Dressing The Part....What To Wear

Eastern North Dakota is where most of my coyote chasing occurs and we have a few things here that contribute to less than ideal hunting conditions for much of the winter. Number one…..it’s flat. Like you can watch your dog run away for a couple days type of flat. There are some contours here and there so sneaking is still possible but we lack hills. Number two….we don’t have much for trees. The majority of the trees here are planted in rows creating borders for the agriculture fields. . River bottoms are about the only place naturally occurring trees exist. And third…..it’s windy. All the time. Coupled with a very low average yearly temperature, the winter months here can be brutal. This particular day was one of them.

All three of the locations I wanted to call were a half mile from the road or slightly farther so I didn’t have really long hikes on any of them but while walking on snowshoes a person doesn’t move along very fast so you’re exposed for a long period of time. -24f with a 15 mph is a windchill factor of -50f. Your skin freezes quite rapidly in this type of weather. I dressed in my “really frickin cold” clothing and headed out.

Just about every major hunting clothing company carried in box stores has a very generous employee purchase program. So much so that at points in my career in the business my closet looked like the premier catalog for a few of the major brands. One thing I learned over this period was that I have a very strong allegiance to absolutely none of them. They all have pluses and minuses when it comes to all kinds of hunting situations, coyote hunting included. I owned clothing in a variety of styles from Sitka Gear, First Lite, Browning and Under Armour just to name a few and was able to put a lot of it to use in the field in a wide variety of conditions.

Much of the gear from any of these companies is designed to work in a system. It seems to hunt and shoot these days you need a “system” so I guess that's what the companies have marketed to the hunting masses. Much of the gear I owned was part of or a complete system from these brands. It worked well for a lot of the types of hunting I did. However I’m a flatlander from North Dakota so where as some of the gear I owned was designed to help me not die on a sheep hunt in the Brooks Range, it doesn’t work well in severe cold and winter conditions with snow. Yeah I know….it gets cold in the mountains and I’ve most likely offended someone with this line. But I stand by the statement. When it did work really well in this weather the gear was either too loud, too bulky or, more often than not, the wrong color.

Companies design this clothing to be worn in layers. When one layer isn’t enough the next one goes on and so forth. Rain suits are used in precipitating conditions and it's all packed away neatly in your backpack. Most coyote hunters don’t hike into the wilderness for 25 miles and 10 days at a time. The average guy hunting coyotes is going to spend a significant part of the day driving to the next spot. So tons of layers can be quite annoying to remove and put back on time and time again. Usually a good parka that isn’t overly heavy and some kind of hunting bibs is what is used. Undergarments are of course used as well to layer up or down depending on the temperature and amount of physical activity you’ll be doing while hunting.

I hunt primarily on foot. My coyote season starts in mid October and runs through the end of February or early March depending on snow conditions and fur quality. Both can be sketchy late in the season. Early on in the year I like to use some of the clothing from Sitka and First Lite as it looks good with fall colors, isn’t too warm and fits well so when I’m moving it moves with me. There’s nothing worse than having your butt crack hanging out of your pants because the company you decided to buy your pants and coat from used a guy that is 6’3” tall and weighs 137 pounds as the sizing reference. Sitka Gear Open Country camo works well for most fall situations and is somewhat water resistant in many of the styles so if you lay or sit down in wet grass, you’re not wet for too long after you stand up. First Lite also has a few pieces of gear that work well this time of year. Both companies' clothing could be used later in the year but both are missing one major piece of the coyote hunter clothing arsenal. They don’t have snow camo. You can of course use a snow camo cover, which I have done in the past, but they just don’t seem to fit as well and they are quite bulky and hook easily on every single fence you cross during the day.

Where I have no allegiance to any of these companies, I have found over the years of hunting coyotes that I do have an allegiance to some fabrics over others. Cotton of course is the trusty standby. Durable, comfortable and warm….when it's not wet. It takes too long to dry so I usually don’t wear it in any capacity while I’m hunting. Polyester is good. Many of the aforementioned companies use some kind of polyester blend in their clothing. I’ve found that Under Armour base layers made from polyester are quite good. I don’t like the compression fit style but rather a more loose fitting garment both top and bottom for a base layer. When a person is active on foot, it's amazing how warm this stuff can keep you.

Merino wool is by far the best choice in my opinion for base layers. Typically merino wool is sold in 3 or 4 weights depending on the manufacturer selling it. I like a midweight for most temps when I’m active and a heavyweight for when the temp drops to below zero. Merino wool is very comfortable, dries quickly, maintains its insulating ability when it's wet and is very much resistant to scent, which helps if you hunt a few days in a row before washing your clothes. The downside is that it's usually pretty expensive as with most of the gear on this list. As I’ve aged I’ve realized there's a lot of outdoor clothing on the rack at Wal-Mart that lends itself pretty good to average hunting.