
Back in November I went deer hunting in Saskatchewan and just before our arrival in Regina, a massive cold front settled into the region and sent temperatures plunging.
Like, plunging into the teens and single digits. Wind chills well below zero. Steady wind making things more miserable. I can handle cold temperatures. I don’t like cold temps combined with wind, or to make it worse, rain.
For an ol’ Southern boy heading thousands of miles away, that frigid forecast had my head spinning about apparel. I have a hodgepodge of items: wool, performance wear, some older togs. I usually cobble them together to ward off the cold here in the Southeast and then figure out what to do if I head somewhere else.
Saskatchewan definitely qualified as “somewhere else” and so I thought about the Heater Body Suit that I’d talked about with D&DH Editor-in-Chief Dan Schmidt. He lives in Wisconsin and hunts in January. I think that is tantamount to brain damage, but he can’t believe our hot, humid summers here in Bama. So, it’s a wash on temperature arguments.
Schmidt said he’s used the Heater Body Suit for years and can’t hunt without it. After using mine in Saskatchewan in November, I darn sure understand what he was talking about. I’m pretty confident that I and my hunting mates couldn’t have made it for a week without the Heater Body Suit; two of them said the same thing after our first day-long sit in ground blinds and one lives in Maine.
The suit is made of quiet polyester tricot with an incredibly effective DuPont wind barrier and 300 grams of Thinsulate Ultra insulation. It has a water resistant repellent on the outside and pretty much retains all the noise you make inside it. During my hunt I opened sandwich bags, shook my Gatorade bottle to keep it from freezing solid, moved my arms around, made other body noises (hey, I’m a guy), and it was quiet as could be.
The zipper is tough as nails. Once you get the shoulder straps in place, you can unzip and keep the top of the Heater Body Suit around your upper torso but still lean out to shoot, draw a bow or get into your backpack. Several camouflage options exist, as does one for snowy conditions.
I asked a guy here in Alabama who has one what he wears to the woods. Usually just jeans, a button-up camo shirt, light jacket while walking to the stand, and his Heater Body Suit. When I was in Saskatchewan I opted for a combo of Cabela’s Icebreaker merino base layer, Under Armor, wool and Arctic Shield bibs along with the Heater Body Suit.
Yes, it was that cold to me. But I was as toasty as a bug in a rug. I could not have made it without the Heater Body Suit. And when I went to Illinois in December, I had it with me. I won’t travel to a frigid hunt again without it. They guarantee that you stay warm or your money back, and I believe it.
If you’re tired of being cold on hunts, it doesn’t have to be that way. Add a Heater Body Suit to your winter apparel lineup and you’ll be able to sit and hunt comfortably.