What To Wear Under Waders Duck Hunting?

Whether you are a seasoned hunter or doing it purely for leisure times, duck hunting is a strenuous activity with various insider knowledge.

Usually, you often have to hunt in the cold water, marsh, wetlands in harsh temperatures. Gearing up is important for activities like duck hunting and many of us often are understandably confused on what to wear under waders.

Waders are the first items that protect you from cold water as you stand in the water all day long. However, just waders often would not save and protect you from the harsh conditions.

So here’s what you need to know when layering up under waders when you are duck hunting.

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Conditions to Consider:

When you are looking to layer under waders while duck hunting there are a few things you need to consider regardless of what season it is. These factors are irrespective of the temperature and humidity of the environment however tremendously important when trying to layer under waders.

Warmth:

Whether you set youtube for duck hunting in the summer of the winter, it does not neglect the fact that you would be mostly duck hunting in knee-deep in water.

Continuous exposure to water and moisture like this would eventually lead to serious damages to the health from catching a cold or in extreme cases hypothermia.

In the winter you should bundle up with thicker socks and layers than summer but warmth must be given the most important in both the seasons.

Breathability:

Duck Hunting is an activity that leads to physical strain and sweating. And with such heavy work, the breathability of the material you are wearing is an important factor.

You would want the sweat to evaporate from your skin and have your skin breathe properly. Breathable fabrics also store warmth in the layers between which also keeps you warm simultaneously.

Moisture:

A suitable material should also be used to manage the moisture of your body from sweat. Usually, preferable materials for that are cotton or linen.

Even if wool or cashmere would give you the warmth, it would never provide the adequate management of the moisture of your body. And as we previously mentioned, duck hunting is a strenuous activity that would create a lot of sweat regardless of the temperature.

In more humid conditions, you would never want the moisture to sit on your skin but rather to precipitate as soon as possible.

What To Wear Under Waders Based on Seasons:

Of course, keeping the aforementioned conditions in mind the next important factor when considering what you should wear under waders is based on seasons. It goes without saying you would not layer up under breathable duck hunting waders during duck hunting in summer the same way you would do in winter.

So here’s a brief description on what to wear based on seasons.

Summer:

During this time with temperature ranging from 30 to 40-degree celsius, you would sweat more during duck hunting and that is the most important concern you would want to address when you decide what you wear under your waders.

1. Body:

When we refer to the body we are mostly covering areas such as your torso and limb excluding your hands, feet and face. Since it is the largest area to cover among the three which you will need to properly layer up in order to manage your moisture or sweat effectively.

Wear cotton or linen fabric that would be the best equipped to combat these tasks. The fabrics you should definitely avoid for this season is jeans. Jeans get heavier with more moisture and considering you would be in the water, it’s seriously advised against.

2. Feet:

You need your feet to be dry and comfortable among walking in water. Waterproof boots would be your best bet.

The best boot is neoprene with an insulation capacity of about 2000 grams. This would help the water to not leak and ruin your day. 

For extra warmth and comfort, you can opt for a single wool sock. In this case, you would not want the retention of moisture to avoid bacterial growth.

Winter:

In winter the temperature drops from 10 to 0-degree celsius. Here the main concern is to remain warm among the low temperature.

1. Body:

For retaining heat inside the body you should try wool as one of the layers under your waders. Over that, you can also use fleece for extra warmth.

This would be effective in keeping you warm while you hunt duck, However, make sure you also keep the weight of these fabrics in mind. Duck hunting requires you to move around and these thick fabrics could make you feel heavy if you don’t layer smartly.

2. Feet:

The recommendation would remain the same as what you wore in summer, except to double up the sock game in winter for extra warmth.

3. Head:

The recommendation would be to cover your head with a windproof fleece cap to provide extra insulation and cover. Keeping the temperature of your head would undoubtedly affect the other areas of your body.

Thus to ensure proper functioning of the body covering the head from harsh elements of the environments would be a good idea.

4. Hands:

Since during duck hunting you would be exposed to constant flow of water there’s no way of keeping your hands warm without insulating it. We recommend using neoprene gloves to help as a barrier to constant exposure to water.

Final Words

To conclude you should be concerned about warmth in the winter and breathability in summer when deciding what to wear under waders for duck hunting.

However, it also goes without saying, investing in good quality waders and taking precautions before duck hunting would be a good idea. You would want to be prepared before the activity and most of all you should be smart about your layering using the factors and recommendations we provided here.