Staff: Kevin Strong, Nexus Outdoors Vice President of Sales
Pick: ScentLok BE:1 Divergent Jacket and Pant
Hunt: Central Kansas Whitetail Archery
Date: November 1, 2021
Conditions: Full rut, temps in the high teens to mid-thirties, still
The rut was in full swing and I was planning an all-day sit. It was cold in the morning – somewhere in the high teens – but I knew it was going to warm up into the mid-thirties in the middle of the day. It had also been dead calm the first few hours in the mornings and in the evenings.
I chose to layer the late-season ScentLok BE:1 Divergent Jacket and Pant over ScentLok BE:1 Trek Base garments on this hunt because I knew the combination would keep me comfortable throughout the temperature swings I’d experience during an all-day sit. The BE:1 Divergent Jacket is a pullover design with a half-zip at the neck and two ten-inch zips at the bottom on each side.
This is an excellent design for thermal regulation and venting. When fully zipped, this is an exceptionally warm jacket thanks in part to the body-mapped Primaloft® Gold insulation, but it functions kind of like a sleeping bag… you can unzip it to vent in any of three places if you start to overheat.
The BE:1 Trek Base Top and Bottom are perfect companions to this system, with their Merino wool providing excellent warmth, natural antimicrobial properties, and extreme next-to-skin comfort. Wearing this simple combination, I know I can remain comfortable on almost any hunt during the rut period and trust its Carbon AlloyTM technology to provide an advantage against the nose of any deer that enters my shot window.
In addition to its warmth, Divergent is also my late-season go-to system because of its innovative storage and dead-quiet construction. I’ve been there too many times when the woods are so still you can hear a pin drop, but you’ve still got to draw your bow. That’s how this Kansas hunt was, and the BE:1 Divergent system allowed me to draw and make the shot without a sound. The Divergent Jacket’s dual front pouch design also allowed me to pack and easily access my calls and my rangefinder. I’m a bit of a minimalist, so I don’t want to carry any kind of pack unless it’s absolutely necessary; I don’t want the extra scent.
As it turned out, I didn’t need to sit all day on this great Kansas hunt. A tall, rutted-up 10-pointer came past my stand in the mid-morning, and I stopped him quartering away at 30 yards. He only managed to make it a few steps after my arrow found his heart.
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