8MM Mauser
New member
Hey guys. I had a range trip with my dad last Sunday, and here in Michigan it was about 10-15 degrees. I expected some of the usual problems with cold: it was a pain to load our .22's and I was not as comfortable say, assuming a prone position in the foot of snow. However, another couple of issues cropped up while shooting. I was shooting mostly my Ruger MKII target model with a 10 inch (that's right, 10 inch) barrel. The trigger guard was too small to accommodate my thick winter gloves and besides, I can barely feel the trigger through them. As a result, my shooting was awful, shotgun pattern-size groups on a shoot-n-c target at 25 yards (which is abysmal for this pistol.) My hands were shaking and numb, I could barely feel the trigger and I kept short-stroking the reset because I couldn't hear or see it over the wind. In addition, after about 20 minutes, my eyes began to water. Not badly, but enough to cloud my vision.
Thing is, winter in Michigan will continue to be this cold. I need some tips to beat the cold and a realistic way of assessing how much of my performance degradation is due to weather vs. lack of practice. I've shot rapid fire strings, 100 rounds ten at a time and kept them in a 4 inch group at 25 yards with this gun; me and this Ruger are a good combination. So this kind of shooting really got me down. One thought I had was buying a pair of under armor gloves that would insulate my hand but still fit in the triggerguard and allow me to actually feel the trigger. Another thought was to shoot at an indoor range; but my wallet disagrees with both propositions.
Incidentally, my rifle shooting degrades slightly, but not like my pistol shooting. I was able to wear gloves when shooting my rifle and the trigger pull is so light I was about right for accuracy with it. I also did fine with clays. Once again, the cold degraded my performance slightly; but nothing like what happened with the pistol.
So what are your experiences shooting in inclement weather? Am I just beating myself over nothing? Maybe some of our Alaskan members can chime in?
Thanks in advance.
Thing is, winter in Michigan will continue to be this cold. I need some tips to beat the cold and a realistic way of assessing how much of my performance degradation is due to weather vs. lack of practice. I've shot rapid fire strings, 100 rounds ten at a time and kept them in a 4 inch group at 25 yards with this gun; me and this Ruger are a good combination. So this kind of shooting really got me down. One thought I had was buying a pair of under armor gloves that would insulate my hand but still fit in the triggerguard and allow me to actually feel the trigger. Another thought was to shoot at an indoor range; but my wallet disagrees with both propositions.
Incidentally, my rifle shooting degrades slightly, but not like my pistol shooting. I was able to wear gloves when shooting my rifle and the trigger pull is so light I was about right for accuracy with it. I also did fine with clays. Once again, the cold degraded my performance slightly; but nothing like what happened with the pistol.
So what are your experiences shooting in inclement weather? Am I just beating myself over nothing? Maybe some of our Alaskan members can chime in?
Thanks in advance.