THE Hunt Guard Trousers. Capital T.H.E. As in; the only trousers you’ll ever need.
I remember it being about 9pm the night before Sarah (Sarah MacDonald – Product Design Manager at Stoney Creek) was flying down, back in October 2020, to come Chamois hunting when I first caught wind of the Hunt Guard Trousers. A message saying something along the lines of “I’m working on a pair of pants for us to test out on this hunt.” Thats exciting, I thought to myself as I rushed around prepping my gear. An hour later I get a photo of a sewing mannequin with a bunch of fabric hanging off one side and half a pair of pants on the other. “One side done, one to go!” To which I laughed out loud, I assumed she had designed them and had them made by someone at a clothing factory, but no! There she was at 10pm designing AND sewing the pants herself, talk about passionate!
She arrived and it didn’t take long for the Hunt Guard Trousers come out of her Stoney Creek Heavy Hauler, and I felt like my prayers had been answered! In my hands were a pair of very light, very stretchy, form fitting tan pants and it was love at first sight. Because they were a quick “mock-up” version, they didn’t have a fly or pockets so I had to wriggle into them but once they were on they felt amazing! Swooooon! I fell in love all over again.
Sarah wore the Hunt Guard Trousers the first day, and boy did we give that 4-way stretch a workout! Up we climbed, up a big ridge almost to the tippy top only to look down and see animals way down in the creek below. So down we went, they were in a niggly spot with wind swirling which eventually gave us away and off they went. Day two was my turn to wear the Hunt Guard Trousers, and boy oh boy were they comfortable! Another day of climbing up steep faces and spurs on to a main ridge. She was a windy day with intermittent light rain, but the Hunt Guard Trousers proved to be warm, quick drying and comfortable in testing conditions. We glassed and traversed and the day ended with Sarah bagging her first Chamois, pulling off a great shot in strong wind. Yeah girl! The next day we had a butchery session and got her Chamois all bagged up, and fleshed out her Chamois skull destined to be carry-on baggage. I had thought that Sarah was going to be taking the Hunt Guard Trousers back home with her, so I was over the moon when she said she was going to leave them with me to keep abusing and provide feedback. YASSS!!
So for the past year I’ve been putting them through their paces, and honestly it didn’t take long for them to become my number one hunting pants. In fact I basically stopped wearing any other pants, unless they were in the wash. I wore them Chamois hunting, Fallow hunting, Tahr hunting and even Pig hunting in some pretty awful scrub. They handled everything I wanted to do with ease, and they somehow managed to keep me warm in cold conditions and cool in hot conditions, it was like they had some voodoo spell on them. I certainly wasn’t complaining!
One particularly memorable experience in the Hunt Guard Trousers was on a fly-in girls trip on the west coast when I decoyed a Chamois buck. On day one Ashlee and I hunted together, so on day two I wanted to go solo. I had a quick glass from the knob behind camp and quickly found a mature Chamois buck feeding. Average horn height but biiiig wide hooks, and unmistakably had age, he was built like a tank! Despite him being almost 1km away, as soon as I moved to start working my way down a waterfall gut, he was on to me. Dang they have good eyesight! I paused to think the situation through, and it came to me that the colour of the Hunt Guard Trousers was almost the perfect shade of summer Chamois. I was wearing my Frostline Jacket and hat so I attempted to decoy the buck. I turned my backside mostly to the buck and climbed down backwards in a slow and meandering fashion, stopping now and then, mimicking how a Chamois would stop to feed for a few mouthfuls before carrying on. The buck watched me with laser focus as I made my way down the gut and across the face in his direction. As I got closer he seemed to get more and more annoyed with what he thought was another Chamois in his territory, and he began puffing his hackles up and stamping his feet and carrying on, and started moving in my direction. Bingo! Between us was a rolling tussock gut with a creek in the bottom, I parked up on my edge and slowly went about getting ready. The rangefinder said 211y directly across the gut. Too easy, all I needed was for him to keep walking towards me, which he did. By this stage he was visibly mad, and came running over to his edge of the gut, still stamping his feet. I reached for the bolt to cycle a round into the chamber and my heart dropped into my boots. NOOOOO…. WHERE IS MY BOLT?? A quick flashback to unpacking my rifle from its bag that morning at camp, I had taken the bolt out to put a bore snake down the barrel and I hadn’t put the bolt back in. A string of quiet cuss words before I put my thinking cap on, how could I salvage this situation? Camp wasn’t too far away so I left my gear where it was and decided my best bet was to act like a young buck who had been intimidated away. So again I turned my backside to the buck and moved away at a reasonable pace for 100m or so before slowing down back into the meandering rhythm. It worked like a charm! The buck went from being visibly annoyed to increasingly relaxed the further away I got. He almost oozed “you better run!” vibes, and went back to feeding but occasionally checking that I was still retreating. I got over the knob and legged it the last 200m down to camp, grabbed my bolt and raced back. He was still feeding and moving away from me, so every time his head was down I would move, stopping any time he looked up. He didn’t see me coming this time, and as I closed the gap he fed down into a bouldery creek and I lost sight of him. He ended up giving me the slip, and I still kick myself to this day for forgetting my bolt, but the experience of decoying a Chamois buck with the Hunt Guard Trousers is one that will stick with me for a long time and I still chuckle when I think about it.
After a year or so Sarah messaged me asking for the Hunt Guard Trousers pants back so she could assess the wear and tear and use them to make version two. I was pretty heartbroken posting them back but it was also comforting to know that in the near future the finished product would be available to the entire women’s hunting community, not just me. So off they went, and a few months later after having to re-adjust to legging life, I was stoked to get a message saying that version two of the Hunt Guard Trousers were on their way to me. Boy, they didn’t disappoint! They were just as comfy as the first pair, but this time with a fly and pockets. I promptly took them Chamois hunting and the new fabric was just as stretchy and form fitting as the first pair, with no loss of shape over the day, and they were equally warm/cool/voodoo-spell as the originals. They are really good on the hill, but are tidy enough that they look just as good around town. Big tick of approval!
The whole testing process has been a rewarding experience, because for me it’s always been about improving things for the women’s hunting community, which is what I’m passionate about. When I first started hunting 9-10 years ago there wasn’t much around for us ladies, and I found myself constantly frustrated at having to wear ill-fitting mens gear or sometimes the biggest size in kids gear, and it was always just basic fleece gear suitable for around home or the farm, and often pink. “Technical” and “women’s” were two words that weren’t found in the same sentence when it came to hunting gear, and it was a major pet peeve of mine. When Stoney Creek first started making proper technical women’s gear it was a breath of fresh air and because they were the first New Zealand brand to really “see” us, I wanted to support them. Im stoked to be a part of the women’s test team and be involved in projects like this because I see it as one way that I can help support the women’s hunting community in New Zealand; by contributing to the creation of top quality gear to allow more women to enjoy hunting and the outdoors comfortably and safely. I’m proud to wear Stoney Creek and support a New Zealand brand, proud of the part they have played in elevating the women’s hunting community and proud to have been a part of the creation of the Hunt Guard Trousers.
I hope you ladies enjoy them just as much as I do!
