Winter gear, coat, gloves, hat, have to practice with all that if you carry with all that.
So I took a student to the range today… outside. 44 degrees with a bit of a breeze and we trained for a couple hours. She’s damaged her right shoulder so we started her on shooting left handed today… defensively accurate at 21 ft, first day out. We’ll work on speed and draw, but shes off to a great start. Even in "feels like 32 degrees ".
And we also found out how her 20 gauge prints at 22 ft… which is the distance from her bedroom door to the front door.
I found my cut off is -30 with windchill. Lol. I do like outdoor ranges in winter. It is like I own the whole range, nobody is ever there! I do adjust my vehicle kit in winter and keep insulated boots, bibs, coat, and hat and gloves in my car that I will pull out on the range, and it helps a lot. Do you have any other suggestions for what to pack for a snowy trip to the range @Zee?
I am glad she wanted to train at the distance she needs to own in her home. Is she picking birdshot because of her shoulder injury? I wonder if an AR would be a good fit for her for the recoil.
Sometimes using a push/pull method with a shotgun can alleviate some felt recoil from defensive loads.
We’re working our way through the process at her pace
The shoulder injury is new and shes waiting a doctor’s confirmation of how long she’ll be off-duty, and if it needs surgery. In either case learning left handed pistol is a useful thing, and if she’s going to be down for weeks or months, it will let her still train while she recovers. Likely she’ll be off anything shoulder mounted for a while, so the shotgun was really just to check her technique and accuracy (which is quite good) in case of emergencies without doing any additional harm. Well look at defenseive shotgun ammo for “just in case” next lesson… and we’ll work on that AR thing once the doc clears her.
Mostly the same types of shooting, just with winter clothing and gloves. Racking the slide with gloves is the biggest change, the red dot makes this easier.
That’s interesting… my student and I didn’t notice that but I’ll watch for it. She did get a bit of her glove stuck between the trigger and the trigger guard though…
Just getting out there and shooting…practicing drawing from winter gear, shooting with gloves on (which seems easier to me), more rifle shooting. I was just out there today in fact.
One thing I keep in my bag that you didn’t mention are some “hothands.”…I’ll take them out on really cold days (20ish degrees) and hold them in the palm of my gloves (hasn’t impacted my capability to manipulate the weapon) and then maybe on in my pocket to try and help the body)….especially if I’m shooting rifle at the bench trying to stay still (and holding the rifle barrel between round helps as well).
@Zee Maybe it is just a challenge for me With the red dot I don’t have to grab the slide I can just use the web between my thumb and finger to shove it fully back. If she wants to wear gloves but is catching the glove in the guard she might want to try and cut a finger slot for her trigger finger?
Bad guys don’t stop being bad because it’s cold. I’m an all time of the year range person. In fact, this Saturday I’ll be having 4H rifle practice with 10-18 year olds. If they can go sledding, they can handle shooting in the 40’s.
My only available range is outdoor so, if I want to shoot I have to face the elements. Learned how to do that when I was 12 and delivering papers on a bicycle through the Michigan winter.
I dress in layers, including something high on the neck, and keep some additional items in the truck. I also have a good meal before I head out and bring along a hot drink. Cold temps don’t bother me nearly as much as wind does. On windy days I make sure to wear something hooded. The trick is to not focus on the temperature. Keep your mind busy with safety procedures and ballistics and stuff.
And wool. Wool is king in the cold; it keeps you warm even if it gets wet. (Within reason, of course.)
I keep my Kevlar handy as well as my FD Nomex hood hand for cold weather. I need to get a thinner pair of gloves than I just bought for additional dexterity and trigger control. My new ones proved to dangerous to place inside the trigger guard without actually depressing the trigger when I was dry firing.
I had to do that at home after I bought them. Cabela’s frowns on dry firing in the store.
me too