Decent budget hunting clothes

I haven't bought "hunting clothes" in years. Bottom line, you don't need camo to kill stuff and anything camo is priced higher than equal or even superior non-hunting gear.

I've transitioned to sports/outdoor wear with a mix of wool. Works great for me at a fraction of what you pay for "hunting" brands. Furthermore, all of those big hunting brands spend the money hunters give them to sponsor celebrities and influencers, who essentially make our hunting worst. Influencers and hunting celebrities sure haven't made my hunting any better and I was pretty pissed to find out a lot of the brands I used to support, pay a lot of money for those guys and gals to recruit more and more hunters.
 
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I get all dolled up for turkey, right down to the face paint, I swear those birds have eye in the back of their heads, they can also spot movement well too so i take advantage of cover.

Big game, i dress for the weather, mostly in neutral shades of olive or brown. I am a fan of tick proof pants (bought at Marks a few years back) as my father caught lyme disease from them and suffered for years undiagnosed and I never want to go through that.

For tick proofing my stuff, I bought a big jug of parasite treatment for livestock. Good for a bunch of stuff including mosquitos and ticks. Active ingredient is perithrin, or maybe a synthetic version(?). Supposed to last awhile according to what I gather, but it eventually washes out.

When I think of it, I bring most of my spring to fall outdoor gear out and put on the grass and spray it all down.
 
I haven't bought "hunting clothes" in years. Bottom line, you don't need camo to kill stuff and anything camo is priced higher than equal or even superior non-hunting gear.

I've transitioned to sports/outdoor wear with a mix of wool. Works great for me at a fraction of what you pay for "hunting" brands. Furthermore, all of those big hunting brands spend the money hunters give them to sponsor celebrities and influencers, who essentially make our hunting worst. Influencers and hunting celebrities sure haven't made my hunting any better and I was pretty pissed to find out a lot of the brands I used to support, pay a lot of money for those guys and gals to recruit more and more hunters.

Some of the companies might be anti gun, or anti hunter.

But I don't see how recruiting and popularizing hunting is a bad thing.

I'm the first person to grumble under my breath at running into someone else where I wanted to hunt, but more hunters are also what we need to preserve wild land open to hunting and oppose crappy laws that take opportunities away from us.
 
I like tough duck gear for the money, and durability. Probably better than Carhart these days and more reasonably priced. Picked up some really nice, heavy duty flannel shirts from TD not too long ago; maybe more like a light jacket with nice snaps.

Probably about 20 years ago, I picked up some Mossy Oak cold weather bibs, and a decent if slightly light camo (kind of a duck/marsh pattern) coat from one of the liquidation places in Edmonton. Ridiculously cheap, and I still wear them. IIRC I spent about $70 for both.

I have a bunch of Redhead gear from Cabela's too. Small 20 litre soft day pack, shirts, and outerwear. I wanted a warmer coat, and a winter pattern, and so I picked up the Elite parka a couple/few years ago, which is kind of a 3 in 1 deal. Not noisy, warm, and fairly flexible. I think it looks better and seems better quality and warmer than the Canadian Tire stuff. Didn't see it anymore on the website, but I wanted the bibs to match. Found them in the bargain cave on sale. The strata pattern coat was also there on sale, so I picked that up too! :LOL:
 
I usually buy my hunting clothes from the discount racks at Can. Tire, Walmart etc. I never spend full price and dont care if the patterns match. The truth is that the deer dont give a sh*t and neither do any of the other critters. spend yer" money on good boots and optics.
 
Forgot about boots. Have some Keen hikers. They weren't what I'd think of as "cheap", but weren't too expensive. Broadly speaking boots seems to be a poor place to cheap out.

For cold weather, and deeper snow, I do have some nice felt lined Kamiks. Green rubber boots. I think they're more durable/better grade of rubber than most of the camo options out there from big box stores. The others look like they crack a lot sooner.
 
Some of the companies might be anti gun, or anti hunter.

But I don't see how recruiting and popularizing hunting is a bad thing.

I'm the first person to grumble under my breath at running into someone else where I wanted to hunt, but more hunters are also what we need to preserve wild land open to hunting and oppose crappy laws that take opportunities away from us.

We don't need more hunters, we need our current hunters to ADVOCATE more. How many hunters actually advocate? Hunting is not conservation. Buying a license and tag, shooting a deer and posting grip and grins, does not make you a voice for hunters, it simply makes you another hunter who competes for a finite resource. While the overall % of hunters is going down, our "membership" is growing. As populations grow, the % of hunters go down but the overall number of hunters is on the rise, with fewer opportunities or access.

There are only so many animals and acres to hunt. Though I've become a much better hunter the past 20 years, my hunting has not improved, au contraire, while I am better at finding opportunities, draw odds continue to go down and so does access.

The R3 movement (Recruitment, Retention and Reactivation) needs to focus on retention and reactivation. More and more hunters are being recruited while more and more hunters are leaving the sport because of lack of opportunities. These companies and influencers need to stop recruiting and focus on the existing hunters, but there is no money in that. The real money, and reason for R3, is to sell gear and make money off of hunters.

In an ideal world, these big companies would spend their R3 money on public access, retention and advocacy. We have more than enough hunters with a solid "natural" recruitment. We need to focus on more voices and advocates, not more users.

How many hunters actually advocate for hunting? By that I mean participate in wildlife projects, donate to legit orgs or write letters to politicians? I know of exactly one person within my group of hunting buddies who does that: me. We need the % of existing hunters who advocate to grow.

Also, you don't need to be a hunter to advocate for wildlife. There are plenty of non-consumption users who enjoy wildlife and advocate for hunters. I'll say it again: "Hunting is conservation" is the biggest fallacy of the hunting industry... after scent-free products and the butt-out tool...
 
Hey guys.

I have a buddy just getting into hunting. He’ll likely do some waterfowl hunting, rifle week for deer, and a little grouse hunting here and there.

most of my buddies and I have run Firstlite, Sitka, etc. for years. Cabela’s seems to only carry stuff on the $300+ range these days. Looking for recommendations on some half decent budget hunting clothing. Jacket/bibs kind of thing.

Thank you
Work clothes....
 
Only hunting cloths that’s really needed is what ever make you legal blaze orange vest over heavy coat blaze orange hat
 
I have my share of camo clothes , just to blend in . But man think back to when there was no camo . Look at the hunting pictures of years ago that were colour photos , not much camo worn then . Seems like the fellas took game regardless .
I could understand when you want to be real close when bow hunting .

Apparently with deer anyway they have vision that picks up anything that’s out of norm .
Including some types of camo
I stand to be corrected
 
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