Staying warm

[MaxxiD]

So, as some of you might have figured, I'm not from this country. I am from a small island off of the north coast of France that is incredibly wet, but rarely gets down to 0⁰c.

I still love the winters here and for the most part can keep myself warm. The biggest problems I have though, are my hands and my feet. No matter what I try (admittedly, not a whole lot), i cant seem to keep them warm. In fact they get brutally cold and take hours to regain sensation.

Any and all tips, tricks, products and brands welcome as the temp just dropped and I still have a WT tag to fill

[aragor764]

it all depends what type of hunting you do...i mostly hunt out of a pop up blind and i find that resting my feet on a foam pad or something helps slow the cold coming up my feet, i also use a small heater and always have a bunch of hand warmers handy, keep your core warm however you can...but in late November it gets pretty hard to do!

[teledogs]

For my hands one thing, besides gloves/mittens, is getting a jacket with deep slip-in insulated hand pockets. Put a hand warmer in each one and my hands always have a place to warm up.

[slough shark]

Insulated overalls are great, assuming your boots are sufficient that could be where you’re losing your heat through your legs. If it’s cold mitts instead of gloves (although I usually still wear thin gloves as well in case I’m taking my hands out to shoot). Keep your neck warm as that’s another area you lose heat. Of course don’t get all sweaty walking into where you’re sitting otherwise you’ll be cold no matter what, sometimes I’ll put on some of these extra clothes once I get to where I’m sitting to ensure I don’t sweat. Chemical hand warmers can help if you’re still cold.

[Big Grey Wolf]

Good heavy mitts for hands, good quality underwear from Marks and felt lined winter boots with heavy wool socks. You will be warm in any weather especially if you have good steak and eggs in your belly. I Vegan will never be warm in any weather.

[Davey Boy]

How about some of those electric socks that some of the people where when skiing.

https://www.ebay.ca/sch/i.html?_nkw=...3d6d487e1eebfc

[elkhunter11]

I have issues with cold hands since I almost froze them over 40 years ago. Now I resort to chemical hand warmers under gore tex gloves.

[obsessed1]

Speaking from lots of cold weather experience.

I have been a carpenter working outside every day for almost 18 years. We work in temps down to -37.
Here's some info take it for what it's worth..
Biggest reason any of my crew guys have had cold issues comes down to circulation. Arms, wrists, hands, legs, ankles, feet. Good gear designed to keep you warm is great but if your circulation is bad none if it will work. Make certain your gear does not cut it off in any way shape or form. Also look into and do exercises designed to aid in improving your circulation to these areas. Also slowly acclimatize yourself to the conditions. keeping your extremities piping hot by wearing gloves/ using heat pads now while temps are still not totally frigid will not allow your body to naturally regulate it's temps to your extremities. And building up the tolerance / circulation needed to keep you warm will take much longer. Push yourself a bit but be careful not to go too far, frostbite is a very bad thing and has potential disastrous out comes.
Take a serious look at your circulation, your hands and feet will thank you

[urban rednek]

Hands- Niece showed me a trick a few years ago that she learned travelling with the university soccer and football teams. She was there as the emergency first responder/sports therapist, so needed to have full use of her hands while sitting in the cold. She placed chemical hand warmers against the inside of each wrist to pre-warm the arterial blood going the fingers. She made wrist wraps that looked like oversized sweat bands to keep them in place. Works great.

Feet- Good boots and dry socks; change out damp socks when sitting. Muscle contractions of the quads and calves to keep blood moving while sitting still helps as well.

Keeping your core warm by minimizing heat loss elsewhere helps to keep your extremities warmer.

[muirsy]

For me it's always feet & hands. A few things I've noticed help a lot;

Hands; mitts are better than gloves when its really cold. Nice wool gloves do the trick most of the time but if it's colder than -20 or so, my deerskin mitts are the way to go. Mitts are also better for using chemical hand warmers in as well as there's more space.

Feet; what's made the biggest difference for me is simply wearing footwear that isn't too tight. What that means is wearing insulated muck boots or a pair of Sorel's. A good pair of wool socks underneath (Darn Tough are good) and some chemical warmers if needed and I'm good to go.

I wear a good down jacket & pants as well with merino base layers against my skin, both top and bottom.

Lastly, I always have a thermos full of hot coffee or hot chocolate on me. It's worth every bit of the extra weight.

My 2 cents!

[Boogerfart]

Lots of good advice. I've spent much of my life working outside in all types of weather, proper fitting clothes worn in layers are key but one thing I haven't seen mentioned yet is the importance of staying dry. Wet gear is cold gear. This doesn't mean avoiding rain but having proper outer gear and not sweating. This gets overlooked way too often and is why layers are your freind. As soon as you start getting warm take layers off, even if it means packing extra stuff under your arm.
Bring extra layers too, that way once you start to cool down you've got a plan. Take layers off as soon as you get warm and put them back on as soon as you start to cool- not when you're cold. Always have at least one extra pair of good socks in your bag and change them when feet are cool, before they're cold and damp. Extra gloves matter too, you can even keep them in inside pockets so they're warm when you put them on.
Another good thing if you plan to sit is bring a insulated pad to sit on, it makes a huge difference. Same goes for getting feet out of the snow if sitting.

If you get into the habit of doing something about being cold before you're too cold life will be much easier.

[Lefty]

Mitts with a liner for the hands and pac boots for the feet. Lots of good advice above and one thing not mentioned is diet. Coffee is one thing that constricts blood vessels and I find I can't have any when in situations where my hands could get cold. Mentioned above was circulation and having non restricted clothing. I find this for me to be a very fine line. With gloves any extra room for air does not work, and any restriction does not work. Also I have found many gloves warm for a couple months of heavy use then they just don't insulate well after that and after even more use don't insulate half of what they did new.