Mister Shush
FNG
- Joined
- Oct 21, 2016
- Location
- Idaho
My two cents after hunting archery, rifle and muzzleloader for deer/elk/bear for two seasons and doing some miscellaneous hiking/scouting around Idaho and Montana with a pair of uninsulated 8” Hoffman Explorers (I’d estimate about 400 miles total):
I purchased mine from the Hoffman shop in Kellogg, ID in the summer of 2018. They’re comfortable out of the box and somewhat stiff, but not too stiff. Not as stiff as my Lowa Tibet’s and not as soft as say a Danner product. They’re solidly constructed and are showing no signs of breakdown. The rand has held up very well and they’ve been mostly watertight. I did have wet feet after one particularly snowy day where a thaw began setting in and everything was wet and muddy. However, it was the one day that I did not put on my OR gaiters until well after the snow/sleet started because I was tracking a herd and didn’t want to lose time. My wet feet could have been a top down sock wicking problem.
I don’t use Obernauf’s or Hoffman’s boot care products. I prefer the Schnee’s/Nor-V-Gen leather conditioner. I’ve been using it for almost two decades and I’ve never had an issue with it. Obernauf’s can sometimes cause the adhesive used to glue the rand to the upper to fail on some boots and that results in the rand peeling away. I’ve seen it happen at least four times to boots owned by friends and relatives, so I stopped using it on anything with a glued rand. The boots have darkened, but the leather is in great shape aside from a little flap that peeled on top of the toe that I had to use a little Freesole to glue down. I tripped and caught a large sharp rock outcrop.
I’m a size 9.5D on a Brannock device and tried on a 9, 9.5 and 10. The 9.5 was the best fit with a pair of Darn Tough full cushion boot socks.
All in all, these boots are well worth the money. The staff at Hoffman were very helpful and let me try on various boots aside from theirs to get the right fit. They’re a fixture in the town of Kellogg and supply a lot of boots to loggers, firefighters, tree planters and lineman. My insulated boots are worn out and I’ll be picking up a pair of insulated Hoffman Explorers this summer. That’s about the best endorsement I can give.
Edit: I should add that I bought these boots in Summer of 2018 almost on a whim. I was looking to replace a pair of Crispi’s that had simply broken down after just one season (leaking, peeling rand and lace eyelets coming loose from the leather) and stopped into Hoffman on the way home from berry picking with the wife. Very glad I did.
I purchased mine from the Hoffman shop in Kellogg, ID in the summer of 2018. They’re comfortable out of the box and somewhat stiff, but not too stiff. Not as stiff as my Lowa Tibet’s and not as soft as say a Danner product. They’re solidly constructed and are showing no signs of breakdown. The rand has held up very well and they’ve been mostly watertight. I did have wet feet after one particularly snowy day where a thaw began setting in and everything was wet and muddy. However, it was the one day that I did not put on my OR gaiters until well after the snow/sleet started because I was tracking a herd and didn’t want to lose time. My wet feet could have been a top down sock wicking problem.
I don’t use Obernauf’s or Hoffman’s boot care products. I prefer the Schnee’s/Nor-V-Gen leather conditioner. I’ve been using it for almost two decades and I’ve never had an issue with it. Obernauf’s can sometimes cause the adhesive used to glue the rand to the upper to fail on some boots and that results in the rand peeling away. I’ve seen it happen at least four times to boots owned by friends and relatives, so I stopped using it on anything with a glued rand. The boots have darkened, but the leather is in great shape aside from a little flap that peeled on top of the toe that I had to use a little Freesole to glue down. I tripped and caught a large sharp rock outcrop.
I’m a size 9.5D on a Brannock device and tried on a 9, 9.5 and 10. The 9.5 was the best fit with a pair of Darn Tough full cushion boot socks.
All in all, these boots are well worth the money. The staff at Hoffman were very helpful and let me try on various boots aside from theirs to get the right fit. They’re a fixture in the town of Kellogg and supply a lot of boots to loggers, firefighters, tree planters and lineman. My insulated boots are worn out and I’ll be picking up a pair of insulated Hoffman Explorers this summer. That’s about the best endorsement I can give.
Edit: I should add that I bought these boots in Summer of 2018 almost on a whim. I was looking to replace a pair of Crispi’s that had simply broken down after just one season (leaking, peeling rand and lace eyelets coming loose from the leather) and stopped into Hoffman on the way home from berry picking with the wife. Very glad I did.
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will say had pedicure before I went out
I had a chance to cruise over to Kellogg Idaho and meet with Jim and Tom Hoffman to review the boot building process and grab this boot for my early season hunts. This is the 8” Explorer uninsulated version. Have not had them outside yet wanting to verify the size before I beat them up. Looks like the chosen 10 is true to my normal size. More to follow from north Idaho. Ask away with any questions. Here’s the link to the 
