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Hot weather shooting?

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Monkeyleg

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Dec 25, 2002
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Decatur, AL
I'm really feeling guilty, as I have a brand new BCM M4 that I haven't even shot. My defense? It's been near 100 degrees here every day for the last month. Overnight temperatures have been in the upper 70's and low 80's. I sweat just standing outside.

I guess I've become a weather wimp in my old age.

Am I alone?
 
I live in new mexico so 100 is the norm this time of year. i still go shooting, but i am only 18 so i guess i dont really count. my truck doenst even have a/c
 
I have no problems being out all day in 100 degree temperatures. Need to cover up and wear sun protection of course but I don't mind sweating if my garments are lightweight. In fact, it was the hot summers that lured me from a cool climate to Texas! I'm sitting here now at my computer in my shorts, no shirt, with the patio doors open, enjoying the warm air wafting in. I wonder if feeling oppressed by the heat is a state of mind? After spending most of my life in a cool climate (and complaining about it), I have vowed never to complain about the heat.
 
I'm with you brother. I live in Maryland and this summer has been brutal. I usally take my kids out shooting once a week in the summer, but this year we've only been out a hand full of times. Come on September!!!
 
I'm really feeling guilty, as I have a brand new BCM M4 that I haven't even shot. My defense? It's been near 100 degrees here every day for the last month. Overnight temperatures have been in the upper 70's and low 80's. I sweat just standing outside.
I guess I've become a weather wimp in my old age. Am I alone?

u must b a Yankee !
deep South Georgia July/August make a fat old man a dead old man
ain't been to the range in 4 weeks now, ain't not done that in years
it is HOT

(and, nope, it ain't that New Mexico or Arizona "yeah, but it's DRY heat", either)
still, wouldn't trade it for that #@^& snow shovel, traded that away 37 years ago, no regrets !

(I still do shoot every week , November thru March) :D
 
It ain't a dry heat in AZ right now! It's monsoon season, where you step outsidse and the heat and humidity fog up the glasses solid. We only have three seasons out here, hot dry, hot wet, and cool.
I leave the house after the boy catches the bus, and hit that range right when it opens. By the time I leave an hour and a half later at the most, it's blazing down...
It is times like this that we remember the tradition from Mexico of the noon siesta is not a sign of laziness, but a practical neccessity to avoid heat injuries, splitting the work day around the hot part of the day.
 
It hasn't been that hot here in northern VA, but it was pretty hot and humid for a while. I suppose it's what you're used to. I couldn't go to the range when we had that hot weather. Thank God for indoor ranges!
 
Did a little time in the Mid east and I remember it being 113F a few times in the shade. Also remember flies that when struck they just got mad and called all the other flies from miles around and really got you back! Flies bothered me but the heat I got used to..

Seems like 25 pounds and not being motivated like I once was, coupled with 85% humidity and a temp of 98f pretty much shuts me down too. Very common heat index of over 100 to 107.

The range I been going to does have a few 10x20 overhead shade things which helps keep the direct light off but way down here in South Texas that just gives the mosquitoes a good ambush site.

Remember having to cancel flights out of Vegas do to temps being over 120F ( I think?)...Planes could fly but fed paperwork only had charts that only went to 118F..Yep it was a dry heat but so is the exhaust from a Jet engine in afterburner; biggest difference being the smell.
 
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I try to stay indoors if the heat index is over 100.

I've been a heat casualty before.
Don't ever want to be one again.

100+ heat index wears me out almost instantly.

I'm right on the border between the orange and green.

The slam-dunk fatties must nearly die at the drop of a hat in the 100+ weather.

diabetes_BMI_chart.gif
 
Just went shooting today here in sunny Orlando, FL.

We went out to some property my family owns and blasted away for about 2 hours in the mid-day Florida heat, AND it was raining for half of the time, which made it no cooler but did bring the mosquitos out and made the humidity around 100%. We ended up drenched between the rain and the sweat but the shooting was worth it!
 
I tried to go to the range this week but the heat index was 109... and after 9 shots (spaced out over 30 min or so) the barrel on my Marlin xs7 started to heat up too much and my groups started to go south. So I shot my Ruger MKII for a while and then came back to the Marlin... and by that time I had sweated through my shirt, shorts, and socks... so I decided to pack it in and go read THR in the AC...
 
was VERY hot today here and extremely humid in TN. so naturally, i donned a leather shooting coat and laid in the sun from 9-4
 
as long as it is just in the spirit of good fun, and not taken otherwise...


yup, Texas skeeters do have the same homing devices as Ga/Fla skeeters, but they be mostly just food fodder for migratory birds, (migratory birds being brunch for down south skeeters).. but not like Alaska skeeters, thank gawd !

(but... do not tent camp on Port St Joe beach in July, unless u got Grizz class fur on u, cause them beach skeeters got no respect for any form of life on the planet)

when I was just a boy, growing up in Iowa, we used to fry eggs on the sidewalks, just to save on electricity.. can't do that down here, they burn up too fast, and get all burnt & crispy, then soggy right after, fore u can even eat 'em

down here, can't do no scope shooting, no matter how many times you wipe that glass, it's the 99.99% humidity on top of 110F air temperature, makes everything you look at thru that scope "whiteout"

PS
just in case ya'll don't know why us rednecks wear them baseball caps, it's because they are cheap, and available at any pac-n-sak (and w/ cute sayings on 'em, too)
can dip 'em in the river or lake whilst hawg fishin', throw 'em away if your lady don't like the smell when u get home, and buy yourself another, along with a couple of good bass baits on next trip to the fishin' hole

(the real reason we all talk w/ that funny accent down here is on account of that dirty river water steamin' the top of our heads into fish bait during the summer)
 
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I guess I'm lucky. It's been hot in NC too, but every day about 6pm I get in the Jeep and drive 300 yards to a high, breezy, bug-free hilltop under a massive oak, and shoot 40 or 50 rounds of 9mm and/or .38spl at paper taped to a big cardboard box. My "backstop" from there is about a mile of soybeans. When it cools off, I'll start going back to the FOP outdoor range.

Les
 
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I have friends who don't shoot in the snow, don't shoot in the heat, won't shoot in the rain, and generally bitch if just about anything unpleasant is going on. The Army trained me to shoot in the rain and mud, clean my weapons in the snow, and keep shooting when hot brass made its way down my shirt. I laugh now when I get hammer bite, or otherwise get "wounded" (cut, etc) while clearing a jam. I call my sometimes-shooting-friends "fair weather shooters". I wish they would man -up and become real shooters. I don't go LOOKING for discomfort or pain while shooting, but I have come to believe that I have one-up on the other guy if I can tough out bad conditions, and still place the shots on the target. I have also been fortunate enough to have been trained by Carlos Hathcock as a civilian police sniper, and I would have felt like a fool to have pansied in ANY form in his class. I recommend learning to eat dust, crap and pee in hide, and crawl 300 yards after a hangover (I did that, and it was not pleasant....but what a learning experience!). Push yourself to be a tougher, and beyond that, a SUPERIOR shooter.
 
I hate shooting in hot weather, even up here at 8000 feet in the Rockies, we'll see mid 80's during the day, around 50 at night. I go shooting in the evening hours, around 5 pm, the temp drops down into the 70's by then.

Trying to shoot with sweat dripping off my brow sucks, especially when I'm trying to line up a 300 yard shot with my .308.
 
I started shooting 8AM this morning before it got too hot.

Since I'm only a few minutes from air conditioning I can shoot at least for a few minutes if I need to.
 
I always went shooting no matter what the temperature. I'd be out shooting my pistols when the temps were close to zero, and the guys in the clubhouse would laugh at me. Ditto the summer.

I've become the same way with riding my motorcycle, too. It's gotta be age.
 
Nope, I don't enjoy the heat so much either. If I'm trying to get a load dialed in, I'll tolerate it for that, but otherwise, I don't shoot much for pleasure when its really hot out.

My shooting in the summertime is usually on the cooler days, and when it cools down a bit on the hotter days.

On the flip side, I'm fine with shooting anytime in the winter till it gets down to my personal comfort limit, which is about -10 or so.
 
I shot for about an hour this afternoon, here in FL. After an hour, my sweat had rinsed off all the bug repellent, the skeeters were swarming, and it just wasn't much fun. It's hard to aim when the bugs are sucking your eyelids dry.
 
Its been hot in Southeast Va. Shot indoors in downtown Norfolk about three weeks ago and did good, shot outdoors at my place two weeks ago and didn't do as good, not bad, just not as good. Too hot, hands sweaty, flies, (none landed on the target :)), wife outshot me....again....:eek:! Come on Fall!
 
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