Warmest Hunting Socks TEST | Merino, Alpaca, Electric Heated
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 ม.ค. 2024
- This is a test of some of the best hunting socks including merino wool, alpaca wool, and electric heated socks. I dry tested and wet tested heavy duty winter hunting socks in this review from companies like from Darn Tough, First Lite, Kuiu, Warrior Alpaca, Fieldsheer, and Lincoln Outfitters. Half were boot cut socks and half were over the calf socks. These are the thermal base layers for your feet. I also tested one of the socks with a hot-hands warmer to see how much it helps.
The New Hunters Guide podcast: www.newhuntersguide.com/
Support the channel on Patreon: / thenewhuntersguide
Below are the socks I tested, or the closest modern equitant I could find:
* First Lite Zero Cold Weather Sock: firstlite.pxf.io/xkgK4d
* Darn Tough Heavyweight Hunter: amzn.to/3hXInCT
* KUIU Ultra Crew: www.kuiu.com/products/ultra-m...
* Lincoln Outfitters Big Bertha: www.ruralking.com/lincoln-out...
* Warrior Alpaca Toasty Toes: www.warrioralpacasocks.com/al...
* Fieldsheer Men's Premium 2.0 Merino Heated fieldsheer.com/products/premi...
This experiment was designed to help find the warmest socks for hunting deer, ducks, geese, turkey, pheasant, waterfowl, etc, in super cold late season weather. #merinowool #huntinggear #hunting . In this previous video I also tested WigWam, Smartwool, Cabelas wool socks, and wanted to test SITKA Gear socks but they don’t make any: • Warmest Hunting Socks ...
Hunting Gear
Tetra Hearing protection: tetrahearing.com/collections/...
Get 10% off with the code: NHG2410
Holosun 507K Red Dot Sight: amzn.to/3Ig9NyK
Muck Arctic Pro Boot - amzn.to/3HpqPpV
RedHead Rubber Boot - cabelas.xhuc.net/5bzKN9
Darn Tough Hunter Socks - amzn.to/3ROwrBo
First Lite Furnace Long John - amzn.to/3M7PX8d
First Lite Furnace - amzn.to/3RTkuL0
First Lite Kiln Crew - amzn.to/46o7AuG
First Lite Kiln Long John - amzn.to/3JB4jP1
First Lite Tundra Balaclava - amzn.to/3BUK0XL
Sitka Fanatic Beanie - amzn.to/3HpnLu3
Cabela's MT050 Bibs - cabelas.xhuc.net/7mKdq5
Cabela's MT050 Parka - cabelas.xhuc.net/P0nBER
Cabela's GORE-TEX Glomitts - cabelas.xhuc.net/qnoV9N
If you purchase something through the above affiliate links, it helps support the channel. Thank you! - กีฬา
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My great grandpa would hike in with a spare pair of wool socks tucked in his jacket then put them on at his deer stand and stuff the ones he took off in his jacket and rotate as necessary. It was a tactic used during his time in the Finnish military by snipers that he brought with him to Northern Minnesota after the war.
Thats genius. Dry socks make a huge difference. I always advice western game hunters to take 2 pairs of socks so they can change mid-day in order to keep their feet warm, dry, and avoid blisters.
@@TheNewHuntersGuide Solid advice .
The moisture is why I recommend a thinner alpaca, merino, bison, or yak baselayer sock (all with some synthetic for greater durability), with a thicker, semi loose fitting polypropylene sock over it. You can take off the PP sock, wring and/or swing most of the water out of it, put it back on and it will dry very fast after. That is because the PP sock doesn't absorb any moisture into the actual material itself, water just gets held in the fiber/yarn interstice (free, porous areas). And because the surface of PP socks tends to be very hydrophobic, that water comes off very fast and easy.
Also, PP has one of the lowest thermal conductivity of materials commonly used for clothing. Only things that are better, are fibers with significant hollow space/voids in them, like Thermolite, alpaca, etc.
Awesome video! You always have great content and I for one who has had frost bite from my military days truly appreciates this test. Thank you Sir!
Thank you so much!
Thank you George for doing these tests! That was a lot of work! You are amazing my friend! 👍🙏☺
Thank you so much for watching!
Thanks for the video as always
Thanks for watching Ben!
Great video as always. And timely as I’m about to start shopping for new socks and other layers.
Thank you so much!
I absolutely love my Warrior Alpaca socks. You can't beat their comfort either.
Finally, someone who has heard of them! Yes, they are excellent, just recorded another video with them yesterday.
Awesome George thank you for giving us a starting point so we can see what works best for us, God bless you and go get them in the marsh
Thanks so much Jeff!
Just found your channel, great stuff! I subscribed. Really nice/thorough review. I love darn tough, and will always have them, but I’m going to give those warriors a try for those really long sits on cold days.
Thanks! The Darn Tough are my favorite for all around hunting and walking alot. But for sitting motionless for long cold days, the Warriors are the warmest for sure.
I love your channel dude, it has been so helpful. I have a low tolerance to the cold and the sock series has been great for me. Despite having highly insulated boots i still feel like my socks have been the weak link. I will try out some of these and let you know how it goes!
Awesome! Thanks for watching. Be sure to try out putting some hot hands in your boots too. I lightly tape them above my toes with a tiny bit of loose masking tape.
Awesome test and video. Thanks for all the effort you go through for us George. It's almost like even on high, the heated socks tried to keep you at body temp without sweating but I'm guessing it's just a coincidence.
Thanks! I've used lower grade heated socks in the past they got uncomfortably hot, then you sweat, then you freeze because they are cotton, lol. These merino socks do not get as hot and they hold a nice stable temp longer, much smarter design, and of course they are wool.
Great test. I like the changes you made from last time.. I looking at some bison socks and sure would of lived to seen alpaca vs bison.
Thanks! I have not been impressed with the bison socks, the cost to bison ratio is pretty bad. I haven't found a satisfactory pair to buy yet.
I just got in a 90 percent bison fur pair of socks. I went squirrel hunting Tuesday and it was 30 degrees. I did not wear insulated boots. After sitting for an hour i pulled the boot and sock off. My feet were actually dry and warm. I have never had that happen before.Mine were from the. Buffalo wool company.They were 65 bucks but may be worth every cent if they keep my feet warm.@@TheNewHuntersGuide
I've worn wool socks, sweaters and coats and pants in colder conditions. My sons being younger get after me about being " old fashioned" . Well, I my be old to a 26 and 29 year old but wool works.
Wool is hip and trendy again if you put the word merino in front of it lol. But in all seriousness, for socks wool is the best thing going, there is no close second.
I have been wondering about the alpaca socks. Not anymore
They are very nice. I hope to do some more testing with them in the future.
@@TheNewHuntersGuide will be waiting to see it
Great job. Thanks. I bought a pair of a Hollow Alpaca socks. Pretty good. The percentage of wool in the sock material might make a difference. I’ve seen socks listed as Marino wool with only 20%. I have Marino with 80%.
Yea, only 20% feels mostly like marketing. At least the inside of the sock that touches your foot needs to be fairly dense on the material.
I have KUIU’s three varieties of socks, Darn tough in thinner and their thickest models and Hollow alpaca socks in thin and thicker varieties…I truly love them all, the alpaca are the softest and most comfortable by far…due to the darn tough warranty, I think I’ll hike in one of their thinner socks and use those as the workhorse sock (can replace them if they wear dow, so my feet don’t sweat, then have a thick pair of alpaca socks or the KUIU ultra merino sock for after the hike while I’m sitting and glassing
Having multiple pairs really is key!
Do people not layer socks anymore? For work i wear costco merino wick away socks then put over that thicker merino wool sock.
You need to keep the moisture away from your feet and allow the moisture to escspe. otherwise feet will get cold and stay cold. Once i added moisture wick away sock layer, my feet have never been cold.
All the big boys are saying layering with socks is bad for sitting, too much foot constriction is counterproductive. But if you are working or walking, I don't see a downside.
I left a couple of comments on your older sock test video. To continue on a theme. A couple of points about the finer points of insulation (for general public viewing/reading). The most important aspect of insulation is fiber size and how many per a give volume. The smaller the fibers you can pack, with air space between them, in a given volume, the more insulation you will get. This is why high fill power goose and Eider down are so ridiculously insulating. The fibrils that come off the shaft are ridiculously fine and there are many branches of these.
The next important factor is whether or not the fibers are more solid or hollow. Alpaca fibers have these pockets of relative void/empty spaces in them, which help to boost the insulation some, especially when wet. But, if you compare say a layer of coarse alpaca verse and equally thick layer of very ultra fine merino, the merino will be more insulating, because again fiber size is more important when there is a significant difference.
The next important factor is fiber shape. Perfectly round fibers will not still as much air as a shaped fiber with more surface area, whether that is trilobal like silk fibers, or fibers like the Coolmax that is round but with the side channels, or Octa fibers. A simple thought exercise is taking some cord of different shapes and packing them parallel to each other, or twisting them one over the other. The perfectly round fibers will have less void space between their surfaces than the shaped cord with more surface area. Same principle for clothing insulation but on a more micro level.
Then material matters some, both the thermal conductivity, the moisture regain and how fast it dries or not. Cotton sucks because the material has high moisture regain and doesn't dry fast, while the fibers are more ribbon and flat (and tend to lay flatter the wetter they get, so more surface area of conductive material touching your skin and less trapped air pockets), and the material has higher thermal conductivity, especially when wet, than wool, alpaca, polyester, polypropylene, and acrylic (but its dry thermal conductivity is lower than nylon's). Its a perfect storm of various different factors in combo with moisture that make it a poor active and outdoor cold and/or wet insulator. (It is actually a pretty decent dry condition insulator though).
On my other comments, I mentioned how I really like using a 2nd layer of thicker polypropylene sock over a thin. A good alternative to that, is a thicker thermolite sock that you treat with a silicone treatment (thin some 100% silicone caulk with naphtha in a 1 part silicone to 30 parts naphtha by volume). If the thermolite sock is made to wick, this will completely ruin the wicking, but that is ok. It will still dry faster than the non treated version (especially if you wring and/or swing the water out of it). (Btw, if you want to add some anti odor properties, mix in some very fine copper oxide particles in with the silicone naphtha slurry before treating the Thermolite socks. Hopefully some of that will get embedded more towards the surface of the silicone coating, which should cut down on microbial growth. I will be trying this with some synthetic fishnet baselayers. I have some nylon-spandex blend ones, and some acrylic ones that I want to treat with this process).
Good points, thank you for sharing!
Friend of mine turned me onto Heatholders boot socks. Cabelas stocks them for $20. They’re definitely the thickest warmest socks I’ve encountered to date. If you aren’t already doubling or tripling up on some thick style socks you’ll have to buy larger footwear to wear them.
Thanks, I need to take a look.
Most those socks are almost to heavy imo. In Illinois we'll get those -5 degree days. Problem with socks is they'll get wet from sweat so an overlay heavy sock will cause em to sweat. People should look into a hiker liner sock to pair with their heavy weights. A liner will control moisture better and keep the foot more comfortable all day. Also don't wear those heavy socks on the drive out
Having more than one sock with you can make a big difference. People often don't think about changing socks, but throwing on a dry pair can be a game changed.
Great review. Would be good to know the different composition of materials in each sock, ie. wool and ply thickness, % of synthetic material (nylon, elastine etc) as these all contribute to warmth retention and thickness.
Thanks so much!
Well this video puts some data to my disappointment in the darn tough socks I got for Christmas. The hunter medium and heavy and neither seemed any warmer than the much cheaper merino blend socks I bought off Amazon years ago. Fine as a gift, but I’d be annoyed if I had bought them with my own money.
I'll tell you what, I still wear the Darn Tough socks more than anything else because I can walk forever in them, they don't fall down, and they never wear our or give me blisters. They are comfortable and warm after 10 miles. I do not wear them in a deer stand on the coldest days anymore, but they have proven themselves to be a very important part of my gear. If I could only have 1 pair of hunting socks, it would be them. Second pair would probably be the super warm Alpaca socks for those coldest days.
Fun follow-up test(s): Take 1 or 2 (1 is probably going to be the most convenient because of the method I will propose) of the highest performing regular socks AND the Fieldsheer then throw the waterbottle into a sock, then into a pair of hunting boots, - and leave it for 3-4 hours not just 1hour. I feel the point of actively heated clothes/socks is to extend the time you can be hot and comfortable, so it would be interesting to see at what point, if at all, an actively heated sock will start to outperform.
You could also just redo with the same method you used in this video (dry) and extend the time to 3-4 hours at the same time - since you have 2 of each sock anyway :)
That isn't a bad idea at all. I actually have 2 pairs of the same boots, non-insulated neoprene. One is more worn than the other but warmth levels should be identical. So, I could test 4 socks in one go. If this video gets good response, I'll look into that as a followup test.
@@TheNewHuntersGuide Id be interested in this and definitely agree. From what I heard with the heated socks, you turn them on to take the edge off right before you're about to give up and leave. At least thats how I use my vest!
Oh man, I use them just as soon as I begin to get chilled. Hoping to keep from every reaching the about to give up point, lol. They definitely help. I have a vest I use at times as well.@@Drblood6721
After your first test I tried to purchase some of the big bertha socks from Rural Kings on 12/4/23 and they never communicated with me via email about my order, never sent any tracking info, and today I received an email saying my order has been cancelled. I don’t think I’ll be doing any business with that company in the future!
Rural King is sort of like a cross between a discount warehouse, a feed store, a hardware store, and sporting goods shop. Bare concrete floors, free popcorn for everyone who comes in, and not much organization. I'm shocked they even have an online store. You kind of just have to go there and hope they have what you want. But if they do, its usually very cheap and very high quality.
How about a base layer test with Alpaka
I've never seen one. Do you have a recommendation?
Hey George what first lite coat are you wearing?
That is the source jacket. I'll do a review at some point. I wear it in alot of videos becuase it's quiet and doesn't swoosh when I talk with my hands, and the camera doesn't distort or blur the camo pattern. It's a good jacket but it meets my audio/visual needs for videos lol.
I would like to see you do a test of zero fit socks. They claim to create heat with the touch of your body. They say they are the warmest out there. Japanese ingenuity they say.
What makes them so magical?
@@TheNewHuntersGuide I have no clue they have a blend of 69 % Acrylic
14% Nylon
5% wool
2% Polyurethane
They are pretty warm I will say that.
I have also been looking at a company called Brynje for base layers
They make what you call wool mesh apparently it is better because you won’t sweat in it. And their attic stuff looks really good also.
I am also super happy to see alpaca won the sock contest I have been buying socks for hunting this year from purely alpaca and I’m hoping they are as good as the ones you tested. They have a high alpaca content. One of the highest I could find.
I have been considering that same mesh too. I might give it a test this year.@@MrChiumiento
It looks like there may have been a discrepancy between your initial wet test data reporting with the alpaca and the later graph you made? You first said that the alpaca socks had the warmest water temp, but then later put it below another in the graph.
They were the warmest dry and were in the top 3 wet. I might have said it in reverse. The charts are right. Thanks!
i have a long pair of thin mohair socks and they are far warmer than all my thick wool socks. When they get wet they actually heat uo. They are itchy and need to be worn over very thin socks.
Have you found good liner socks that aren't too tight?
i use thin, short dry max socks under the mohair - neither is tight. very comfortable
@@robertwood6297 Nice
get yourself a long pair of mohair socks - super cheap - you won't regret it @@TheNewHuntersGuide
where do you buy lincoln outfitters?
Rural King, in the fall.
thank you!👍@@TheNewHuntersGuide
What's your PhD in?
Communications Media.
Very cool!