Hardcore hunters

[Daks]

-20F. Regularly hunt in below zero weather, but you can expect at least a couple of really cold mornings during the season where I hunt. Moves the deer around pretty good, I think. The good hunting doesn't really start until the a drop in temps to below freezing in the morning anyway, at least that's the way it goes up by me.

[Wynn]

Bitter 60s here in Central Fl. :lol:

[Dave in WV]

Sometimes the hardcore vote goes to the hunters in weather that isn't just cold. My son, High Brass, has hunted all day in a cold rain. Last month he was out in a wet snow all day and his rifle was frozen shut. He had to work at getting the bolt free to unload his rifle because the hinged floor plate was frozen shut. I stayed in a covered stand out of the elements. I don't know the actual temp several years ago but I remember leaving leather from the palm of my flight gloves frozen to the receiver of my Rem 760.

[Big Sky]

We had a late season depredation hunt here in northeast Montana 3 or 4 years ago. The first weekend we went out the weather report on the radio said it was -64. In case  you are wondering we were highly successful, but it wasn't exactly fun. The following weekend it was -34 and actually seemed warm compared to the previous hunt. After the -64 degree hunt I decided that once was enough, and that I have no desire to ever beat that low temperature on any kind of hunt, let alone deer. I will say this though, you haven't lived until you try to gut a deer in -64 degree temperatures. It was more than a little interesting! In fact it was almost impossible.

[cattleskinner]

I think the worst weather I've deer hunted in was last winter.  During muzzleloader season, the snow was at, or just a touch more than 20", and for me being a shorter fella (5'7"), that meant knee level.  It truly stunk to hunt in, but made for great trailing after the shot :grin: .  It was so cold that pieces of my ragwool gloves stuck to the frost that formed on my muzzleloader, and my scope, and my buddy's scople frosted over, but mine also froze.  Long story, but needless to say I don't even think about using Tasco scopes anymore.  I think the coldest has been the single digits, but when the wind chill is factored in it's below zero.  This year has been a little iffy, in that it is in the 20's-30's at one end of the week, and the other is a balmy 50-60 degrees.  I thought I was going to hunt in a pair of shorts one day :lol: .  

~~~Amos

[jbtazgrabber]

ok i hate the cold......but haveing to bow hunt in 90 deg. wheather with a long sleved shirt and headgear on is not fun....sweating profushly....of coarse you can take off the clothes and be cooler......but the skitter bites all over makes for sleepless nights....ther are some thigs even bleach wont cure...of coarse its a humid 90 so it feels like 110 in the shade.....jb in northern okla.......

[High Brass]

A few years ago in central WV, it go so cold that my contacts gave me fits(hazing over).  I think that the temp was in the teens with a winchill of around zero.  Deer that were hung froze, even with the hide on.  My water bottle started freezing(not solid) when it sat idle for a few hours. Coffee had to be drank immediately if you like it hot.  

The coldest that I remember being wasn't hunting and wasn't the coldest temps I've encountered.  December in the swamps of Camp Lejuene were very rough in the low 20s!

[Don Fischer]

Cold huh! I was young and in great shape when I lived in Montana. Cold was no excuse for not hunting. One year on the N. Shore of Flathead Lake I hunted ducks in weather so cold that my springer's feet got full of ice ball's that finally thawed out in the truck going home. I was also out duck hunting the day my son was born in Kalispell. That night it was -20 degrees. Hunted elk outside Rocky Mt Park one year, well below freezing; maybe below 0. And used to stop on the haul road, out on the tundra in Alaska and hunt tarmigan, well not really hunt as they were every where. Damn cold!

One year, years ago, I froze up in a Peterbuilt on US 30 in Nebraska just east of Grand Island. Don't know the air temp but the chill factor was -103! Or so they said. I was running aranol in the fuel; it's used to control iceing in jet aircraft! One thing I've found out about cold, after about -10 degrees, it just don't matter anymore and if the wind is blowing your in deep dodo!

I no longer do those thing's.

[NONYA]

Good story Don,every time we go sit in the blind I have to remove those ice balls from my Springer,I try to keep that hair trimmed short but you know how futile that is with a Springer!

[Buckfever]

I was in a tree 20 ft off the ground.  -15 actual gusts over 30mph wind chill off the meter.  Doesn't usually snow when it gets this cold.  I saw deer never any size.  At about 2:30 pm I stood to take a bio-break and was almost not able too!  I had to make it to my ATV 300yds away and a 2 mile ride to the truck, decided it was time to walk in-place until I could warm up enough to get down the ladder.  This was really stupid and if I would have stayed up there much longer I could have been in big trouble.  Cold can sneak up on you and you start to get tired and that is very dangerous.  I was a lot younger when this took place when more decisions were driven by balls than brains.  The next day it was nice 10 degrees and hardly any wind.  Buckfever

[Cheesehead]

It was deer gun season opener a few years ago in Northern Wisconsin. It was dawn and 17 below zero. Quality cold weather gear got me through this.

[K.K]

Pike County Ill during Dec muzzleoader last year was brutal.  It was 1 degree with gusting winds.  I'm form Upstate, NY and do know from snow and cold, but this was unbearable.  I guess the prairies offers so little in the way of shelter from the wind, and I was huntiing from a blind all day, nit moving all day like back home.  Thing is, I'll be back this year for more!

[Land_Owner]

Good thread.  Long lived.  Interesting read.  GB, ronbow, and Wynn have had their "southern" and florida fun and told it like it is.  Unusual that ronbow and Wynn survived.  Obviously they're not native when it is a well know fact that a native Floridian will freeze to death if the temperature drops below 72 F.

[corbanzo]

Heck, you fellas should come to AK, we once camped for two nights at -26F, (58 below freezing) no heaters, just good sleeping bags so that we could play in the good snow!!!

[K.K]

I'd need native caribou skin duds and a lot of chemical warmers!

[MGMorden]

Deer hunted?  On rare occasions it's been down to 30 degrees or so.  Season opens in August here and though it runs until the end of December, I've usually done most of my deer hunting before Thanksgiving (when duck season comes in.  I like doing both, but generally prefer ducks).  The weather just hasn't gotten too bad at that point.  

Duck hunting on the other hand, I've woke up and went out to the boat only to find that the blind is frozen so stiff that we couldn't go out in the boat (we'd still grab the waders and head out to some flooded timber to shoot a few wood ducks though :lol:).  One morning I tripped over a submerged log and my waders dipped just enough to let in about a gallon of water.  Worst sensation ever  :shock:.

[DavOh]

Since I hunt here in Texas, I've sweated on a stand more times than I've frozen. But that's just the way it goes here.  I've hunted in 20-30 weather though, and as long as it's not raining, it just doesnt bother me. When it gets wet though, is another matter.

[corbanzo]

I can't handle that hot stuff... I would much rather 0-F than 100-F, never living in it will cause that.  I remember going to visit my cousin in Las Vegas when it was 115-F, thought I was gonna die, all I did was sit there and drink iced tea.  You guys can keep that hot weather, I'll be chillin up in AK  :grin:   The coldest I've ever felt was actually only about -20-F, with a reported wind chill of -72-F, that was some wind.  Where I'm from is nothing like up north, I was visiting a friend in North Pole, which is just north of Fairbanks one winter, and the temp got down to -48-F.  The coldest ambient air temp ever recorded in AK was -80-F, no thanks!!

[thumbcocker]

1988 Pa. doe season -22.