Free: Contests & Raffles.
I got my first set this year and have been very pleased. Do yourself a favor and try on multiple brands. I was advised the same and each boot does fit differently. My buddy and I went in to get new boots, he left with Lowas and I left with Kenetreks. Both are great boots, same cost, but Lowas felt like crap on my feet and Kenetreks felt like crap on his.
I have Mountain Extremes in insulated and noninsulated, and my wife has women's insulated. We love them all, and I believe they are the best overall hunting boots I have owned. We got them for mountain hunting-the Bob last year, SW Montana this year, but I wear mine all the time, even when upland bird hunting.I greased them up before they were ever worn out of the house (make sure they fit before you do or it might make returning them problematic!). They have never leaked. I did upgrade the inserts, and now I can alternate if needed. I wore them all over when I was breaking them in. Some folks suggest it might take up to 50 miles or so to break them in to your feet, but everyone is different. Mine felt good right out of the box. They are great for anything in the mountains. They are stiff and really provide good support when going up/down/side hill, which I love. I feel much more confident on edgy slopes with these boots relative to others I have (I have a pair of Meindl Perfekt Hunters which are much softer, especially in the sole, and do not provide the same level of support, and my well worn Danners provide virtually no support nor water protection). Might also have to adjust how you lace them as my wife needs to lace hers differently than me due to a smaller heel and the fact she has broken both big toes in the past few years. Good socks/liners (and moleskin for my wife, who uses it for all her boots) will also help. As important as breaking in the boots, is breaking in your feet to your boots. Helps to have callouses/tough skin from wearing your boots in your typical/expected terrain long before hunting season. I wore my noninsulated boots at Sunrise last weekend on a pre hunt conditioning hike and went 7.5 miles and nearly 2000 ft total elevation gain with no issues at all (pretty good at my age!). Kenetrek customer service was top notch the only time I had an issue. I pulled part of the rand loose when I hit a rock on a conditioning hike last fall before our elk hunt. I called Kenetrek about what to do, as I was leaving for my hunt the following week. Rather than send in for customer service repair which would have taken a couple of weeks, they sent me a tube of their repair glue which arrived two days later.There is a ton of good information provided by others on this thread regarding boots. I believe the key is to get the best quality boots (as good as the budget allows) for your expected use, and try different brands until you find the one which fits you and which you like the best. Then, take care of them (ie grease them up, carefully dry them after use-I take the inserts out, keep away from heat, direct sunlight, etc) and break in both your boots and your feet (best to get any potential foot/blister/break in issues resolved before you need to really depend on your boots), and you should be good to go.
After using my Kenetrek boots for a season I have some new opinions.Waterproof: Yes, extremely, cross a stream with confidence. No issues here.Traction: Terrible. Unless I am walking down a bone dry road, these things suck. If I happened to find a wet stick, rock, pebble, twig, blade of grass, I lost my footing. I felt like I was hunting in bowling shoes. I do not know how people use these in the rocky terrain I see on sheep hunts in Alaska.Comfort: Found them very comfy, no issues here.Durability: I am not hunting the rocky terrain you would find on a sheep hunt in Alaska, but the rubber wrap started to tear and peel off on my last hunt. Im going to get some warranty work done, but I am almost to the point of telling them to keep them. Its great that they are waterproof, but the lack of traction is kind of a deal breaker.
