Actually, Cabela's original Warrior waders never came in a stout version.
My first pair came in Advantage Wetlands camo. that survived seven years of NoDak hunts, including one hour long crotch-deep "mire session" in a wetland complex along the Canada/NoDak border on a solo hunt. I was lucky to have a decoy poncho on at the time my wife sewed-up out of 900 denier cordura. I ended-up flipping the front half over my head and laying on the two pods of decoys still enclosed in the poncho sleeves. This kept me from sinking deeper while I slowly worked my legs back to the surface over the next forty-some minutes. At one point, I remember saying to myself, "I am not dying here!" Yes, the mud was that thick and nasty! I took my coat off and slid my shotgun into the sleeves and rezipped it. When I finally got myself free, I slogged out to shore, "walking" on my shins, using my coat/gun configuration to lend added surface area to support my upper body. When I first realized I was in gumbo, I hit the whistle to stop the dog and then turned to give him a stay/sit hand signal. He knew something wasn't "right", fidgeting around the spot for the hour it took to get back out to the highwater mark, but he stayed-put. At that point I was one big mass of gray-green mud...didn't need any face paint!
I ended-up walking back to the truck carrying an extra ten to fifteen pounds of mud on me. The gun was still dry. I grabbed a length of rope out of the bed and a hand axe to cut some dead willow loose; carried them back out and crawled close enough to loop the rope through the armholes of the decoy poncho, extricating everything from the mud. Birds were moving well, so we set-up on another section of the wetland. Yes, I tested the bottom prior dropping out my decoys. The result? A nice NoDak limit of mallards, wigeon, and gadwall. As Cooper and I were getting ready to walk back out, four roosters that had been clucking steadily all morning jumped and coasted to within thirty yards of us before they sat down in heavy cover on the edge of a common reed stand. I slipped the decoy poncho off and we walked them up. Three birds jumped in sequence, enabling me to shoot the only triple I have ever taken on pheasants. A very bad beginning turned into a very good day in the marsh by just not giving up!
I would say the "warrior" logo is well-earned for these waders. I am currently on my second pair of them. The original pair has some cracks in the top of the left boot that I repaired, and are now my backup waders. Yes, they are still stained, as is that old coat, from that experience. Yes, I now where a headlamp, even when the moon is out full to better gauge where my feet take me in the darkness.
