Strange weather shooting

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misternothingman

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I am on lunch break between classes and just walked through some weather I haven't seen much of before.

The Weather Channel map says its snowing outside, but they're a little off, as usual. What is falling out of the sky right now is either sleet or hail, depending on where you're from. The ice pellets (ranging from a millimeter in diameter to maybe 3mm) are falling at rain speed, not floating like snow. There isn't any wind to speak of, and its about twenty degrees. So as I was getting pummeled by this stuff while walking on campus, my mind wandered. First I was wondering how it would be to drive in this stuff, considering I'm having trouble walking through what really feels like wet marbles underfoot. Then I wondered what kind of effect this crap would have on a bullet's trajectory. I'm not going outside any more than necessary today, but I imagine one of you guys can tell me from experience or from speculation.

What's the craziest weather conditions you have shot in?? I hope you can tell me a horror story about three feet of snow on the ground and some thundersnow or a tornado coming, just to make me feel better about our weather right now. Let's hear it!
 
effect, from experience, to 250 yards is minimal.

worst weather i've ever shot in... went hunting when it was -15 (actual temp) and wind was 30-45 mph. shot a deer. decided i'd never hunt in that kind of weather again. went ahead and did it again the next day.

also hunted another time in some heavy freezing rain. the objective of the scope was frozen solid to the rifle, and there was a 4-5" icicle hanging off the gun at the shot. i doubt any of that was good for the gun or scope... the buck had icicles on his rack and the the whole thing was coated in ice, making the deer look much, much larger than he actually was. he was a good buck, just not as good as i thought initially...

as for range, i've shot in sub-zero before, and have shot in light snow, but have no interest in range time in really bad weather.
 
The density of drop/pellets in the atmosphere is pretty low, and the chances of the bullet hitting one is relatively low. However, if it does, it'll end up somewhere else.

-z
 
High winds!

If the pellets that are dropping are round and will crumble in your hand, it may be snow pellets. Also, probably the NWS has an automated weather observing machine, and it can not distinguish between certain precip types hence the snow and it not really snow.
 
Hunted bunnies at -30. Below that, just feed the cows and head back inside. Weirdest weather I ever hunted deer in was ground fog in NW Colorado. Patches of it just drifting up draws and over ridges. See for a mile one minute, and couldn't see the end of the barrel the next. Lost a shot at a dang good buck that day, moved about 50 feet to have a better angle, and the fog drifted over him. When it cleared he was gone.
 
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