Best Boots in Mule Deer Country
“A Deep Dive into hunting boots and which boot is right for you on your next Mule Deer adventure”
What Boots We Tested:
During hunting season at the Mule Deer Foundation, the staff becomes obsessed with gear. The office is bubbling with debates over any type of gear, from brands of water filters to wall tents. When applicable, we try to publish these debates for the reader to consider when making purchasing decisions during hunting season.
Today, we are discussing which boot is best. This debate has multiple facets, from cost to break-in period to overall comfort and, finally, regionality. We recognize that there is probably no one boot that’s best for all scenarios, but we’ve done our best to decipher which is the closest.
We tested:
Let’s Dive in!
Cost Friendly:
The first category we discussed is cost-friendliness. This one’s a no-brainer. While there are occasional sales on hunting boots, in general, the cost breakdown per pair of boots is:
Least Expensive – Irish Setter Wingshooter = $209.00
Schnee’s Beartooth 0g = $389.00
Schnee’s Beartooth 200 G = $399.00
Zamberlan Guide Max GTX RR= $475.00
Crispi Altitude GTX Hunting = $375.00
Most Expensive – Zamberlan 981 GTX Wasatch = $490.00
Most Comfortable:
Like most gear discussions, this debate started a bit illogically. A dozen career outdoorsmen and women sat around a conference table drinking coffee, throwing opinions at each other about which boot was more comfortable. While each participant had a unique and convincing story as to why their selection of boot was clearly the best, these antidotes could hardly be considered hard evidence.
Nevertheless, I thought they were worth sharing:
Schnee’s Bear tooth 0g—The bear tooth with 0 grams of insulation was the first boot being discussed. This individual had worn the bear teeth for three seasons from West TX to the north slope of the Brooks Range and was enamored with them. He said he never got hotspots, he never felt like his feet would fall off, and they had always helped him fill a tag.
Schnee’s Beartooth 200G—The Beartooth 200 grams of insulation came from one of our easternmost employees. After growing up whitetail hunting in Texas but moving to Wisconsin recently, he was deathly afraid of those cold tree stand sits. He had opted for the bear tooth 200-gram insulation model because, like any good Texas boy, the only thing he truly fears is the cold.
Zamberlan Guide Max GTX RR—Our Alaska teammate represents the guide maxes. He spends just as much time chasing black tails on Kodiak and Prince of Wales Island as he does in the Brooks Range on solo Dall sheep hunts. He is one of the most adventurous and well-seasoned hunters in the whole organization, and I trust what he has to say with my life.
Crispi Altitude GTX Hunting: The Crispi advocate on the team is our Pacific Northwest guru. He lives by one simple rule for all of his gear, “Everything you have is going to get wet; you might as well get something that you can dry quickly because waterproof doesn’t exist”
Zamberlan 981 GTX Wasatch—Our Wasatch wearer comes from the southwestern United States. In her role on the conservation team, she has used these boots through the canyonlands, deserts, great plains, and mountains. She has worn this exact model of boots for over five years and has never looked back.
Irish Setter 7in Wingshooter—The Irish setters are thrown in as well due to some of our old-school staff members who prefer an all-leather boot that looks the same today as it did in the 1970s when they first started wearing them. The Irish Setter style has certainly withstood the test of time and has been used throughout the mule deer range for generations.
Regionality:
Next, we decided to look at regionality. Our thought process was that there could be no boot that is the best everywhere but based on where we each spend the majority of our time, we may find that some boots are best in specific habitats.
Great Plains:
Our selection for hunting in the Great Plains was a tie between the Irish Setter and the Beartooth 0G. We all agree that this is probably the most forgiving landscape we could encounter and that each boot being considered would easily handle the Great Plains’ workload.
The primary needs for the Great Plains and the reason we ended up selecting the boots we did were:
1.) Flexibility – the terrain was easier to walk through with more flexible boots instead of the rigid and stiffer models.
2.) The number of rattlesnakes made folks unwilling to vote for synthetic boots even though none of the manufacturers advertise snake-proof boots.
3.) Tradition—We agreed that if you are going to use a traditional Irish Setter-type boot for no other reason than nostalgia, it’s better to use it on the plains than in a more austere environment.
Intermountain West:
The mountains were our closest and longest-lasting debate. We labored over early vs. late season, archery vs. rifle hunting, and deadfall forest vs. clean walking. Ultimately, we decided on the Zamberlan Guide MAX GTR as the boot of choice. They are short enough to maintain Flexibility when crawling over deadfalls and more dynamic movement, while the all-leather construction and stiffness allow maximum ankle support. While these take the longest to break in, they will be your best friend once you have these boots adjusted to your feet.
South West:
The southwest winner was the Zamberlan 981 GTX Wasatch. The comfort of a taller boot with maximum ankle support won the day for the canyon lands and rocky outcroppings of the southwest.
Alaska:
Our Alaska winner was close between the Zamberlan Guide MAX GTR and the Crispi, with the argument surrounding the propensity for wetness. Some believed in the PNW theory that YOU WILL GET WET, so you need something that will dry quickly, whereas the other half believed that due to the diversity of landscapes and hunting areas, the full leather and ankle support was the best choice whether you are floating the Yukon tributaries for moose, cresting the peaks of the Alaska range for mountain goats, or crashing through the rainforest for Sitka Black-tailed deer.
After some debate, the former party relented after it was revealed that they had never hunted in Alaska, leaving the Zamberlan Guide MAX GTR as the winner.
Fastest Break-in:
Our test for the fastest break-in time was the most fun. Our basis for this was the concept of driving cross-country for a hunt and realizing when you get to your new state or new area where you were hunting that you have misplaced your boots or left them at home. If that were the case and you knew you had to buy a spare pair of boots, but the cost was no obstacle, which pair would you buy to preserve your feet?
In this test, the all-leather options did not fare well. The Zamberlan boots and the Irish setter boots, which are built from high-quality leather, take longer to break in on your feet. While you could buy them off the shelf without breaking them in and go on a hunt, they will not be as fast to break in as some of the others.
While there were good arguments for both versions of the Schnees and the Crispi, there could only be one winner. After much debate and product testing, it was determined that while the 0G bear tooth was excellent and easy on your feet right out of the box, the Crispi, with its breathable synthetics, was easier on fresh feet.
Best Overall:
The Best Overall choice is the Zamberlan Guide MAX GTR. While this option was voted as the slowest to break in and not very fast to dry, the ankle support, durability, all-leather construction, and shorter height at the ankle carried the day.
I have personally hunted in the Guide MAX GTR for several seasons and can vouge for their durability and ruggedness. I have notoriously weak ankles, and the additional support is worth the world to me. While they fall on the more expensive side of the spectrum, I recommend them to anyone.
Good Luck!
Good luck this fall. Send pictures or stories from the field to Web@muledeer.org to be featured on our website or in our magazine. If this article, or any of our articles helped you become a better conservation steward, join the Mule Deer Foundation. Click here to join: https://muledeer.org/product-category/membership/
Trevor J Hubbs https://www.instagram.com/trevorhubbs/
Trevor is the Communications Manager for the Mule Deer Foundation. He grew up hunting and fishing the eastern edge of the Ozark mountains for quail, ducks, and bucks. Trevor is a contributor for “Fur, Fish, and Game”, Lethal Minds Journal, Strung Magazine, and Feathers and Whiskey, among others.
