The coldest I went out to hunt. I wouldn't call it hunting. More just sitting in the cold. It was -32º below zero. Down along the river bottom where my stand was, it could have been colder. Its usually five degrees colder then where the cabin is. But no wind at least. Well not much. We were staying in a friends rustic cabin back in the woods that night. Wood stove for heat. Woke up and the water pail was frozen because someone forgot to wake up once in a while and load the stove. The dogs water dish was froze solid and too the floor of the cabin. He was sure confused.
Got up, got a fire going, huddled around the stove while the coffee cooked and all of us debated whether we wanted to go out and get in our tree stands that morning. Ate some cold corn bread and lots of hot coffee. Ate a wad of butter and decided to try it. My brother, my buddy and I decided to "try" and see how long we could take it. They said my brother was back within the hour. He was red in color and shivering so bad they had to thaw him out. My friend was back shortly after that. I lasted about two and a half hours sitting in a blind. But I had to admit... nothing was moving and I was cold!!! So we all came back in. For the afternoon hunt it had warmed up to -22º below so we all headed out again. I made it until dark but it was sure nice to see the lights of the cabin on the way walking out of the wood.
When its that cold I sure appreciated good boots, layering, and glove heaters. I was using a .54 caliber percussion Renegade with roundball. Once back at the cabin, I fired it off at the range we had there. It fired perfect.