YOUR COLDEST HUNT?

[Litehiker]

-10 F. has been my coldest day hunting. I needed my felt pac boots with 3 mm closed cell neoprene divers' socks (over thin poly liners) to keep the felt liners from getting wet from my sweat.
BOTTOM: "polar weight" polyester base layer, synthetic Thermolite insulated pants and Gore-Tex over pants.
TOP: same base layer zip T-neck, heavy wool Norwegian sweater, Thermolite jacket and hooded Gore-Tex mountain parka
HAT & MITTENS: red fleece billed LL Bean cap with ear flaps, Dachstein boiled wool mittens inside Gore-Tex shells.

So what do you wear in bitter weather?
What is your lowest temperature limit for any kind of hunting - other than in a heated blind?

 

[Sako28]

-25° F is common in ND. Colder than that you are not playing with house money....fingers and hands don't work. Try drawing your 70 lb bow after sitting for two hours in a tree stand at -20, and -50 WC. I don't do it anymore....

 

[Litehiker]

I have experienced -40 F. at Lake Placid in 1979 when I was an XC ski patroller for the World Cup pre-Olympic games. Thankfully it was the last day so after an hour of fruitlessly waiting for the temperature to rise to -20 F. (it stayed at -40 F.) patrollers were called back to our base.

Skiing on that snow was like skiing on sand. But I never got cold, even standing around, because I was properly dressed with an insulated alpine skiing parka and pants OVER my XC ski clothes!.

 

[Old Rooster]

In Colorado the temp at the base of the mountain in the San Juan Mountains was -27 degrees and we were close to the top of the mountain.
I killed my biggest elk of my life.
We were so cold the snot in your nose froze and we had to clear it often to breathe.All 3 of us was so happy we got 2 elk that day and didn't want to stay any longer than it took to get the elk in the truck.It was at least 30 below and may have been more cold that that.

 

[Litehiker]

"Rooster", That's c-c-cold for hunting!
I slept in a quinzhee (heaped up snow mound carved out for sleeping) in Erie, Pa at .22 F. and was snug and warm in my winter bag and mattress because it was only 26 F. inside.

Tell me, what were you wearing to stay warm in those temps?

 

[Bob Wright]

Only about 10°F. It's Arizona but I have no blood antifreeze. It was not fun. Even my black powder was freezing and had to be scraped out each time I was back at camp. Last cold hunt for me.

 

[Old Rooster]

"Rooster", That's c-c-cold for hunting!
I slept in a quinzhee (heaped up snow mound carved out for sleeping) in Erie, Pa at .22 F. and was snug and warm in my winter bag and mattress because it was only 26 F. inside.

Tell me, what were you wearing to stay warm in those temps?

2 pairs of insulated underwear,the best I could find,morino wool pants,shirt and a heavy jacket and complete head covering with wool blend and goggles and my nose kept freezing the snot so I had to stop and blow the frozed snot out of my nose and quickly put the wool blend head covering that went all the way to the bottom of my neck so nothing was exposed to the cold.
When the sun came up 2 of us shot and dropped our elk and ended the hunt.At the bottom of the mountain it was a balmy -27 degrees much warmer than up on that mountain.Took me 2 days to get warm again as the heater in the truck would not work at -27.
We also had a bad wind blowing in our face.One of us had to stay in the truck and let it idle as it would not start if it sat for more than 20 minutes.

 

[Litehiker]

Boy, that is a dangerously cold situation. If I was in the Rockies hunting in winter I'd carry at least a 0 F. rated sleeping bag "just in case". This is speaking as a former Nordic (XC) ski patroller and US Army ROTC winter survival instructor who has camped in sub zero temps more than a few times.

 

[Old Rooster]

Litehiker we arrived in Alamosa and it was around 0 and I had all cotton clothes as being from the south I did not need the polar weight clothes so we went to a store and the guy began his sales pitch with,"You guys from the south get killed all the time up here for wearing cotton clothes".
Cotton cools and wool warms,if you remember that you may live through this storm.I loaded up my Visa card with the stuff he considered cold worthy essentials.Almost 2 grand for clothes for me and my brother in law ( in the early 80's)and the other guy had a Visa too.I still have the sleeping bag but the tent gave it up years ago.Everything in the ice chest froze,eggs potatoes,milk,everything!I did not know salt could freeze but it would not pour!
On top of that I had my 30-06 with 180 gr Partitions loaded with IMR4350 powder,not a temp stable powder but it went bang when I pulled the trigger and the elk took 1 or 2 steps and fell.We took the elk down to the base of that mountain and the guts started to freeze when we opened them.We went all the way to the road leading to the mountains we hunted and finished cleaning our elk.My eye lashes froze and broke off.
Game wardens came to check us and said they would not go up there in this storm.We were stupid to say the least and I would NEVER do that again or suggest anyone to do that.

 

[LVJ76]

Nowhere near as cold as you guys, those minus temperatures are cold.

Like @Bob Wright said it don't get too cold down here in the southern part of the state. My coldest hunt was 18° hunting Javelinas in February on a Friday morning. That day warmed up to about 50° and by Sunday it was mid 70's. Crazy weather down here but nowhere near as cold as your weather in CO or ND.

 

[Ol' Red]

My hunting buddy and myself were out hunting snowshoe hares on a Saturday morning in February 1989 in the Jim Creek area of the Matinuska Valley. The only thing above the snow was us and a few moose. When we got back to the truck we found it -42 degrees. We were both wearing the classic Carhart bibs and coats, and Sorrel pack boots.

 

[Lee Deming]

-35 just outside of Yellowstone Park one winter when I was much, much, younger. 16? Don't remember. Wind was howling. It was a late hunt and we had to snowshoe in, the snow drifts were 6' at least and on the level it was about 4'. I was standing next to a tree when a cow and calf stepped out into the open about 150 yards from me. I took two steps away from the tree for some reason and my snowshoes got crossed. Fell headlong into the dry powder snow. When I got back up, my eyes and hood and rifle were covered with snow. I got it all cleared in time to look up and see the elk watching me. So I shot the cow. First elk.
Had two pair of cotton pajamas under cotton pants, cotton hooded sweatshirt, two pairs of cotton tube socks, rubber boots, wool hat. I remember working so hard just walking that I was sweating quite a bit. Of course that could have killed me. The part that saved me was that we had old bearpaw mittens that kept my hands at least workable. That was a great day for me though. By the time we got back to town it had warmed up to -30.

 

[del2les]

Ambient air temp was around -20 -25F with wind chill at -44F. We killed a decent deer that day, and after gutting and before we could drag it to the truck, it froze.

 

[Allen Kitts]

-10 F in the Missouri River Breaks with a wind chill of -30F in Late November. You dress like the Michelin man and hope you don't have to get to far from the buggy because walking is incredibly hard to do.