Why you should shoot away from your home range

Since moving to New Zealand at the end of 2014, I have come to appreciate the weakness of my windreading ability as an issue I need to do something about. While my first visit to Trentham back in 2015 was welcomed with gentle winds and moderate conditions (and a podium place for me), the wind during past the past two years' national championships have demonstrated why it's renowned as one of the hardest (if not the hardest) ranges around. I feel the need to rise to that challenge with the 2018 Commonwealth Games and 2019 World Long Range Championships approaching fast.

I'm approaching this in a variety of different ways: I'll be refreshing my knowledge of the theory of windreading (and will probably write a couple of posts about it over the next few weeks), trying to shoot a decent amount of long range for obvious reasons, and making an effort to shoot on a variety of different ranges. On this last point, I've not made that much of an effort to get out there and experience a wider variety of ranges since I moved to NZ, but I did at the weekend and it was well worth the effort for a variety of reasons, not all of which were wind-related.

Over the Auckland anniversary weekend - that's the last weekend in January for non-JAFAs - I traveled up to Kauri Mountain Range to shoot in the Northland Championships. The range itself is set on farmland outside of Whangerei three hours north of Auckland and has space for four targets, with electronics having been recently installed.

Kauri Mountain Range. It's a range which backs on to a mountain covered in Kauri trees.

Being very near to the sea, the weekend's shooting fulfilled my desire to experience a wide range of wind conditions. While it was millpond calm shortly after dawn, the wind soon picked up and started by blowing off the land out to sea before reversing as the land heated up. While the wind could be steady in either condition, the transition between the two took a while and produced a very finicky, tricky wind with significant changes sometimes required between subsequent shots. I coped acceptably with the wind for four of the six ranges, but really should have done better at the other two.

Quite apart from hitting my goal of shooting in some interesting winds, the welcome from the members of the Whangerei Rifle Club was great. We shot in an informal atmosphere but with some good competition. We did something that can sometimes be forgotten in the chase for good technique and possibles: we had fun on the range in good company and glorious weather.

Day 2. Beautiful weather with a great bunch of folk

Unfortunately there is a fly in the ointment. The land on which the range is situated has recently been sold from one farmer to another, and while the original owner has been unstinting in his support for the club, the new owner has given them immediate notice. The club has other irons in the fire and are hoping not to be homeless for long, but it's still sad to see an established range go. It was great to feel like I was supporting them and their club by turning up to shoot on their range, but even so I hear of other ranges here in NZ and back in the UK being shut down or closed for civilian use. Coupled with increasing costs and a lack of interest from the younger generation, it's another threat to our sport.

Get out there and shoot away from Bisley, Trentham or your home range. It'll make you a better windreader, a more rounded shooter and hopefully give some much-need support to a smaller club or range under threat.

It's raining, it's raining...

Keen-eyed readers will have noticed that I took a week off posting last Saturday. I've not run out of things to say, rather I spent the evening that I normally use for writing my blog preparing brass for the start of the fullbore season here in NZ. I spent it lubricating, sizing, cleaning and primer pocket uniforming while watching Mythbusters on TV. Who says you can't get anything worthwhile done while you're reloading?

Anyway, on to the subject of this week's post.

Before I moved to New Zealand to live, I had only been here in summer and no bugger thought to tell me how much it rains in Auckland. It probably doesn't help that we live out in Waitakere at the edge of what is essentally temperate rainforest by a huge harbour within 10 miles of the sea, but the sheer volume of it is spectacular. Maybe it has just been a particularly wet year; however it seems like a good idea to brush up on how to shoot in the rain.

The most critical issue when shooting in the wet is to keep your ammunition, chamber and bore free of droplets of water. If these get significantly wet then it is very likely that you will suffer an unpredictable but severe elevation change. Additionally, you are likely to want to keep your scorebook at least reasonably moisture free. As a final consideration, you may wish to keep yourself dry also; although this is by no means a necessity.

The rifle
It doesn't matter that much if the outside of your rifle gets a bit wet, provided that you take it out of the bedding and dry it off at the end of the day (do NOT put a damp rifle away, as that is a recipe for rust) but you must keep the inside of the action, chamber and bore as absolutely dry as possible before and during the shoot. A few spots of rain probably won't do you much damage, but a few big droplets on your boltface or in the chamber are very likely to stuff you.

To manage the amount of water getting into these critical areas I do the following things:

1. Get the rifle into the shoulder quickly, without elevating the bore too much. It is possible for water to enter the bore that way. Certainly don't rest with the butt on the ground and the bore in the air while it's raining. Apocryphally, at least one first stage of Her Majesty the Queen's Prize has been lost this way.
2. After you have fired your shot, take the rifle out of the shoulder and wipe the area around the loading port with a beer towel before unlocking the bolt. Leave the action and loading port covered until it's time to get into the aim again.

Eagle eyes and other lenses
In the season when lenses in the foresight were first made legal in the UK, I remember the first stage of the St. George's being absolutely sodden with the result that a huge number of people had their scores wiped out when their brand spanking new Eagle eyes got sodden. It is pretty inevitable that your lens is going to get wet when it rains, but there are a number of steps you can take to avoid this kind of clusterf***ery:

1. As with stopping water getting in the bore, don't hang around when getting the rifle in the shoulder.
2. Treat your lens with RainEx or another hydrophobic coating which will make the water bead up and not smear the lens. It is worth checking that the stuff you're going to use won't degrade the material your lens is made of before doing this.
3. Always have a small packet of absolutely dry tissues with you when you shoot in the rain to dry the lens if you have to. It is worth practising how to do this without ruining your position. Do not use a damp tissue as this will just smear the water about the lens, which is almost certainly going to be worse than just having a few droplets on it.
4. Under no circumstances should you use canned air to dry your lens in the rain, as this is very likely to cause serious condensation.

On that last point; just before the start of a particularly wet 600x during the Intercounties a couple of years ago I was first man down and elected to stay down in position during a rainstorm which temporarily stopped shooting on the grounds that I was comfortable despite being already soaked. I really wasn't going to get any wetter at that point. I was all set to dry my lens and carry on at message 1 when a team-mate used canned air on my foresight, which resulted in condensation so bad that I had to come off the point and competely take my foresight apart to dry it before I was able to begin my shoot*. In the dry, it's probably fine. If it's raining or very humid, don't do it.

If you wear shooting glasses, much of the stuff written above also applies to them. Wear a big hat. Don't look up any more than is necessary to keep a good eye on the flags. Have some clean, dry tissues or lint-free cloth handy.

Scorebook, ammunition etc...
Keeping your scorebook, pens etc... is worthwhile but it is imperative that you keep your ammo dry.
The patent on weatherwriters is due to expire sometime soon (really, they are/were under patent) and the ludicrous price should come down when a bunch of generic versions come on the market in the next few years. Buy yourself one of these for your scorebook. If you get a really big one you coulld probably put your scorecards and ammo box in there also. Put your ammo in a box with a lid and put a beer towel over it.

You, the shooter
Different people have different philosophies on this one**, but my personal view is that you should shoot in all conditions wearing and using as close to the same kit as is possible. When I talked about shooting in the heat  I said much the same thing; however what I didn't say that I probably should have done, and was reminded to by my good friend Bob is this: "Think cool." Similarly, mindset is critical to shooting in the wet if you're going to adopt my philosophy because I don't wear any additional wet weather gear.

For the less hair-shirted and/or bloody-minded amongst you, a good pair of waterproof trousers may help. Unfortunately, I've never tried shooting in a cape or any kind of waterproof over my jacket, so I can't help you beyond suggesting that you give them a try and find out what works for you.

Alternatively, at least one shooter I know swears that in bad weather less is more. He frequently wears shorts and flipflops in all weathers on the grounds that the less you wear, the less there is to get wet. Your mileage may vary.

On a final note, like much in shooting, shooting in the rain is an acquired skill. Don't skip practices in the rain because you think you know how to do it already, or don't want to get wet. GBRT has lost at least one major match I can think of for precisely this reason. Be positive about shooting in the rain and think thoughts like "I'm going to shoot at least as well as I normally do; the rain often damps down the wind; other shooters don't keep their standards up in the rain; it's a good opportunity to pick up some places in the Grand."

* The universal gas laws tell us that by expanding when they exit the spray, the gases in the canned air are doing work against the surrounding atmosphere so they cool down. When their temperature gets below the dew point, then they will cause condensation in damp air.

** As Yamamoto Tsunetomo, the famous 16th Century Japanese author and proto-rifle shooting blogger wrote in his respected tome Hagakure "There is something to be learned from a rainstorm. When meeting with a sudden shower, you try not to get wet and run quickly along the road. Running under eaves of houses you still get wet. When you are resolved from the beginning you will not be perplexed; although you get the same soaking. This understanding extends to everything."

Feelin' hot, hot, hot

I'm currently in hot and steamy Montana for a work project, looking longingly at photos of Bisley on Facebook and planning to do a bit of trail running when it cools down later this evening. Back in the UK it's shaping up to be a toasty warm Imperial Meeting, so it's a good time to remind ourselves of how to shoot in the heat*.

Our sport takes place outdoors, so we're largely at the mercy of the elements. Being able to cope with sun and sweltering heat comes as part and parcel of the competition; however you are limited in the changes you can make to your clothing. If you train with a thick jumper under your thick leather shooting jacket you're going to need to be able to compete with the same thick jumper under the same thick leather shooting jacket. This can make things a bit hot under the collar.

Here are a few common-sense tips to help you manage the heat:

1) Wear Sunscreen - Even in the UK, the sun is strong enough to burn you. In the short term this is a pain in the arse and a distraction, but in the long term repeated overexposure to UV can lead to malignant melanoma. As a fullbore shooter you're going to spend a lot of time outside and get a lot of sun.

2) Stay in the Shade and/or Wear a hat - Pretty obvious this one. Bisley is known for silly hats; please keep up our nation's proud traditions. A hat can keep you cool, but also it will reduce the amount of glare that your eyes have to deal with.

3) Stay Hydrated - Your body's natural reaction to high temperatures is to sweat, reducing your temperature through evaporative cooling; however this and your body's other processes can dehydrate you if you don't take in enough fluids. Don't drink lots of Gatorade and other supposed 'sports' drinks as they contain a lot of sugar, which isn't good for you in the long term but can also cause blood sugar highs and lows. They're fine for running, where you're burning 100 calories per mile, but not so much for shooting. Contrary to popular belief caffeine-containing drinks do not increase your risk of dehydration, so if you're used to coffee with breakfast don't stop.

4) Take Enough Salts - Less likely than dehydration but with as severe consequences, drinking too much fluid and not taking on enough sodium and potassium salts can result in hyponatraemia. Entertainingly, many of the symptoms of too little sodium in the blood are similar to those of dehydration, so if you feel dehydrated take on a little salt also.

5) Go Easy on the Booze - Shooting with a hangover in high temperatures can be a deeply unpleasant experience and is unlikely to improve your performance. Keep it to a couple of beers in the evening, or drink the occasional shandy.

6) Acclimatise in your Gear - Your heart rate is likely to go up when there's a sudden increase in body temperature, so in the relatively moderate temperatures you're likely to encounter in the UK it is worth getting ready in your gear 10-15 minutes before you start shooting to allow your heart rate to come back down. Conversely, when shooting in extremely high temperatures in India in 2010 some of us found that staying in the cool and then putting our gear on at the very last minute managed the overall heat load.

7) Use Eye Mist/Drops - If you find that your eyes get dry and this affects your vision, consider using an eye mist spray and/or eyedrops. Originally a bit on the expensive side, eye mist sprays became a lot cheaper when generic brands came on the market. Eye drops aren't too bad, I buy the cheapest and most basic I can find in the supermarket. I generally spray my eyes 15 mins before a shoot and use eye drops at the end of the day.

Keep cool. Stay hydrated. Maximise your performance and enjoy your Imperial Meeting. Looking forward to seeing y'all on Thursday morning.

* Thanks to Phil T from http://www.full-bore.co.uk for the subject for today's blog.