Shooting in the Cold

It snowed for the first time this semester at Purdue and unfortunately we did not have a chance to go out shooting because we are all getting ready for finals, but if we didn’t have finals I would like to think that the range would be open and we would be shooting. I don’t think that you should stop shooting when it gets cold.

There is little difference between shooting in warm weather and cold weather. The main difference is the clothing you wear. The extra layers of clothing will make your length of pull longer but for some people that might be helpful. Another problem is that if it is cold enough for you to see your breath then that is slightly distracting when trying to shoot. You have to either hold your breath or breathe out your nose when shooting.

If you do shoot in the cold, on top of dressing warm you can also warm your hands on the barrel after you shoot. To stay warm you can also just take a break around station four if you are close to the club house. This break can be nice but if you get too warm you might not want to go back out and finish the round.

You of course probably do not want to base your shooting ability on your performance during the winter but it is still just as fun. A good thing about shooting in the winter is that it is good practice in case the weather does change while you are at a shoot and you still have more rounds to shoot. I know that last year at the National Collegiate shoot in Texas it went from 70 degrees to 40 degrees in the matter of a day.

I would recommend to everyone to at least shoot half as many rounds in the winter as they would shoot in warm weather. Shooting in the winter will not only keep you sharp and will improve your shooting in cold weather.