Rocky Gear Prohunter Rain Wear
Every time some company comes out with waterproof clothing I am always skeptical. I have been caught out in the rain in down pours with so called water proof clothing and have gotten soaked right through. I was at Mark’s Work Warehouse and I noticed that Rocky Gear had some new 100% water proof outerwear on display labeled Pro-Hunter. I asked the salesperson if this really was waterproof and the reply I got was I could take it back for a full refund if it was not 100% waterproof. I took that as confidence in the product and thought I would try the cargo pants and hooded jacket out in the field. I believe the jacket was around $150 and the pants around $100. Not as expensive of some of the Browning and Sitka gear so I was not expecting great results but I have been pleasantly surprised. The picture on the left features me after hunting the morning in solid rain on the Pacific Northwest for Roosevelt elk and Blacktail deer, I was still dry underneath.
Even though I have owned this Rocky Gear Pro Hunter jacket and pants for about one year I have not tested it in the rain as I just did on my previous trip to hunt Roosevelt elk and Black tail deer in the Pacific Northwest. It rained 6 of the 7 days and we were constantly walking through wet waste high bush, while having rain come down on us from above.
Above you can see the front view of the Rocky Gear Pro Hunter jacket.
On the left, the Rocky Gear Pro-hunter pants are displayed featuring a cargo pocket.
Even though we had relentless rain and wet conditions the Rocky Gear Pro-hunter pants and jacket did keep me dry. I could feel the dampness on the shoulders of the jacket but it did not soak through. I even laid on the wet ground, and the pants kept the water out.
One disadvantage to this gear is that the pants do make you warm so I only wear them when it is really wet out or if it is cold. Do not use them as regular hunting pants if you are going to go out hiking and do a lot of walking unless it is quite cold out. The pants and jacket do have a liner so they are not just shell products.
The pockets come in very handy as the jacket has and inside breast pocket, two hand pockets, and a front pocket placed beside the main zipper handy for a game call. The hood is also zippered so you can remove it if need be. The hood came in very handy during the heavy rain fall.
The jacket has these handy vents that can be opened if you are getting to warm when walking around. If you get cold you can zip them up.(Shown below). The problem with the jacket is that after washing & drying, the liner got all messed up inside.
So even though these pants and jacket are not Gore-Tex, they do keep you dry in the wet conditions and the price is reasonable. One problem I ran into with the pants especially was hole were getting melted into the shell from the heat of the fire. Now my rain pants have holes in them, not the greatest for water proofing any more.
Update 2014: now that I have used this clothing for many seasons, some of the zippers on the jacket are starting to fail where there is a weld.