Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting What is the Coldest you have ever sat on stand in?

I've toughed out a few 30 below zero Farenheit mornings in my years out chasing(figuratively) whites, how bouts you guys?
Now they were'nt all day sits, but at least 3 hours a piece.
And were not talking a heated blind either.

-15 to -20 F used to be fairly normal here in northern Maine, especially during the last week. Lately 5 to 10 below is pretty cold. Not to many years ago, a sat all day in a cedar swamp with a high of -15.

Only 38 degrees below zero F when I got on stand, probably 30 below when I left. Listened to the trees cracking for five hours and almost couldn't stand up to leave when I decided I wasn't going to see anything.

-10f in 2006 not as cold as you guys but it was brisk enough for me.

-13 for me in a slight wind with snow. On a ladder stand in the broad open!

I'm sure some will disagree but, the teens and 20s here with our high humidity have always bothered me more than the colder Northern climates with less humidity. Damp air will chill your bones!

Reloader7RM

agree with you reloader. 20 degree morning in alabama or la will freeze your b&*$#s off.
the worst day i ever spent was a teenager on a trapline. we were trapping a creek using a john boat. underdressed (jeans and flannel shirt, no gloves) when we left at 4am in 60 degree weather. by nightfall it was sleeting/snowing and probably 30. i've never been so glad to see an old ford truck in all my life.

4 degrees, Jan doe hunting in Kansas only had to sit there 2 hours though. About 7 Years ago I sat for 4 hours in temp that ranged from -2 to around 5 degrees and took a doe with my bow.

That was the hardest pull I ever felt on that bow!

Cabelas whitetail extreme is good stuff.

Spot

-22 in 1988.

Around -20F. I love how the deer fluff up their fur and look all fuzzy when its really cold.

I spent a week in a high elk camp where the high temperature for the week was zero. And it was windy... but at least it wasn't damp like the damn east coast cold.

Heck man, I've sat in 40 degree weather for at least 30 minutes before I decided to get up and go kill something...gotta love hunting Texas!

Dave

I don't even know the temp. I had all my clothes on and sat in a tree stand on Farm Island near Pierre, S.D. I felt like the Pillbury Dough Boy. It was cold enough the disciduous (sp) trees were freezing and making loud cracking noises. There was no wind blowing either(which is very unusual for Pierre, anyway).

Gotta agree with you Southern boys about that damp cold. Coldest I've ever felt has been in the thirties in Pensacola Florida during my Navy days. That's after growing up on the Canadian border where -20 or colder was common every winter. I will hunt deer when it's a little below zero, but am very picky any more about what kind of deer I shoot (and where it is) if I'm going to gut it in those conditions.

We went out Dec 26 back in 1968 or 69. It was -40 and I am here to say maybe it wasn't humid, but it was chill to the bone cold. I think we were out six or seven hours.

The 303 British #1mk4 was so cold the firing pin would not move fast enough to fire the gun. I have not hunted that cold since. -30 seems warm by comparrison, and perhaps it is just the better quality of cloths now. We were out hunting with a double track Skidoo and 20 mph gave a pretty wicked wind chill.

Randy

High teens is about the coldest I've ever hunted here in LA. That was cold enough for me.

One time I was sitting on stand when I heard what I hoped was a deer heading my way. Suddenly a well-digger came over the rise with his fanny hanging out of his pants and some brass monkey testicles in one hand (yes, I know the real story on that one) and a witch's mammary in the other! Actually, there was one year when every time I came up out of a draw I would get an instant headache caused by my glasses touching my head - not sure what the temperature was, but it was too cold for anyone with any sense whatsoever to be out there.

In Texas if it's in the 20's w/any moisture and any wind it is cold...I don't care where you're from. powdr

-24....below -10 a lot...I like the late bow season up here.....

30 below or so, No Minnesota... funny the following year, it was like 60 degrees the same weekend...both extremes were freakish, even for Minnesota...

south of International Falls, north of Hibbing/Chisholm..

At least for whitetails, what's the general rule on their behavior in low temps? Here in VA, my limited impression is that whitetail try to sit it out, as we rarely have temps below say 20F for more than a couple or three days in a row. Of course, most of our whitetail are trial size compared to your northern monsters, not a whole lot of body mass to begin with, and with our mild autumns and winters they don't seem to grow that much of a coat.

I'm assuming that northern whitetails have to get out and about in pretty unpleasant weather, simply because there's no respite for 3 months or whatever.