Danner Jackal GTX Boot Review

I just purchased my second pair of the Danner Jackal 8" uninsulated boots. I bought this pair for the same reasons I bought my first pair, namely,

1. high top boot for hunting in terrain with cheat grass, etc.
2. comfortable light duty boot
3. backup boot for remote back-country hunts
4. campfire boot
5. comfortable as a `shoe'

I love this boot. I wore my first pair until they were coming apart to the point of embarrassment. They served me well on numerous `near-town' hunts, work, and as a secondary boot in the most punishing terrain in the Continental U.S. As I ramp up for this year's hunts, I needed another pair to do the same.

First of all around here I need a high-top boot. Our early season deer and elk hunts put us in terrain with cheat grass and other `pests' that will invade a low top boot. I hate spending more time in the evening pulling cheat grass out of my socks than I spent hunting in the afternoon. While high-top, the boots are enough `un-insulated' (and breathable) that they are quite wearable (bearable) all year long - even summer! And, though they are what I would call `high top', they are not heavy. I can run in the boots if I need to. I love `em for this kind of stuff.

I love the boot for outside work. And I don't mind at all wearing them inside as well.

And please don't mis-understand my use of the term `light duty'. Some of our hunting terrain is at or in excess of 100% slope (yeah, 1-to-1, 45 degrees), and as such, soil can't cling to it all, and we are walking (hopping, jumping, sliding, scrambling) across solid rock, cobbles, boulders, gravel (what some call `scree') ... I love my boots too much to let them `get eaten' by too much of something like that. So, on those hunts they are a `campfire' boot and backup / emergency boot.

By `campfire' I mean my `back-country slipper'. On a crisp fall morning they are just perfect for jumping into just out of the sleeping bag and starting the camp fire. I love `em. And, if my other boots `die' on the trip - at least I can get back to the airfield, or road, with my Jackals.

Personally, I like to order the boot a tiny bit small, and then wear them with a very thin pair of socks (or none). But be warned, from my experience, this boot seems to run a bit smaller than other boots of the same `size'.

Though un-insulated, I will hunt with them all year long. Compared to a low top boot they seem insulated - at least to me.

My only word of caution with the boots is that, at least for me, I need to break the heel of my foot and that part of the boot in. Some boots I can put on for the first time and walk miles, without negative repercussions. With the Jackal, due their to the construction, or my foot (or both), the back of my heel must get used to the boot (or vice versa); so I must wear them (a new pair) around the house or yard for a bit - before a long haul. After that ... I just love `em.

References

Danner, 17634 NE Airport Way, Portland, OR 97230, 877-432-6637.