Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Found my too cold

Killed a decent 4x5 whitetail at -27 a few years ago...It was zero when I went out. By the time I got back to the truck it was ten pm and the deer was frozen pretty solid the next morning...lol

Believe me, the high desert can get damned cold. The wind's always blowing.

It sounds as if you have a camp set up. If so, do you suspect you'll have to leave it until spring?
There was no place you could hunt without driving those 25 miles to camp?

I am hoping for a January thaw, or at least mild temps.
By mild it would be best to come out at around freezing. Anything above that makes for a soupy gumbo mess.

I have not stayed in camper at -20 but I don’t think electric heater and propane furnace would bring it up to comfortable.

Smart move to not push on. It is not the cold that bothers me , but having to do strenuous activity in it can be devastating. I never minded so much when the horses were doing the hard part, but getting one out on foot in that cold can be brutal! Good call, Dude!

The older I get the more mortal I become. I'm pretty sure I've used up the majority of my 9 lives......
You probably made the right decision.

Panting hard and sucking below 0 air can be very hard on old lungs.

#2 outside ain't too much fun either.

my end of the year annual bowhunt by the northern border of Minnesota is later this week suppose to be 20 something below zero i am still going i only hunt the last 3 hours of the day .

It is the strenuous activity at that temp that is so very dangerous. Getting stuck is high up on the very dangerous list. Good decision. Many cardiac events are triggered by just such things in people that have those issues.
There wasn't much we did not do when we, my brothers and hunting buddies, when we were young. In my 60's and having a physical problem or two, I am much more careful of what I do. Couple of years ago now, my son, son-in-law and grand daughter were on our Traditional NY day hunt, we opened the truck door to -8 F and 25 mph North winds. As the boy and I headed off for the Timber, he says "and why are we out here again?" "Tradition!" says I. We only hunted 1/2 day and did not kill anything. Glad of that because of not wanting to handle the meat in that Temp. I use Cleaning Supply gloves myself and they work fine. Yes you can slip a handwarmer down into the back of your hand as well should you want. Those gloves hold up to anything except the blade or a sharp Rib will poke a hole. Still WAY better than bare hands.
Looking forward to heading out on the New Years day hunt again this year! Temps are forecast to be 6-20 with strong North wind. Hunting with the son in law so will have good help. Probably shoot a doe for the pot should the chance arise. Taking my Jet Sled too which helps me greatly. I stage it at a sitting spot for sunrise so it is close when I need it.

Do any of you carry a PLB with you when you hunt in cold remote places?

No. IPhone lasts about 30 seconds if you pull it out of it's warm pocket when it's that cold so it's not much help either. Their are hand warmer strategies for that too but I hardly ever execute them.

Always, always for me. I have an InReach and the cold doesn’t affect the batteries on it, in comparison to my cell phone. Plus, a good chunk of the areas I hunt don’t have cell reception. I turn on tracking so my wife can see where I’m at throughout the day. She loves it, and I like knowing I have an emergency tether should the need arise.

I carry an InReach, yes.

T Inman;
Good morning to you T, I see your light is on so I hope the fire's lit and burning bright up there as it is here this frigid morning.

While it's a crisp -18° C here this morning, we've hunted whitetails in colder weather here in BC, but as our elk season is over in early October, never elk.

I've told this one previously, but my then brand new wife who had just taken up hunting killed her first Saskatchewan whitetail buck on a balmy -38° evening. That was after sitting out in an open "blind" we'd dubbed the crow's nest which we'd made up from uncombined canola straw.

Anyways T, she shot the buck, it was a clear hit and when it staggered off back into the brush at the edge of our field, she turned to me and said, "How about you go get the deer and I'll go see if the truck starts. I need the heater!"

The truck was an '80 Toyota 4x4 and they had marginal heaters on a good day T, but were never designed for northern conditions. It'd almost keep the front glass frost free, but we'd carry a scraper inside the pickup so we could see the rear view mirrors!

Honestly I'm not sure I could take that kind of cold anymore as even wandering back and forth to the garage to light the wood stove there made me chilled.

This whole aging thing isn't as fun as I'd hoped it'd be T....

All the best to you sir and Happy New Year.

Dwayne

BC, you have that aging thing right.. I was doing pretty fair till 2020. Slowed down a lot. Hopefully I can get moving again.. At least I feel like I can and want to do so.

If it gets to -10, I’m not leaving the wood stove. In cold weather, I wear a pair of Normark (?) filet gloves over nitrile gloves while field dressing game. I’m afraid if my hands get too cold, I’ll end up slicing off a numb finger….

For critter breakdown, Merino (and probably other) liner gloves under XXL Nitrile will keep a guy's fingers nimble and fully able even in very cold weather.

I've not bird hunted yesterday and today due to temps and blowing/drifting snow. Just plain too far to drive on sketchy roads w/very low visibility and too cold/plugged with snow to hunt if you do get where you want to go. Doggie only has 1-2 walks in him @ 0F and below. Sooner or later some snow sticks to him, then melts, then re-freezes, and he gets cold.

I've predator hunted @ -20F ambient. I've elk and deer hunted into the teens below zero but I don't really recall ever killing a big-game critter in the bitter cold.

Supposed to get above 0 here on Thursday. Probably take the truck for a ride somewhere if for no other reason than to run the straight #2 out and replace w/#1. I filled it 3wks ago and it's been sitting in the garage ever since. There's a healthy dose of anti-get in the tank but I'm not taking any chances of a gel-up in below-zero temps if I don't have to.

Found my cold hunting in Wyo. Gros Ventré. Late season backcountry Elk hunt that broke off the HighlineTrail if I remember correctly; the am radio forecast seemed reasonable or at least nothing noteworthy. Didn’t kill a darn thing but pushed timber all day just to stay warm. It was gorgeous bluebird weather but when an afternoon breeze kicked up it sure whipped me - My feet felt like I was walking on stumps - couldn’t feel them at all. Warming them up was even more painful but I really didn’t care - I just remember studying topos for the next day and was pissed that I hurt my feet like that.

Woke up once to -17 inside the tent. Loaded that stove and went back to bed. The elk are safe when its that cold. Some of you are monsters. I am not.