HUNTING: When the Bottom Falls Out
Category: hunting
Nov 11th, 2026 by sworrall
Modified Nov 11th, 2026 at 4:09 PM
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When the Bottom Falls Out |
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ScentLok’s BE:1 Revenant Jacket and Bib stand ready as the brand’s premier answer to the coldest sits of the season |
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MUSKEGON, Mich. (November 11, 2026) – Whether you’re a self-proclaimed climate alarmist or someone who points out that 150 years of weather records amount to a blink of the eye in Earth’s long climate history – or land somewhere between – there’s no getting around it. This has been one warm autumn, and whitetail hunters from the Plains to the Atlantic have the sweat-soaked base layers to prove it. A Fall That Forgot Its Job The numbers back up what hunters have been feeling. September 2026 went down as the warmest September on record for the lower 48, breaking a mark that had stood since 1998. Forty-three states ran above average, and eight of them, including whitetail strongholds Missouri and Illinois, logged their warmest September ever. In Springfield, Missouri, September actually averaged warmer than July. October didn’t offer much relief. The Upper Midwest ran hottest of all, more than seven degrees above normal for the month. The Twin Cities tied for their third-warmest October since record keeping began in 1872. On October 10, highs across Minnesota climbed into the 80s, with a few spots touching 90. Next door, Omaha logged its fourth-warmest October and is on pace for the warmest fall it has ever recorded. Farther east, the warmth was milder but just as stubborn. Pittsburgh opened November with highs in the upper 60s. In southern New England, it hung around long enough that forecasters expected peak fall color to slip into early November. |
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Winter Has a Long Memory However, calling the weather this time of year is a lot like calling the stock market. Nobody can tell you exactly when the correction is coming, only that it’s coming. A long run of good days has a way of convincing folks it’ll last forever, and that’s usually right about when it doesn’t. Recent Novembers have proven it. Veterans Day 2019 felt more like mid-January. An arctic front drove temperatures around the Twin Cities 15 to 20 degrees below average, and the first two weeks of the month ran 12 degrees below normal. Cities across the Midwest set or tied record lows in the single digits on November 12. The cold pushed all the way to Birmingham, Alabama, which dropped to 18 degrees and broke a record that had stood since 1911. November 2022 is the real cautionary tale. The month opened with daily highs running 20 to 25 degrees above normal across the upper Midwest, and St. Cloud, Minnesota, set a record of 75 degrees on November 2. By the 19th, St. Cloud couldn’t climb past 20 degrees and fell to 6 overnight. Meanwhile, Missouri spent the week of November 15 running 14 degrees below normal statewide. Then there was this very week a year ago. An arctic blast rolled out of the Northern Plains and across the eastern two-thirds of the country, with lows 10 to 25 degrees below normal. Buffalo couldn’t get out of the 20s on November 10, and a snow squall warning went up along Interstate 80 in central Pennsylvania. None of those crashes rang a bell on the way down. |
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The Bill Comes Due So, enjoy the warmth while it lasts. Weather has a way of evening the score, and forecasters already see colder, winter-like air moving in as November winds down. When the bill comes due, it rarely comes politely. One morning soon, the truck thermometer will read in the teens and the deer will finally be on their feet. That’s the morning that separates hunters. Some will be in the tree. The rest will be back at the lodge with a cup of coffee, staring out the window and wondering what they’re missing. |
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Built for the Correction The ScentLok BE:1 Revenant Jacket and Bib were built to keep you out of that lodge. Offered in Realtree’s new XT-3, the pair stands as ScentLok’s warmest answer to the harshest conditions a bowhunter will sit through. It’s made for the long, bitter hours when staying warm decides whether you climb down early or are still there when the buck shows up. “We’ve all watched the forecast this fall and wondered if there’ll even be a winter,” says Steve Allie, Marketing Director for ScentLok. “It’s coming, though. It always does. When that first real cold snap hits, hunters start thinking about one thing, and that’s how to stay on stand longer. Revenant is our best answer to that.” |
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Stopping the Real Thief Cold air is one thing. Wind is what steals body heat. Revenant’s windproofing comes from ScentLok’s exclusive WindBrake® technology, a breathable membrane that blocks moving air from stripping away warmth while still letting perspiration vapor escape. That second part matters more than most hunters realize. Sweat from the walk in turns into a chill an hour later if it has nowhere to go. |
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Warmth Mapped to the Body ScentLok didn’t simply pack the garments full of insulation. Revenant uses thermal-mapped PrimaLoft® Silver, with water-resistant treated fibers, placed according to where a hunter actually loses heat. Core areas get 133 grams, including the jacket body plus the chest, back and seat of the bib. The arms and legs get a lighter 80 grams, so they stay free to move. The fabrics do their share of the work as well. The core is wrapped in Berber fleece, whose lofty, curly pile traps still air and boosts warmth while breathing well. The extremities switch to an ultra-quiet fleece. Inside, a grid fleece lining holds its loft, resists pilling and won’t droop or sag over a long season. |
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Quiet, Mobile and Scent-Smart Warm gear has a habit of turning into a straitjacket. Revenant gets around that. The jacket’s sleeves are quilted lengthwise to keep the Berber from bunching, which leaves a cleaner path for climbing, glassing and drawing a bow. The bib adds articulated knees, an inner-thigh gusset and smooth stretch-poly panels in high-motion zones, and those panels resist burrs too. Its upper torso is deliberately lower profile, so it layers under the Revenant Jacket without adding bulk. Then there’s scent control, which is what ScentLok built its name on. Every Revenant piece carries Carbon Alloy®, a blend of treated carbon, activated carbon and zeolite that adsorbs human odor and can be reactivated in a household dryer. “Every bit of technology in Revenant has a job to do,” Allie says. “The WindBrake keeps the wind out, the mapped insulation puts warmth where you lose it, and Carbon Alloy keeps you from being smelled. Put all of that together and you have a hunter who can sit longer, stay quieter and still be undetected when it counts. That’s the whole point of the late season.” The forecast will turn. Revenant is ready for it. |
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BE:1 REVENANT JACKET FEATURES:
SIZES: S–3XL PATTERN: NEW Realtree XT-3 MSRP: $349.99 |
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BE:1 REVENANT BIB FEATURES:
SIZES: S–3XL PATTERN: NEW Realtree XT-3 MSRP: $349.99 |
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