Too cold to shoot?

[Distant Thunder]

After the snow we got Monday there was very little wind and I thought I'd go out and shoot my .44 - 2 1/4. With the temperature hanging at 19 degrees I set up my target at 200 yards and started shooting for a group. The first shot went wide left! Ok…., the second shot went wide right! Crap! The 3rd shot was near center, but the 4th went high!

At this point my wet wiping patches were freezing into one clump and my fingers, especially my thumbs, were aching like buggers, but I decided to shoot #5 anyway. Bad idea, it went wider right!

Now I knew I wasn’t breaking really good shots, but the flag was just hanging there dead. Only one shot was even close to center. So I decided to move to another target and start over again. After 4 shots the target wasn’t looking too bad but my fingers were so stiff and hurting pretty bad. It’s handling the wet, frozen patches that really makes my fingers cold.

I decided to go retrieve my little propane heater from my shop. The walk warmed me up and of course I wore my gloves which eased the pain in my fingers. Twenty minutes later I was back in my shooting shack ready to shoot my last 6 shots. The 4 shot already on target where in about 3 inches and just below center, not the best but a heck of a lot better than the first target!

I find that taking a break from shooting in the middle of group and then returning to finish the group never really works out and it didn’t here either. The wind, what little there was, was coming from 6 o’clock and was now very gently blowing. It was hard to see in the flag since it was only pushing it just a little and straight away from me. In my 6X scope I really couldn’t tell there was a difference, but there was.

The last 6 shots stayed inside 2 3/4 inches but were mostly above center. The 10 shot group was nothing to brag about and I packed everything up and headed back to the house grumbling about never shooting unless it’s much closer to 30 degrees. My heater will remain in my shack until spring and warmer temperatures. It doesn’t warm up my uninsulated shack with the window wide open, but with it sitting on the bench close to me it does keep my patches from freezing and I can warm up my hands between shots.

I did notice that with the heater I could see a fair amount of heat rise when I was looking through my scope as the warm air was escaping out the open window. Probably not good, but definitely warmer.

As pretty as winter is, especially after a snow storm, it just isn’t conducive to good shooting when the temps dip below 25 degrees.

The 1st picture is just one of my trails through the woods behind the house.
The 2nd is back up the hill toward the house.
The 3rd is from in front of my shack down range toward my targets. There is about 18 inches of snow on the ground now, but the snow has melted away returned 2 times this winter or it would up to my butt!