Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Keeping your feet warm!

Depending on your activity, you could try Steger Mukluks. http://www.mukluks.com/ This is what a lot of dog mushers wear, and Inuit have worn something very similar for thousands of years. These mukluks are made to move it, but IMHO they are not great for steep terrain. I'm on my second pair. I bought my first pair in the mid 90's running sled dog in northern MN. When the mercury drops below zero this is my go-to if I'm going to be out for any length of time.

Two things make your feet not stay warm: wetness, and restricted blood flow.

Get bigger than normal boots than in no way restrict your feet (yeah, it makes for harder walking), and wear a liner sock with a wool outer sock. Keep the socks changed and the boots dried everyday to get the wet out.

And wear hat, ear coverings, a neck gaiter, and a facemask as needed.

All this talk about Winter hats is about enough to make me go out and buy one.....grin


I bought lightweight, slick finished hoody to wear under a heavy work coat. Doesn't bind up in the sleeves when you're working and on the really cold and windy days I flip the hoody over my hat.


I'm too lazy to take the liners out everyday after work, Peet boot dryer rules!

Below zero, NOTHING works as well as the GI Vapor Barrier Boot (Bunny boot). You can step through the ice, have the boot fill up with 32F water, pour the water out of it, take a drive-on rag and dry the inside of the boot out, put it back on and keep moving without issue. Try that with a mukluk. I've walked many miles WAY below zero wearing them with no socks. I'd dry the inside of the boots with a cravat when I stopped, don dry socks (safety pinned inside my OG wool shirt) and enjoy toasty toes, in WAY below zero temps.

About all the farm kids do the hoody thing for chores. Works too.

I have gone through the ice in mukluks. If they are secured around the calf properly (kind of like a gaiter) your feet will come out the other side dry like mine. No need to wipe them out. As for my other garments, they needed to be removed, and right quick! If the issue is warmth, and you are not standing in water for any length of time, mukluks are the only way to go. I have worn pack boots and bunny boots, none of them are as warm, or as comfortable as mukluks. Don't knock the mukluk until you have tried them. (my guess is that you will never go back) This is just my preference, and everyone should try things themselves, and go with what works for you.

You can pour icewater inside the mukluk and dump the water out, don the mukluks and drive on at -20F? Also, what about snowshoe bindings? I've seen frostbite across the top of a guys instep from snowshoe bindings worn over the GI aviators mukluk.

I'm not talking about the USAF Mukluks. I'm talking about Steger Mukluks out of Ely, MN. http://www.mukluks.com/ Sorry, I can't get this to run as a link. (copy and paste)

+1. Most of the time my feet get cold, they got hot first.

we are better off without a bunch of soders

I agree. I was first introduced to mukluks while station in Iceland. Spent a lot of time outside on the tarmac wearing the USAF issued mukluks. I continued to use them when stationed in Alaska. In the winter, they were my footwear of choice if I was going to be outside. Whether it was for work or play. I will say this - it was pretty much a 'standard practice' among the guys I worked and played hard with to 1) get the mukluks a size larger than normal, and 2) replace the issued white felt booty with a pac boot liner like those used in Sorel's or LaCrosse's. The aftermarket boot liner was more comfortable, and didn't wad up. The 'oversize' mukluk allowed the pack boot liner to fit inside easier, AND gave a little more room for air circulation.

To this day, I still wear the same style mukluk. That said, the next time I'm in Ely, MN (next summer) I'm going to stop in the Steger store and get 'fitted' for either their Yukon or CamukXtreme mukluks since I'm not sure how the fit will be with the recommended liners, and both felt and contour insoles. I've seen comments elsewhere, where Steger customers were fitted at the store and ended up with mukluks basically one size up from what they would have selected themselves.

Depends if you are moving or sitting still. I wear Bogs Bozeman boots. They say they are good down to -72. Thats a load of crap. If I am moving, I wear them with a good pair of heavy wool socks with maybe a liner sock. If I am sitting still, I wear them with a heavy pair of wool socks and drop 2 hand warmers in each boot and when I get to my stand, I thrown on some boot blankets. Its the only thing that keeps me from being in extreme pain when its really cold.