PEAX Equipment

Cold feet

Hmmmm… I love cold toes, but… I have all sorts of ideas to try now! I will start my next drive in my slippers. When I arrive at my parking spot I will apply deodorant, and warm socks. I will then hike in and change socks. At that time I’ll add some Hot Hands tow warmers. I may even go above and below… 🤔
 
I have a condition known as Raynauds syndrome where it can be 90 degrees out and my feet are ice cold. My oldest daughter has it worse in her feet and hands. Her feet turn purple in July and even hurt her. Anyway I have learned to deal with it over the years.
Don't wear hunting boots while driving to hunting area....Slippers, crocks, Mudd boots are your driving shoe. (Just don't leave hunting boots at camp or hotel make sure they stay in the truck!)
If you are a stand hunter pack in separate boots, socks, and boot blankets. Once in stand or blind swap out and make sure feet are dry before putting on fresh socks.
Rotate out socks if feet start to sweat.
My feet are almost always cold but never to the point of being painful.
 
Hot hands toe warmers. One on top, one on bottom. A liner sock & a heavy merino wool sock on top of that and you're good to go. Used to do a lot of winter tailwater fly fishing and this set up kept me in the river and not around a fire trying to warm up. WOrks great on dry land for late season still hunting as well. I'd place you those insoles in you boot once you arrive, not when you start walking though.
 
One item for consideration--if seated, make sure that you aren't restricting blood flow with the edge of a seat or rock or stump. Keeping full blood flow to bring warmth down to the extremities.

We are fearfully and wonderfully made, with our bodies trying to preserve core temperatures over the peripheral zones. Making sure that you are restricting heat loss from other parts of your body will give your feet a fighting chance to remain comfortable. Head/neck/hands covered and protected from the wind help me a lot when its colder than the inside of my freezer.
 
One item for consideration--if seated, make sure that you aren't restricting blood flow with the edge of a seat or rock or stump. Keeping full blood flow to bring warmth down to the extremities.

We are fearfully and wonderfully made, with our bodies trying to preserve core temperatures over the peripheral zones. Making sure that you are restricting heat loss from other parts of your body will give your feet a fighting chance to remain comfortable. Head/neck/hands covered and protected from the wind help me a lot when its colder than the inside of my freezer.

Good base layer can help.

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An old logger gave me a tip years ago that worked well when stalking moose late season in subzero temps. Pull bread sacks over bare feet, then a pair of street socks, then wool socks + felt boot liner. The bread sacks keep sweat next to skin. As long as socks and liner stay dry my feet don't get cold. When you make it to the tree stand simply pull off the bread sacks. For the walk out it won't matter. Sweaty feet will get you home fine.
 
Bunny (white) or Mickey Mouse (black) boots.


Best extreme cold weather boot I know of …


These are awesome. I used them for my USAF Survival School when it was in January and below zero the whole time. Kept my feet nice and warm.
 
These are awesome. I used them for my USAF Survival School when it was in January and below zero the whole time. Kept my feet nice and warm.
Bunny boots are great for keeping feet warm but super bulky and poor tread on the bottom.
 
Bunny boots are great for keeping feet warm but super bulky and poor tread on the bottom.
I also like the N-1B canvas mukluks with the felt inserts. They kept my feet really warm and were super lightweight. For Survival School I didn't have a choice; we had to wear the bunny boots. If I had my choice, I'd have taken these with me.
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I use a sleeping bag for long sits, I get cold really easily and this is the only way I can stay warm short of humping a Big Buddy heater on my back.

When it's cold enough for me to bring my sleeping bag, I'm wearing mukluks. So when I get to my spot, I change socks, put only the felts on and slip in a light weight sleeping bag up to my waist. I also carry a second butt pad that I rest my feet on to get them off the snow. Works great and I can sit for hours in the minuses. The sleeping bag and additional butt pad barely weighs anything and allows me to actually enjoy long hunts in temps where the air hurts your face.
 
One thing no one mentioned was a good pair of merino compression socks. Don't underestimate what good circulation can do to keep your feet warm. My brother likes the firstlite ones but I like Procompression merino they are pretty hard compression but works good for me.
 
One thing no one mentioned was a good pair of merino compression socks. Don't underestimate what good circulation can do to keep your feet warm. My brother likes the firstlite ones but I like Procompression merino they are pretty hard compression but works good for me.

Do you wear them alone, or layer? Thanks for sharing this. I got frost nip wearing mucklucks as a teen. They got wet, and the temp dipped… pure disdain.
 
Do you wear them alone, or layer? Thanks for sharing this. I got frost nip wearing mucklucks as a teen. They got wet, and the temp dipped… pure disdain.
I wear them alone in a 200g Schnees Beartooth. Full disclosure I'm in KY so it gets cold but not Minnesota cold so more insulation may be necessary other places.
 
This thread is 3 months, but I saw some "Mobile Warming Fieldsheer Heated Insoles" on Camofire a couple days ago. They are bluetooth controlled, are rechargeable, and last about 10 hours. Seems like something you can look into. The reviews I read on them are all high, saying they work really well.
 
Here is what works for me and my wife for sitting in tree stands.

Take a Ice King liner that is 2 sizes bigger than your foot and place them in a pair of boot blankets. Wear rubber boots to your stand. When you get to your stand put a chemical hot pack in the liner and swap foot wear. I just shove the rubber boots together and set them at the base of the tree. From there climb in and enjoy the warmth of the hot pack. Around noon, swap out hot packs for the rest of the day. I'm telling you these work. Light to carry, quiet in a tree stand and no mud falling from the bottom of your boots while up in the air.
 
Boot blankets are the only method I have had success keeping my feet truly warm in Northern MN late season stand sits. I have both the icebreaker and artic shield models. The ice breakers are warmer but bulky as hell. Artic shield work well but rely more on use of a handwarmer/footwarmer thrown in. If it's truly cold, i'd use a footwarmer footbed in either of them. A nice thing is you can wear lighter boots that are better to walk in and less likely to make you sweat when you use this system.

Warmer boot/sock ideas are dead on arrival to me. I just can't see them working nearly as well as boot blankets and I've had some really warm boots. The one pair of battery powered socks I tried were complete garbage but I wouldn't be surprised if there are better options out there.

Here is what works for me and my wife for sitting in tree stands.

Take a Ice King liner that is 2 sizes bigger than your foot and place them in a pair of boot blankets. Wear rubber boots to your stand. When you get to your stand put a chemical hot pack in the liner and swap foot wear. I just shove the rubber boots together and set them at the base of the tree. From there climb in and enjoy the warmth of the hot pack. Around noon, swap out hot packs for the rest of the day. I'm telling you these work. Light to carry, quiet in a tree stand and no mud falling from the bottom of your boots while up in the air.

I like the sounds of this idea.
 

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