Big difference in camping out in muzzle loader,archery season, or earlier rifle. Rules change come late October and November.
What rules change? From the first day of sharp stick season to the last day of late cow tipping, they stay the same. I can have my wife show you how to camp in cold. The old men that taught me were tough old dudes. Swallow a can of cold spam for dinner, roll out a tarp, drop sleeping bag, cover with tarp. Repeat the next day.
I think I may be a tough old dude myself or at least was. I am probably as old as the ones that taught you.I have been hunting elk in Colorado for 45+ years with a 95 % success rate and another ten years in New Mexico.I started out exactly how you described. My stupid only lasted so long until I learned how to survive more comfortably rather than a tarp, two quilts a pot,and a coffee pot, cooking on an open fire with the food carried in a burlap sack. As for Spam, I carried one can.When it came time I had to eat it, it was time to go home.
Early season,you don't worry about frozen drinking water, 2-3 feet of snow, tents collapsing, having to leave equipment until spring if you get snowed in, not being able to get to your hunt area because you are snowed out, to name only a few.
Early seasons you can get by without a heat source. Might have to put up with rain or mud and won't freeze if you don't get back to camp at night.Still a possibility of hypothermia, but usually mother nature nature is kind to you. Ignore her in late seasons and and you might not fare as well.
Things might be different here in Colorado hunting at 10-12K feet elevation than where you hunt.I have packed quite a few people out of the high back country who thought they were tough and found they weren't after out staying in a one man tent in a blizzard and then could not make it a mile post holing thru 18"-2 feet of snow. Forget about them being able to pack their elk out. Then there are those that got injured, hunting alone with no communications, and had to be packed out on a pack saddle rigged to carry a person, or have someone ride a sure footed mule 9 miles in an hour and half to get to a phone to call S&R.
These guys that say it is no problem are doing a disservice to those looking for advice.Camping in the cold is no problem. It can be an easy hunt or a hunt from hell. I have done both.
