Winter training regime?

[North Star]

Do any of you have a winter training regime. Where I live in Canada, our range is out of commission from the end of October until the end of April due to snow! An old friend of mine and excellent target rifle shooter just dry fires at home twice a week. I could buy a .22 and do indoor shooting, but I am generally busy during the week and too lazy at the weekends to drag my stuff out to a range! I think I will join a gym with my wife and then dry fire at home? What works for you?

[BamBam]

I have mud tyres on the 4x4 and it will still get up the hill to the range in the snow. One year during the thaw I was driving up and it was like a river.
You guys get serious snow though, maybe you should invest in some laser simulators?

[FredB]

Havong been in Timmins, Northern Onterio in February, I would recommend hibernation.
Fred

[Blackstuff]

Nothing changes unless the army are too soft to open the range when there's a bit of frost on tesnews

[M67]

Winter can be harsh. We (Norway) even compete in winter, where managing snow, sleet, wind and cold becomes part of the game, ice in the action and snow in the sights - too bad...
Some shooting is done on ranges that have lighted targets.

But for training, indoor practice at 50 feet/ 15m is very common. Most, if not all, clubs have an indoor range, where thousands and thousands of 22LR rounds are spent during winter - for building position, steadyness and trigger control, this is just as good as shooting fullbore.

For home training, i would recommend a simulator system, such as the Scatt - it will teach you a lot, and dry fire becomes fun, and you dont get the hassle of live shooting in your home og garage, whinch can have its issues.

K

[GazMorris]

Do any of you have a winter training regime. Where I live in Canada, our range is out of commission from the end of October until the end of April due to snow! An old friend of mine and excellent target rifle shooter just dry fires at home twice a week. I could buy a .22 and do indoor shooting, but I am generally busy during the week and too lazy at the weekends to drag my stuff out to a range! I think I will join a gym with my wife and then dry fire at home? What works for you?

Hi North Star,

Your dry firing friend is a wise man! This kind of focussed training over the winter will help you maintain muscle memory and technique from season to season, so that when you emerge from hibernation in spring you can pretty much pick up where you left off. If you can get access to a SCATT, Noptel or Rika then so much the better as these will give you more feedback.

Good luck!

Gaz

[tackb]

my training is to make me a better deer stalker so I shoot outdoors all year !

nothing like some snow and wind plus freezing cold and wet to simulate some hind stalking !

[North Star]

Thanks for the advise everyone. The association I belong to does have a Scatt trainer, so I might book some time on it? Our local military range used to have butts similar to Bisley, but they decided that it was far too dangerous to be facing the mound where the bullets were landing, so they enclosed that side with a concrete wall with windows. When the snow blows in it just sits there till the Spring. It doesn't get above freezing from the start of December to the end of February, so what snow falls doesn't melt. Also, temperatures down to -40C don't help.

[Scotsgun]

I'm far too busy deer stalking and wildfowling during the winter to train.