Winter Shooting, Day 1

That’s correct.  I didn’t make it to the range this winter until the beginning of January.  Last year I missed out on pretty much the whole winter due to my reloading area being so full as to be unworkable, and was working to finish the new room.  I missed a lot of important information and experience by missing out on shooting in the winter last year.

I’m very interested in how the cold will affect the various aspects on my shooting.  Not that I’ve never been out in it shooting, but I haven’t really put effort into seriously studying it.  I would like to figure out what the equipment challenges are going to be including keeping warm and functional, if my cold bore zero will wander much, if my point of impact will string more than in the summer, and what additional problems will come.

I would have like to get out when it was really cold.  The coldest it gets around here is perhaps a few degrees below zero.  That’s usually at night.  I would estimate that the coldest day time temperatures here are in the single digits.  You can tell when it’s that cold because every time you breathe it freezes your nostrils. 

On this day it was in the single digits in the early morning hours.  By the time I was ready to go it was in the teens.  At the range my Kestrel read 21°.  It felt a little colder than that to me at first, but either I got used to it, or the fact that it was 22° when I left made a big difference.  I was a little disappointed that the temperature was so high, but you get what you get.  That’s not so cold as to cause miserable discomfort unless you have to lay behind the rifle for 3-4 hours.  Then it’s a mind game just to stay in position.

I wore thermal underwear, top and bottom, 2 pairs of regular weight wool socks, German surplus wool pants (AWESOME!!!) my ever-present flannel, and a down coat.  I use silk glove liners and nomex gloves for dexterity work, and the liners with heavier gloves for general purpose.  On my head was one of those Cabela’s head covering, ninja mask/Russian pastry named things, and my home-made rabbit hat (kilt them all myself).  All this stuff, except for the rabbit hat, is in my man purse during winter, plus a bit of fall and spring.  It may seem like a bit much to keep with you, but I am still holding out against having a cell phone and I need to be prepared to walk home in whatever the world happens to be doing should my antique vehicle crap out on me.

This was sort of an administrative shooting session, but I still refrained from group shooting.  I had both the Rem700 and the FN.  I started with the Remmy.

My impression of the effects of the cold weather on my shooting was that it was similar to how it feels to shoot a gun in a dream.  There was a barrier between me and the rifle controls.  Most of this was how the headwear affected my ability to get a sight picture.  What I realized later was that this was greatly exacerbated by the Remmy’s short length of pull, which is in the neighborhood of 12.5” to 12.75” (can’t remember exactly right now).  It always feels cramped, which is probably why I don’t shoot it much.  Remind me to call McMillan about getting a spacer.  Another significant issue was the fogging of my eye protection.

The zero on the Remmy was 0.4 mils high.  I don’t think I’ve fired it since September.  The point of impact with the rifle is more consistent than with the FN.

With the FN I wanted to see what the cold bore for a bonded round was.  That shot went right and a little low.  Most of the following shots with the Federal Gold Medal match were more consistent, but I occasionally got a few drastically right fliers.  I'm pretty sure it wasn't me.  There was no change in zero on this occasion.  I think that since I have shot this rifle more consistently, I have probably already accounted for those changes that I believe occur seasonally.  I might have to check my data book to see if the adjustments over the past months equate to the same number as what the Remmy had to change.

I also got a chance to play with the new camera.  It takes up to 5 shots per second.  Here is an eight photo sequence from just prior to the shot breaking to after the bolt is worked and the grip reacquired.

Just to keep it fair for everyone I traded jobs for a while with my range partner for the day, Young Miss Rifleslinger.

Then I challenged her to play a game of RifleTac-Toe.  I let her use the Remmy.  It’s heavier and shoots a bit more consistently.

Her plays are in red and mine are yellow.  The play only counts if the shot touches the target dot on that grid.  Both of our first shots touched a target other than what we were aiming at.  She went first, so my first shot was nil.  I started connecting and beat her in five rounds.  That’s actually a lot more fun that just shooting groups or dot drills.

My gear did fine for the most part, although the right leg of the Atlas would not close for a while.  It either froze or was impeded due to compacted snow and ice obstructing the mechanism.  I was hoping to get cold enough to see if the home-altered lube concoction I was using would freeze.  I detected absolutely no difference in its viscosity. 

Fogging is always an issue.  This isn’t a problem with the internals of most of the stuff (the camera may be an exception), but the fog from breath is a big problem.  None of the stuff that is supposed to counter fogging that I have tried has worked for me.  A trick I have learned in the past is to point my breath down when wearing the ninja mask.  This works for binos and scopes, but is too much of a chore for eye protection, in my opinion. 

Another effect of the weather was that I just couldn’t get done all that I wanted to get done.  It affected my ability to move quickly and my willingness to stay as long as normal.  I guess I have the whole rest of the winter to toughen up.

This post wouldn't be complete without a gratuitous shot of an RS2 sling in the snow: