Mike Belt said:
BSK...You hit the nail on the head about the clothing improvements. Jeans, a flannel shirt, an a pair of Fruit of the Looms. Boots weren't worth a nickel for warmth and keeping your feet dry. I can remember literally pulling frozen jeans off and standing them up inside my truck and then the next morning sliding out of my sleeping bag and having to lay down to put my frozen jeans back on. Those were the days, lol.
I've been trying to describe to my daughter what deer hunting was like in "the old days" without sounding like "I walked 5 miles to school every day, uphill both ways." I don't think she believes me when I tell her we usually hunted, even on below freezing mornings, in nothing but jeans, and sometimes an addition layer of cotton long-johns. And with that limited of clothing, entering the first and even sometimes the second stage of hypothermia was a daily occurrence. We really didn't think much about it. We thought that was the price you paid for deer hunting. I remember many, many mornings when I was in my stand (a few 2x4s nailed into a tree) shivering violently, not being able to work my hands properly, and even struggling to be able to speak because I had lost the motor control for my facial muscles. I remember praying for sunrise and a little sunlight on my body so the shivering would stop. I remember some mornings in the low 20s when I couldn't take it anymore and would shakily climb down from my stand and do jumping jacks on the ground trying to create some warmth.
And we would do that morning after morning. Dang we were hardcore back then! Now, if I feel even the slightest chill, I realize I didn't wear enough of the right clothes. If someone would have told me back then that clothes would be invented that would keep you so warm in your stand that your biggest problem would be comfortably drifting off into a snooze, I wouldn't have believed them for a second.