Tip for keeping warm with hand warmers

dand883

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When i was younger i used to just sit and tough out cold morning sits and get through them from force of will more so than warm layers and good planning.

These days i like to be a bit more comfortable and if i plan to sit in a stand i go much better dressed and have started using those hot hands hand warmers and toe warmers to try and keep my feet and hands warm, but not having a super successful time of it until this week.

Most of my gloves are a bit too small to comfortably have the hand warmer inside with your hand, or i have a pair of folding mitts that are too big and leave a lot of space to let cold air in, which defeats the purpose. As i was reaching down to grab a snack i just absentmindedly tucked the hand warmer up the sleeve of my shirt against my forearm.

I don't know why i did it other than a convenient place to hold it while i ate, but man did it ever make a difference, my hands felt warmer almost instantly and really my whole body felt warmer with it against my forearm and i didn't have to fumble with them squished inside my glove.

Afterword i remembered something i saw on TV where some charity group of volunteers were building a new playground somewhere (in my head Mike Rowe was involved, but i have been known to mix things up like that relying on my memory). In the process of working it was so hot that the volunteers were starting to suffer from heat stress and heat stroke, so the local fire department brought in these cooling sleeves that went around your forearms and ran cool water through.

They said they wrapped them on peoples forearms because the blood vessels are closer to the surface, so it was much easier and efficient way to pull excess heat out of a persons body and cool them down than trying to cool from your head, or neck, etc. I guess it just makes sense that if it's easy to cool a person that way that it would be just as easy to heat a person up the same way to.

So next time you're sitting out with cold fingers wrapped around a hand warmer that doesn't seem to be doing much, try slipping it up your sleeve!
 
Thanks for this i will have to try it out this year! Some of my fingers freeze even in summer time when opening my pool or motorbiking in to work (due to working outside in the cold in my 20s, metal tools and bare hands in -20 is not good in the long run).
 
I carry two pairs of gloves or mitts. One pair stays inside my jacket in the first layer. I'll swap them once my fingers get chilled. This way I always have one pair of warm gloves ready to go.
 
Celestron ThermoTrek - Hand Warmer

Love em!!!!

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If you put them in your gloves or mitts, they work better if you put them on the back of your hand rather than in your palm. For the same reason the original poster mentioned, the blood vessels are closer to the surface of the skin.

Jim
 
When i was younger i used to just sit and tough out cold morning sits and get through them from force of will more so than warm layers and good planning.

These days i like to be a bit more comfortable and if i plan to sit in a stand i go much better dressed and have started using those hot hands hand warmers and toe warmers to try and keep my feet and hands warm, but not having a super successful time of it until this week.

Most of my gloves are a bit too small to comfortably have the hand warmer inside with your hand, or i have a pair of folding mitts that are too big and leave a lot of space to let cold air in, which defeats the purpose. As i was reaching down to grab a snack i just absentmindedly tucked the hand warmer up the sleeve of my shirt against my forearm.

I don't know why i did it other than a convenient place to hold it while i ate, but man did it ever make a difference, my hands felt warmer almost instantly and really my whole body felt warmer with it against my forearm and i didn't have to fumble with them squished inside my glove.

Afterword i remembered something i saw on TV where some charity group of volunteers were building a new playground somewhere (in my head Mike Rowe was involved, but i have been known to mix things up like that relying on my memory). In the process of working it was so hot that the volunteers were starting to suffer from heat stress and heat stroke, so the local fire department brought in these cooling sleeves that went around your forearms and ran cool water through.

They said they wrapped them on peoples forearms because the blood vessels are closer to the surface, so it was much easier and efficient way to pull excess heat out of a persons body and cool them down than trying to cool from your head, or neck, etc. I guess it just makes sense that if it's easy to cool a person that way that it would be just as easy to heat a person up the same way to.

So next time you're sitting out with cold fingers wrapped around a hand warmer that doesn't seem to be doing much, try slipping it up your sleeve!

Hand warmers are fairly affordable and it's definitely worth having a few around each deer season.

If I'm in a box or tent blind, I'll take in a pair of extra extra thick wool socks. Take off my boots when I get in the blind. I find your feet don't get clammy from condensation and if you have to move your legs around for circulation, much less noisy.

Nothing beats a proper battery vest for staying warm when standing still, though. Maybe one of those puffer suits, but I don't expect I'll ever have enough spare money to try one of those out.
 
Someone told me that if you take used handwarmers and freeze them overnight, they will work again.

I don't have any sitting around - will someone go now and check their pockets for old ones and try this? I realize that it sounds impossible, but try it and see if it is true.

After freezing overnight, crush it up again and see if it works and report back to us Okay?


Things get cold here - so I use a propane burner on a small bottle and heat heavy steel plates - 5 lb or more - and put one under my bootless feet - which are on styrofoam and one under my butt and maybe one inside my double snow suit. I wrap cotton towels around the heated plates to moderate the surface temperature a little. Years of kids trying to shoot deer early in season and me waiting until later to shoot unfilled tags in bitter cold. With only one boy left at home, it went easy this year - he was in hoody and sneakers to fill our one tag.

Okay - will someone try freezing their old warmers now?
 
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My trick is one in each chest pocket of the inside shirt and two pinned about kidney height on the back of the shirt. Same idea heat the blood going elsewhere and overall it makes a cold sit tolerable.
 
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