Shot my Springfield-Armory 1911 in the rain today.

[KevinB]

My buddy and I have been getting in the habit of going to the range on less than desirable days to avoid the crowds. Sometimes this just means early on week days, but the last few times it has been poor weather. We went a couple of days ago with gray skies and an intermittent sprinkle. Headed out again today with a fairly steady drizzle, but when we pulled up it developed into rain. Neither he nor I cared about the rain, so we got out and set up with the range to ourselves. It was cold and windy today too, so we decided to use the weather to our advantage to train with a slight shiver, mimicking a fast heart rate, and cold, fumbly fingers to see what it was like to shoot without those fine motor skills.

I was shooting with my Springfield-Armory Loaded model 1911, gov’t size stainless. My friend brought his new Glock 19 for it’s first range trip. I enjoyed seeing how my 1911 could handle the weather, and it functioned flawlessly, no issues whatsoever. Shot a combination of 230 grain Remington Golden Sabers and 230 grain PMC FMJ. There were times that we had a fairly steady down pour with water running off the ends of the pistols and through the mag wells when the slides locked back. Did some reload drills with my Chip McCormick shooting stars landing in puddles, but still no malfunctions were induced. I used two pairs of shooting glasses, swapped them out when we stopped to reload mags because they would fog over. My friend’s Glock did well also, no malfunctions of any kind. I shot around 200 problem free rounds through the 1911. When detail stripping, drying and cleaning my gun, it really made me admire the simplicity of the weapon and appreciate the ability to take it out in those kinds of conditions.

As far as the effects of the weather on my body, it was interesting to see the difference from shooting on those beautiful 75 degree days. We were cold and wet, and our shooting hurried. We found ourselves rushing through the drills without thinking about it so we could get back to the covered firing line to reload. I found myself really having to focus on fundamentals and resist the urge to just try and do things sloppily. The cold hands really made a difference on those reloads. I had no issues with my own pistol, though it was more difficult. I did shoot his Glock a few times and I fumbled a reload on it. I think it was a combination of the cold and using a new platform. We both use the over-hand method to return to battery and you could really feel the advantage with those numb fingers. I can’t imagine trying to fumble for a slide stop under stress, or attempting to “pinch” the back of a slide.

Overall I had one of my most fun range days in as long as I remember. It’s certainly not the kind of shooting I want to do every day, but it was a really fun break from the routine and an interesting way to interject some variety. I will say it was very nice to get in some dry clothes and enjoy one of my other hobbies; good, freshly ground, French pressed coffee.

So how about everyone else? Ever shoot during poor conditions either to test the ability of one’s weapon, or just to avoid the crowds at the gun club?

 

[dovedescending]

Excellent thread. I've been considering doing something similar here in the near future.

Thank you for pointing that out about the overhand method for returning to battery. I drill both overhand and slidestop release, but I think I may concentrate a little more on overhand in the future.

Which drills were you doing? Care to elaborate on a few more specifics, and how your performance differed from clear weather drilling?

 

[Luis Leon]

Well, during one particular October 3-gun match in Massachusetts it rained all day long. My AR, shotgun, and pistol got thoroughly wet. There were no covered rifle racks. It was raining all day long. All my guns went bang, and were not the worst for wear at the end of the match. Me, well I was soaked and cold and glad to be on the way home after the match. I definitely do better during sunny day matches.

 

[KevinB]

Which drills were you doing? Care to elaborate on a few more specifics, and how your performance differed from clear weather drilling?

We did some basic draw and fire from concealment at 3-5 yards, including reloads, malfunction clearance drills, strong hand, weak hand. Did some firing while retreating to cover. We would've liked to do more movement, but it was very muddy so we tried to just stay on the gravel for the most part. Some double taps at 7-10 yards.

For the most part, like I said everything just felt hurried. We were cold and rushed and it was hard to focus. I found myself not ripping away my concealment garment aggressively, I wanted to start in the middle of the draw to "rush" things it seemed. I found myself concentrating on my sights in a different way. It's hard to describe but it was more of a flash sight picture with my front sight, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it was more of a reaction than a choice. Accuracy did suffer, but I still had acceptable combat groups. Again fine motor skills were degraded significantly and it would’ve been impossible to manipulate controls by hand without visual feedback. It was harder to switch gun hands. The lessons I’m taking from it involve fundamental practice. I’ve gotten away from drawing and firing and other practice with snap-caps at home and I think I need to get back into it to restore that muscle memory. It seems to play a very big role in things when conditions aren't ideal.

 

[45Fan]

Ive been on the range a few times in bad weather. Actually qualified in boot durring a tsumami (or hurricane, not really sure what its called on the left coast). I still qualed, but it wasnt pretty. Changing things up, stepping outside of the comfort zone challenges the shooter, and pushes the training envelope. As a civilian, I regetably admit that I tend to avoid the inclimate weather for the most part (I hate poicing brass in the snow) but still get out and try to keep my skills fresh whenever I can.

 

[Quack]

4 friends and I shot a pistol class outdoors last year in the rain and upper 40* weather. Earlier in the day I used Slide-Glide lite to test out in the weather. It caused FTFeed's like i thought it would. I cleaned out the SG, put oil in and it ran fine. So i was able to confirm my thoughts. We ran +500rds that day. Also in the morning i shot with gloves on as well. The gloves are what i regularly use in the winter and i had no problem with trigger feel. We also ran about a 50yard lap then back to our our gun to shoot steel plates. the Instructor created a failure in the gun while running, so in addition to getting our heart rate up, heavy breathing and trying to shoot steel plates, we had a failure to clear. it was a good time.

 

[DannySeesUSMC]

Good on you guys for doing some shooting in the rain, I love it

It's nice for people to see what it's like shooting in less-than-optimal conditions and to see that their baby is just fine a little wet and dirty.

Excellent photos Quack

 

[bigfatdave]

My understanding is that Appleseed doesn't pause for rain either, and they even do something called "winterseed" where the madness is on purpose.

While I generally prefer to enjoy shooting, a range day is a range day, I've done outdoor sessions in rain, snow, and wind that attempted to freeze body parts off a few times. Knowing your hardware will run is good, getting your software tested out is even better.
I'm not surprised that overhand worked best, with a wet gun and hand it should work best on just about anything. I'm also not surprised to know a Block did well in the rain, or any duty pistol, really. Is the Springfield "Loaded" closer to a loose duty gun or a tight race gun?

... And I suspect that the French Press circle and combat-shooting circle don't overlap much on the Venn diagram ... that sliver may just contain you and me.

 

[Quack]

Thanks!!!

Here's my friend's Citadel and it's second outing was this class. the first outing was the weekend before so we can see if any issues needed to be addressed before the class. good thing we did because the FP channel was full of shipping lube causing the FP to stick. he didn't have any problems either that day.






The Instructor also has cold weather classes that I've wanted to take, but no one ever sign's up for them.

I forgot to take a photo of the Instructor's gun. It's a Wilson Combat Compact Professional that has over 100k through it.

 

[KevinB]

Quack,

Excellent pictures and cool story. I wished I had snapped a few with my phone but I didn't even think about doing a write up until I got home and reflected on what a fun day it was.

Is the Springfield "Loaded" closer to a loose duty gun or a tight race gun?

I would say it's closer to a duty gun with priority given to reliability, though it’s not as “loose” as you might think. For being a mass produced, factory built handgun, my Loaded model seems to be fitted quite well. I’ve never taken measurements, but just in comparison by my untrained eye to other models from various manufacturers of equal or lesser MSRP, it’s certainly put together well. My slide to frame fit is tight, I can’t produce any movement, same is true for barrel lock up, and there is no rattle from shaking it. The gun is solid. Accuracy from my 1911 is excellent. When shooting for accuracy my shots go through one ragged hole. I have friends who have done the same with the gun, and they’ve never fired a 1911 before. It does a good job of making me look good at the range (Wish that were true for all my guns). It has had some trigger work done, and it breaks very cleanly at around 4 ¼ lbs. I’ve also had some failures to feed in the past, but I bought the gun used and had never detail stripped it. Once I learned how I did take it down I found all sorts of little dust bunnies hanging out inside. Cleaned those out and replaced the recoil spring, cleaned the ejector and firing pin channel, and haven’t had any problems yet, though time will tell. Also, I seemed to have gotten lucky from what I’ve been told, and gotten one of the US fitted and assembled Springfields. No Brazilian import marks on the gun and the “NM” serial number. I don’t know how much truth there is to that but the gun runs well.

 

[Quack]

it was fun. would've had more photo's, but it didn't stop raining until the end and it finally warmed up to break 50* too.

here's me and one of my friends shooting a "lumberjack" match at the end of the day.

 

[highorder]

... And I suspect that the French Press circle and combat-shooting circle don't overlap much on the Venn diagram ... that sliver may just contain you and me.

Me too, and probably more than you'd think.

 

[dovedescending]

Mmm. French Press coffee...

 

[m33p0n3]

I try to get out to the range whenever possible, bad weather included. The problem is the road leading to the range is gravel and tends to get shut down in bad weather conditions. Consequently, I've only been able to go twice the past couple of months.

But shooting full tilt .357 mag when you can't feel your hands is an interesting experience

 

[DBR]

Over the years I have learned a lot about my handguns by shooting in 0-20 degree winter weather. Many things don't work the same as in the summer - gloves, lubes, trigger guards, trigger feel/weight, glasses, hands etc.

If you anticipate ever having to use your guns in below freezing weather you really should try it before you have to do it.