Whats the coldest weather you have hunted in or encountered?

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I humbly bow out to the horses themselves - and some of the tiniest birds I've ever seen. Many of the horses stayed outside all the time; amazing enough that their ears, noses and feet/ankles didn't freeze at night. More astounding to me were some of the tiniest species of birds, like chickadees or titmice, often flitting around amongst the fir trees - how their tiny beaks, "faces" and feet didn't freeze.

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The coldest I've been in was -67 F in January 2000, confirmed by the AWOS at the airport in the Yukon River village I was living in at the time. It went on for about three weeks and the temperatures never got above -55 F. Interior Alaska always gets a couple of -40 F or colder cold snaps every year. Not a big deal other than having to take care of equipment.

I've hunted down to about -30F while chasing wolves. Any colder than that starts getting risky to venture out far. Dog mushers go out in all kinds of cold, but they aren't having to rely on machines.

LAK,

Lacross Icemans are better than any Sorel made.:cool:
 
I went skiing at Gore Mountain in Upstate New York once on a bright windy cold day - temperature was like 10 degrees but there were 50 mile and hour winds.

When i lived in Vermont, it routinly dropped (well, a few days a winter) to 25-30 below zero at night. You could here the trees popping all night long. Very erie.

Actually did a multi day ski tour (backcountry, not downhill) when it was 30 below at night (and 10 below during the day). We were fine outside cause we bundled up and once we got moving actually had to strip off some clothing. Sleeping was a different story, it was cold. Not as bad as you would imagine though. We built a snow cave, and just the heat from a few people in there warmed it up enough to be tolerable . . . while the Dr. McGillicuddies made it pleasant. I don't know if I would sleep in a tent in that temperature, but snow caves do work.
 
LAK makes an important point about hydration.

We would store our water close to our bodies to keep it from freezing, and put it in our sleeping bagfs at night.

Layers and important. At the time, I had a big beard (picture jerry garcia type) in the winter, and would augment that with a bandana to cover the tip of my nose. I wore ski goggle and had a hat that pulled down over the ears.

very important.

Also, for hands, I recommend mittens. Always mittens. In my case, I have fleece windstopper gloves which I put inside a set of Climb High outer mitten shells. Keep me mitten warm while still allowing me to easily take the digits out to manuver things.

When I am up and awake and moving, I have a thin layer of socks on - too heavy on the socks and my experience is I cut circulation off to my feet. Better to go light (or no socks) and get the circulation going. At night, its a different story, and I put on heavy wool socks (which stay fresh by not being word all day).

Layers are basically silk weight underwear, fleece pants and nylon "wind stoppers" or german wool army pants. For the top I have silk weight underwear, a medium heavy wool shirt and then my secret weapon, a Helly Hanson mountaineering sweater (which I've had for years) that is wool with a nylon lining inside to cut down on the wind and reflect heat, a zippered turtle neck and reinforced shouders and elbows.

Jacket is a heavy REI winter jacket.

I carry everything in a Dana Alpine pack for longer trips or a Dana Bomb pack for day trips (they are original Dana packs, back when it was the greatest backpack maker in the world, before being sold to whomeever it is owns them now).

Also carried an avalanche shovel - not for avalachnes (though they were a slight risk in the White Mountains of New Hampshire) but for digging out snow caves..
 
Stevelyn,

The Sorel Caribou are the only felt liners I've ever had; even at -60 they worked great, despite only being rated at -40. I did get them a size larger than normal to allow for three pairs of thick socks.

Next time I head north I'll have to give the Lacross a try though. One I learned very early on was knowledge goes a long way, and although there are some genuine bargains - well chosen quality gear pays off. And well cared for they last - I still have several items that are decades old and still servicable.

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Used to hunt my ex-FILs land in Wisconsin---It would hover around 0 Farenheit for days. Dressed accordingly, but the problem was if yoou did any stalking it was up and down hill, and you'd work up a sweat---then you'd sit for a while, and freeze even with good heavy clothing (which, of course made you sweat MORE when you were moving).

One of the reason I gave up hunting deer for a few years---Th day I could get off work and go out were always the coldest, nastiest days of the season.
 
50 below. (That's with the wind chill, though.) Fort Knox, Ky. Sometime around 1981 or 82, I think. I was working for my father (defense contractor) on a pipeline job. It was so cold that our pumps (used for pumping waste water) would freeze.........in the middle of pumping. That's pretty cold.
 
Maybe 0 degrees is the coldest I have hunted, though it was probably closer to 5 degrees.

Though I have worked outside when it was -20 with the windchill, that royally sucked. I've got a lot of respect for those of you that are so used to working in such conditions, I sure as hell didn't like it.
 
Coldest I was in is whatever the temperature is that gun oil freezes on your rifle. Each morning my rifle was froze shut. I'd look around to see where the leak was coming from getting this sheet ice on my then new Savage 99A. It was on a deer hunt in northern NY just south of Canada. I think it was December. Also got frost bit on that hunt and the meaty part of my big toe eventually fell off. I remember hiking out of there I couldn't feel my feet, just felt like I was walking on two sticks. There was a white out where you couldn't see 3 feet ahead.
, Bill W
 
NC 4 years ago... got into the duck boat at 4:30 am, it was 4 degrees outside and we ran about 30 to 32 mph in the boat on open water for 10 + minutes....very, very cold.
 
Zero Fahrenheit is as cold as I've hunted, camped, or been outside for any length of time in.

I'll tell ya, living in San Diego does not help to acclimate one to anything below 30 or so.
 
Funny this old thread gets resurrected a day after we get two feet of snow here in northern MN (and it won't be gone in two days either). Global warming at work for sure. Worst cold I've hunted in was around -20 about 10 years ago. I don't care how tough and acclimated you are or how many layers you put on, you WILL be in pain after an hour or so of sitting still in the deer stand.
The coldest I've seen here is -50. Things get interesting after around -40 since propane ceases to turn into a gas at that point. To keep my heat going I put a couple bags of charcoal under the propane tank to get things percolating again.:D
 
Been in or hunted in?


Been in it when it was WAY below minus 60f. After about minus 40 it is entirely too, too cold for me to hunt in. I have killed caribou and had to stick my hands inside the body cavity to the elbows to get enough warmth to finish field dressing.

Spent three years in central Alaska and I can state with some degree of authority that zero is indeed quite warm! If the sun is up its actually "t" shirt weather.......played ball at that temp.

Had a set of mammoth ivory grips on my old flat top ruger split down the middle when trying to pot a ptarmigan in the -40 degree range. Even very hotly loaded ammo seems to lose its punch at those temperatures. Very little of anything works well. Used to pack cardboard in front of the radiator on my vehicle just to keep it somewhat warm and running, but then the power steering was a bitch as it took two hands to pull the wheel back and forth.

Like I said, zero ain't ****. And by the way, those mentioned temps are STATIC and not wind chill factored.


Oh yeah, you CAN hear the Northern Lights....colors range from pink/thru green and white and they sound kinda like cellofane being crushed. Plays utter hell with radio commos tho.

Interesting to take a full cup of steaming hot coffee and throw it into the air at those temps and see just how little makes it to the ground.
 
This is why I don't move north. Probably why there are more people in Harris county Texas than in all of Alaska. :D Is there even a million people in Alaska? People ain't supposed to live like that. LOL

BTW, I think I'll come back to this thread in August to cool off. LOL!

It's snowing somewhre? Gotta be 85 out here. Sweated my butt off outside earlier. Had to come in to the AC and cool off a bit. I don't think I'm ready for August.
 
When I lived in Iowa it was routinely -20 F, with dips to maybe -35 F and that is plenty cold. We once had a wind chill down to -100 F but there was no hunting going on. The -20F is not bad as long is there is not much wind and you have good gear like goose down or something. The key thing is the cold there is very dry.

But I grew up in the Pacific Northwest and that is where I have been the most miserable hunting. West of the Cascades it doesn't get very cold, may 20F to 30F on the ridges. The worst part is that it can be sopping wet and freezing cold. It can warm up just enough to turn the snow into slush and then later in the day have blowing snow that freezes all that water.

You can wear wool that gets heavy when wet, or waterproof outerwear that then sweats inside (even the "breathable" sweats when humping up the ridges). It wouldn't be the body being cold so much as fingers, hands, feet and toes getting wet and then freezing. Slushy snow is the worst.

Not that this compares to -40F or -60F, but wetness at 25F is a lot worse than 0F and dry, or maybe even -20F and dry.
 
jubo was right. Cold but low/no wind and dry I can take much lower temps than warmer (comparatively) and wet/windy. Coldest temps I had to deal with in Washington were just under 0F and that wasn't bad. But high winds and wet, blowing snow just under freezing in Oregon nearly did me in.

jm
 
Actual temperature - 15 below in SE Michigan. Wind chill - 50 below in West Virginia. I took the wife and 6 yr old son out sledding one sunny morning in Michigan when it was 10 below. I didn't know the temperature until afterwards. :rolleyes:
 
I used to spend my fun filled winters on the North Slope of Alaska. We would fly north from there providing support for two Ice camps up on the polar Sea ice.

I don't guess I remember the coldest it ever got up there. But I can tell you this I was walking from the ramp one day to the Nenana ATCO units we were staying in. That is about a 500 yard walk. It was so cold and the wind was blowing so hard I didn't think I was going to make it. The heat just got sucked out of my body and I was wearing full Arctic gear.

Coldest I've ever hunted in? I don't know but it was pretty darn cold. I was up on the Aggishakshak river outside of Kotzebue Ak hunting Caribou in October a few years back. I awoke to the strangest crinkling sound. Turns out I was hearing the little stream I was camped by freeze. No kidding the temp dropped so fast and so hard it nearly instantly froze the water in the stream. The next morning my little Walrus tent had a good three inches of hoar frost all over it.

Up here in Colorado 4th season for elk can get a bit chilly at times too.;)
 
-45 lowest temp out and about in, happened to be in Fairbanks when it was warm. Have hunted as low as -15, but it is not a fun time.
Sat in a box blind deer hunting (sitting) once all day (northern MN) when the high was -13. Hunting below zero is tolerable when moving around but just sitting, even out of the wind is brutal. All this was prior to global warming though so it probably will never happen again.
 
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