At the recent SHOT Show, I arrived at the Henry USA booth a few minutes early for our meeting. I sat down in a chair to wait and didn’t realize that I had inadvertently set down in the adjoining Rocky Boot booth. This turned out to be a good deal since I was seated by Shelby, their go-to Marketing girl.
We got talking, and I was soon checking out their offerings. Wow, they had quite a few models that I wanted to check out and will soon. The first pair that I’ll review is the Rocky Outback GORE-TEX Wellington. I’m a cowboy, so I never would have been drawn to this style of slip-on boot…until I slipped it on and discovered how comfortable it was. So, let’s get into why I like them.
Rocky Outback GORE-TEX Waterproof Wellington Boots
Like I say, I worked on ranches when younger, dropped out of college to go Pro rodeoing etc. so if I wear a slip-on boot it’s a cowboy boot. So, it was a little bit of a cultural shock for me at first to wear the Rocky Outback GORE-TEX Wellington due to their design. My wife told me they looked nice though so I stuck with them.
They slightly pinched my ankles at first but that subsided in a week or so but here’s what really sold me on them. These have to be the most comfortable boots that I’ve ever put on. They have a super nice pad in them that makes you think that you’re walking on a padded floor. I can’t tell you how comfortable that they are. Even after wearing them non-stop on a hunt they still felt good at the end of some super long days.
I live in Idaho and hunt and backpack a lot in an extremely steep country. I wear hiking-designed boots for those excursions, but due to the aggressive soles on the Rocky Outback GORE-TEX Wellington boots, I’d feel comfortable doing normal hunts in them when you’re hunting out of blinds, set-ups, etc., where you’re not hiking, all day in super rough terrain.
In fact, I just returned from an Oklahoma coyote hunt two days ago and decided to take them on that hunt to really test them out. There were a few small hills where we hunted but mostly flat.
We set-up the new FREQ ULTRASONIC GAME CALL and hunted mostly out of blinds. Although we did some walk-in set-up hunting all hours of the day and night. I had no problems navigating around.
A day or two, we got quite a bit of rain, plus the country was already wet, so I was glad that they had GORE-TEX. One night, I had to cross a small shallow run-off to do our set-up in a tall grassy field surrounded by woods. The water was only a few inches deep, but the Rocky Outback GORE-TEX Wellington boots never leaked a single drop.
On the Flying Dubya ranch, there are a few sparse rattlesnakes and, for sure, copperheads, which is another reason that I wore these boots instead of some 6-inch high hiking boots. They’re not advertised as snake boots, but I sure felt more comfortable hunting in them, especially in the dark, than I would in hiking boots. Granted, it didn’t get lower than 45 degrees, but one day, it got super warm, so snakes could have been out.
This may not be a feature that matters to a lot of you but if you fly a lot, pulling off your boots at TSA gets to be a pain, so having slip off cowboy type boots is nice. And maybe some of this feature becomes more important as you get older and don’t bend as well as you used to.
We didn’t encounter any frigid weather while hunting but before leaving for the hunt I did walk the dogs in some 6-degree weather and I was fine so I assume that they’re fine for hunting in moderately cold weather.
So for hunts such as the above hunt, they worked great, not to mention running around town in them and using them for casual wear.
The Rocky Outback GORE-TEX Wellington boots’ MSRP is $159.99, and as is usual, we will close with the company specs.
- Outback outsole provides stability on rugged terrains
- Removable Terra Suspension Insole for Support and Cushioning
- Full-grain leather upper
- Waterproof and breathable GORE-TEX® construction
- 10 Inches in height
- Shaft height and circumference may vary by size
- 16-inch calf circumference
- Moc toe
- Weight: 3.3 pounds per pair for a size 10
- This product is intended for severe wet conditions. Made with PFAS chemicals
About Tom Claycomb
And no mention of a boot knife? These look like very capable wellies, Tom.
I haven’t worn Wellington boots in a long time. Maybe I should reconsider. Elsewise, “their go-to Marketing girl”, I forced myself to drink the crappy beer for a while till I realized talking to her was going nowhere. 🙁