Ferox Gear: American Made Hunting and Shooting Gear

Every hunter has a story about the moment a piece of gear quit on them.

The zipper that let go at 11,000 feet. The pouch that shed its stitching somewhere between the truck and the ridge. The rifle cover that soaked through in the first hour and stayed that way for three days. None of it happens at the range on a nice afternoon. It happens on day four, in the dark, when you are cold and tired and there is nothing to do about it.

Ferox Gear builds for day four. They are a small, family owned outfit in Casper, Wyoming making hunting and precision shooting gear, and every bit of it is made in the USA.

The name is a promise

Ferox is Latin, and they spell the definition out right on their site: furiously active or determined, wild or intense, defiant or savage. The motto reads "For those who don't compromise," the sort of line a lot of brands print on a hangtag and then quietly ignore at the sourcing meeting.

Charles Mateker is the founder and designer, and he came at this the way most good gear companies start, which is by being annoyed. He wanted "purpose-built products that elevate the hunting and shooting experience, stand up to the elements, enhance performance, and never compromise on quality." He could not buy them, so he made them.

His wife Jenny runs customer service and brand operations. She was born and raised in the Philippines, has called Wyoming home for 15 years, and never expected to end up building a gear brand alongside her husband. The team page also lists their kid as R&D Specialist, noting that he does not have a driver's license yet but absolutely knows how to put gear through the ringer. That is a real family business, not a stock photo of one.

No hedging on where it comes from

Most outdoor brands have gotten very good at saying almost nothing about manufacturing. You get "designed in Bozeman" on the front and a country of origin on the tag that has never seen an elk.

Ferox puts it plainly: "We believe that the most important factor in creating gear that lasts is keeping production in America. We don't cut corners, and we don't send production overseas to save money."

They also do not pretend it is free. Their own line on price: "We understand that gear made in the U.S.A. can cost a little more, but we see that as a testament to the quality and craftsmanship behind every piece of gear we make." Everybody knows that tradeoff exists. Say it out loud and let people decide.

Then they put money behind it with an unconditional lifetime warranty on everything they sell. That is an easy promise when you are the one running the sewing machine and a very expensive one when you are not.

The gear, and what it is actually made of

Click through the spec lists and you see the same materials over and over. 500D and 1000D Cordura nylon with a DWR coating, mil spec webbing, welded D rings, closed cell foam, Tegris composite. Boring, unglamorous, hard to argue with. A quick tour:

• Aeris Suppressor Cover, $105 to $143. Cordura and woven fiberglass, rated to 1000 degrees F, weighs about three ounces, and kills the mirage coming off a hot can so you can actually see your target.
• Beast Adapter, $75. A patent pending, 12 layer Tegris plate that turns almost any bino harness into a mounting platform for a handgun or a knife. 4.4 ounces. It carries 32 reviews at 4.81 stars, and the theme in them is that it finally solved the chest carry problem: "Fit perfect on my Alps Outdoorz bino harness. Holster screwed right into the tegris plate."
• UL Skinner Knife, $195. S35VN steel at 60 HRC, two ounces with a Kydex sheath, cut and heat treated by Sea Sick Blades in Texas. American design, American steel work, American everything.
• Rear Bag, $50 to $90. Cylindrical 1000D rear support with a sealable funnel so you can swap fill. Run it at 3.3 ounces for the backcountry or load it up to 14 ounces for the range.
• Monster Pillow, $60. A 6.2 ounce shooting platform that doubles as a glassing pad and a camp pillow.
• DOPE Cheater, $26. Sticks your drop data right on the scope so you are not breaking position to read a card.
• Pouches for everything else, including the Kestrel Pouch 2.0 at $38, the PRM Pouch 2.0 at $49, and a Brass Sack at $28 for anybody tired of leaving nickel a piece cases in the dirt.

Colors run Coyote Brown, Sage, Ranger Green, Blaze Orange, M81 Woodland and MultiCam Black, so your kit does not have to look like it came from six different companies.

The horse side of the house

The part of the line that really shows off the sewing room is the trail equipment. The Grand Scabbard MKIII is a $295 made to order rifle scabbard built to swallow a long range rig with the scope, bipod and suppressor still attached.

It is 1000D DWR Cordura inside and out, wrapped in closed cell foam, with a high abrasion Kevlar panel at the muzzle end where a scabbard normally wears through first. The opening rolls tight to fit different rifle lengths, the zipper is magnetic so it opens quietly, and mil spec webbing with welded D rings lashes it to your saddle. New on this version are laser cut MOLLE panels down both sides.

The Teewinot Scabbard covers the same ground at $195, and there is a 7 by 8 foot Manti Tarp for the pack string. Nobody builds a horseback rifle scabbard to chase volume. You build one because you have used a bad one.

Wyoming proud, and they mean it

The phrase stamped across the site is "American Made. Wyoming Proud." Casper is a town of about 60,000 sitting in the middle of the least populated state in the country. Great place to test hunting gear, hard place to build a manufacturing business, and they are doing it anyway.

We have covered plenty of great American made hunting outfits, including Outdoorsmans in Arizona for packs and tripods, Forloh in Montana for apparel, and Initial Ascent for backcountry packs. Add Ferox Gear to that list.

Season is coming. If something in your kit quit on you last fall and you have been meaning to replace it, go replace it with something sewn in Wyoming and covered for life.

Just another great reason to buy American!