Time to talk about handling guns in cold weather.  Old guy here fled the frozen wastelands some years ago for the balmy South, where I haven’t had to put gloves on yet this winter and hope to continue that. For those who are going to venture into the blustery outdoors with firearms, I offer this for review, from Backwoods Home magazine of course.

15 COMMENTS

  2. Yet another reason to avoid defensive guns with short light trigger weights and/or short resets. Another good reason to have two stage triggers on long guns for serious use. I recently installed one on a precision rifle. I’ll have to put a heavy glove on and see if I can feel the 1st stage, I expect (hope?) to feel “the wall” where the second stage begins.

    Isotoner type or capeskin leather gloves under heavier gloves are a good combination of hand protection-at least if you pay attention and shed the heavy glove(s) before grabbing the handgun. You get at least some protection from the cold for the hopefully brief time you’ll need the gun.

    Gloves interfering with trigger return on DA revolvers is an extremely good reason to have a hammer spur. If the glove prevents full trigger return, a hearty yank on the hammer spur moves the cylinder onward (good), and, if single action capable, gives you a single action shot (not ideal under the circumstances). If your gun is DAO, get your finger out of the trigger guard, let the hammer drop and resume firing.

    Gun stocks: not that long ago I realized the alleged 13.5 inch length of pull on one of my rifles wasn’t. It seems the published dimension assumed a 1 inch recoil pad. Which they didn’t always fit, caliber/stock style depending. Or, maybe they were “assuming” certain rifles would be used with heavy clothing and compensated. I kinda doubt that for heavy barrel “varmint” rifles. Be interesting to go to an extremely well stocked store with a tape measure.

    • For those who might be interested, deer skin gloves with 150 gram Thinsulate barely fit in the Remington 700 trigger guard. Couldn’t feel the first stage, did feel the second stage “wall”. Usable if you’re careful. I now recall with nostalgia a 98 Mauser made for alpine troops (or Eastern Front?) with an enlarged trigger guard.

      This got me digging around in the long unvisited cold weather gear bag. I found only 1 of the silk gloves bought as liners when I was working in -36 cold. Even thinner than Isotoner/capeskin and unexpectedly warm. Gotta get a new pair or two, they made a massive difference even under wool gloves.

      Yet another good point about the MSR: the often maligned hinged trigger guard that allows use even with mittens. Never tried an example with an integral trigger guard.

  3. Cold weather is not much of a concern around Eagle Pass, Texas for the families and friends of the Texas National Guard who may be tripping the triggers of their rifles in a wholly unprecedented and doubtful political situation. Howdy Doody has been too long on a vicious rampage, IMHO. Is not a sneaky Buffalo O’Bummer pulling the strings? Has not the insane invasion caused enough harm already? Historically this is a tyrannical dividing with an aim to conquer, and national suicide. If stupid, corrupt politicians want to send forces to murder sensible believers in orderly migration, let those politicians put on combat gear and volunteer to die bravely in the van for their chaotic immigration anti-cause. Not likely, eh?

    • Strategic Steve,

      Kat Timpf came up with a simple, inexpensive solution to solve the illegal alien crisis. When someone comes here illegally, give them nothing.

      • Roger Willco, T Y for your reply. Kat Timpf does make some sense. Gutfeld has often treated her unkindly. IMHO. I would impose special taxes on drug dealers and plundering politicians to buy mandatory travel tickets for idle illegals to get back quickly to their original foreign jurisdictions.

    • Strategic Steve,

      I’m afraid deportation doesn’t work. The US is too easy to get into. We often hear of illegals coming hear four or five times.

  4. Well, it has been bitterly-cold here in TN. I got about 8 inches of snow at my house which is a lot for a supposedly Southern State. Worse yet, the bitter cold has made the snow linger and the roads to constantly re-ice. We have plunged below zero (Fahrenheit Scale) for multiple nights with wind chills down in the negative teens on occasion.

    Global Warming, anyone? Yeah, Right! 🙂

    Honestly, being a “Retired Person”, I avoid handling guns (outdoors, anyway) in weather like this. I don’t have to get out and travel. Therefore, I don’t have to carry for self-defense.

    My response is to simply “hold-up” and wait for the thaw to come. The weather channel says that we can expect a warming trend next week. As it stands, any temperatures above freezing represent a warming trend! 🙂

    I realize that other people are not in my shoes. A lot of people have to be out and about despite the weather. If this applies to you, then you have my sympathy.

    Quote of the Day:

    “Whether the weather be fine,
    Or whether the weather be not,
    Whether the weather be cold,
    Or whether the weather be hot.
    We’ll weather the weather,
    Whatever the weather,
    Whether we like it or not!”

    – Traditional Tongue Twister

  5. Here it was in the 20s Wednesday, the high 70s Thursday, the 30s Friday, with the weekend predicted to be back in the 20s and next week in the mid-to-high 60s. IOW typical Texas winter.

    I’m sure glad the class I’m teaching Saturday and Sunday (Texas Hunter Education) is in a warm classroom.

    • Not solely, No. It is the fault of the Democrat Party of America. They have fought, to the death (tooth and nail), to keep the flood of illegal aliens flowing.

      Left-wing Parties always need an underclass to operate. Rush Limbaugh pointed this out, years ago.

      They use class-based divisions to apply a “divide and conquer” strategy to gain and hold onto power. If an underclass does not already exist, then they will manufacture one. They prefer race-based class divisions, when they can get them, since (given tribalism in Human Nature), race is a very easy division point.

      However, if a country does not have a large racial minority, to manufacture into a usable underclass, then they will manufacture one out of the racial majority. This is what they did in the UK where they manufactured a large Caucasian underclass.

      The classic underclass here in America, which the Democrat Party has used since before the U.S. Civil War (1861-1865) has been African-Americans. The Democrat Party efforts have kept African-Americans as a constant underclass for more than two centuries.

      Indeed, their grip on the African-American minority has only grown stronger. The resulting negative effects on African-Americans has been monstrous. For example, high crime rates, high drug abuse rates, high unemployment rates, high murder rates, high incarceration rates, and destruction of all moral authority (such as the Black Churches). The more slavishly (forgive the pun) that African-Americans follow and support the Democrat Party, the more misery they reap in their lives.

      However, Democrats will use Caucasians for an American underclass if they is what is available. Witness that in the big, 19th Century, Northern Cities (New York, Chicago, etc.), there was only a small African-American minority. Therefore, the Democrat Party built Irish Immigrants, fleeing the Potato famine in Ireland, into an underclass that they could use to build a power-base.

      It is just my opinion but I think that their long usage of African-Americans is wearing thin. They have, in effect, about used up African-Americans. They have squeezed about all of the juice out of that orange. So, they are looking around for a fresh group to use as their necessary underclass. They have decided that illegal aliens from Latin America will “fit the bill”.

      So, that is why the Democrat Party has “thrown open” the Southern Border of the United States and invited millions upon millions of illegal aliens to come on in. They are importing a new underclass to sustain them now that African-Americans are about used up.

      If I can offer all these new immigrants one piece of advice, it would be this: Don’t follow or trust the promises of the Democrat Party of America on anything. The Democrats will simply use you up, and destroy you, just as they have done with African-Americans. You will be fools to follow or trust the Democrats. They are playing you just like they play everyone.

      Coming back to your original comment, it is disingenuous (in the extreme) to suggest that our open border is the fault of the Republican Party. The blame that the Republicans bear is that they did not do enough to stop it. Indeed, the RINOs in their ranks aided and abetted the Democrats.

      However, the true blame lies with the Democrat Party of America. Biden, as their supposed leader (I don’t believe that he is actually in-charge), deserves a big slice of the blame but the largest portion of the “blame-pie” goes to the Democrat Party of American, their undying thirst for power, and for their left-wing ideology which leads them to manufacture (and then use up) one underclass after another so as to hold onto that power.

    • nicholas kane,

      If Trump had completed the wall, and had it working perfectly, Biden would have dismantled it, once he became President.

      I have no respect for the Border Patrol. The way I see it, they are obeying illegal orders. Illegal aliens should not be processed, then should be prevented from crossing the border.

      It should be pointed out that there are other ways to enter the USA. There are water routes, airplanes, overstaying visas, and even coming across the northern border. If Americans banded together, and gave illegals no help at all, the message would be, there is no use in entering the USA, because you will receive nothing. Might as well stay home.

  8. I was kinda hoping Mr. Kane’s comment was sarcasm. If not, there’s still a major difference between limiting immigration responsibly and posting a y’all come sign. However, mass deportations can still restore equilibrium.

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