Pantanal Parka Review

Today’s blog entry is by my good buddy Jerry.  Jerry is a life long hunter with over a decade of Alaska hunting experience.  In this entry Jerry overviews his experiences with the Pantanal Parka from Sitka Gear. I hope you enjoy Jerry’s review and find it informative.

Pantanal Parka, by Jerry:
Last fall I began looking for a parka style jacket for my fall moose hunts and spring bear hunts. My other parka style jackets lacked in key areas. They were not truly waterproof, the interior liner would snag on my gun belt, were too loud, or they were not long enough to provide weather protection for my pistols. The Pantanal Parka peaked my curiosity because it seemed to address all of these issues, and the camouflage pattern seemed perfect for where I was hunting. I purchased the Pantanal Parka in December and used it on a couple of day trips, but really wanted a true hunting trip to see how the parka performed. I finally got this opportunity on my annual spring brown bear hunt.

Weather on the hunt consisted of scattered showers with temperatures ranging from 38 degrees to the mid 60’s. We also experienced chilling wind gusts. Most of our time was spent on top of mountains glassing for bears and we also hiked over a ridge to glass the other side. What I found is that this jacket not only met my expectations but exceeded them in many ways. Even though we didn’t face a constant down pouring rain the jacket kept both me and my pistols dry and made for a perfect outer layer for the range of temps we encountered. The material is quiet, maybe not quite enough for a bow hunter, but for rifle hunts it is perfect. The inside of the parka didn’t catch on my gun belt and I found the camouflage pattern works great for the spring bear hunts and fall moose/caribou hunts as there is a lot of brown in the vegetation. I think the only negative I can come up with is I wish the hood on it was either removable or able to be stowed away in the collar (like the collar on the Sitka Stormfront Jacket).

Some other benefits of the jacket that I discovered are:
The zipper starts part way up the jacket rather than all the way at the bottom. When zipped up and sitting the jacket will stay over my pistols better protecting them and gives me faster access, and doesn’t bind up when sitting down.  The amount and location of the pockets allowed me to hold items such as glass cleaning cloths, lighter, compass, scope pen and other items without having one pocket being too bulky and in the way of pulling up my rifle or accessing pistols. The location of the pockets was ideal for accessibility even with a backpack on and the zippers are surprisingly quiet.

The hand warmer pockets are a huge bonus. I have never had these style pockets in my other parka type jackets and found I used them a lot. I don’t like wearing a glove on my shooting hand and this pocket allowed me to keep my hand warm and ready for use.

The other item I have not had on parka style jackets are the venting options in the armpits. This is a huge bonus for me during moose/caribou and bear hunting because a lot of our time is spent sitting and glassing then going after those animals and getting hot. It is nice to be able to open up the jacket to breath and reduce sweating. This feature came in handy when we did our hike over the mountain ridge.

The material of the jacket is stretchy and has a lot of flex. I love this feature of the jacket. I found it didn’t bind like my other jackets and made the jacket extremely comfortable.

In summary this is the best parka style jacket I have ever owned and fits my hunting applications perfectly. I love the jacket and can’t wait to get a lot of years of use out of it.