Shooting in the rain.

[Link]

I would like to do some load development today, however there is a chance of rain.
How much does rain effect group size ? I havn't seen this subject before so thought I would ask.

thanks

 

[CatShooter]

I would like to do some load development today, however there is a chance of rain.
How much does rain effect group size ? I havn't seen this subject before so thought I would ask.

thanks

It does not.

The chance of hitting a rain drop is eleventy million to one.

 

[madderg]

Her in Oregon's upper Willamette valley we get misty rain from time to time in the winter. I used to take my breaked 308 out on some of those days to the range...when you shot a round you could see a 8 inch or so tunnel from the rifle to the target just for a second on the bullets flight path, then it would collapse on itself and be gone. Always found that interesting.

 

[madderg]

Her in Oregon's upper Willamette valley we get misty rain from time to time in the winter. I used to take my breaked 308 out on some of those days to the range...when you shot a round you could see a 8 inch or so tunnel from the rifle to the target just for a second on the bullets flight path, then it would collapse on itself and be gone. Always found that interesting.

 

[jr600yd]

Some of my best scores have been shot in the rain or mist as some call it. Guess it has to do with the light.

 

[Lapua40X]

I shot in the rain earlier this week. Except for a soggy target, no problems.
But, of course, some extra attention to post range cleaning was necessary to make sure I didn't have water intrusion where it wasn't wanted.

 

[CatShooter]

Some of my best scores have been shot in the rain or mist as some call it. Guess it has to do with the light.

I prefer to test loads in a light rain - no mirage and little or no wind.

 

[butchlambert]

Do a search on the forum. Quite a bit has been postet. Bryan Litz contributed to it. It appears the only bad thing is if you get moisture in your barrel.

 

[lrgoodger]

First off, the odds of hitting a raindrop are a LOT higher than eleventy million to one. I watched a rimfire match once where the shooter hit raindrops with two bullets during a light rain in a 20 shot match. It was very clear what had happened when I saw the puff of vapor directly in front of the rifle about 20 feet off the bench each time.

I have shot matches when it was raining several times and the bullet always drops low when the rain is coming down. I presume it is because of denser air. The last match was the Farmland Hot Match 5/16/2015. A cloudburst came through and it started down-pouring just as my relay started. It rained as hard as I have ever seen it rain. I was hoping they would suspend the relay for a few minutes, but they did not. During the ten minutes the relay took, the rain slacked slightly and then poured again two or three times. At 100 yards the shots would go 1/2" high during a slack. The down-pour continued and would have gone into the next relay, but they delayed that relay about 10 minutes until the rain slacked up. I didn't think that was fair, but I won the agg anyway, so I guess I can't complain.

So, the answer is yes, rain will affect your group if the intensity of the rain varies from shot to shot.

 

[fredhorace77]

Oh boy, here we go. Not again.

 

[butchlambert]

First off, the odds of hitting a raindrop are a LOT higher than eleventy million to one. I watched a rimfire match once where the shooter hit raindrops with two bullets during a light rain in a 20 shot match. It was very clear what had happened when I saw the puff of vapor directly in front of the rifle about 20 feet off the bench each time.

I have shot matches when it was raining several times and the bullet always drops low when the rain is coming down. I presume it is because of denser air. The last match was the Farmland Hot Match 5/16/2015. A cloudburst came through and it started down-pouring just as my relay started. It rained as hard as I have ever seen it rain. I was hoping they would suspend the relay for a few minutes, but they did not. During the ten minutes the relay took, the rain slacked slightly and then poured again two or three times. At 100 yards the shots would go 1/2" high during a slack. The down-pour continued and would have gone into the next relay, but they delayed that relay about 10 minutes until the rain slacked up. I didn't think that was fair, but I won the agg anyway, so I guess I can't complain.

So, the answer is yes, rain will affect your group if the intensity of the rain varies from shot to shot.

So you knew how much vertical to hold for the intensity of the rain? You're good!

 

[Link]

Thanks for the input guys, all valuable and one very amusing.
I did a search on rain before my post and all that came up was grain.
I drove to the range that is 1.5 hours away for some testing with rain in the forecast.
When I got there it had just stopped sprinkling and it stayed dead calm and mostly cloudy for some time, the best I have ever seen it. No Mirage no wind. I did run into a heck of a storm on my way home. I got my 2 tests done a TAOL and a 300 yd. ladder.

Thanks again

 

[hogpatrol]

Rain is associated with low pressure, i.e. less dense air. Then again, rain is also associated with downdrafts. Maybe one cancels out the effect of the other. I don't know. I never saw any difference, even at longer ranges. I also like to shoot on a misty day sans mirage and wind.

 

[lrgoodger]

No complaints. It was a tough call. The match directors didn't have any way of knowing when the relay started how bad the rain was going to get. It was just the luck of the draw for us ten shooters. Something similar happened at Wabash with heavy mirage. The first 400 yard relay was hurt badly because they couldn't see their bullet holes. Then the incoming cloud bank reached the range and the rest of the relays were shot in near perfect weather. It was the luck of the draw and it threw some very good shooters in that first relay out of the match. That wasn't fair either, but it wasn't the match directors fault.

 

[Drop Port]

Thanks for the input guys, all valuable and one very amusing.
I did a search on rain before my post and all that came up was grain.
I drove to the range that is 1.5 hours away for some testing with rain in the forecast.
When I got there it had just stopped sprinkling and it stayed dead calm and mostly cloudy for some time, the best I have ever seen it. No Mirage no wind. I did run into a heck of a storm on my way home. I got my 2 tests done a TAOL and a 300 yd. ladder.

Thanks again



The only downside I see to all of this is that you have to drive 1.5 hours to test loads, that sucks.