Cold Weather shooting

K

kujones

Guest
I shoot Rimfire Silhouette not Benchrest (with a capitol B) yet. How do you handle cold weather? We shot in the low 40's today. Does anyone notice an appreciable difference in ammo performance with lower temperatures?
 
The first cold weather match that I shot was a real eye opener for me! Bullets did not go where they were supposed to? Ammo the same
rifle the same but results were not good. AFTER the match my friend asked me if I had any problems. Yes I said. He asked me where I kept
my ammo during the match. Right where I always do, next to the gun. He then showed me where he kept his ammo during the match. In a
box with hand warmers! Seems that the lube on the lead does not like cold and keeping it warm makes it shoot like summer. Who knew? I
tried it next time we shot and I did much better.
Live and Learn!
Regards,

Joe McNeill
SW Arkansas
 
I kept my ammo box and magazines in my coat pocket and held the in my hand immediately prior to loading but i don't think that helps very much. The barrel wouldn't stay warm either and that may have been bigger problem. Even in summer my rifle likes 5-10 round down bore before settling in.
 
For cold weather target shooting (below 10°) I found that my '54 Annie groups were opening up. I tried to obtain some of these http://eley.co.uk/eley-tenex-biathlon/ but the Australian importer does not handle this ammunition so I switched to Lapua Polar Biathlon and remained competitive. Yep, even in Oz it does get to below zero in my part of the country during June/July.

* doggie *
 
Fortunately I have access to an indoor 100 yard center fire range, but if it is too cold, I just shoot handguns indoors. I guess if I ever start shooting at matches though I will have to consider what to do to keep warm. Not as easy as it was when I was a lot younger.

Bob
 
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