Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Is heat stroke really an issue?

I used to buy and wear bulky neckerchiefs that were filled with some absorbent that held a lot of water � enough for a day of work outdoors in nasty heat. The same outfit also had packets that you'd stash in your hat. Those gizmos really worked! Slow evaporation kept me cooler than I would've been without 'em.

I forget what they were called and where I got 'em. Gave a lot of 'em away, too.

When my old hunting partner A U Stanley was in Mexico breaking horses for General Pershing in the hunt for Pancho Villa, he wore a steeple-crown sombrero and kept a water-soaked sponge in its crown. Said he probably would've died without 'em.

I also most lost my little brother last month, he ended up spending a week in the hospital. They thought it was a tia, but they determined that it was heat stroke. Take no chances and take plenty to drink and drink it. He should have known better he used to be a paramedic and he did not take enough to drink. tom

Carry water, I saw plenty of guys fall out from the heat in the middle east, and just as many on NTC rotations in the Mojave. Heat Exhaustion and Dehydration suck. Heat Stroke is a killer. Les

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

It truly must of sucked having to eat that dust all the time at NTC. Doors closed got AC, doors open, got a good breeze and no dust, other then landing and takeoff's.

Bite me.........Sand Sucks

My dad is a safety engineer for a construction company that's now working in Kentucky.

One good method he uses for cooling the body down on heat victims is a pump sprayer filler with water. Somewhat strip the person down and spray them with the sprayer on the fine mist adjustment.

This is great for drawing heat away due to the increased surface area due to all of the little droplets.

He's had great success with this.

Good to know.
I got overheated a couple of years ago on a work weekend during Sept at the hunting camp. Worked until I was too hot and dry.
Now it seems I can't take the heat at all anymore.

But I do make sure I am drinking fluids continuously when I am outside now.

stumpy

AoC,

I didn't read everyone's posts, but I'm sure it's all good advice.

I used to work in oil tanks. Crews would get to the point where they'd get delerious and stop sweating because they were so hot, working inside the tanks (120degF sometimes). We'd step out of the tanks into 100degF and get the chills because of the temperature difference.

Drink lots of water. If you're feeling thirsty, it's already too late, in a sense. Thirst is the body telling you there's a problem. Drinking is preventive maintenance.

Keep water on you. Get an ALICE belt and a canteen from a surplus store and wear it...you'll find it gets light all too soon.

Dehydration and heat are nothing to play around with.

Aqualung

Finally remembered! Miracool

And here are some sources (not including where I got mine and still can't remember!).

Hmmm. As some of you know, I live in the desert southwest. The temperature today is 107 F and they didn't even bother to post a heat caution. The Mojave is, for the most part, arid, with no springs, creeks, or other water to cool off in, much less drink.

If you "yankee" it here, you'll loose about 2# of water an hour, and without replentishment, be in irreversable trouble in less than 4 hours. Also, when living here, if your urine turns yellow, it's already too late and you will have heat stroke in short order if you don't get rehydrated pdq. We all seem to get along fine here, and the total lack of people when you get away from town is fantastic. Just don't think you can come here with a cavalier attitude of "business as usual" when it comes to staying hydrated and cool.

If in doubt, try outing with a native the first time or two in the Mojave. There are old desert rats and bold desert rats, but you don't see many old, bold desert rats. Plan your trip and then cut it in half the first time or two.

Wayne

It seems that I'm not the only one where I work that is having problems. My own schedule and a few others have been changed and we are having to come in earlier than normal and get off early. Was 108 today and luckily I got off at 2PM before it got up that high.

Oddly enough while I was in the lounge room buying a soda, our local news was on talking about the heat wave and was talking about heat stroke and how it can be deadly for the elderly and children. Course the way my girlfriend abuses the A/C, I don't have to worry about my son being affected by the heat. One of the main things they said was to avoid alcoholic beverages. My guess is because of alcohols natural ability to absorb heat and will draw in more heat from the air.

More so booze is an excellent diuretic and speeds dehydration.

Never thought of that. Wouldn't that only apply to non-distilled liquor such as beer and wine? I figured distilled liquor just has the alcohol in it without the sugar from the fermentation process.

Beer is okay, so long as you keep drinking it.

- Tom

Nope all alcohol is a diuretic. Booze in the heat, for me, means headache. Whew, bad memories. Passing out in the sun for four hours, what a monumental headache that was. Everclear and kool-ade.

Many moons ago, Northerners visiting the South saw able-bodied males typically idle during the heat of the day, and soon established the notion that Southerners were "lazy." All the while, unseen by the yankees and therefore unreported, armies of Southern males were hard at work in the fields late into the nights, while those yankees were "idle" in their beds.

A twelve-hour task takes twelve hours, whether you work at it 0600�1800 or 0400�1000 and 1800�2400. And in the hot, humid South, the 0400�1000 1800�2400 workers usually got more done in twelve relatively cool hours.

Everclear and ice cold Kool-Aid sounds really nice. Too bad grain alcohol isn't legal here in CA. Anyways, what I'm wondering is if alcohol is such a diuretic, then how come they don't mention to not drink caffeinated drinks. Caffeine is a pretty potent diuretic as well as a stimulant which would lead to quicker dehydration as well.

Actually I have known and been told for a long time, caffeine is a diuretic and shouldn't be drank in the heat.
However, I have had a cold glass of iced tea, in the heat it kinda helps. There is more water than diuretic and it's got a touch of sugar.