I hunt with a fedora. I wouldn't buy the 3 rivers hat if you want one just like Bear's. I belive his was gray in color and the style is a bit different.

As far as brim getting in the way. For one have a soft brimed and have a short brimed hat. With my cant and soft brim, I don't really notice the hat getting in the way. I'd have to put mine on and draw my bow to really see what's going on if that is any indicator.

You get used to it after you use it.

Pro: it's a hat. A hat is not an all-bad idea.

Con: you risk looking like a Fred Bear/Fred Asbell wannabe.

I'm going to guess that Fred Bear wore a fedora because men used to be expected to wear a hat... and chances are good that he had some around which were too worn out to be respectable for business events.

Personally, I like a hat with some kind of a brim to keep the sun out of my eyes and off of my nose, and a baseball cap always gets in the way unless I wear it turned around backwards like some kind of "Bro Dude"... If a Fedora stays out-of- the-way, then that makes it a reasonably good choice, though a leather hat band is kind of hard to keep scent-free for hunting purposes.

Something like a Boonie hat, though, with a floppy Brim that can be pushed out- of-the-way by the bowstring.... Just seems to make a lot more sense.

I've worn the same hat for over 20 years. It's a felt cowboy hat that I bought years ago. It's not a Fedora by any means (I personally don't like them) it's just a style of hat I've worn since I was about 8 years old.

I have that hat it is darker in colar and the string does hit it. if you push the hat back it dont hit.

I wear a boonie hat... had a dermatologist tell me a couple of years ago that the baseball hat I wore out in the sun was better than nothing, but that at my age, the majority of skin cancer he found on males seemed to be on the upper tips of the ears, and to look for a hat that covered that. The boonie fit the bill, and I have worn one ever since.

Who says that you can't teach an old dog a new trick?

Ron

The higher end hats are fur felt which is lighter and softer than the less expensive wool felt hats. If you buy a wool felt hat you will end up spending money again for the fur felt after you find out you don't like the weight or what happens when it gets wet.

I've been wearing the Bear from 3Rivers for five years. String does touch but the brim is very soft and doesn't interfere with the shot. I've worn it in down pours and had no problems. Sheds water and holds its shape. If it ain't cold, you won't want to wear it. And no, it's not a Fedora like Fred wore, but you can see that in the catalog pic.

I have one but don't care to hunt in it. it is my yard working hat when mowing lawn LOL. bandana or a stocking cap is all I use when hunting covers the head and ears to hide my white skin. and don't need a brim I like to use the sun at my back to help hide me in the shadows and make it harder for the animals to see me looking into the sun. as for skin and sun I take a bottle of water when I sit down I mix a little earth and water to make mud and put on my face. when it drys it can be rubbed of with your hands. no mess. in trees I don't worry about my face to much.

I also wear a hat for function rather than looks. If it is cold I wear a stocking hat. If hot and sunny, a bucket hat from Duluth or a boonie. I use my Fedora for fly fishing.

I wear many hats.....

Wire brimmed can be bent for string clearance. Wool crushers can be put in a pack....

These hats left to right from to back: Litefelt: my favorite hat. Has been around the world, in the snow and rain. Tilley wool hat with ear flaps and insulation pouch in the crown. Filson oil cloth: stiff brim can be bent up to shoot. 50+ protection wire brimmed...my summer hat DayOne wool ASAT. I have shaped it to look more like a proper hat instead of a bucket. Can roll it up into a pack. RealDealBrazil: wire brimmed canvas hat. My fishing hat

I guess I'm a "bro dude". The company I work for issues us hats if we want them and I really like them. I find them to fit and wear well. So normally that's what you'll find on my head. Unless it's cold, in which case I'll wear the other company supplied stocking hat. They look good and they're free. Plus, I look stupid in a fedora. Some of you may think I look stupid in any hat. You can go pound salt.

Anything to keep the sun off of my neck! Long brim brush hat for me. fedora style.

The cold weather version.

A Stetson crushable hat. Works great as the edge of the brim will move upward and not cause any interference with the string if I have it pushed very far forward on my head. Best shooting hat I have ever had. Reasonably priced, and relatively weather resistant too.

That's a good practical hat. Bass Pro carries a similar hat by Orvis as well as some others. I wear them hunting except in hot weather and then I use a light cotton camo boonie. I have one crusher that I bought too large so that I can wear a snoopy type helmet liner under it in cold weather. Keeps my ears and back of my neck warm and I still have a good hat with a brim for shade and water deflection.

No hat here. Camo head nets full time.

I wear this one 90% of the time. Made by Browning and is Felt. Not to hot and not to cold.

Usually a boonie for bow hunting. Gun hunting a wool outback or a straw hat according to weather.

TO many!! Just depends on the weather and my mood!

My to many beers hat! A friends hat, fits him! I always told him he had a BIG HEAD!

Warm weather hat. Makes me look like a trad bowhunter haha.

I have a bunch of hunting hats, but this is my favorite bowhunting hat for the last ten years.

I see white falcon has some mossy oak shadow leaf.

Fred Bear wore a Borsalino fedora I believe the model name was Classico. They cost around $400 nowadays. I wear fedoras and trilbys. My favorite bow season hat a Scala Classico Trilby, pictured below.

EF, I wish I could get some more! The stuff goes in East TX and South TX.

The Stetson crusable I use for shooting is the Exibition. It is dark green (logan green), has a good looking band, and is extremely comfortable. Bought it on line for less than $60. A fantastic shooting hat.

Mine is identical to that first one River wolf put up. It's never too warm and never to cold too wear. An all around hat that never gets in the way of the shot.

My favorite is a oil finish Stetson I won at a shoot 25 yrs ago.

Recently bought a First Lite brimmed beanie in green. Kinda has a Robin Hood thing going on. I dig it!

Short brimmed Oiled Canvas.

My second favorite bowhunting hat.

Gray Stetson Open Road for the past 30+ years. If this hat could talk! When you're under a big tree hiding from rain & cold wind & watching rain run off the brim & not down your neck, you'll know you made the right choice.

I like them Big Jim lids, with wire in the short brim.

I have an Akubra "Snowy River" that I'm going to have the brim trimmed down so I can shoot with it.

Yep Straitera, I have, and wear one of those old Stetson 100 Open Roads too. Mine is from 1966.

Love the bucket - short brim, 360 degree sun out of my eyes. I own a few.

Hats are always a fun topic as there are so many opinions and endless styles, AND were would we be without the picture posting.

I think that after going through this thread, that I can official feel that owning well over thirty hats including 3 straw, 8 fedora type, 6 stocking caps, and endless baseball caps that I am a member. To the point: wide brimmed hats are great on the ground and to shield from the sun and rain. On the other hand they do tend to cause you to sweat more, are a PIA when you want to rest your head back against a tree in a stand, and the worst part is that you can't usually stick them in a pocket when you need to unless it is the soft crusher or boonie type... so therefore there apparently is a call for having plenty of each type...just in case. I have learned to put a monofilment fishing line loop through the vent gromets on some hat to give me a way to hook them on my belt with a small clip or maybe over the butt of a knife, etc.

I particularly loved the picture of Mana Styks with a hat on but no shirt. Now THAT is a purist...hat comes first.

An early comment about Fred B's choice of wearing a fedora was a very interesting one. Just watch any movie set in the 50's and you will see most of the men in crowd scenes wearing hats. You can also see in old photos and drawings that Saxton Pope and Art Young wore ties. Now wouldn't that be something: if we set out to show the nonhunting world a fashion lesson and tried to create the idea that it was culturally UPSCALE instead of the direction some of this has been allowed to go... Take it from there

SG

I like boonie hat's unless it's really cold.Then I go with wool watch caps.

This thread is making me want to go get more hats. Here's a hat story for you fellows: Big jim had company coming in from out of town. This is before he was signed to his lease and had the peanut butter and feeder thing going on. He was to take these two guys pig hunting. Jim invited me along because I was very familiar with our public land hotspots and I would guide one of the hunters and jim would partner with the other. My hunter was named Drew, the last name escapes me but he is one heck of a nice guy and a good bowman on top of that. About an hour before dark and over a mile from the truck, Drew and I get caught in a downpour. It rained for thirty minutes and all we could do was stand in it. The sparse-limbed loblolly pine trees are useless for cover. We stood together under what little cover we could find and just looked at each other and smiled. I had on a red baseball cap turned around backwards, and my head and face and neck were soaking wet and I had water running down my back. Drew was wearing some sort of wide- brimmed felt job. And his face, head, and neck were dry as a bone as the brim of his hat directed the water well away from his melon. I said to him, "nice hat". " I could use one of those about now". The rain stopped, we hunted until dark and then made the ride to Jims house. I said goodbye to Drew and Manny and headed home myself. A week later jim calls me and says he has something for me at his house. So I ride over and check it out. There for me is a brand new Dorffman Pacific felt hat just like the one Drew had worn on our hunt. It's in my closet, I do not wear it much but I think I'll start. D.

You need a short brim on your hat. It nice for the sun, but the most importing this is shielding your eyes from an animals eyes. If you can't see theirs', they can't see your.

You'll loose a stare down 9 out of 10.

Bowmania

That's what everyone wore back during my time growing up, I always loved hats and still do, I don't wear one because someone else wears that style, I wear them because they serve a purpose especially hear in Florida and the top of my head looks like an aircraft carrier. At my age my dermatologist has already removed several cancerous spots so I have to wear one and the wide brimmed hats are the best, I have a good friend who has to wear long sleeve shirts and a large straw hat when he goes outside because of his skin is very light and is very susceptible to cancer.

What ever reason, I have always loved hats they keep that burning sun off your face and neck and I hate rain in my face....wing

I've got one I love wearing. I tell my wife and friends it makes me look like a better shot.

I wish someone would make quality Jones Cap

Although not fashionable, I nearly always wear my soft billed welding caps until it gets cold. At that point its just a drab colored stocking hat.

I have a nice fedora, 4X beaver, and I killed a deer while wearing it once. The problem is the brim is stiff so it interferes with my string so it's relegated to winter walk about duty.

Dang Paul, not sure if you're going hunting, welding, or trolling? But do know enough to welcome you to my hunt anytime. Good hand here imho!

Huge story Sawtooth! Wear that nice hat with mono memories!

Bowmania, agree.., but you've been around long as me.

Another view.

Sawtooth, that's mojo memories.

I grew up in Texas, got two grey open roads by Stetson. But my grandfather was a South Georgia bird shooter, so I got my share of short brimmed fedoras and a Jones cap.

My current fedora, 10X Beaver Fur Felt. I've been wearing a fedora for the past 30 years.

What is a "jones cap"?

Old style bird shooters hat. Almost like a bucket hat with the back and sides folded up, and with the front like a regular hat

Dendy, Tried to post a photo but I ain't that smart. I know you've seen dozens down where you live.

Jones style hats. Used to have four but can't find one.

Jones cap

yeah....I've seen those. Killed my first deer while wearing one, an orange one. I bet I still have it, but I'm sure it will not fit me now. Monkeyball, that woolrich store is awesome, isn't it? I went there two years ago while we were visiting my wife's folks in Wellsboro. Man! I plopped down a few benjamins in that store and I still didn't get all that I wanted. My wife finally cooled down, but I haven't been back to that store since.

This is my hunting hat - a Tilley Aero Hat. Not a fashion statement, but I suppose it could be if the right person was wearing it. Where I live it is typically pretty hot during much of the season, and this hat is lightweight and breaks up my outline as good as any. The brim keeps the sun and rain out of my eyes and folds back when I draw my bow, I almost used a sharpie to draw black camo lines on it, but it IS kind of expensive to be marking up with a sharpie. Lol.

I actually prefer a "boonie" style hat for deer hunting, but have had a hard time finding ones like I used to be familiar with back in the late 80's or early 90's.

That's what I figured would happen. Let me try it again.

Wow - it really shouldn't be this hard to post an iPad photo. Last try - not that anybody really needs or wants to see my ugly mug posted upside right...

Even better. :-)

Am I the only one who noticed the shrunken head on the wall in Mana's pic?

I used to love the Jones cap. They'd fall off my head, and I wouldn't know it until I got home. I lost about three of them and stopped wearing them. Today, I'd just attach them to my coat but prefer my modified baseball cap. I'm not as rich as the rest of you.

Joe

Here's a view of my modified cap next to the Holy Grail of Bows.

Joe

Most Jones style hats are found in older style camo or flo. orange. I've not seen any in any modern trendy style camo.

Here's mine. It's a Dorfman Pacific, made in Stockton, California. I've used it for a long time and it will outlive me I'm sure....if I don't lose it.

Here's my dads.

I wore a bucket hat for many years but like the fedora style better and have worn this one for the last couple of years. It has a short, soft brim that doesn't interfere with my shooting.

I wear a baseball hat or stocking cap, nothing fancy. When I tried a Stetson style my wife laughed at me and bruised my ego so back to the simpler style.

I trimmed the brim on my Akubra today. I like to be able to shoot vertical.

I've never been able to shoot with a brimmed hat. Just affects my psyche to have something that could touch my string.

Box call, steam it with a tea pot to shape and remove crushed marks.

Fleece crusher hat and a wool crusher hat. I wanna try a stormy komer hat really bad though.

I have been looking for a straw hat version of the fedora ( Fred Bear style ). What is the best brim width? 2"- 3"?

A wool felt crusher is about the most adaptable hat there is. It will keep the rain away; shade your face and neck from the sun, and fold up and go in a backpack or fanny pack. Has nothing to do with what it looks like or who wears one. As for cold weather, I have a wool stocking cap that I can wear...usually over a short billed ball cap. I like a semblance of a bill to keep the sun out of my peepers.

It's hot as hell down here in TX. Used to wear an Aussie cattleman's hat ( the flat top kind with mesh sides ) It was ok as I remember it but it was not cool. I kept having to remove it to vent off the heat . Brim wise it didn't give me problems with the bow string. Wool hats are ok in the dead of winter (2 months).

Since we're still talking hats, I thought I'd show my most recent hat. It's my summer shooting hat, a Galaxy hat.

Joe

It goes well with turquoise.

Joe

My favorite was a Jones style hat that has been laying on the bottom of Sowden Lake Ont. since 1981. It blew off my head, and with ten or so WI. Bowhunter pins on it, sank like a rock ! For the most part I've worn ball cap style hats since.

Perty rainbowy Frizz.

My favorite is the Army surplus Jeep cap and it's under $6.00

I agree with Wapiti Chaser. Army surplus jeep hats are cheap, short brimmed and wool. When the temp drops, that's the hat I grab.

fall & Winter Hat

Summer Hotweather Lid !!!

You get a free bowl of soup wth that hat. It looks good on YOU though.

Dan, mine is a crusher model so it gives pretty easily.

Since I have never had a hat that actually hunted, I have no advice. I tend to wear whatever will keep me comfortable that day. If I owned anything that hunted without me I would likely burn it.

My vote goes to Riverwolf,,,,, looks like a guy I would hunt with

Yeah I got some.

I wear fur hats a lot. I have them in beaver, muskrat, otter and coyote. This one is beaver

otter

Muskrat

Ron....gotta ask about that striped green blanket coat....where is that from?

I want one

The hat is Russian made and beautiful, ME NOT SO!!:) I think it is Fox.

Hey " box call" I like those bucket hats you make! Do you have a pattern you follow? And I think it's cool ,,never thought of modifying one to work? I like the way you think! Jeff W

the best hat I found for cold weather the double layer wool watch cap turned reverse

wow that pic is huge!! but 9 below zero wind chill during late gun season here,, its the only setup I have found that is warm and doesn't obscure my view in any direction.

"Ron....gotta ask about that striped green blanket coat....where is that from?"

Teresa Asbell made it for me.

She also made this green wool Canoe coat for me

A California favorite my wife got me- wool baseball hat; a little warm in the cool AM, but can get too warm later...

A good, bright sunlight open field target shooter. Style compatible with my English Longbow.

stykzz -- x2 great memory -- that is funny!

My favorite hat is my Resistol "Peacemaker" cowboy hat. However, I cant wear it and shoot my bow, the string hits the brim, which really stinks. I have to resort to a boonie hat when bowhunting.

Another!

Watch cap in the cool weather,i like the felt Carharts And i roll with the bald spot in the warm weather,,never was a hat guy but i mostly rove the thick woods Its not like dome of ya all where theres no escaping the sun

Never did understand the fedora thing. Not very practical. Had to wear one to church as a kid. Super hot in the summer. Be like Fred I guess?

I grew up wearing fedoras. I got my first right after I started to walk.I ysed to have a pucture of myself at two or three standing there in a complete 1960s black suit with narrow tie and matching fedora. When my ex wife saw it the first time she said, "You look like a member of the rat pack. Bo wonder they called you Butch." In the summer you wear Panamas or straw fedoras.

Bagman, the wool felt fedora is not a hat for the summer. But in spring, fall and winter there isn't a more practical hat made. Warm, shields face and neck from rain and sun.

Take it to a place that deals in hats, they should have a form for stretching hats. I had a beaver hat stretched like that once. Sandy

When hunting here gets cold and serious I turn to an old wool/fur hat which my father brought back from ww2 Russian I think. Sandy

Ford/Chevy? You'll know when you get it right. My old Stetson has seen a lot of woods!

You can buy online a hat stretcher.

Couldn't post at that time so here's mine. 3D shoot last weekend

Kuiu Bonner- lightweight but warm enough, comfortable and no string interference

Boonie when it's warm, stocking cap when it's cold, and fur hat when it's COLD!

I've always used a Jones style camo cap. Got my first one at age 12 back in '57 & have never stopped using them. In the '90s they started getting hard to locate in the stores and I figured they'd soon be no more. I went into one store and bought all they had, four I think. Now I have only two left, one is in just ok shape and the other is still almost like new. I figure these two will last me until I'm done bowhunting. I'm 72 now and each September wonder if this will be my last season, we'll see. I envy the younger guys with decades of bowhunting ahead of them. No matter though, I've had my day. You go have yours. Enjoy.

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