Coldest temps you have hunted?

[Friends call me Pac]

While stationed in Fairbanks I once hunted moose when the temp was -54*.   I had a bull come into range and when I shot him he shattered like glass  :eek:  I tried to scoop most of him up but no luck.

I have since learned to hunt in warmer weather.  No need to waste another game animal like that poor moose.

[Ghost Dancer]

I have been deer hunting at -5 temps w/o windchill quite a few times.  Walking in the Adirondacks with a rifle in these temps isn't so bad, but stand hunting can be brutal.

I do remember hunting at -20 w/o windchill with the shotgun once. It wasn't too bad in the woods, but when I cut across the field to get to my cabin at the time ... it cut me in half.  There is nothing like a hot coffee and a wood stove when coming in from the cold.

[Shawn Leonard]

About 8 or 9 years ago my brother and hunted with our bows and it was -17 degrees with a windchill of 38 below. We both made it about 2 hours, saw plenty of deer movement too! Shawn

[Mountainboy]

I went one time years ago in muzzleloading season when it was -20 degrees.  Got to shoot at a doe but due to the 4 second hang fire, I missed.  The snow was knee deep and I looked like the Michelen(sp??) man running around the woods!!!

[Tom Phillips]

5 degrees in Iowa not counting the wind,5 hours on stand.My nose was running like a fawcett !!
  It beats workin.

[Boone the Hunter]

last year was the coldest i've hunted in, there was a one week were me and my buddy hunted for a few days straight in -25 below a few times in a tree and it's so cold you think you may never get down, every second of every minute is a battle to keep going and we were filming so when a deer came by whoever was the poor camera guy that day would have some really cold hands  
not to mention the camera doesn't work that great in those conditions. But looking back I loved it and memories are worth the hardship.

[Yellow Dog]

Several years back I killed a doe on Christmas Eve morning. The temperature was in the single digits. Hung it in the neighbors barn and with the hustle and bustle of the holiday season it took me a few days to get to it. That was a learning experience  :(   Had to skin it with a torch and a couple of pair of vise grips.

[Rick P]

Originally posted by chinook907:
More times than I'd care to think when its like this to about 10 degrees colder.  Always moving though.
 

Ditto and expecting more of the same this year. Add in 75mph winds coming off the arctic ocean and you'll have the conditions for my March caribou hunt.

[knobby]

If I talk myself into going out in severe cold, I can usually last two or three hours. It takes a commitment just to buy the right clothes, but that's OK. The last couple days here have had windchills below zero, but it IS the end of the season. And a long wait 'til next September. My personal coldest hunt was at -30. I went in a bit later than usual, getting on stand right at pink light. Within an hour, I'd rattled in and killed a small buck. When I saw the hit, I immediately got down and went to locate the buck. The blood-trail was already frozen over and pink,instead of red. Field dressing with bare hands wasn't alot of fun,though.
   My coldest 3-D shoot was in central Wisconsin a number of years ago. As the sun started to come up,the temp bottomed out at -42! The targets were out overnight, and guys were breaking off cedar arrows trying to get them out of the foam. There was a huge bon fire half way though the course. We had a blast.

[GingivitisKahn]

I've been out with my bow down to about -15 or so but I'm a sissy and don't relish the notion of doing that again.  First time I hunted in weather that cold, I was a bowhunting noob and was dressed stupidly.  I hunkered under a tree (no thermal seat pad or anything) in a pair of camo cotton BDU pants (maybe with some cheap cotton long johns underneath).  Up top, I was wearing a cotton sweatshirt under an M-65 field jacket (at least I had a liner in it).

Think I lasted a couple of hours before I chattered my way back to the car, shivering like there was no tomorrow. I was lucky to be just a bit hypothermic - man that was dumb.

[Orion]

A little community I used to drive through on the way to my hunting area had a bank with a clock and thermometer on it so I could always check the temperature on my way out.  About 25 years ago, I hunted at -20 degrees F with a 20 plus mph wind, from a tree no less.  That's the only time I ever quit hunting because I was too cold.  Made it just a little more than two hours.  My hands were so cold, numb and immobile by the time I got back to my truck that I had a very difficult time getting the keys out of my pocket.

I don't hunt in that kind of weather anymore.  If I'm going to sit in a tree, 0 degrees and a wind less than 15mph is the limit.  Will hunt in colder, windier weather if I'm going to be stillhunting/moving.  Don't think I'd go out in 20 below anymore.

[Red Beastmaster]

I hunted in -20 and lasted about 3hr sitting on a log. I had to cradle my bow in my arms to walk out, my fingers would not work. That was 20 years ago when I was pretty stupid.

Today it was 15 degrees with snow and wind. I stoked up the coal stove and watched golf on TV. Much smarter now.  

[BrianH]

Spent a couple hours in a tree stand at -18 degrees.  Pulling the treestand from public land that morning might have been one of the more painful thins I have ever done.

[Gray Buffalo]

I killed a nice little fat forky at fort wood a few years back at -7*. The blood trail froze before I got down to trail him. Now on days like that I pop my blind and turn on the heater.

[LKH]

During the late 50's and early 60's I rifle hunted up by Int'l Falls as a kid.  No money in the family and I used tenni's with wool socks over them and put rubber galoshes on top.

We did mostly drives and with temps sometimes hitting the minus 30's, standing was no treat.

Bow hunting in Dec in Idaho I have hunted to about -20.  Don't do much sitting and thank god for hand warmers.

[Mike Yancey]

I hunted NE back in the spring of 97 for turkeys with a wind chill of -25 the turkeys thought it was just fine, they were going crazy. My buddy and me filled our tags the first day of our hunt. We rebooked our flight home to get out of the blizzard and flew out of the only airport open in ND which at the time I didn't know if that was a good thing or not. After we left it really got bad, dumping several inches of snow. Our guide Jason Lambley hunted for himself and took a bird after we left.
Mike

[Walt Francis]

One year I had a good buck patterned and finally saw him Thanksgiving morning, with only three days left in the season, I spent the last three days in a tree stand from before light to after dark.  Low temperature one day was -42 and the highest it got on any of those three days was -10, the wind varied from 10-30 mph.  From the ground I hunted numerous times when it was colder then -40 (I have a thermometer that hangs from my back pack and that is the lowest it goes) on general/gun and late season archery elk hunts.

[leftybearfan]

My coldest hunt of any sort was a duck hunt many moons ago (I was a teenager). The temp was -8 with a -25 or so windchill if memory serves.

Coldest deer hunt the temp was 5 above with a windchill a hair below zero.

Both hunts were in Illinois. You far north guys are made of stouter stuff than I am :-)

[Ragnarok Forge]

I hunted one year in college with night temps varying between -5 and 0 with daytime temps all the way up to 18 degrees some days.  Better yet I was camping that weekend.  Young and dumb.  I slept in a - 20 bag with two pads under me and four blankets above me.  I built a rock reflector and pit base and had a big stack of wood I could reach from the tent.  I woke up every two to three hours to throw more wood on the fire.  Upside, there was not wind over the four days I hunted.  I shot a mule deer doe the last day of the hunt on a sunny ridge face where she was bedded.  

I wouldn't even try and hunt like that now.  It is really rare to get that cold of weather here in Washington and it was Eastern Washington where it gets a lot colder than western Washington.  I only hunted between 9:00 and 3:00 each day.

[ethan]

WOW!  You guys are studs!  My coldest is 3 with the wind chill.  I made it about 3 and a half hours.