Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Ever taken an ice bath?

These girls have!

After my vasectomy.

No

Only lasted about 5 seconds, damn that was cold

I went into the Beaufort Sea many years ago. Work clothes, Carhartt coveralls, pac boots, gloves, hard hat...an alert deckhand hooked my coveralls under an armpit with a pike pole...it took 3 stout men to get me back on deck...completely helpless blob. Immersion time less than 60 seconds. My privates are still quite small.

Chilean SWAT = sweaty women attempting tactical

Closest I got was the pool at Ft Lewis where we were trained to improvise floatation devices. Namely our uniform pants.
That freakin water was cold, but I didn’t see ice. Maybe it was there, and we were too cold to remember!😀
Reon

No, but as the senior guy in our class, I got two “opportunities” to spend time buck nekkid 😁 in the “People’s Pond” at SERE school out of Brunswick, Maine. It was in November with snow on the ground. They had to wait for the outside air temperature to reach 50* before they could put us in the 35* mountain water. 🥶

It's not so bad works great for recovery times after a workout. Used to sit in the chilled water tub at the gym 40° for a couple of minutes made me feel way better.

Not on purpose, but yeah, several times.

!972 or 73 , I think. Coming down the Little Chena out of Fairbanks in early October, ice forming along the banks, snow falling, slush ice running river wide. Me, my brother, his 8 year old son, 4 hp Merc Outboardnand, left over gas from going up-river in bottom under camping gear and a cow moose, in an 18 foot Grumman canoe with about 4 inches of free-board.

You do not want to run that small fast river downstream under power! Even light. Learned that the previous year! But the Merc dried out just fine.

Pulled in to portage around a log jam just above the road -@ 500 yard pack from there, or portage and unload at the bridge. Bill and son got out, I was trying to pull the back in parallel to the bank for unloading, when the willow I was pulling on while not quite seated snapped, and I went over backward into the water. (PFD of course, I'm not too bright, but I ain't crazy. Most of the time.)

I came out of that water in a hurry, you bet! Got wet to just above my waist is all. And never hit bottom, at that. While I was still in the water, Bill, up on the bank, says (rather ingeniously , I thought). "Should I start a fire?"

I said, " Uhhh, Uhhh, Uhhh!" That's intake, and one reason people in cold water don't last long.

By the time I got to the top of the 15' bank, he had it going, too.

I really don't think he should have shoved me back down 3 times though....

Many Many times, Duck hunting in frozen slush , no dogs and ducks just set and won’t float to bank, draw straws and whoever lost went swimming, used to do hot and cold treatments in football, almost daily, in ice up to your chin, you get to where being frozen and jumping over into 100 degree tub is nothing.

Creek trapping as a kid, busted through ice. Nut deep.
Long walk home sucked.

Yup many times after football practice and games.

When I was a kid living in Big Springs and Snyder Texas I had to strip off and break thin ice a few times to go into ranch ponds to retrieve ducks dad and I shot in winter quail season. A time or two I've bathed in icy creeks camped out a week in deer season.

A few years ago the Pecos River had thin ice along the grassy edges I waded out into over my belly button to get ducks that fell on the other side. Stripped off for that.

No

Fell thru an ice shelf fishing browns. Pants totally soaked, frozen stiff/solid in seconds. Dangerous cold. The dam was the only reason for open water. Temps in low single digits IIRC.


Pants prob could have passed NIJ level IV test before I made it to the truck.

45 min drive home was miserable. Doing over, I'd have been better off starting a fire there and getting warm.

I always bring a rod, reel and bass lure for that but when the fall across the river it's a biotch if the waters up and no good shallow crossing.

Once in the snow I was not paying attention and missed hitting a narrow old rocky bottom wagon crossing. Went in over my head and had a near mile long fast walk back to my truck as my clothes got stiff. Ruined a nice morning on the river with mallards coming in.

If you don't mind I'd be interested in hearing where you were doing your duck hunting on some of those wet trips.

Look into Wim Hof.
https://www.wimhofmethod.com/

Yep, we jump hunted ducks in NH on beaver ponds, no dog, so retrieved my own ducks in the winter. Trick is to keep your clothes dry. Plus do not take long to look around.

Jag, I played college football in NM, five of us hunted anything we could eat, cafeteria was closed on Sundays, us five would feed half the football dorm, crane, pheasant, quail, ducks, geese, rabbits, so if we shot it we got it, no matter how hard to retrieve, great times, funny as hell to, the things we did should be in a book.😁