The actual and predicted weather conditions through at least the end of November have made it difficult to take truly cold temperatures very seriously, their inevitability notwithstanding. But then “cold” can be a relative term. The second Sunday of the November firearms deer season dawned with temperatures in the mid-twenties and–for once–very little wind.
In other words, conditions were nearly perfect for taking advantage of the superior field of view offered by tree stands. So was that what my daughter Susan and I did? It was not. To the contrary, we shared a cozy ground blind that not only guarded a heavily used travel corridor, but that also allowed us to spend what turned out to be an undisturbed day together.
Alas, it’s not always possible not to feel comfortable while being outdoors. Over the years, I’ve caught fish and shot game when I was so cold that I would have had to get warmer just to freeze to death. Nowadays, I’m a slightly more apt to home when the weather gets that brutal, but if I don’t, I adopt some of the principles that people who venture outdoors during the winter in the northern United States or Canada literally live by.
One adage that every resident of the Snow Belt learns in early childhood is “if you sweat, you’re dead.” While that’s usually not literally true here in the not-always-sunny South — although it can be — it is literally true that if your skin gets damp, you’re going to be cold.
Under ordinary circumstances, the first step in avoiding damp skin is making sure the layer of fabric that touches your body is designed to wick moisture away from it. There are a wide range of manmade fabrics available today that do an impressive job of doing exactly that.
Top the underwear with the number of layers of clothing appropriate not just for the temperature but also for your level of physical activity. Several relatively light layers are much more efficient that a few heavy ones, because adding or removing light layers gives more control over your body’s internal thermostat. My outermost layer is a Gore Tex lined hooded jacket and oftentimes a pair of Gore Tex lined pants. (Hint: whenever I anticipate that either the temperature or my physical activity will require numerous adjustments, I use a soft-sided backpack to carry temporarily excess layers.)
In our zeal to select just the right amount of clothing, hats sometimes get short shrift. That’s a huge mistake, because the skin covering the head and neck are the body’s primary body temperature regulating mechanism.
It’s also impossible to be comfortable if your feet are cold. The key to warm feet is to wear two pairs of socks. The inner one’s primary purpose is to wick moisture away from the skin with9ut adding bulk, so choose one of the manmade “miracle” fabrics. The outer pair should be at least primarily wool. That said, no socks or combination of socks will keep your feet warm unless your boots have ample room for your feet and for the socks you’ve chosen. My extreme cold weather boots are two sizes larger than the ones I wear the rest of the time. Even with thick felt liners, my double-sock clad toes have enough wiggle room to allow unimpeded blood circulation.
And then there are your hands. I’ll never forget the time I stumbled into a flock of rooster pheasants but couldn’t take advantage of the fact the birds were sporting enough to get up a few at a time, because my hands were so cold and stiff I couldn’t reload my shotgun.
To be honest, I still haven’t completely solved the puzzle of how to keep my hands warm while I’m handling a firearm or a fishing rod. Layering can be as effective at keeping hands warm as it is with every other part of the body, but hands present a unique problem. Like other items of clothing, gloves work best if they’re slightly oversized to allow unimpeded circulation, but a hunter’s gloves also have to have index fingers small enough in diameter to fit safely inside a trigger guard.
When clothing alone isn’t enough, try altering your hunting tactics. For example, while proper still-hunting doesn’t generate much body heat, it is warmer than sitting motionless 20 feet up in a tree. Likewise, while kicking brush piles and stomping across weedy fields aren’t as soul-satisfying as standing still listening to beagles, these tactics will keep your feet from getting numb an hour or so longer.
Or, a person could stay inside when it’s cold outside. Nah. That would be ridiculous.
