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Change socks and liners when you get to your stand. Use boot blankets and a piece of foam under your feet. Key is keeping your feet dry and core temp up. I use hand warmers in my gloves and one in each shirt pocket.


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Did a number of Alberta deer hunts.
The best I found.
https://www.herooutdoors.com/canadian-military-issue-arctic-mukluks-used/
Canadian Armed Forces Arctic Mukluks
Not that good for walking.
You tighten them up as much as you can for the walk in.Then pop the laces for your sit.
Everyones threshold for how much they can take is different.
We found that these would keep you on stand.
Kinda important when the hunt is expensive and you have limited time.
A light weight sleeping bag up to your arm pits.
Better yet.

dave


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Find some bunny boots.

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I've been the first guy to get cold feet since I was a kid. As was said above keep the rest of you warm, if core temp drops the blood flow to feet and fingers cuts off first to compensate.

Extra socks, special socks never worked for me. All they did with proper fitting boots was cramp my foot and diminish circulation. Only thing that worked was wearing boots one level of insulation greater than everyone else. Now I have several levels to choose from starting with 200 gram boots for upland to pacs that I use for ice fishing.

What I wear is always a balancing act. Morning sitting gets more insulation. But if I have to walk in a ways I'll pick a pair that I know will keep my feet warm til the planned break if no longer. Then as strategy changes I'll go to a lighter pair of boots. And keep a change of socks handy in case you misestimate and your feet sweat.

A bit of a juggling act and a PITA in general but that's the only thing that works for me.

Maybe I'm doing it wrong but chemical heaters in boots do nothing. They require air (oxygen) to work and rammed in a boot they don't get enough to make a difference.

(Have some bunny boots inherited from my mailman uncle, they were a favorite in the day among mailmen walking routes. They are horrendous compared to boots of modern construction.)

Have some other ideas like insulation under your feet while sitting, and a down vest or chemical heaters covering the kidney area. That's where I feel cold creeping in. But in eastern SD strategy changes as the day wears on and we're never more than a half-mile from a road. So the basic strategy works well.


The key elements in human thinking are not numbers but labels of fuzzy sets. -- L. Zadeh

Which explains a lot.
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You can go a lot farther in warm bunny boots than you can with two frozen lumps at the end of your feet. Break thru a layer of ice and fill your boot with water and get back to me on how good your pak boots are. Ed k

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The great thing about bunny boots is they keep your feet warm even when wet. No boot with a exposed liner will do that. They are litteraly the only thing that will keep my feet warm when stand hunting in cold temps.

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My feet are chronically cold when stand sitting, lack of circulation is the issue when sitting for long periods. I recommend boot blankets but carry to stand and remove hunting boots and wear boot blankets over socks with foot warmer added. Loose fit and air is the key. Also, standing up at least once an hour helps.

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Loose fit is crucial, as is some kind of insulation not to place them directly on te frozen ground, and either a down or fur hat and neck gaitor.

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Russian foot-wraps, under wool socks, and set your boots on some sort of insulator, even if it's just a pile of stick. However, that can be noisy if you move at all. Best to take a small foam pad for the job, and another one under your butt.

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Another solution is not to sit still. Moving slowly helps considerably. But apparently that is less and less possible in today's hunting, due to too many humans cluttering up the landscape.


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Age may have something to do with all this as well. We, well, some, simply don't get around in the field like we used to. Makes a difference. Guess that's why I like upland bird chasing now. Warmer, easier. Except for Chukar. Bastids!

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Upland birds are easier to pack out, too!


“Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans.”
John Steinbeck
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In spades John! LOL!

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What I enjoy most is sitting at ground level for as long as I can stay warm, then moving slowly uphill for a short period of time to a new vantage point, then doing it all again, in a cycle. Stay warmer and get to see some countryside, without really spooking deer all over.

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Exactly--which was the method described in the classic book THE STILL HUNTER, by Theodore S. Van Dyke, published in the late 1800's. Today "still hunting" is often considered the same as sitting on a stand, especially in the South, where moving is often call "stalking," but Van Dyke described how to both move--and WAIT--very slowly, often while "stalking" cover where deer prefer to bed and feed. And he did not just hunt deer in the classic northeastern whitetail habitat, but across the country to California. Essentially it's a method of moving very slowly between "natural" stands.

But as I mentioned earlier, it's impossible to do this in much of the U.S. anymore, especially east of the Mississippi.


“Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans.”
John Steinbeck
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Originally Posted by Mule Deer
Exactly--which was the method described in the classic book THE STILL HUNTER, by Theodore S. Van Dyke, published in the late 1800's. Today "still hunting" is often considered the same as sitting on a stand, especially in the South, where moving is often call "stalking," but Van Dyke described how to both move--and WAIT--very slowly, often while "stalking" cover where deer prefer to bed and feed. And he did not just hunt deer in the classic northeastern whitetail habitat, but across the country to California. Essentially it's a method of moving very slowly between "natural" stands.

But as I mentioned earlier, it's impossible to do this in much of the U.S. anymore, especially east of the Mississippi.


In the piney woods, it would be a good way to get shot. “ I thought it was a big pig”

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Which is one reason why I suggested there are too many people for the method to work anymore--at least in MUCH of the U.S.

Sorry you live someplace where classic still-hunting is unsafe--and apparently many hunters shoot at something they can't positively identify.

Here in Montana it's one of the safer methods of hunting, even on public land, because of fewer people, which matters not only in numbers of hunters in the woods, but because even here relatively few get off their ass and actually hike around.

For the past couple years I've hunted a couple pieces of public land of around 2 square miles. Have only encountered one other set of boot-
prints, because most "hunters" never leave the adjoining roads. Which is part of why that's where I get my deer.
-


“Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans.”
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Post-opening weekend probably makes a lot of places have a lot more room for the solitary hunter as well, in my experience.

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Originally Posted by Mule Deer
Sorry you live someplace where classic still-hunting is unsafe--and apparently many hunters shoot at something they can't positively identify.

Fun in upstate NY (near Syracuse). My Italian buddy knew the Italians who hunted higher up the mountain and felt safe still hunting. But after hearing slugs (shotgun only) bounce around the treetops I stuck to watching trails with my back against the biggest tree handy. Incidentally I got a dandy case of frostbite doing that.


The key elements in human thinking are not numbers but labels of fuzzy sets. -- L. Zadeh

Which explains a lot.
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Good information

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