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61 degrees below zero

DroptineKrazy

DroptineKrazy

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
Oct 30, 2019
Messages
3,050
Location
Brunswick, Maine
That's the forecasted wind chill for Saturday morning in Northern Maine. Got me thinking. What's the hottest or coldest weather you have hunted in? I sat for a legitimate 2 1/2 hours one morning years ago when it was 10 below and that was without any chemical hand warmers or other heat source.
 
DroptineKrazy said:
That's the forecasted wind chill for Saturday morning in Northern Maine. Got me thinking. What's the hottest or coldest weather you have hunted in? I sat for a legitimate 2 1/2 hours one morning years ago when it was 10 below and that was without any chemical hand warmers or other heat source.
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I seriously can't even conceptualize what -61 feels like
 
It was probably the same cold snap as I remember. I was glad I had and was in my HBS that morning. If my memory serves me correctly I lasted until about 10 or so and it was 6:30 am when I was eventually “settled in.” I saw a great buck soon after first light and he was only 40 yards away but the wind was from the east and the minute he was exactly downwind of me he turned exactly west (I think) right behind a big Ole maple and I never saw him again. Funny how they seem to put trees between themselves and us. I remember leaving not so much because of the cold….. but it wa so cold there was no observable wind and every little sound was magnified 4 fold. I knew I wouldn’t see another deer that day.
 
Coldest I remember was duck hunting one year, we sat daylight to dark and the high was 11 that day. Busted ice all day to kill nothing. While picking up the decoys to leave a group of mallards landed right beside us just after sunset (ie just after last shooting). Been extremely warm so far this winter.
 
DroptineKrazy said:
That's the forecasted wind chill for Saturday morning in Northern Maine. Got me thinking. What's the hottest or coldest weather you have hunted in? I sat for a legitimate 2 1/2 hours one morning years ago when it was 10 below and that was without any chemical hand warmers or other heat source.
Click to expand...
For deer season:
Coldest was 8 deg with 20 mph winds, -6 with wind chill. Made it 3 hours with hand warmers.

Warmest would be in the high 80s.

Below 20 is difficult for me unless I’m rifle hunting
 
gcr0003 said:
For deer season:
Coldest was 8 deg with 20 mph winds, -6 with wind chill. Made it 3 hours with hand warmers.

Warmest would be in the high 80s.

Below 20 is difficult for me unless I’m rifle hunting
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Do you think with 1 or more good wind blocking layers that wind chill should be taken into account as much? It is still cooling off the exterior layers more rapidly, but it isn't penetrating nearly as much. I just wonder if the wind chill calculation takes into account wind penetration into clothing or not.

If it is really windy, I find wearing 2 wind blocking layers over top of my insulation is way better than just 1 wind layer.
 
raisins said:
Do you think with 1 or more good wind blocking layers that wind chill should be taken into account as much? It is still cooling off the exterior layers more rapidly, but it isn't penetrating nearly as much. I just wonder if the wind chill calculation takes into account wind penetration into clothing or not.

If it is really windy, I find wearing 2 wind blocking layers over top of my insulation is way better than just 1 wind layer.
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I just like adding windchill because it sounds colder lol. I wore 2x insulation layers and ski jacket and pant windproof shells. My hands and feet were the hardest to maintain but otherwise I did ok. I did not have boots for that low of temp.
 
I can't really tell you what the absolute coldest or hottest I've hunted has been, but I can tell you the hunts I noticed the weather most.

Last year a buddy and I hunted northwest MS for ducks. 8°. We had to kick ice all the way in, and the water would freeze around our ankles as we sat if we didn't move our feet frequently. The only bird we shot froze in the ice.

Warmest I've ever been was a September squirrel hunt. Upper 90s for temp. In a river swamp with 1,000% humidity and not a breath of air. Ended up with heat rash across my torso for some reason.

I also got something somewhere on the spectrum between heat exhaustion and heat stroke on an observation sit once. Lost consciousness in the saddle for long enough that when I woke up I could tell the shadows had shifted.

Ever since I don't really mess with heat.
 
Single digits below zero a few times. Lots of times in the single digits above zero. It's all about the wind at that range, no wind is pretty tolerable to refreshingly pleasant in a way.

Upper extremes, idk low 80's? Definitely nothing remarkable there just some abnormally warm early bow season weather in PA.
 
Colorado Elk hunt, 2nd rifle season, camp was around 8,000 feet. low one night was -20ish, got so cold the o-rings on propane tanks would leak making heating up food or the tent a dangerous operation. We spent about an hour that day actually hunting, for the most part we were concerned with melting water and keeping warm. We did go to a peak of around 10,000 feet to glass for a couple hours a day or so later, single digit temps with 30 mph winds meant we only glassed with the wind at our backs lol
 
gcr0003 said:
I just like adding windchill because it sounds colder lol. I wore 2x insulation layers and ski jacket and pant windproof shells. My hands and feet were the hardest to maintain but otherwise I did ok. I did not have boots for that low of temp.
Click to expand...

I wear glasses and don't like putting antifog on my lenses (I should probably get over that and ask my eye doc what to use.....i just know my lenses are too expensive compared to my insurance and have a bunch of coatings on them)....so the hardest part is keeping my nose and mouth warm because if I cover them then my glasses are fogged all day.
 
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