(the above advice was mostly aimed at rifles but a lot crosses over).
Sauer, cold and wet will not hurt your rifle/handgun in any way. It may not get cold in SoCal, but if we didn't shoot in subzero temps here we would lose about 25% of our year. (Not to mention, if we fail to practice with winter gear on we put ourselves at a serious disadvantage in self-defense for 1/4 or more of the year!)
Rifles and shotguns aren't so bad, but don't get me wrong, I absolutely *hate* shooting handguns in the cold, and only do it when I'm compelled to do so.
Usually "Hey Trent, want to go shooting tomorrow?" compels me to do it.
I'm always miserable afterwards, but I've learned a few tricks with handguns in subzero weather too.
First and foremost is buy extra magazines and load them before you leave, because then you don't have to remove your gloves as often.
Next, if you drop a loaded round in the snow fumbling a magazine insert (e.g. from clearing a chamber of the last round at the end of a stage), and you manage to FIND the round, put it in your pants pocket
and not back in the magazine. That'll melt the snow and your pocket liner will absorb most of the water. If you brush off most of the snow from a fresh dropped round, and put it back in the magazine, you risk it re-freezing to the mag wall and binding the magazine up.
The other thing for handguns is (after removing all ammo from the area), practice draw and dry fire
indoors extensively with your winter gloves on. Both techniques (draw and fire) feel vastly different with gloves. The risk of a negligent discharge with handguns goes *WAY* the hell up if you aren't used to gloves. If you change winter gloves (e.g. lose a pair, use a different pair), re-practice because every set of gloves feels and works differently.
I do not believe one can practice
enough with gloves on. You reach a level of proficiency at a certain point but by next winter it always seems the skill is lost again and it feels alien.
Watch for bad habits. Stuff that's acceptable in summer months is NOT in winter months. I caught myself on Thursday, trying to put my finger on the trigger at point 3 on the draw (joining of hands). Part of that is because of retention-distance practice from last year, firing from point 2 or 3. It formed a bad habit I had to break. It wasn't an issue (from a safety perspective) because the gun was pointed downrange at the time my finger started moving to the trigger, my sights were roughly aligned for point shooting, and my brain said "FIRE" already - but it could have
became one, if my thick gloves hit that trigger before I meant to. (Even if the gun is pointed down range, any inadvertent fire is still a negligent discharge, even if your intention is to fire as soon as physically possible.)
With gloves on the indexing of the trigger finger on the trigger itself *must* become a conscious act instead of an *unconscious* one, which (for most of us), it does truly become an unconscious act at some point in training (brain says I'm going to shoot, finger moves without thinking about it). Not a bad thing under normal conditions, but a thing you have to un-learn for winter shooting, when the simple act of putting your trigger inside the trigger guard may trip the trigger, if you are wearing gloves.
Even on handguns designed for thick gloves (H&K, Glock, pretty much anything modern with a big open trigger guard), your muscle memory will move your finger to the wrong spot; not taking in to account the thickness of the glove. This will push the trigger back - possibly enough to discharge the firearm - unless you train to open your finger up more when you are wearing gloves.
(Yes, I will admit I have put rounds in to the backstop on accident before, just by putting my finger inside the trigger guard with thick winter gloves on. Which is why I've gone through such a long description here; With the right practice you can make it far less likely to inadvertently fire before you are ready).
Our southern brothers have it so much easier.
