Will you shoot in the rain?

[Squishy]

I live and shoot in Wisconsin. If you want to shoot you better get use to crappy weather. Rain snow or cold or all of the above. I draw the line when the temp goes below 0. Pasters don't stick to targets. Fingers and hands numb from the cold.

[splashdown]

I'm north of Seattle. Nuff said.

The worst part is trying to get the tape to stick to wet targets.

[.40AET]

Seems like it rained A LOT last year. The VA/MD match was probably the worst. Set up in a light rain, then shot in the pouring rain. Local matches the MD usually will change to a steel format and shoot no matter how hard it rains. Hurricanes are about the only thing that will cancel a match. I might get a tarp to go over the back of my explorer this year to make more room for dry stuff between stages.

[George]

Big match, I’ll shoot through any conditions. Club match, I’ll stay home if it’s wet outside. I used to pride myself on not being bothered by weather, but nowadays, I’d rather be dry than anything else. I will admit that I have become wuss with age.

--

Regards,

[ima45dv8]

I'll shoot if I'm wet, and I'll shoot if I'm cold, but the propect of shooting wet and cold will generally keep me at home.

[Flexmoney]

It is all the better that some of you stay home when it rains. After all...you don't want to get your pretty guns wet. Chances are...they wouldn't run anyway.

[Clay1]

OK all of you tough guys, I can take the heat. My name is Rick, I live in Wisconsin and I am a weather wuss. I don't like to shoot in the rain and the frozen stuff - the season is too long to have to shoot in that for me. There are others like me too. The others wusses just don't have the balls to say that they are whimps when it comes to weather.

[kimel]

I have found that one of those EZ-Up canopies makes a huge difference in tolerating wet matches. A squad can huddle under the canopy to stay dry except when running field courses. We put the canopy over the box for stand and deliver stages (and steel). Just make sure the open guys stick the comp out from under the canopy.

Four guys can grab a leg and walk the canopy between stages real easily if the path is wide enough. If not, it is simple to collapse it down and move it.

RE: Frozen mag change. I now coat the outside of my mags with Krunch Mag Slick which seems to be enough to keep damp hands from freezing to the mags. It also makes the mags shoot out of the magwell. At the time the frozen mag change happened I was a "a perfectly clean mag is the only way to go" type person. I changed.

[.40AET]

Chances are...they wouldn't run anyway.

Mine runs great soaking wet. Muddy mags.......that may be another story.

[EricW]

Once we resurrect St. Patrick to drive the troglodytes from North Idaho, it is my dream that every bay at Fernan will have a car-canopy at the entrance, each festooned with a sturdy bench to keep range bags out of the mud. All it takes is a few, simple, creature comforts to make rain games no big deal at all.

I decry anyone who won't shoot rain games because their precious gun-gun will get wet to be a pathetic wussy.

[George]

I decry anyone who won't shoot rain games because their precious gun-gun will get wet to be a pathetic wussy

My gear is not the reason I don’t like shooting wet. If the gear can’t handle rain, snow, ice, mud and dust and tremendous physical abuse, then it needs to get tossed out in back with the beer cans ;-) I’m the wuss, I like not having wet clothes on and no matter how good your rain gear is, you get wet when you stand in the rain all day. Even with some shelter available, you have to go out in the rain to reset the stage and to shoot and eventually the water gets in.

All weather shootin’ at the major matches only for me. Get me in the rain, mud and snow at a major match and I am happy as a clam. Get me wet at a Sunday club match and I would rather not have come out to play.

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Regards,

Edited March 13, 2005 by George

[ipscron2000]

I remember shooting the Mississippi Classic last year and it rained like I'd never seen it rain before. There were 165 shooters I believe that I don't remember a single person complaining, at least about the rain. It was scheduled for 2 days and I think all but a few shot it in one day. Although nobody complained the first day, I don't think most wanted to go through that again a second day.

It was a fun match, I scored some primers off of the table.

[kimel]

EricW: Pat Kelley is a saint?

Rain caps on target stands are an interesting idea but I just don't see them working out here where the rain usually comes in at an angle.

I generally keep some urethaned targets in my truck. If I get to the range for practice and it is raining I will use them so I don't have to go home, shoot bagged targets, or deal with limp and curling targets.

[Carlos]

I'll shoot in any weather. See my post in Gunsmithing on home parkerizing.

D.C. Johnson

[Sterling White]

at Flex....not much to say but right to the point.

Mental conditioning is the key because bad weather is a small test of character. I felt like a drowned ratt at A4 last year. My team mate said that I reminded him of a water buffalo on the stage back in the far corner. The rain came, and came, and came...to the point that when I shot the water must have been 8 inches deep. We were laughing because one misplaced reload and kiss you mag goodbye!

  It is all the better that some of you stay home when it rains. After all...you don't want to get your pretty guns wet. Chances are...they wouldn't run anyway.

Pretty guns....nuts!

sw

[kdj]

Back when I shot in the UK, I don't think I remember a match when it wasn't raining!

Here in CA, matches in the rain are great 'cause only about 10% of the usual crowd show up and we get done faster

Kevin

[warpspeed]

not on purpose but if it starts raining once there, then it's "game on"

[geezer-lock]

We don’t often have rain on the Llano Estacado (this year seems to be the exception, with three matches canceled) but the actual rain would not normally keep us from having a match. We don’t shoot because of the lightning threat, the high winds and the mud. Our range is mostly caliche with a little alluvial gravel thrown in. Wet caliche is slicker than snot on a glass door knob. Running is out of the question and walking is a real challenge.

If I have driven 500 miles to shoot and the local hosts are keeping the match going I will be there to the end. Didn’t like it much but did it twice last year.

geezer

[diehli]

For me it depends on two things: do we have to swim and how cold is it? Cold, no problem. Wet, no problem. Cold and wet, I get pissy. Not real big on falling on my ass, either, hence not liking the swimming aspect. Otherwise, who cares? Ride a motorcycle for any length of time and you'll see what I mean. I always loved the question "what do you do when it rains?" Get wet.

[Wap wap]

I'm awash in visual metaphor.

[John Dunn]

Only if there is no sleet or driving snow to be had elsewhere. Sleet and driving snow weeds out the weak, rain just makes the weak wet.

[kimel]

Ya gotta love a snow match when the white no-shoots disappear in the blizzard.

[sargenv]

Rain? In California? Well.. yeah.. though we were lucky this season. Every match that it threatened has had good weather this year. We'd bag the targets, but come match time, the bags came off and we shot without them. At least 2 matches this winter, it started raining just after we'd finished. In the past though, I'd shot in the rain, I bought gore-tex pants just for those occasions. It's nice sitting down and not getting a wet seat.

One time I borrowed a friend's K frame 357 to shoot revolver class. What I forgot was that he uses a plain black front sight. All the revolvers I'd ever shot used an orange front blade. I had a heck of a time finding the front sight on that gun in the low light conditions of a downpour. lol.

Vince