I think this is a big enough issue for most Midwest hunters that it needed its own thread
Here's part 1 of an article on hunting in the cold I wrote last year
Dressing for bitter cold and wind
The most challenging part of hunting beyond mid-November is supposedly being “tough enough” to remain on stand for long periods of time in frigid and oftentimes miserable weather conditions. Trust me on this one, how strong or seemingly tough you are has absolutely nothing to do with it.
I’m a buck 60 pound guy that gets cold very easily yet I would guarantee if “The Rock” and I were to plan an all-day sit in single digit temperatures with 20 plus mile an hour winds, he would definitely be the first one to cry uncle and go back to wherever its warm whereas I know I could sit comfortably all day. Why, because I live in northern Michigan and have learned how to dress for and what other measures to take for hunting in severely inclement weather conditions and there’s absolutely no reason you can’t as well.
Dressing for severe weather is a learned process and how tough you are or think you are is irrelevant. How you dress from the top of your head to the end of your toes will dictate how long you can comfortably remain on stand in frigid conditions which can and in most instances will have a direct correlation to how successful you may be.
I remember as if it were yesterday a December morning muzzleloader hunt in 1976. It was 5 degrees and a group of 5 does and fawns came through and were met by a spike buck. Four of the does and fawns ran off but one doe stayed and within moments the spike began breeding her a mere 30 yards in front of me. I shot the spike buck while he was mounted on her with a .54 caliber T/C Renegade and he just hopped off as if nothing happened. I couldn’t reload because my fingers just wouldn’t work because they were so cold and within a few moments he took off running and expired about 150 yards later.
That’s when sticking it out that little bit longer was about being stupid, stubborn and not caring about my health because I used to get sick every season from hunting in cold weather without proper gear. With today’s garments, boots and other things used in conjunction with them, those days of shivering, chattering teeth, cold feet, and blue fingers are a thing of the distant past, or they should be.
From the top down, this is how I keep warm in inclement cold conditions and keep in mind I’m doing this and maintaining a proper scent control regimen in the process:
Far and away my first choice in an exterior cold weather suit is ScentLok’s Vortex jacket and pants. Vortex garments have deep napped fleece exteriors with polyurethane windproof membranes to both block wind and hold in your body heat. This is a no frills affordable suit that can be worn for temperatures from 10 degrees to 40 degrees as it allows for many layering options.
Lastly would be a ScentLok Covert Deluxe jacket and pants. Covert garments have deeper fleece exteriors and interiors than the Vortex and offer more features and come with the same polyurethane windproof membrane. Due to its deeper napped interior fleece Covert garments are warmer than Vortex garments and I only wear Covert garments in 10 degree and below temperatures.
While membraned exterior garments might be relatively quiet in a 70 degree store, the colder it gets, the noisier the membranes become. During cold weather with no foliage to absorb sounds, if there is no wind every noise will seem amplified. The only way to make exterior garments quiet is by masking the noise of the membranes with an exterior high loft fleece and the Vortex and Covert garments both have that and are QUIET during cold weather whereas most other brands of waterproof garments have short napped micro fabric exteriors and are very noisy in cold weather.
No matter how windy or cold it is, on long entries I dress down and only wear a base garment under my Vortex or Covert exterior garments and pack all my other layering garments in a ScentLok backpack (another brand backpack that’s frequently washed in scent free detergent and kept in an air-tight container will also work).
Carrying my layering garments in a backpack allows me to walk comfortably to my stand without overheating and once on stand and my body cools down, I put on the upper body layering garments from my pack.
My upper and lower body base garments will be either ScentLok’s Active or Summit weight garments or medium weight Merino wool (not regular wool as it itches) base garments. The ScentLok garments have an anti-microbial treatment as well as an activated carbon liner and Merino wool has a natural odor adsorbent quality as well so either will add to the longevity of my ScentLok exterior clothing. I don’t wear heavy weight base garments because they are too heavy and cause me to overheat and for another very important reason I will get into later.
Wearing all my clothing in would make me sweat which would make my bottom layers damp and cause me to become cold very quickly after sitting motionless for a while. Why? Because sweat or moisture on my bottom layers conducts cold much quicker than if the layers were dry. An example is if you stood outside wearing only a T-shirt on a 35 degree day you would withstand it quite a while before hypothermia set in whereas if you jumped in 35 degree water you’d succumb to hypothermia within minutes.
Items in my pack used for upper body layering once on stand are military wool sweaters, Rivers West’s Cold Canyon waterproof/windproof vest, River’s West’s Cascade Mountain waterproof/windproof jacket (used as a layer item only). A vest is great to have as one of the layering garments because it helps keep my core body warm while allowing arm mobility and I use the Cold Canyon vest because it’s also waterproof/windproof.
A windproof exterior jacket and pants are vital to staying warm and waterproof/windproof undergarments simply add to that warmth as on cold windy days the wind would eventually penetrate through all my clothing if my exterior suit or top layer below it was permeable. Over the years I’ve discovered that no matter the amount and type of insulation an exterior jacket and pants have, if they aren’t windproof the cold will in short order get through and if it’s windy it will happen very quickly.
An easy example to understand is when you put a washed waterproof and or windproof membraned garment in the dryer and run it through a cycle, you have to turn the arms of the jacket or legs of the pants inside out and run them through another cycle as they will not be dry from the first cycle. Just as the membrane kept the dryer heat from penetrating through and drying the insides of the arms and legs, the membrane will keep the wind from penetrating the garment and will keep your body heat contained within the garment.
For my lower body I typically wear just one base garment and on rare windy occasions may wear 2 base garments and I always wear all my lower body clothing in because I can’t redress my lower body while on stand and my legs never seem to sweat during long entries or get cold while on stand.
Here's part 1 of an article on hunting in the cold I wrote last year
Dressing for bitter cold and wind
The most challenging part of hunting beyond mid-November is supposedly being “tough enough” to remain on stand for long periods of time in frigid and oftentimes miserable weather conditions. Trust me on this one, how strong or seemingly tough you are has absolutely nothing to do with it.
I’m a buck 60 pound guy that gets cold very easily yet I would guarantee if “The Rock” and I were to plan an all-day sit in single digit temperatures with 20 plus mile an hour winds, he would definitely be the first one to cry uncle and go back to wherever its warm whereas I know I could sit comfortably all day. Why, because I live in northern Michigan and have learned how to dress for and what other measures to take for hunting in severely inclement weather conditions and there’s absolutely no reason you can’t as well.
Dressing for severe weather is a learned process and how tough you are or think you are is irrelevant. How you dress from the top of your head to the end of your toes will dictate how long you can comfortably remain on stand in frigid conditions which can and in most instances will have a direct correlation to how successful you may be.
I remember as if it were yesterday a December morning muzzleloader hunt in 1976. It was 5 degrees and a group of 5 does and fawns came through and were met by a spike buck. Four of the does and fawns ran off but one doe stayed and within moments the spike began breeding her a mere 30 yards in front of me. I shot the spike buck while he was mounted on her with a .54 caliber T/C Renegade and he just hopped off as if nothing happened. I couldn’t reload because my fingers just wouldn’t work because they were so cold and within a few moments he took off running and expired about 150 yards later.
That’s when sticking it out that little bit longer was about being stupid, stubborn and not caring about my health because I used to get sick every season from hunting in cold weather without proper gear. With today’s garments, boots and other things used in conjunction with them, those days of shivering, chattering teeth, cold feet, and blue fingers are a thing of the distant past, or they should be.
From the top down, this is how I keep warm in inclement cold conditions and keep in mind I’m doing this and maintaining a proper scent control regimen in the process:
Far and away my first choice in an exterior cold weather suit is ScentLok’s Vortex jacket and pants. Vortex garments have deep napped fleece exteriors with polyurethane windproof membranes to both block wind and hold in your body heat. This is a no frills affordable suit that can be worn for temperatures from 10 degrees to 40 degrees as it allows for many layering options.
Lastly would be a ScentLok Covert Deluxe jacket and pants. Covert garments have deeper fleece exteriors and interiors than the Vortex and offer more features and come with the same polyurethane windproof membrane. Due to its deeper napped interior fleece Covert garments are warmer than Vortex garments and I only wear Covert garments in 10 degree and below temperatures.
While membraned exterior garments might be relatively quiet in a 70 degree store, the colder it gets, the noisier the membranes become. During cold weather with no foliage to absorb sounds, if there is no wind every noise will seem amplified. The only way to make exterior garments quiet is by masking the noise of the membranes with an exterior high loft fleece and the Vortex and Covert garments both have that and are QUIET during cold weather whereas most other brands of waterproof garments have short napped micro fabric exteriors and are very noisy in cold weather.
No matter how windy or cold it is, on long entries I dress down and only wear a base garment under my Vortex or Covert exterior garments and pack all my other layering garments in a ScentLok backpack (another brand backpack that’s frequently washed in scent free detergent and kept in an air-tight container will also work).
Carrying my layering garments in a backpack allows me to walk comfortably to my stand without overheating and once on stand and my body cools down, I put on the upper body layering garments from my pack.
My upper and lower body base garments will be either ScentLok’s Active or Summit weight garments or medium weight Merino wool (not regular wool as it itches) base garments. The ScentLok garments have an anti-microbial treatment as well as an activated carbon liner and Merino wool has a natural odor adsorbent quality as well so either will add to the longevity of my ScentLok exterior clothing. I don’t wear heavy weight base garments because they are too heavy and cause me to overheat and for another very important reason I will get into later.
Wearing all my clothing in would make me sweat which would make my bottom layers damp and cause me to become cold very quickly after sitting motionless for a while. Why? Because sweat or moisture on my bottom layers conducts cold much quicker than if the layers were dry. An example is if you stood outside wearing only a T-shirt on a 35 degree day you would withstand it quite a while before hypothermia set in whereas if you jumped in 35 degree water you’d succumb to hypothermia within minutes.
Items in my pack used for upper body layering once on stand are military wool sweaters, Rivers West’s Cold Canyon waterproof/windproof vest, River’s West’s Cascade Mountain waterproof/windproof jacket (used as a layer item only). A vest is great to have as one of the layering garments because it helps keep my core body warm while allowing arm mobility and I use the Cold Canyon vest because it’s also waterproof/windproof.
A windproof exterior jacket and pants are vital to staying warm and waterproof/windproof undergarments simply add to that warmth as on cold windy days the wind would eventually penetrate through all my clothing if my exterior suit or top layer below it was permeable. Over the years I’ve discovered that no matter the amount and type of insulation an exterior jacket and pants have, if they aren’t windproof the cold will in short order get through and if it’s windy it will happen very quickly.
An easy example to understand is when you put a washed waterproof and or windproof membraned garment in the dryer and run it through a cycle, you have to turn the arms of the jacket or legs of the pants inside out and run them through another cycle as they will not be dry from the first cycle. Just as the membrane kept the dryer heat from penetrating through and drying the insides of the arms and legs, the membrane will keep the wind from penetrating the garment and will keep your body heat contained within the garment.
For my lower body I typically wear just one base garment and on rare windy occasions may wear 2 base garments and I always wear all my lower body clothing in because I can’t redress my lower body while on stand and my legs never seem to sweat during long entries or get cold while on stand.