Cold temp shooting matches...!

[Roger Fisher]

Local club had a Beef paper shoot scheduled today and 7 of us shot in 11 degree temp.  No wind and sunny!  The wimps quit at abt 1 P.M.      

[Daryl]

Nice to see the old people getting out for a Sunday's shooting. It was considerably warmer here, only a few degrees below freezing - about 20F.  Taylor (& I) represented the old guys at our shoot. We had 9 show up and shot from 10:00 till 2:00.

[Maven]

OK Roger & Daryl, What's the secret of keeping your hands, particularly your fingers warm in subfreezing temperatures?  Sunny, cold with no wind sounds good, but my hands say otherwise.  Maybe I'm a wimp?

[Roger Fisher]

OK Roger & Daryl, What's the secret of keeping your hands, particularly your fingers warm in subfreezing temperatures?  Sunny, cold with no wind sounds good, but my hands say otherwise.  Maybe I'm a wimp?

In my case since most of me is numb anyway, I do the following - My deer skin mittens have a hand warmer in at least one.  Keep switching around and use bare hands at little as possible, loading shooting etc.  bare hand on the trigger.  I am more bothered by  heavy clothing in shouldering the rifle.  It seems like shooting a rifle with toooo long a trigger pull.  I remove an outer layer to shoot depending on how cold and then put it back on after the shot....  No spit patch of course; but I do use windshield washer solvent soaked strip patching.  Or bear grease if I feel like slopping around with it....

Yes, my hands/fingers get cold but passable. 

[Daryl]

I wear a wool gove on the left hand with another on the right, with only the tips (last joint) of the index, thumb and Saturday night finger tips exposed.  Between loading and shooting I keep that one in a pocket. Both stay OK.  If it's really cold, a pocket warmer in each parka pocket works well.  At -14, the ears get cold without cover, so a toque works well.

[Maven]

Pocket warmers.  Now why didn't i think of that?  My wife uses the small chemical ones when she plays golf in the early spring and late fall and swears by them.

[Roger Fisher]

Pocket warmers.  Now why didn't i think of that?  My wife uses the small chemical ones when she plays golf in the early spring and late fall and swears by them.

Yes, I meant those - I assumed that's what all the folks use... (deer stands, shooting etc etc.)  Cheap Light weight and no nutzing around pouring lighter fluid!

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

I have found that setting my loading method up to allow me to load with gloves on makes a huge difference.  I tethered my powder measure and ball block to my shooting bag.  I don't use a short starter.

A small piece of the tether hangs outside the bag.  I simply grab the tether to pull out the measure (forward side of bag), then drop the measure back in the bag.  Next I pull the tether for the ball block (rearward side of bag).  My gloves are deerskin leather with wool liners.  The deerskin really helps with gripping the ramrod and makes starting the ball w/o a short starter easier.

I just forgo the set trigger when shooting with bulky gloves. 

Loading the ball block still requires bare hands, but can be done in a sheltered area so it's not as big a problem.

Other tricks to keeping your hands warm:

Wear a WARM hat.
Drink 2 quarts of water before your outing
Eat a really good meal before you outing
NO cotton clothing against the skin!!!  Cotton kills.
Wear a few bulky layers of good insulation on your legs and torso
Outer layer should be of a wind-breaker material (here's where cotton can be tolerated)

The bulky wool or fleece layer under a wind-breaker type material realy helps to trap heet in.  I'll wear a long underwear top, a thin wool shirt, then a heavy wool sweater, and a polyester windbreaker pullover.  This gives me excellent "control".  If the temperature gets too warm but the wind isn't too nasty I just remove the windbreaker and set it on the bench.  If the temperature is warm but there's a little breeze then I remove the sweater and put the windbreaker back on.  Or remove the wool shirt & put the sweater/windbreaker back on.