Sitka Intercept – Bowhunting Gear that Transcends Clothing

Human beings have been evolving clothing since the beginning of time. We’ve tailored our clothing to our environment and pursuit in order to survive. We feel hot, we feel cold, and we adjust our clothing accordingly to suit our needs. Fast forward to today and clothing is still evolving, except we have more to work with than just loin cloths and animal skins. The modern evolution of hunting clothing, and specifically hunting pants, is the topic of today.

In the last 15 to 20 years, there was a big gap in the sophistication and quality of hunting clothing (camo) compared to mountaineering clothing. Sitka Gear was founded in 2005 and was one of the first hunting clothing companies to really start evolving technical clothing specifically for hunters, bringing us modern fabrics, layering schemes, and fit/cut patterns from the mountaineering world but then altering those designs as necessary to perform even better for hunters.

Intercept Your Quarry

Bowhunting pants 20 years ago were not technical clothing, not even close. That being said, the perfect bowhunting pant isn’t a modern mountaineering pant, either. Sitka is very active in its pursuit of the ultimate bowhunting pant, and the recent release of the new Sitka Intercept Pant is proof that they are still evolving and will never settle for anything less than perfection. The predecessor of the Intercept pant, the Apex Pant, was the best bowhunting pant I had used up until now. In fact, I was shocked when I first heard they were replacing it with something new. I was skeptical that it could possibly be any better.

The Intercept Pant is intended to be the ultimate close-quarters, spot-and-stalk pant, and boy, did they deliver. The pant screams bowhunting because it works very effectively to suppress its effect on the three major sensory alarms of big game – sight, sound, and scent – while still providing plenty of technical attributes as well.

Sight

Sitka’s Subalpine pattern is the perfect match for this Intercept Pant because that pattern is also designed to work best in close proximity. I do feel that the Subalpine pattern is a perfect pattern for bowhunting. The contrast and shades in the pattern do a great job of breaking up your outline for the engagement distance and terrain type. There isn’t TOO much contrast (like with some very bold patterns) and there is plenty of shade variation (shades of color), just like in vegetated terrain.

Sound

Like the Apex Pant before it, the Intercept Pant has an incredibly quiet outer face fabric. Obviously, sound is something that mountaineering pants do not concern themselves with, but for bowhunting pants, any sound could be a deal breaker. There is no swish to these pants as you sneak stealthily through the woods. Sitka gets an A+ here because these pants are incredibly quiet.

Scent

Instead of just giving us another pure Merino wool pant that has poor mechanical and durability properties, Sitka Gear went to the drawing board and gave us a new fabric from scratch. This fabric has three parts. It uniquely bonds a durable nylon face to a polyester/wool backer with an engineered knit.

The nylon outer is durable, and the wool blend backer gives you naturally antimicrobial (anti-smell) properties. You get the best of both worlds. Don’t go thinking these pants are going to be like your dad’s old wool pants, they aren’t. They breathe incredibly well, have mechanical stretch, and are lightweight. The engineered knit creates raised dots on the underside to set the fabric off your skin to provide airflow.

New Features

The face fabric on the new Intercept Pant is nylon, which is an upgrade over the polyester face on the Apex Pant. Nylon is more abrasion resistant and durable, so the Intercept will last longer and wear better than the Apex. One subtle feature to highlight about this new fabric is how well it busts brush. I believe it’s the combination of the tight nylon face and the knit backer with the raised dots (like shock absorbers almost). It provides a very effective guard to your shins as you bust through thick woody brush; you can hardly feel the brush. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the toughness of the pant and its ability to bust brush while shed hunting and scouting this spring/summer.

Beyond the fabric creation, the pants have been updated with new D3O kneepads that are the bee’s knees. The kneepad material breathes well and is incredibly malleable. I have used plenty of pants with kneepads, and this is the first pair where you actually forget the kneepads are there – until you kneel down on a sharp rock, then you remember they are there because it doesn’t hurt.

Lastly, my favorite new feature: HIP VENTS! These are relatively new for Sitka, and they are awesome. Beyond just providing a huge amount of ventilation, they provide a perfect opening to access the kneepads so that you can add or remove the kneepads while still wearing the pant. There is only one thing I would change on this pant. I would like to see the hip vent zipper open from the bottom up instead of the top down so you can open it some without flashing your undies.

The Sitka Intercept Pant is the most evolved bowhunting pant I have used to date. They have thought of everything; these pants transcend mere clothing and are truly an engineered piece of gear. With the release of the Intercept Pant, Sitka has also released a new line of Merino wool that promises to be their best and most durable Merino yet. Within this new line of merino is the partner of the Intercept Pant, the Intercept Hoody. For this new Merino, Sitka is using a new process called ArmorSpun to uniquely blend the wool with nylon fibers. It’s a pretty cool concept, but that is a subject for a different review. Check out the new Intercept Pant and Hoody along with other Merino products at SitkaGear.com.