-on is designed to give the grip and not the sole.

End of the day, boots like rain jackets are a personal choice and you'll struggle to find two people with the same opinion on the matter. But I've seen and worn a lot of boots to destruction in my time and for what its worth I'll be hitting the hills in Ashleys.

kj