Like the Wayne Gretzky quote, “You miss 100 percent of shots you don’t take,” if you aren’t in the stand (or blind) you won’t get any shots at deer. So, the focus for any deer hunter should be to stay in their stand for as long as possible, especially when the rut kicks in and deer are moving all day long. Probably the most common culprit for hunters getting down from their stands is getting cold.

When I first began deer hunting as a teenager, I remember constantly buying new pairs of socks because my feet always got cold when sitting in a treestand for longer than two hours. Yet no matter what I wore, my feet ended up freezing by 9 o’clock. Looking back now, I clearly had too much insulation on my feet between my boots and heavy socks. Just walking to the stand my feet would get hot and sweaty. Then that moisture on my feet would slowly evaporate and make my feet cold. The same happened to my hands, no matter what gloves I wore. Now, after years of experimenting, I know what I want to wear for a variety of weather scenarios.

The key is to focus on the material the clothing is made of. Cotton is a nice, soft material but it loses all its insulative properties when it gets wet. Avoid using cotton as a layer that contacts the skin, as it will soak up any sweat off the skin and start making you feel colder. Polyester clothing helps wick moisture away from the skin so you stay drier and warmer. Clothing made with merino wool is excellent as a base layer because the wool retains its insulative properties when it gets wet. It also is supposed to inhibit some microbial growth which results in less odor that deer can smell. I bought a set of merino wool base layers last year and have nothing but good things to say about them. The only downside, is that merino wool clothing has special washing instructions that you need to follow.