Sitka Stormfront pants review/rant

[NW_Bucketlist]

I am what most people would call a gear whore always trying the latest and greatest to find what works best for me. I have always been a fan of Sitka rain gear hunting SW Washington you never know what Mother Nature will throw at you for the day. I decided to give the Sitka storm fronts a try because that is there top dog and the description of the pants fits the environments I hunt. After initial delivery of the pants I was concerned on how thin they were they seemed to be more of a pack pant then a rain pant. But knowing Sitka usually produces top notch stuff I was excited to try them out and put them through there paces. I usually hunt elk 5+ weeks a year and spend most of my time in the timber cruising for elk herds. My everyday outfit consists of merino wool Sitka and First Lite which I really like. My rain gear spends most of its time in my backpack until the rain starts really coming down. The last few years we have had some mild winters in the areas I hunt so I never really got to test the stormfronts out till this year. Opening day of late season archery elk this year it was a steady rain all day from the time we left the truck. Riding the bikes in that morning it felt like my knees were getting wet but questioned if they were just cold once I was 6 miles in I knew I was getting wet and going to have a long wet day in the woods. I ended up getting on the elk that day and shooting one at noon didn’t get back to the truck till 830 that night with all the meat and soaked to the bone. I contacted Sitka to get a warranty return started the next day washed my rain pants and sent them in for warranty. Got a call from Sitka that they will not warranty my pants because they have 20 plus pin holes in the shins and knees and they said for heavy use. The pants looked new so I questioned them on the heavy use they said they were stained on the inside. I told them I harvested a elk in them and the staining was from the blood even though I had washed them before sending them in. The guy said the best they could do was give me 50% off another pair or send them back to me. I told them to keep them because they do me no good. So long story short the Sitka Stormfronts are not durable and not made to put up with the elements of hunting unless you spend most of your time in the truck. I should have just stuck with the downpours or thunderheads they would have lasted longer.

 

[Decker9]

First off, paragraphs are your friend, and ours.

That’s brutal about the Stormfronts. I blew a zipper on my old cloudburst pants, Sitka sent me two pairs in return, the stormfronts and another cloudburst. The stormfront’s were noticeably, beefier then the cloudbursts, so I give them away because of being to heavy for my intended use.

It’s sucks when customer service chits the bed on bad deals. Reason I won’t order from Kifaru again. Great gear, but gear is nearly useless without the CS to back it up.