BarnesX.308

Ditch the sweats. They'll get wet from sweat and keep you cold. I hunt in the mountains of northern PA and our buck seasons can be anything from -5 in the morning during the cold years and up to the 40s in the warmest years. Our late seasons are just butt-arse cold, highs in the teens some days.

I go with a base layer of thin Under Armor, then some Cabela's Polar Fleece, then a wool sweater. I wear insulated bibs and a heavy jacket over that. I wear 2000 gram thinsulate boots and a warm hat or ski mask. I always bring a muff and stuff it with 4 hand-warmers.

TDC

Normal Feet:
Silvertread thin silk weight under socks (I also use for skiing)
Scentlok Hunting Socks - Marino wool
Muck Boots with extra 2mm foam insole

If really cold:
Heavy Marino Wool Socks if really cold
Ice Breaker over boots

Base Layers
Patagonia Men's Capilene 2 Lightweight Boxer Briefs (no stink)
Hunter Specialties Tek 4 Scent Free Long Underwear Bottoms
Hunter Specialties Tek 4 Scent Free Long Underwear Top

Mid Layers
First Ascent Fleece with zip up collar

Outer Layer
Lightweight gloves (or liner gloves)
Gloves – fleece, and a weather/waterproof glove /lightweight liner type glove
Scent Blocker Wind Blocker Fleece Jacket
Scent Blocker Dream Season Pants

Rain Gear
Redhead Realtree AP Camo Rain Jacket (Only worn if raining when I leave, the DWR coating is enough for most rain)
Field and Stream Realtree AP Rain Paints (as above)
Go-Lite poncho tarp - Just in case in fanny pack for down pour. Goes over me and my gear keeping everything dry.

CLOTHING – COLD – EXTRA ITEMS
Camo Columbia Wool Hunting Pants (worn over Scent Blocker pants)
Camo Columbia Wool Hunting Shirt Jacket (Worn over Scent Locker Jacket)
Camo Cabela Wool Stand Hunter Wool Gloves with removable liner gloves
Mountain Hardware Monkey fur fleece coat
Wool Heavyweight Socks
Long Underwear Top; Marino Wool
Long Underwear Bottoms – Marino Wool or heavy synthetic
First Ascent Buff

Mad Bomber Rabbit Fur Hat – Hunter Orange
Hand warmers
Foot warmers
Scent Blocker Camo Face Mask

I have a large hill to walk up in the morning too. If I wore anymore than the minimum, I would work up a sweat too. I wear my base layer and my wind block jacket with my hunter orange vest on top, with zippers open, and I wear my base layer and my Scent Blocker pants to the stand. I put on the other more layers as needed about 100 yards from the stand.

I do week long hikes and also do not recommend any cotton. I don't recommend down unless you can make sure you can keep it dry, as it has no insulation value when wet, and takes a long time to dry. Also down is usually associated with nylon which makes a lot of noise. Eddie Bauer just came out with a new hunting line with fleece in the inner collar, which will help with keeping the noise down when rubbing against my face. Pretty pricey though.

Marino wool is naturally stink free, breathes great, has insulation value when wet (used in some SCUBA wetsuits for example) and keeps you nice and warm. The downside is a slight weight penalty which I don't care about when hunting, and cost.

my .02

dvalliere

One more item to consider: You'll hear a lot of talk about staying "scent free" and well you should. But, spending extra money for scent eliminating or scent reducing clothing (e.g. ScentLok) is another. You'll find folks on here who swear by it and others who say it's a sham (I'm the latter). But, do your homework before you start laying out cash because there is a price difference.

DeerFilm

I just bought something like Under Armor, but a different brand from Fleet Farm. I also bought a set of Wickers Thermal Underwear 100% Polyester Fleece. And a set of Rocky cold weather fleece top and pants underwear.
So if I use the Fleet Farm Under Armor first, and then 2 layers of Fleece underwear tops and bottoms over that, this should be a good base layer. And then add a pair of insulated pants and jacket. I should be toasty.

A big question I have is the Fleet Farm Under Armor type shirt cost about 36 dollars.This is the one that will touch your skin. I can't afford to buy one for each day. So do you wear yours over and over each day? Would it be ok to wear a t-shirt under this, that way I can change my t-shirt each day to prevent stink.Or does that defeat the purpose. What are you guys doing for this?
I am not worried about the scent free aspect of these clothes.

Terasec

To save money don't have to spend big bucks on name brands,
As long as substitute has similar material its fine,
To take some funk out of clothes without washing them try steaming them.
If you have a steamer great, if not use the steam feature on regular iron.

dvalliere

Listen carefully, lean in close: NO COTTON!! You might as well not buy it at all if you're going to wear a shirt underneath it! In fact, don't bother to buy hunting clothes at all if you're going to mess up the whole effort by wearing cotton!

Cotton traps moisture. Moisture makes you cold. (It's the principle by which sweat cools our body.)

Now, the good news about synthetic base-layers: if you wear moisture-wicking, breathable clothes, the area near your body stays dry which means much less bacteria growth which means less stink.

(Think how much less stinky your arm pits would be if you started off really clean and then went shirtless and kept your arms up in the air so that your pits never got hot and sweaty.)

You can wear a hunting base-layer repeatedly without washing. After a number of wearings, as your sniff-test indicates, wash it. No big deal.

Valentine

I started hunting when baselayer wasn't even a word. Back then it was cotton insulated underwear. Baselayer!!!

I have to wear some of this stuff this winter for long ago testing. Keep some; reject others.

I have some "insulated" wear of ten years ago, poly from some 20 years ago, one cotton pair of cotton insulated underwear, time period unknown, and two Shetland wool sweaters bought over forty years ago.

The miracle is not being able to do the tests this winter, having survived -10 hunting weather when young. it's the fact everything still fits. Even the 40 year old sweaters. I think they'll stay in the baselayer.

TheMASTERBlaster

Damn that would be nice to have highs in the teens. Il trade ya anyday. Instead of 2000 gram thinsulate id try 4000 gram insulate and wear heavy under armour cold gear, not the thin stuff. just sayin...minnesota is a different animal, I live 5 miles from the canadian border and your lucky if you can feel your fingers period. warm years hear your lucky if its 20degrees out.

salukipv1

Ditch the cotton, just about everything else is quick drying/warm when wet,

ie... polyester/fleece, wool, under armor,


big thing I think is walk out to your stand in as little as possible, you may have to take off some clothes in the process, un-tuck those shirts,

in general a great basing system is a wicking shirt, like a polyester/under armor, with a fleece over that, and a windproof/rain proof shell over that.

I find a ski hat will keep you warmer than a insulated cap, although I do like to have a bill so I sometimes will put one over my cap.

ski mask will keep you extra warm...

hooded sweatshirts seem to really trap some heat... but you'd probably wanted a hooded fleece or something...

bibs or coveralls are great.... coveralls are probably warmer but heavier, seem to weight you down all on your shoulders...

bibs... keep you pretty warm and don't see to weigh you down as much.

Tuff Bucker

I will agree that the under armor stuff is good, but if your looking to spend less, rocky makes under layers. They sell them at Walmart. I hunt North GA, which isn't near as cold as what your talking, but really can't tell the difference between the 2. Also there are different levels of these under layers. So giving the conditions you describe, I would go with the mid-weight.