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Shooting in snow?

Jong

Sergeant
Supporter
Full Member
Minuteman
Jan 7, 2009
642
34
Petoskey MI
Have never shot very far in snow and was wondering if it was easy to spot rounds when they hit the ground. Can you see the impact?
 
Re: Shooting in snow?

Bullet impacts are easier to spot in yellow snow. Get to it!
 
Re: Shooting in snow?

we dont get much snow here but the last 7 days has seen snow and frost non stop, i wondered the same thing and went out to some hills not far from my place , had great sport shooting to 1030m at just clumps of mud and stuff in the snow. you could see the impact very clearly with good big kicks up of snow.great days shooting. it was also lightly snowing and it made it very easy read the wind
 
Re: Shooting in snow?

Jong,
if you are going to shoot in the snow, pay extra attention to your backstops, as the ground is frozen and the bullets will recoche off the frozen ground and keep going.
 
Re: Shooting in snow?

last time i shot long range in the snow, i couldn't see my misses at all. we only thought we saw impacts but even that was hard to tell because there was no dust signature under the target. seeing your target at close to 1500 yards can be a bit tough if not impossible in conditions like this:

1460yards3.jpg



i imaging that different types of snow may show impacts/misses better than what i had that day.
 
Re: Shooting in snow?

While shooting in snow is a definite blast, it also can introduce safety issues.

When downrange visibility is significantly compromised, being able to verify a safe range with no unexpected intrusions can become problematic.

This is not a criticism of the practice, just a suggestion that extra vigilance can pay off.

Greg
 
Re: Shooting in snow?

some thaughts on shooting in snowy conditions.



-when it is actually snowing use low power on scope 8-12 to aid visibility( same effect as high and low beam lights have when snowing)
-for the same reason the use of good 8x56 or equivalent binos is advisable.
-it is easy to spot misses and hits if the backround is hard and the snow drops of or splashes from rock, tree, stump, frozen ground etc.
-spotting misses is very hard if they just go straight trough light soft snow.
-turbulenses are usually relatively easy to pick in freezing conditions.
-take care of heat shield of barrel. Negleting it will effect your aiming and decrease your accuracy.
 
Re: Shooting in snow?

some additional thaughts.

-angle and distance have a high effect on ability to spot hits in snowy conditions.
-if you shoot uphill you can relatively easily see the holes in snow created by bullet drop. This can usually be done in distance smaller than 500m.
-if the upward angle is small you might see a scratch in the top of snow. Remember that this scratch appears behind the target if you are missing from side or using too high elevation. remember the angle when defining correct elevation. the lenght of this scratch is depended of angle and distance.
-when the target and shooter are in same level, i would concentrate to turbulence instead of scratches, splashes, holes etc in snow.
-when shooting to a low downward angle you might see long scratches before or after the target. defining correct elevation from these is relatively hard and understanding of angle and your bullets trajectory is needed.

-the longer the distance is the more value i would put to looking at turbulence.

-when using a muzle brake the first few shots will create splash of snow