Shooting in the Rain

Hi All,

Does rain affect a pistol bullet accuracy?  I could see the shock wave of a rifle bullet pushing the rain away and not affecting accuracy, but does rain hitting slow moving pistol bullets affect accuracy?

Best,

Joe

I don’t think rain affects the accuracy. I’ve shot more 890+ .22 aggregate scores in the rain than non-rainy conditions. I’ve never RR ammunition in the rain before, so would be interesting to see if affected (fc60?).
Jon

This question pops up every time people shoot in rain. From a practical viewpoint, the volume of rain in a bullet’s trajectory is trivial and the ‘weight’ of a drop is insignificant compared to that of even a 22LR. Now, wind can be a factor!

The biggest effect is the shooters misery followed by the reduced visibility.

Visibility sucks but I don't think accuracy suffers.

Jon Eulette wrote:I don’t think rain affects the accuracy. I’ve shot more 890+ .22 aggregate scores in the rain than non-rainy conditions. I’ve never RR ammunition in the rain before, so would be interesting to see if affected (fc60?).
Jon

What about zero shooting irons? 

I'm shooting deep sub 6 at 50 and it feels like I need to hold less white in heavy rain. But, I don't have enough experience in that condition to be sure. 

Thanks 
Arthur

Wobbley wrote:The biggest effect is the shooters misery

Certainly with that attitude.

I've had some fun shooting in the rain.

To the OP's question, I have only anecdotal, not empirical, evidence. You shoot the match that you're assigned to shoot in the conditions on that day. Your attitude has a lot more to do with your performance than ballistics does.

I was blowing water droplets off my sights at Perry this year during the team's national matches... Being all wet myself was the main contributing factor. The gun worked fine.

some people feel the rain.....others just get wet

What usually gets me miserable is the cold that usually comes with being wet from rain.  If I can keep dry it’s tolerable, but if I’m wet it becomes cold and I don’t handle cold very well.  That’s one of the reasons I left the Seattle area.

john bickar wrote:

Wobbley wrote:The biggest effect is the shooters misery

Certainly with that attitude.

I've had some fun shooting in the rain.

To the OP's question, I have only anecdotal, not empirical, evidence. You shoot the match that you're assigned to shoot in the conditions on that day. Your attitude has a lot more to do with your performance than ballistics does.

My attitude is so positive that if you put me next to a cathode the resulting bolt of lightning could send a Delorean to 1955.

Still, I was at Perry this year for the P100/NTI/NTT matches and I was cold and wet and the shivering really impacted my hold.

I had fun. My performance was poor.

pgg wrote:

john bickar wrote:

Wobbley wrote:The biggest effect is the shooters misery

Certainly with that attitude.

I've had some fun shooting in the rain.

To the OP's question, I have only anecdotal, not empirical, evidence. You shoot the match that you're assigned to shoot in the conditions on that day. Your attitude has a lot more to do with your performance than ballistics does.

My attitude is so positive that if you put me next to a cathode the resulting bolt of lightning could send a Delorean to 1955.

Still, I was at Perry this year for the P100/NTI/NTT matches and I was cold and wet and the shivering really impacted my hold.

I had fun. My performance was poor.

CMP posted some good photos. It was damp that day. I learned that Gore-Tex boots don't do you much good if rain is pouring into them from the top.

pgg wrote:I had fun. My performance was poor.

The trick to remember:your performance may have not been what you wanted, but it was significantly better than those who skipped out and went home because of some rain.

On Saturday at Perry this year I was a little lucky. I needed to check the sights of my Ball Gun and walked out to range 1 quite early. Fired a few shots and confirmed everything was OK. As I left Range 1 it started to rain. I strode (not trudged!) back to Range 3 pulling my trusty Walmart Wagon behind me and realised that it was going to be a seriously challenging day. The tents got blown down during the "Biblical" storm in the early hours and so there was no shelter.

I like to have all of my gear neatly arranged on the bench (some might suggest too much gear!), but it dawned on me that I needed to "go Commando!". I was confident that my Ball Gun was sighted in so I did not need a scope. I could live without catching my Starline Brass. So I pulled the black garbage sacks neatly over all of the gear in my wagon. Took the absolute minimum of stuff to the line - scoring tablet in a large zip bag. I concentrated very intently on the task at hand and tried my very best to ignore the weather conditions.

I shot OK, not great, but, compared to many others who, arguably, did not have a positive attitude on the day, I ended up in a decent position. Made P100 for the second time in two attempts and was rather satisfied with myself.

When it rains "Go Commando!".

chiz1180 wrote:

pgg wrote:I had fun. My performance was poor.

The trick to remember:your performance may have not been what you wanted, but it was significantly better than those who skipped out and went home because of some rain.

You gotta show up to win.

RoyDean wrote:On Saturday at Perry this year I was a little lucky. I needed to check the sights of my Ball Gun and walked out to range 1 quite early. Fired a few shots and confirmed everything was OK. As I left Range 1 it started to rain. I strode (not trudged!) back to Range 3 pulling my trusty Walmart Wagon behind me and realised that it was going to be a seriously challenging day. The tents got blown down during the "Biblical" storm in the early hours and so there was no shelter.

I like to have all of my gear neatly arranged on the bench (some might suggest too much gear!), but it dawned on me that I needed to "go Commando!". I was confident that my Ball Gun was sighted in so I did not need a scope. I could live without catching my Starline Brass. So I pulled the black garbage sacks neatly over all of the gear in my wagon. Took the absolute minimum of stuff to the line - scoring tablet in a large zip bag. I concentrated very intently on the task at hand and tried my very best to ignore the weather conditions.

I shot OK, not great, but, compared to many others who, arguably, did not have a positive attitude on the day, I ended up in a decent position. Made P100 for the second time in two attempts and was rather satisfied with myself.

When it rains "Go Commando!".

Absolutely. "Attrition Pistol." "F*ck you; rain harder," I said during NTT.

"The competitive spirit is not dependent on the weather."

Sometimes it even works in your favour. 2016 (I think - the 'swamp perry' year anyway) DR match - 2nd timed fire string. Rain squall came through and I couldn't actually see the target - could just about make out the outline of where the cardboard was. So I focused on the only thing I could see - the front sight. Shot a 49.

Maybe all the years of riding dirtbikes ...

Several rifle matches, in the rain, *I* don't care about getting wet. And neither does my aluminum, stainless steel, and plastic AR-15.

The mat usually needs a beating though ...

Rain?..........What rain?

I did some math on that once and convinced myself that it's unlikely that a bullet will actually contact a raindrop while in flight or got affected by downpour, simply because there is so much space between the drops. The bullet travels fast enough that there is almost always a free path for it to follow from muzzle to target. I don't know what happens to the few bullets that *do* manage to hit raindrops, but I know that so far my personal best high power rifle score was fired in *pouring* rain. Maybe there's something Zen-ish going on...

In my earliest aerospace career, I was tasked with helping to size an anti-ice system for a developmental commercial aircraft.  I do remember that the aerodynamics deflect most of the drops.  This was for cloud sized droplets not rain per se, but the basic premise is that few drops actually hit the wing leading edge.  A bullet is not a wing and the aerodynamics are different, and raindrops are much bigger than cloud drops, but the probability of a bullet hitting a raindrop is very small.

Attitude and effort have an awful lot to do with how you do in inclement weather.  In 2008 at Perry on the 45 caliber first rapid fire target (master relay) a driving rainstorm came though all of a sudden that lasted just long enough for that one target.  I really put total effort into shooting that target in spite of the rain and wind, and after the second string I looked down and noticed my somewhat faded light color jeans were dark on the left side (wet) and had a fairly sharp color line about down the center with the right side being light blue (dry).  A good Perry 'breeze' with quite a bit of rain for just a short while.  I shot a 100-8x on that target and was so happy with it I still have it upstairs with my reloading equipment just to remind myself that I can accomplish good things in spite of poor conditions or whatever other problems may come up.  Effort and attitude are key.  Never give up.

My second trip to Perry to shoot the P100, NTI. 
I like shooting in the rain. 
Shot my best NMC score ever. Not great but enough to earn EIC points. 

Rush