By: The Grit Staff
We were out of breath when we reached the knife edge of the ridge. Chukar were on the other side- we had glassed them from the road twenty minutes earlier. We didn’t know where they might be amongst the maze of juniper and rock. We heeled our dogs up the back side of the ridge, hoping the intervening mass of earth would mask the sound of our approach.
With no time to rest before we lost the element of surprise, we released the dogs to weave down the steep slope below. Shrieks echoed across the canyon as the covey suddenly flushed on buzzing wings. It was a long shot, but I drew a bead on one as it dropped off a boulder. At the last moment I saw its body go limp in the air.
I scrambled to the bird's position and found my dog at the base of a steep slickrock ledge. The bird had landed in a sagebrush halfway down. The dog couldn’t reach it from below or above, and I couldn’t climb up the steep, snow-covered sandstone either. After several minutes of head-scratching, I resolved to recover the bird the only way possible. I sat down on the top of the ledge, and slid down the rock.
The first pitch went fine, other than a wet landing in the snowy brush. I stuck the chukar in a pocket and slid down the remaining slickrock. An audible tear came from my hindquarters as I reached the bottom. Sure enough, I had both cheese-grated and ripped a pocket from my pants. The whole experience was pretty comical to my friend waiting below.
The perfect upland hunting pants are elusive. Too thick and stiff, and they'll lack the breathability and comfort for high-output hunts. Too thin and light, and they won’t have the durability to stand up to brush and weather. For years, I’ve erred toward the latter, but at the sacrifice of comfort in wet conditions.
Jake Lindemann and the team at Chief Upland recently released their Uplander Brush Pants. They advertise these as a true do-it-all hunting pant. After testing them on mid-season prairie grouse and partridge hunts, we think they are a respectable shot at the holy grail.
The Uplander Brush Pants are constructed from a synthetic Cordura stretch fabric finished with DWR. Chief Upland designed these pants for early to mid-season use. They also make the Element pants, which are pretty much the same thing but with a microfleece lining for colder weather hunts.
The cut of these pants is about like a ‘relaxed fit’ pair of jeans. They allow ample range of motion while hiking or hopping over fences. We generally like our hunting pants a bit slimmer in cut, but the Uplander Brush Pants don’t feel too baggy. The articulated knees hit in the appropriate spot and extend comfort.
We were most impressed with the pocket configuration on these pants. Very roomy back pockets secure with low-profile zippers, as do hidden pockets in the double-front of the pants. This gives these pants cargo storage options, without the cargo pant floppiness. The ‘stand around BS-ing’ hand pockets are a little tight, but we liked the dedicated folding knife slip.
Beefy belt loops keep things where they need to be, and the seams are well-constructed. What’s our favorite thing about these pants? SIDE ZIPS! We love side zips on our ski touring pants to manage heat and moisture, and they serve the same function here.
The Cordura material is fairly weather resistant and dries quickly. Blood from the birds we downed cleaned up easily. The pants stood up well to plum bushes and sage, and the Cordura naturally sheds debris. When wading through coulee bottoms full of cockleburs and houndstongue, we came through completely unscathed- unlike our dogs’ ears.
So what’s wrong with these pants? We thought that even though they are designed for early season use, they are a bit too warm for our liking. This is partly due to the natural limitations of the material, and partly due to the double front thickness of the pants. Even with the side zips mitigating heat and moisture, we found they were a bit swampy on warm fall afternoons.
Granted, they are better in this regard than some of the competing products we’ve tried, but we’d probably lean toward a light hiking pant in anything warmer than 50 degrees. We are biased though, as we live and hunt in the arid West, often with strenuous hiking involved.
In Midwestern pheasant and grouse covers, these would likely be a perfect match, especially on days that see a bit of precipitation. We are excited to test these on some late-season snowy chukar hunts where they should excel. We’d be happy either layering thermal bottoms under the Uplanders, or running the Elements in such conditions.
These pants fit true to size and are offered in a better than usual array of size options. There’s only a men’s version for now, but they’d fit some women as well. We like the one current colorway, ‘Coyote’. At 189 bucks, they are an investment. However, they will probably last for many years.
The Uplander Brush Pants make a strong play for the best field pants marketed to wingshooters. Further, they are versatile enough to cover a wide range of outdoor pursuits, from family camping trips to big game hunts. With a one year satisfaction guarantee, they are a solid purchase for any serious bird hunter.
* The Grit was supplied with testing samples but was not otherwise compensated for this review.
