Coldest hunt you've been on

gimruis

gimruis

Well-known member
There's 6 days left in the season here and the temperature looks pretty cold. I'm generally pretty tolerant of it and prefer to hunt this time of year rather than in October when its 70 degrees out.

My question is, how cold is too cold for you? I went on the last weekend of the season a few years ago and I can remember it being 0 degrees. There wasn't any wind, but that was frigid. My fingers are the biggest issue. Once I start walking around it helps too.
 
-16 out in the Oklahoma Panhandle. It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be once we starting walking, there wasn't any wind and the sun was shining. Booted the dog and put a vest on him and he was good to go.
 
I love hunting cold, the birds tend to hold better. I start walking in heavy cover and i
heat up pretty fast. The hands are the hardest, but after your body is heated the hands seem to be easier to keep warm. It depends on if there is snow cover and the wind speed on the temp because of my dogs feet. If there is more than 3 to 4 inches and super cold i punt for my dogs, the pheasants and my heart. I have hunted -10 but there wasn't a wind, sunny and no snow. My ideal temp is 10 to 15.
 
I have started with temps in the negative teens but sun was shining and wind was non existent. In very cold I wear glomitts and keep fingers in the mitten but trigger finger is positioned to move outside of mitten quickly so i can shoot. If you have the proper gear and dependent on your cold tolerance you can hunt in most anything, however, please keep in mind how it impact your dogs.
 
The coldest I actually recall seeing on the thermometer while hunting was -27. A few in the -20 +/- range.
We'll go down to -5 or -10 somewhat regularly. But it depends a lot on the sun & wind what those hunts look like.
If it's terribly cold, we end up hunting little spots that don't keep us out of the truck very long.
Like stretches of ditch with cattails, where we can leave the truck running & are maybe only out for 10-20 minutes at a time.
 
Temp wise around -10 windchill wise prob -25

Coldest I ever got was hunting at about 30° and get caught in a rain/sleet/snow mix. Went down back of my neck and I ended up getting back spasms.

Froze my right hand dragging out a big whitetail buck when I was 18 . Air temp was right about 25 I only had to drag him about a 100 yards to the truck. Didn't have gloves on my wet hands and hand was slightly frozen to the antler.
 
Windchill of -30*F. It was miserable but the three of us killed 9 roosters in an hour.
 
The blizzard that took down the metrodome…2010?….windchill was about -40, winds were gusting to 45-50, air temp was -10 F. Brutal.
 
Hunted in wind chill of -42 one time. Within 100 yards of the truck got into birds and shot 3 roosters standing in 1 spot with my over and under. Finished the limit on the next side. Birds didn't want to get up.
 
I was hunting in SD a few years ago and it was -32 and windy. Terrible conditions but my brother in law wouldn' quit so I didn't either, talk about a couple of knuckleheads.
 
I've been out in -20s in North Dakota a few years ago. Never know what you are going to have in the late season so you have to be prepared. I took my heavy combo coat/vest with me last week, but didn't need it. It was in the 40s Wednesday and Thursday. A little colder the rest of the days and we got about four inches of snow on Christmas day. It was beautiful. The snow seems to get the birds to hold a little tighter.

Jerry
 
Our farm borders a waterfowl refuge that is a good sized lake about 1/2 covered with cattails. No trespassing until the duck season is over. In January one year a couple of us went out, maybe minus ten or so.
Anyway, I put my foot through the ice and filled my boot about 10 minutes into a 2 hour hunt. Funny thing once my foot warmed the water up it wasn’t too bad. We followed deer trails and got our limit. Without a good dog we wouldn’t have found any of them.
 
I don't remember the actual temp but well below zero and windy. A fair size group of us circled a shelterbelt and the shooting began, it was so miserable that the pheasants were flying back in while we were still shooting at the ones that were still flying out. It was all shooting and no hunting. I would not do that today. It seemed like the thing to do at the time. I have skied at 31 below.
 
Some years back..guided a group from Cargill Corp. near Homer..-27 in morning .that was not wind chill but actual temperature ..have photo on my camera of weather channel that morning..
we hunted😬
 
Damn. Some wicked cold temps you guys have hunted in! And I thought 0 degrees was bitter cold.
 
Air temp probably around -10, wind chill in the -30 to -40. It was the last day of the season and I was out for the dog who enjoyed every second of it. I wore ski goggles to keep the painful wind off my face.
 
Hunted in SD one year and the wind chill was -40 to -50. I could hunt about 30-40 minutes and then go back to the truck to warm up. Been a long time ago. Seems like it was in late November.
 
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My coldest hunt was in southwestern ND in Dec. there was a blizzard when we were driving out and the next few days the temps dropped and the wind never stopped. I remember it well because we had three flat tires on two trucks that hunt. I ended up with two flats. I had to find a place to fix my tires in a small town. The coldest we saw was -32 actual temp. Wind chills were well colder than that. The locals thougfht we were nuts! It was hard hunting because the birds stayed out feeding all day. We would drive by fields and see tons of birds out scratching for corn or grit but there was nothing in the CRP or cattails. Those are the trips you talk about for years!
 
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