I dare you to call it a skirt

I dare you to call it a skirt

via Gun Nuts Media by Caleb on 5/31/12

So, about that kilt. I can honestly say that I never thought I’d be looking at a review of a kilt as a garment for the shooting sports, but here I am. Thanks to Sport Kilt for donating a kilt for the cause, first and foremost. Now, to do an actual review of a kilt as a shooting sports garment, we have to look at what makes pants/shorts good or bad.

Photo by Julie Golob

Normally I’ll wear Woolrich Elite Tactical Pants or some kind of similar cargo shorts. I do this because I’m looking for my pants to do four very specific things at any given pistol match:

1. Protect my legs from thorns/rocks/shrapnel/small ankle biting children
2. Give me a place to put my stuff
3. Give me enough mobility for the shooting tasks I need to perform
4. Be comfortable to wear for an entire match

So, let’s rate the Sport Kilt in each of those categories on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being best and 1 being worst. For comparison, my Woolrich pants score 5 in protection, 5 in storage, a 2 in mobility and a 1* in comfort. The reason that they get an asterisk in comfort is that if I’m somewhere hot and humid, which happens frequently the Elite pants can become pretty miserable to wear. My Abercrombie cargo shorts (don’t be a hater) score a 3 in protection, a 4 in storage, a 4 in mobility and a 3 in comfort. They’d score higher in comfort if they were made of a lighter material.

The best comparison for the Sport Kilt that I wore is with the cargo shorts, so let’s look at that. In Protection, it’s the same. The kilt is the same length roughly as the shorts, protects all the same important bits. Storage with the model I wore was a 1 – only one pocket for a cell phone or ID doesn’t give me a spot for spare mags. That being said, the addition of pockets would raise this number up to a 3 or 4 depending on the pockets. Mobility: 5. There’s nothing about the kilt that’s going to hinder my ability to shoot, move, or do any of the mobility related tasks at a match. Comfort: 5. Seriously, this the most comfortable thing I’ve ever worn to a match. In fact, it’s so comfortable and so mobile that I’m okay with the relative lack of pockets. If I’m spending 9 or 10 hours outside in the heat and sun, guess what’s more important to me: having a pocket for my spare magazine, or not feeling like my lower body is dying of heat stroke? Comfort wins for me every time.

So the final scores work out like this: my Woolrich pants set the bar at 13, the cargo shorts hit a solid 14, and the Sport Kilt ties that number with a 14 as well. The addition of a pocket model on the Sport Kilt would make it king of the nest pretty handily. As a side note, I based these numbers on shooting a warm weather match somewhere it’s safe to wear shorts. If I’m shooting in the PNW in the spring or fall, shorts probably aren’t an option. If I’m down at Gunsite or somewhere with snakes, same deal. So I’m not saying that you should dump your shorts and wear a kilt all the time…but I wouldn’t blame you if you did.