Harkila’s Pro Hunter Ridge 2.0 GTX: great all-round boots

If you’re like me, you have a large and growing collection of clobber related to your passion for the outdoors. Shooting coats of varying degrees of age, waterproofness and disrepair, but which you keep ‘just in case’, and old worn-out pairs of wellies you keep for guests. They hang around near the back door, becoming increasingly musty and malodorous, and occasioning the odd rebuke from your other half. 

Add to that, the fact that you often have multiple items, ostensibly very similar, but reserved for a specific purpose. “Why do you have four pairs of boots?” my wife has been known to demand, in tones that suggest that it is three too many. Unaccountably, my explanation (“Well, those are my gardening wellies, those are my walked-up shooting boots, those are my smart shooting boots, and those are my smart wellies.”) doesn’t seem to mollify her.

Boots and coats and boots and coats and boots and coats

However, Harkila may just have done something to relieve my wife’s exasperation at the proliferation of muddy footwear in the hallway. A few months ago they sent me pair of their new and improved Pro Hunter Ridge 2.0 GTX lace-up tall boots to test drive, and they’re so versatile that they could easily replace as many of three of my existing pairs. 

Pro Hunter Ridge 2.0 GTX: tough as new boots 

Being made by Harkila, a company best-known for creating outdoor clobber designed to stand up to the rigours of hunting in Scandinavia, it was clear to me that these were intended to cover some miles on tough ground and in challenging weather. A gentle saunter to and from the gunbus on a driven day would be well within their capabilities, and I felt that they would need a sterner test to really put them through their paces. Fortunately I kicked my season off with a trip to the Isle of Muck, for a mixed weekend of driven shooting, foreshore wildfowling, sim shooting and walked up shooting - the perfect environment to see what these boots were made of.

I’ve got to say, I was enormously impressed. The ground on the Isle of Muck is as varied as you’ll find anywhere: in places vertiginous and rocky, in others flat and boggy, often within the space of a few yards. Taking on the steeper, rockier bits, the Vibram Campus sole gave rock solid grip most of the time, even on greasy moss-covered boulders or the slippery foreshore rocks, while the ten-inches of support meant that on the very rare occasions that my foot did slip, I felt safe and in no danger of rolling an ankle. 

(Don’t) fill your boots

Conversely, when it came to the damper bits of Muck, of which there were plenty, I wondered if this might be where they fell down. People are always dubious of a lace-up boot’s ability to keep your feet dry in wet or boggy conditions, but here again, they really stood up to the challenge. On day one, the West Coast climate did West Coast climate things and tried to reclaim the island by airdrop. I have never seen wind and rain quite like it. 

The weather eventually cleared enough for us to venture outside for a sim drive or two, but not before the island’s little streams had broken out of their channels and started occupying the low ground. To get to the first sim drive, we had to ford one of these streams on foot, and because of the volume of water flowing down the valley there was no chance of jumping across. 

I stood in the stream to take this picture

Oh well: sink or swim. Happily, although the stream over-topped the laces, my socks remained resolutely un-sodden. This is in part down to the waterproof GORE-TEX membrane, but, I suspect, is as much owing to the fact that where you think water might leak in - between the tongue and the part of the boot that I must regrettably refer to as the ‘shaft’ (the leg) - is designed in such a way that there isn’t actually a gap; the tongue is attached to the shaft (sorry) by a flap of material all the way up to within an inch of the top of the boot. You could go calf-deep and still be dry.

Walk a mile in these boots

As it happens, on our final day on the island, I did just that. Our final activity was a crack at some snipe, and I volunteered to be a walking gun. As we traversed a boggy area of ground I missed the tussock upon which I had intended to place my foot, and ended up standing in some quite deep water. What’s more, we were moving at a fair old lick, and the tussocky vegetation made for tough going. Weighing in at under 800g each, they feel lightweight and manoeuvrable, unlike some of the bulkier lace-ups I have tried. Despite the marshy ground, I was very glad that I wasn’t in wellies.

Walking up snipe on damp and lumpy ground

There aren’t many bits of Muck that you can realistically call flat. Maybe some of the beaches. This meant that even when standing on the peg taking on the driven duck (and what ducks!) or shooting a sim drive, finding good footing was challenging.

In wellies, and even in some lace-up boots that I have worn, standing on this sloping ground could quickly have become uncomfortable, as the foot can slip forward in the boot. However, the Pro Hunter Ridge 2.0 GTX have a moulded foot-bed which “cups” your foot, keeping it firmly in place at all times. I’m an advocate for shooting in lace-up boots in any case, because I think wellies can be a bit “flappy” and hinder your footwork, but for underfoot conditions such as these you’d be mad not to leave the wellingtons at home. 

Isle of Muck: not flat.

I’ve only had them a couple of months, so I’ve yet to give their durability over time a proper work-out, but they certainly look strong, with double-stitching, and a mud-guard around the bottom of the upper, which will help to protect the nubuck of the upper. In my experience the limiting factor in the lifetime of a boot is the care you take of it, rather than the build-quality, but it is encouraging to know that Harkila have overhauled the manufacturing process and brought it back to Europe.

Honestly, I’m struggling to find a bad word to say about these boots. If you really pressed me, I’d question if they are quite sharp enough to be worn on a really smart-driven day, but unless you move in very exalted circles - far more exalted than the ones I move in - this is unlikely to be a problem. Push me a little further, and I’ll grudginly admit that I’d like a little more cushioning in the footbed, but then, I’m a bit of a wimp about having sore feet, and it is nothing that can’t be solved with an aftermarket insole. 

For me, these boots can do it all - driven days to walked up days, beating or even just biffing around the farm. But, I’m nothing if not aware of my own limitations, and Harkila are probably best known as a stalking brand. Not being much of a stalker, I thought I’d enlist the help of a friend who is - Tom Cackett of Oxon Deer.

Harkila Pro Hunter Ridge 2.0 GTX - a stalker’s view

I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but having spent a few days on the hill chasing hinds in Scotland I wasn’t ecstatic when I arrived home to find a brand new pair of boots to break in and test. The boots in question were a pair of Harkila Pro Hunter Ridge 2.0 GTX’s, which ironically would have been the perfect companions for my Scottish expedition thanks to the generous 10 inch high ankle support and stiff Vibram Campus sole with built-in shock absorber. The boots I’d actually worn on my Scottish trip were an old pair of Harkila Pro Hunter Ledge GTX boots so I was keen to see how Harkila had improved on the design.  

Like a good boy I gave the new boots a trip out the very same day I got back and was pleasantly surprised to find that just like my previous pair they didn’t really need any breaking in and certainly didn’t rub anywhere. I’m always slightly worried with tall boots that they’ll feel too restrictive and heavy, but the nubuck leather on the upper of these boots softened very quickly whilst still offering good support.  

Where the lower section of the nubuck leather meets the sole is a full length rand made out of a very strong material which Harkila don’t disclose the details of and only describe it as “an extra robust material”. The same material is present on my old Ledge boots and has stood up to a number of years of hard punishment. 

Clever features of the Pro Hunter Ridge 2.0 GTX

The boots also have a steel eye set back from the toe for attaching gaiters to, which is a feature I like as it prevents wear to the laces. If you are planning on wearing gaiters and getting your feet wet then don’t worry as the boots have a fully waterproof gore-tex ‘ultimate’ membrane. Much to my wife's amusement, I did paddle around in our local stream to see if I could make these boots leak but I had to eventually admit that Harkila had bested me once again.  

Harkila boots have, in the past, been criticized for poor build quality. It isn’t something I’ve personally experienced, but it has clearly been an issue because Harkila now manufacture all of their boots in a European factory as opposed to in Asia. This change in manufacturing has clearly inspired more confidence from Harkila themselves as the Ridge boots carry a two-year no-quibble warranty.  

Boots vs wellies

If I’m honest I've always shied away from tall boots and have worn wellies when stalking in the winter, but having worn these for a while now I can see the appeal – they offer far more support than wellies, they’re more nimble, more robust and certainly don’t make your feet sweat as much. Where I thought they’d lose out to wellies is the ability to hose them down, but the waterproofing on these boots meant I could do it without any concerns at all. 

Would I recommend these boots? Yes. Will I wear them? Absolutely; these will be my go-to stalking boots this winter and will certainly accompany me when my legs have recovered and I decide to venture back out onto the hill!