A Few Ways To Help Make Winter Hunting A Little Easier

[E-Trac-Ohio]

I pretty much hunt year round here in Ohio - unless the snow gets to deep - more than 4" or 5" of powder snow and it gets to hard to swing.

A few things I've learned about Winter hunting ...

(1) Every Fall I start making a list of places that would be good to hunt in the Winter.

(2) Hunt in the woods ( cellar holes, etc. ) where the leaves really help keep the ground from freezing.
Bare ground, plowed fields, wet sand beaches and areas with shorter grass freeze the deepest.

(3) Grind a very sharp point on your digger - this makes it a lot easier to get through frozen ground.

(4) A Minelab repair Tech told me this five years ago.
Never put your machine close to the heater in your car or bring it into a warm house after a long hunt in 10 or 20 degrees !
This can allow condensation to form in the control box and damage the processor - a very expensive repair !
I alway wrap my machine in a big towel and put it in the insulated factory carry bag - this lets the machine warm up very slowly - no condensation.

Good Luck !

 

[duggr]

Great Info,,,,A little shy about taking my etrac out in temps 32 or below!

 

[E-Trac-Ohio]

duggr - I'm in no way saying what you can or should do but ...

I've had my E-Trac out on well over 200 hunts Winter hunts over the last 6 years - many of these hunts were on days when it was 10 to 20 degrees out - never had any problems.

The Minelab Tech mentioned in my post above lives in Colorado - he said he hunts in 0 to 30 degree weather all the time.
According to this Tech - hunting in very cold weather all day - all Winter long will not have any bad effects on your machine.
As mentioned above - it's only when you let it warm up to fast - that damage to the electronics from condensation can occur.

Good Hunting !

 

[ironsight]

(2) Hunt in the woods......
(3) Grind a very sharp point on your digger - this makes it a lot easier to get through frozen ground.

Don't know what kind of frozen gound you got in OHIO but here it gets harder than concrete. I'd need a 20 HP air compressor complete with jackhammer.
Detecting in the woods however just might be an option as the soil is typically a lot less compacted. Just for kicks might try that in my woods as an experiment.

 

[oneguy]

(2) Hunt in the woods......
(3) Grind a very sharp point on your digger - this makes it a lot easier to get through frozen ground.

Detecting in the woods however just might be an option as the soil is typically a lot less compacted. Just for kicks might try that in my woods as an experiment.

glad this came up. Always knew about the woods thing but pretty much nothing came to mind for woods in my area that ever had any real traffic? After reading this I thought again and we do have a state park along the river that is wooded and full of campsites (pop cans, pulltabs, modern junk comes to mind) but might be worth a look-see? Not sure how old it is....I'll do some checking?

Thanks for the tip about the bag over the coil...!!! My last hunt in 2" of snow gave me fits with the coil icing up.....

 

[ChicagoJohn]

Thanks for good tip! Great idea about wrap large towel around the box in car on the way home!

 

[looknforgold]

I need to sharpen my Digger.. Thanks for the reminder, DirtDiga

 

[looknforgold]

A great list... #3, is a great idea