Wednesday at the range

[bandit1250]

I went to the range to do a little shooting with my Ruger MKIII and one on my CZ Grand Finale 452's. The change in elevation from home to there gifted me with several inches of snow with a very hard layer of ice on top. I made up my mind to shoot any way. I had to stomp through the ice to get to the snow underneath to be able to get my targets set up. 50 yds for the rifle and 35 for the handgun now wearing the Redfield red dot. The red dot is hard to see on snow. Green dots work better on snow. I shot the CZ first. I was shooting SK+ standard ammo which is supposed to shoot bad in cold weather. It was 28* but no wind to speak of. I shot five empty shot shells at 50 to foul the barrel. Then shot three five shot groups with the SK ammo. That was the same as my fouling shot ammo. The groups looked good through the scope. Then the Ruger Mark III. Started out below average and went down hill gradually from there. Shooting back and forth left to right. After getting numb fingers I loaded up my stuff to head home. I measured the three groups for the rifle and the first one was 1/2" and group two and three were the same at 3/8". I thought pretty good for ammo that don't shoot in cold weather. Then I found the Ruger/Weaver scope base was very loose and could be lifted up off the pistol quite a bit. It was probably like that the last time out and I never had checked it but now I will. I can honestly say that cold weather shooting is no fun.

[beaverislander]

There's a lot of fumbling around with gloves on and you can forget handling .22 ammo.

[RanchRoper]

You never saw the Rifleman wearing mittens....

[Sir Henry]

Three-eights inch at 50 yards is excellent. I don’t mind the cold but my fingers do. I always end up with bloody fingers and don’t remember cutting myself.

[fortyshooter]

Great shooting in the cold!

[North Country Gal]

I'll take 3/8 inch groups all day, even in the summer.

Ha! If you think fumbling with 22 ammo is bad with cold fingers, try 177 pellets.

[BigAl52]

Try BP shooting in cold weather. NCG I cant even handle 177 in warm weather.