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Eberlestock Afterburner Pant Review
We all have that favorite pair of seasoned pants that we seem to reach for for just about every occasion. Whether it’s for work, hunting camp, the shooting range, or the plans your wife made last month that you forgot about. Whatever the event, they’ve always been dependable, durable, and comfortable.
For me, Eberlestock’s Afterburner Pant has become just that. While I bought them to be a dedicated lightweight and versatile hunting pant, they’ve become much more than that and they’re the pair of pants that I reach for for just about everything. The amount of comfort these pants provide has made them my favorite on the market. The 4-way-stretch polyester fabric is completely unrestricted in movement, and the side ventilation zippers provide great heat dispersion, which is a big plus for active hunters. The fit and finish are spot on, and the sizing is true for an athletic cut. I’m 5’10, approximately 200lbs, have a size 33 waist, and the size large fits me perfectly.
Over the many years of hunting the deserts of Arizona, it’s shown me that dependable gear is crucial. Our backcountry deserts are extremely unforgiving on gear, especially pants. We have just about every sharp and annoying plant you can think of, and they typically shred your outer layers. In fact, if you hunt a lot in Arizona, your top-tier boots and pants seldom last longer than a few seasons. While the Afterburner Pant wasn’t designed to be a brush buster, it’s held up incredibly well throughout the several seasons I’ve had them, especially for being such a lightweight pant. I’ve paired mine with gaiters to prolong the life of my boots and pants, but a great feature that these pants have is the scuff guard on each tapered cuff. They keep the brush, dirt, and debris from eating away at the cuffs and also keep the pants from staining from our reddish-brown fine dirt. The durability doesn’t stop there, the Afterburner Pant has a gusseted crotch and DWR finish.
I don’t really have a negative thing to say about these, but if I was forced to come up with something I’d say that they’re not the warmest pant out there, but they aren’t meant to be... I like having a versatile pant like this to use all year long, and I’ll use differently weighted base layers for cold and warm weather hunts to adjust for temperature.
If you’re in the market for a pair of hunting pants that you’ll likely wear more than just hunting, I’d recommend you consider the Afterburner Pant from Eberlestock.
