By blueball2 Whitetail deer hunting is at its most active when the temperatures plummet. If you’ve never hunted in freezing weather, here’s how to get there.
North Dakota. Perhaps the harshest testing ground for late-season whitetail bowhunting. As a lifelong Wisconsin resident, I’ve endured cold my entire life, but only a December bowhunt in Nebraska could compare to the conditions I had there, when tailwinds from Winter Storm Diaz swept across the North Dakota plains and temperatures dropped to below zero.
During my five days with cold, deep, drifting snow in North Dakota, the thermometer never read above 0°F. I was in pain every time I stepped out of the motel or hopped out of the pickup truck, and trudging through knee- and hip-deep snow was a common occurrence. As the temperatures got colder and the winds picked up, my trip was cut short; I could only hunt one more afternoon before heading home to avoid icy I-94, snowy driveways, and the inevitable Christmas traffic jams.
My HuntStand app painted the most ideal picture possible for my final hunt: northwest winds, light snow, and temperatures that plunged to -25°F (not accounting for wind chill effects). To be clear, this is ideal for deer movement, but not so ideal for sitting still for hours. However, there was one buck that frequently triggered my Cuddeback trail camera—which I was surprised to see work in the cold—that fueled my enthusiasm.
That afternoon, I started sweating after walking the 600 yards to my shelter. Inside the shelter, I took off my parka so the steam could evaporate instead of soaking my clothing. As soon as the steam rolled off and my sweat evaporated, I put my parka back on and got ready, my face covered with icicles.
Around 4 p.m., the deer began to appear, and I pulled the camera battery out of my pocket, which had been on the Hot Hands body warmer (the only way to keep it working), slid it into the camera and began recording the action for HuntStand’s YouTube episode of Whitetail POSSE. The wind was strong and the temperature dropped, but I felt fairly comfortable.
Suddenly, several different bucks and does got a little loose; I had a vague sense of my buck coming. A moment later, his massive frame appeared in the blind. I carefully picked up the bow, hooked up my release and pulled, but he had his back to me. I waited nearly a minute before he fired a 14-yard shot at me. My Mathews Phase4-fired Rage-tipped Easton 6.5 Acu-Carbon hit the target perfectly.
Welcome to Late-Season Bowhunting
When it comes to finding a food source, there may be no more efficient time to hunt big bucks than late in the season, when the bucks have been smoked dry from the rutting season. An extreme weather event that brings snow and cold can put even the oldest, smartest bucks off their feet when hunting—if they don’t eat, they die. So if you carry a buck tag and have a killer late-season food source, you may have an epic hunt.
A word of caution: Hunting in sub-zero temperatures and biting winds is a pain, especially if you don’t have the right gear. I’ve been there. Trust me, trying to sit out until dusk when your toes are numb and you’re still shaking after an hour is a bummer. In North Dakota, I not only survived, but I lived comfortably enough that God blessed me with a toothy 4.5-year-old buck. Here’s how I did it.
Whether it’s 30°F or -30°F, core warmth is critical. When the core feels the cold, blood flow to the extremities is restricted to prevent heat loss to vital organs. That’s why I can’t stress enough how good it is to have a heated vest like the one I wear when I hunt—more on that later. This doesn’t mean you can neglect your hands and feet. It just means keeping your core warm will prevent restricted airflow to your hands and feet, making it easier to keep everything warm, including your extremities.
It’s long been established that dressing in layers is a key step to staying warm. Obviously, clothing made of the right materials helps, too. The first thing I wear when I’m bowhunting in sub-zero temperatures is Sitka Gear’s Core Heavyweight base layer and Core Lightweight hoodie (which I wear just for the built-in breathable face mask). Over the base layer, I wear a pair of Tidewe heated pants and vest. My outerwear is Sitka Gear’s Fanatic jacket and bib. My mobility was not bad considering how heavily dressed I was, but was slightly limited compared to my November outfit due to the heated clothing.
For footwear, I wore Rocky’s BlizzardStalker 1,200-gram insulated boots with two pairs of LaCrosse Footwear socks. This outfit alone would not have kept my feet warm on a 3-hour hunt if I hadn’t stuffed toe warmers in the boots. If I had to do it over again, I would have worn Arctic Shield boot covers over the Rocky boots. I tried to find some at Fleet Farm before the hunt but was unsuccessful, but that’s beside the point.
My head stayed warm in Sitka’s Fanatic Beanie. While hiking, I wore Sitka’s Blizzard GTX Mitten. In the cover, I stuffed my hands into the pass-through front pockets of the Fanatic Jacket, where I stuffed two large body warmers. In the past, before I had heated vests and pants, I always stuffed large body warmers between layers of clothing near my lower back, hamstrings, and sides. Keeping them warm in key areas helps, but the challenge is keeping them from shifting.
Staying warm is important, but don’t forget that a successful hunt means you have to pull your bow and shoot the killing blow after sitting still for hours in thick clothing. Tight clothing affects your shooting posture and effective range. Although I practiced at 50 yards in my hunting clothing before the trip, I set 30 yards as my limit for the hunt. That’s half the distance I feel confident shooting in warm conditions, but I know it’s an ethical decision. You have to draw a line in the sand or snow, too!
That being said, I worked hard to design a rig that would create that opportunity. In the North Dakota unit where I hunt, it is legal to use bait on private land. I’m not a big fan of hunting with bait. Other than this buck, I’ve only taken one other buck with bait in over 20 years of hunting, and that buck was also taken late in the cold North Dakota hunting season.
Regardless, I wanted a 20 yard or less range, and I chose to use bait as my strategy to set up such an opportunity. I was familiar with a piece of public land where deer like to sleep, so I asked for permission to hunt at the edge of private land, and was granted permission. This allowed me to place legal bait within pin distance of the top of the cover I set up downwind.
Final Thoughts
There is another factor that is not often discussed about sub-zero hunting. I hunted alone in North Dakota in temperatures as low as -40°F, and with the wind chill, it was a matter of life and death. This is one of the reasons why I chose to hunt from a cover instead of a tree stand. I also kept in touch with a local guy and my wife (who was hundreds of miles away), but even so, if I made a mistake and fell there, I bet I would be dead before anyone could find me. With the cold weather, almost whiteout, and the howling wind, I bet I would not have heard someone yelling 30 yards away.
Bowhunting in severe temperatures will test your abilities as a bowhunter. However, large late-season bucks are vulnerable at this time when they are near food sources in daylight. So, act fast. Let others know about your situation in case misfortune strikes. Wear appropriate clothing, set some ethical shooting distance limits, and aim for the upper pin. The end result may be a mature buck lying on the ground, as was the case in my case.