Review of TurtleSkin Total Protection Snake Chaps (full length):
Cost: $230 at uplanders.com

I do field work on young pine plantations in the southern USA. These are some nasty environments to navigate. They are covered in blackberry canes, briars, dense 6 foot pine trees, and all sorts of scratchy vegetation that will shred skin and clothing alike. Oh yeah, and snakes. I ran into Timber Rattlers, Cottonmouths, (no Copperheads, but they’re out there), and a variety of non-venomous snakes. Temperatures are in the 100s F, humidity is near 100%, full sun, the works.

So anyway, snake chaps are a requirement on these sites. I wore them daily for 6-10 hours at a time. You attach them to your belt with a pair of snap buckles on each side. Everything I wear on my belt tends to pull my pants down, so I wore my usual leather gun belt and a pair of 2″ Outdoorsman suspenders

The TurtleSkin snake armor is very flexible (for snake chaps) and is based on a NASA fabric used in air bag landings on Mars. The chaps were fairly breathable, but they do soak up water when moving through wet vegetation. They take their time drying. They got fairly muddy at times, but they also clean up easily. I washed them twice without detergent and allowed them to air dry with no adverse effects on the garment. I tried to wear them with shorts once since my long pants were so hot, but they were itchy on my bare legs. I’d like to see them come with an integral thin cotton liner so I could wear them with shorts, but that would really just be gravy.

On my first pair, I found a stitching error where a seam didn’t get caught by the sewing machine. I contacted TurtleSkin and they agreed to replace the chaps. They wanted me to return mine first, but I explained I was using the chaps daily, so I couldn’t go without them for a week. TurtleSkin took my credit card info instead and shipped the replacements with the agreement that if I didn’t return the old ones, I’d get charged. The replacements were perfect and the exchange went off without a hitch. I considered it good customer service.

As far as penetration resistance, the chaps were great. They kept all the scratchy stuff off of my legs all summer. I also got tagged by a rat snake and it just bounced off of my calf (I was stepping on it, so it’s hard to blame him). I’ve also tested the material with a thin needle that I repeatedly jabbed into the fabric with enough force I was concerned I’d stick the back of the needle though my hand. I couldn’t get the needle to penetrate at all.

The lower calf area of the chaps has a short zipper to allow you to put them on over boots. The zipper does have a problem with opening up a few inches with active movement, but it didn’t open up over my boots, so it wasn’t a huge deal. I just kept an eye on it. After a season of continuous wear, I found some absolutely minimal fraying on some of the seam tape material, but I can see getting 10 years of wear out of these.

Wearing snake chaps isn’t my idea of fun, but I could wear these daily for 3 months, so they’re aces in my book. I think they’d be fantastic in the winter for keeping brush off your legs (they’d keep you warmer). I think they’d be fine for horseback wear as well. These aren’t a fashion statement in any event, but they do come in tan, camo, and sage.

I highly recommend TurtleSkin chaps over the stiffer, older style chaps that we used to have to use. All my colleagues who had worn the older style chaps was awed by the flexible material of the TurtleSkins. They’re pricey ($230) but they’re completely worth the cost if you’re wearing them daily. Three months of wear equaled $3.06 / day for peace of mind against snakes and sharps, and after that ratsnake tried to bite me, I consider them paid for.

For what it’s worth, you can also go with a gaiters option made from the same stuff, but I was frequently walking in brushy ditches, so I had my entire legs potentially exposed to snakes and scratchy brush.