Well, we're back! The 2010 season on our lease in Illinois is over its time to make an update to my original post on my Rocky Bear Claw boots. Here's the link to the original post, "Rocky Bear Claw Boot Review"
It was a tough season. We dealt with just about every weather senario you could get, wind, no wind, heat as high as 70 deg which is hot in central illinois in November, Cold as low as 9-10 degrees, snow, ice, rain and miserable mud! We had 6" of snow on the ground and it started raining. Over night it melted all the snow and the temp shot up to 60 deg with 2 1/2" of rain! We could not even get off the pavement with our 4X4. That night the temp went back down to 20 and froze! Unbelievable!
We made three journeys to Illinois for a total of 21 days hunted. My new Rocky's preformed perfect right up until the last hunt. That was a tough set of conditions for any boot but a truely good boot would have pass on all counts. Unfortunately, the report is not good for the new Rocky's. They failed the most important test.....the waterproof test!
The exterior of the boots held up with no issues other than some torn leather where the stitching was a little close to the edge of the leather along the eyelets. Climbing up and down the hardwood trees was a little rough on the inside of the boot. The cordura shell did fine but the bark ripped the leather along the stitching. Other than this, there were no other issues. The soles performed perfectly also.
As I mentioned above, the failure came in the form of two wet feet. Not soaked but a damp sock at the ball of both feet. By the end of the third hunt both boots had developed minor leaks in the same location. This is the location of almost every leaky boot I have ever owned.
I have not contacted Rocky yet to see what they are willing to do if anything to remedy the situation but hopefully they will stand behind it. If not, given this is the 4th Rocky boot in a row to leak it will be my last.
Good Luck,
Larry S.
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