Breaking in Rubber boots?

[OntarioHunter]

Though hardly a big man (6'1" & 190 lbs @ 68 years), I have stout calves. Every time I tried rubber boots they chafed holes in my legs. Then four years ago my daughter bought me a pair of Wetlands Muck Boots for my birthday. Well, okay. I wore them jump shooting waterfowl one day when it was raining. Wow! I now wear them hunting rain or shine, rough country or flat. The Wetlands only lasted two seasons but that's the most I usually get out of a pair of boots before the soles are worn flat. I hunt hard ... and hunting for pheasants the past three seasons in Montana has been VERY hard. Last year I picked up a pair of Muck Golds at North Forty in Havre on sale for less than a hundred bucks. They are great so far. My problem is two feet that are a full size difference. Left is 9.5 and right is 10.5. The right foot Gold fits so snugly I pulled my hamstring last fall trying to pull it off. But never a blister or sore. Right out of the box they went to work without a hiccup. Fixed the hamstring problem by picking up a boot jack. I simply add socks to help fill up the left boot. Though still a bit sloppy, I've never had a problem with it. I'll definitely never have another pair of rubber boots without neoprene uppers. They do get stinky but that's a small price to pay for a boot that does everything.

 

[buffybr]

Like I think someone else posted, you don't break in rubber boots, they break your feet into them.

A couple of years ago I did a Dagestan Tur hunt in Azerbaijan. That was definitely the steepest mountains that I have ever hunted, including all of the Montana mountains that I have hunted bighorn sheep and mountain goats in. Anyway, as steep as those mountains were, all of the guides and packers all wore what we call calf high rubber irrigating boots. The boots that the head guide wore even had all of the tread worn off. And they got around on those slopes much easier than I did in my lug sole Danners.