2006HighSierra

For the first time ever I had to depart from my stand due to being too cold on the Tennessee opener. It was about 13 degrees on top of the mountain I hunt and I was on the east slope. my usual set up includes underarmor cold gear base layer, thermal bottoms, heavy jeans, then some big bulky bibs and fleece jacket and extra heavy coat. That's not including my heavy orange vest and hunter safety systems vest. I have always sat right through it and never been abit cold, usually I leave some stuff unzipped to breath be it raining, snowing, etc. I sat about an hour then couldn't feel my toes through my 800gram Irish Setters with liner and heavy wool socks so I stuck a hothands pack in the toe of each boot and sat about another 2 hours till I had to climb down and head to the truck I was shivering so bad. Moved stands toa much lower elevation where I've taken 3 deer during archery this season and was fine till about 3 when it got really overcast and chilled and had to leave about an hour after that. This ever happened to you all of a sudden like? I'm in good health and if anything probably 15-20 lbs heavier than last season but I just can't take this cold.

tennhunter

I hear ya. I was in ETN this morning and it was 10 degrees. The deer were moving after about 9:00 am.

trueoutdoorsmanonlin

I know how that feels, getting ready to head out to South Dakota next month where it will probably be -15 degrees, but I have been waiting for this trip since I was 12 years old and am not missing it!

TNGal

It was 18 degreees this morning where my husband and I hunt. Our plan was to stay on stand all day. By 10:30 I took all I could and we left for the house to warm up. I really did not think about the cold while I was seeing deer, passed on 5 different Bucks only because we have a management program on our hunting land, has to be an 8 point or bigger.

jayman035

yep... its gunna be a coldseason thats for sure, i know il be putting on every piece of clothing i own tomorrow lol.

oh and TNGal thats a great managment program, i wish they had something like that around here. my hunting group does that. the problem is keeping all the other hunters off our land who shoot at anything.

TNGal

Jayman the other farm that borders our deer lease land observes the same practice and one property allows no hunting that is the only way we are able to do this. We have been doing this for 5 years know and it is just starting to pay off.

2006HighSierra

Good to hear of another area in TN doing a management program. The private land I hunt by the lake is free from any other hunting pressure aside from my own. I've tried to be a doe slayer during archery and thin the smaller spikes out for meat. I've got a small frame 8pnt that's only about a year and a half old and I've got high hopes for him on down the road along with a few other 6pnts. I've only saw one mature 4-5y/o on the property in two years though and unfortunately he was way beyond range of the Hoyt earlier this season so I'm hopin he'll decide to stroll past the business end of my AR. Most of the locals here though just shoot any and everything that has something on its head. Around here if you get a deer over 50-60 inches your in the minority.

TNHagies

Yeah I'm in E TN and this morning I had brought along a friend of mine for his first deer hunt. At about 9:30 I looked over at him and he was shiverin' and his nose looked like a cherry, so I took him on a little hike to get warm. I grew up huntin' in the single didits during rifle season so it didn't bother me. When it gets in the negatives then I can't stay out too long.

schooter

i was on stand for about 31/2 hours and i could not stop shaking so i went home for a few min to warm up and then i shot my doe. i think with the windchill this morning it had be close 0 degrees. the wind was coming stright out of the east. and that is the way my stand faces. i think i need to build a tower stand and then i wont have that problem.

jayman035

we are starting to push it on to anyone who want to hunt our land, as there are very few bucks around and a tone of doe. the problem is people are too trigger happy around here, and then spend there time complaining about how there is a lack of bucks. on the up side there are very few hunters this year so it should give us a chance to get the herd back up (i hope).