5 hours of hunting at 5° with heated socks

January 19, 2018

Testing heated socks during a hunting trip in Moselle on January 17, 2018.

At the beginning of December, I came across a big guy on a hunt who was plugging batteries into his socks. I asked him what they were, and he explained that they were heated socks and that he now always wore them when it was cold. The next day, I order the same heated socks (brand G-Heat on www.g-heat.com) and receive them in early January 2018. I then wait for my next outing to try them out.

A winter's day

After getting up at 5.30am and driving for almost 2.5 hours in the dark of night, I arrive at 8.30am at the edge of a Moselle forest. It's bitterly cold and around thirty of us have gathered inside for the day's briefing over a traditional cup of coffee. It's overcast and the morning mist hasn't cleared yet, but the weather should clear up later in the day. The temperature is around 3°C and should not rise above 10°C in the afternoon, with a rather unpleasant wind resulting from the drag of the latest low-pressure system.

First test of Heated Socks G-Heat

I've been wearing my socks since this morning (I nearly forgot the batteries I'd charged the night before! ): nothing to say about the appearance of the socks, which look just like my hunting wool socks. So off I go, stuffing both batteries into my pockets and heading for my post, where I'll be spending the morning.
Once at my post, I plug in the batteries and set the socks to the minimum heating level to test this. After a few minutes, the sensation of heat is perceptible. I pay attention to it for a quarter of an hour: the sensation is stable of a very slight heating. The hunt begins and I forget about my feet until the end of this first stalk, when I see a superb stag. I leave my post and start walking, remembering that my batteries are still on. I take them off to join the others.

I didn't feel the cold at all, whereas my feet usually go numb after 2 hours of standing still, despite the use of high-quality wool socks. It's just just great, and I didn't even feel cold on the rest of my body, which often happens when it's windy.

The afternoon was much the same. I'll also try out the batteries during lunch (taken outdoors) where, after walking for 20 minutes to reach our shelter and having a snack, my feet got cold again. So I put the batteries back on, this time at the maximum level, and they warm up in 1 minute, which is great, but with good shoes, there's no need to stay at this level for long, because I'm going to start sweating!

A largely positive balance sheet

The great thing about these heated socks is that they make me forget about my feet, which is usually all I can think about (especially when you can't see anything;). Beyond the feet, the effect is also on the whole body, and the sensation of cold is clearly reduced. So it's a good investment and I'm going to see what it does over time. In any case, I won't be doing without it when I'm on a post hunt, or when it's below 10 degrees and wet.

Hubert S.