The best all-round boots for shooting, stalking and beyond

Apart from foot fetishists, is there a group of people who think more about footwear than the shooting community? Spend any time on social media groups dedicated to shooting, stalking or the countryside and you’ll come across post after post from people seeking advice on outdoor footwear. Well, I’m here to put an end to all of these discussions. You can all stop asking, for I have found what I think is the best all-round boot there is, bar none.

What is this miraculous boot, I hear you ask? What are these wonderful wellies? Well, they’re not wellies, for a start. They’re tall lace-up leather boots, and before you jump to the conclusion that I’m talking about the kind of boot that might excite the fetishists mentioned above, let me stop you right there. These boots are as far removed as possible from the black patent leather confections that you’re currently imagining, you filthy animal. 

Hardwearing, solid boots with unbeatable ankle support

The Brontolare High 11”, by Scottish boot company Brandecosse, are about as unerotic as it is possible for a pair of boots to be. They look like you could kick your way through a brick wall with them on. This is in no small part down to their construction from highest quality 2.6mm thick Italian full-grain leather, and the ‘alpine welt’, which gives incredible strength, but also because they just look indestructible. There’s a big beefy toebox that looks like it has a steel toecap. In point of fact, it doesn’t, but the rigidity of the leather and the shape give the impression that one could drive a medium-sized car over it without even feeling it. There is something very workmanlike about the shape.

Then there’s the height. For your reference, 11” is quite tall, but not quite as high as yer average welly; just a bit over mid-calf. This makes them more rugged than mere walking boots, offering so much ankle support that one imagines that doing any damage to the lower leg is nigh on impossible. The lace-up closure means that you can strap the things on nice and firmly, and, once they’ve been worn in a bit, they fit like a huge leathery sock - snug, supportive, strong. The padded collar around the top ensures that the fit is incredibly comfortable too.

Perfect footwork and stability

What’s more, the lace up closure ensures that, although the boots are pretty heavy, they don’t feel unwieldy. Ballet shoes they ain’t, but footwork on the peg feels far more fluid than when I wear even the most well-fitting wellies, which can sometimes feel a bit, well... floppy. On a continuum from ballet slipper to diving flipper, these are firmly at the pirouetting end of the scale. I have no doubt that were one so inclined one could muster a passable if thunderous waltz, if not an actual quickstep.

Manufactured in Italy by Calzaturificio Diemme, a company with a history of making high quality boots for use in the Alps), but designed in Scotland by and for fieldsports enthusiasts, these are boots designed with stalkers and gamekeepers in mind, and with the experience of Alpine yomping informing their construction. They’re engineered to make traversing hill, dale, glen and moor all day as secure as possible. A Vibram rubber sole (Vibram also make the rubber on my climbing shoes, in case you’re interested) and the chunky ‘Teton’ tread design combine to give you the best possible grip on unstable, slippery or precipitous terrain.

Comfortable, waterproof, breathable leather boots

Furthermore, the PU ‘footbed’ offers excellent cushioning, so they absorb the shocks of sharp rocks, sudden drops and allow one to walk all day without discomfort. During lockdowns, when I still lived in London, I would wear them to perabulate my kids around Greenwich park, walking for hours on unforgiving tarmac paths (the buggy couldn't cope with the grass terribly well), and never had sore feet.

The full-grain leather upper is “hydrophobic” meaning that repels water, and the boots have a breathable, waterproof Sympatex lining, so they are more than capable of keeping your feet dry, even if one is is fording a stream or splashing through a marsh, as I was on a recent shoot day in Norfolk. The clever construction of the boot’s tongue ensures that no water makes its way through, despite the lace up closures. 

I don’t know about you, but I have painful memories of having achingly cold toes on shoot days in the past; bog standard rubber wellies just can’t cut it when the mercury is sulking in the single digits. Not so with the Brontolare -  the leather seems to offer excellent insulatory properties, especially when combined with shooting socks. Conversely, because leather and the Sympatex linings are naturally breathable, they’re not sweaty in warmer weather. 

Craftsman quality boots for shooting and stalking

In the year that I have owned my Brontolare 11’s they’ve stood up to everything I have thrown at them in the last year - steep climbs on Speyside’s rocky terrain, boggy ground, shoot days, walks in both town and country, and despite my less than perfect care of them, they don’t show any real signs of wear, despite tackling the razor sharp flints of our Hampshire farm. On a recent trip to Wales I was chatting with a loader who said that he has been wearing his for Brontolare 9” (the slightly shorter style) for six years, and they were still going strong. 

Because the boots are hand-made by craftsmen in Northern Italy, a region famed for its bootmaking heritage, the quality of their construction and finish is unimpeachable. The fact that they employ traditional technique also means that the outsole can be replaced by any VIbram cobbler for a reasonable price, so unless the leather is irreparably damaged (something that good care should prevent) they should keep going for years.

Now, I know some of you reading this will think that style is not all that important, especially when it comes to practical items like boots. I, on the other hand, am shallowly obsessed with appearance. My Brontolare’s have drawn so many admiring comments that I’ve started to expect them. Because they’re quite an (unaccountably) rare sight, they also mean that one stands out. This being said, they’re not flashy, just noticeable, if that makes sense? Another advantage is that because they are a little shorter than wellies, they show off a good bit of shooting sock and a decent flash of garter.

Breaking in your Brandecosse boots

Now, I’m conscious that this review sounds somewhat one sided. I’ve done nothing but gush about my Brandecosse boots, and that is because I genuinely love them. However, it would be dishonest of me if I didn’t also highlight the few drawbacks that I have encountered. 

The first is a function of the leather, and perhaps my own weirdly shaped feet or gait.. Being made from such tough leather does mean that they take a while to break in, and I found that in the early days in particular, they pinched the top of my foot left something cruel. I circumvented this problem by re-lacing the boots to skip the first set of eyes. Once the leather begins to soften - a couple of months of use in my case - the problem vanished.

The second slight downside is that because of the heavy-duty soles, and the ankle support, they are not the best boots for driving around a shoot in (obviously, don't drive on the road in boots!). One doesn’t have a great deal of sensitivity on the pedals, and slight adjustments that one might have made by flexing the ankle if wearing different footwear have to be executed by bending the knee. I’ve also found that actually getting into cars with smaller footwells can be something of a challenge, sometimes requiring a degree of contortion that is at best inelegant and at worst uncomfortable.

Finally, because they are both tall and lace-up, they’re not the speediest of boots to get on and off. They are, for example, not great for shoving on for nipping outside to give the dogs a pee before bed. For this reason I still keep a pair of slip-on wellies by the back door. I also make sure that I’m among the first to start getting ready to leave the shoot room after lunch, to avoid keeping people waiting while I tie my laces. 

Long-lasting, hardwearing country footwear

Despite these downsides, I can say with confidence that the Brontolare High 11s are the best all-round boots I have worn in my life. I’ve used them for hill walking, driven days, walked-up days, beating and even when fishing in places that don’t require wading but do need waterproof footwear. I’ve worn them around town (admittedly I did get the occasional funny look, but that’s par for the course where I’m concerned) as well as around the farm. I’ve worn them in snow, heavy rain and blazing summer sun. I am yet to encounter the scenario in which they are found wanting.

They’re not all that cheap, at £299, but that’s only a few quid more than a pair of the leading rubber wellies out there, and cheaper than many leather “country boots”.  With the price tag comes the knowledge that you won’t have to replace them for several years, making them, in my view, one of the better footwear investments one can make. If lace-ups sound like hard work, or you’re after something not quite so tall, Brandecosse offer a range of both lace-up and wellington-style leather boots to suit all requirements which, if my experience is anything to go by, are likely to be just as reliable and practical.

Explore the range of Brandecosse outdoor footwear