Training at 17 Below?

Training at -17F?

I thought I’d write down a few thoughts as I’m thawing out from tonight’s pistol skill-builder session at SnowShoe Gun Club. As the sun sank this afternoon, it took the mercury with it, dropping the temp from -1 to a bone-chilling 17 degrees below zero. This made training a challenge, both because of the layers we were wearing, and because neither hands nor equipment work quite the same when it gets that cold. I need hardly tell you that we savored our trips to the range shack for ammunition and warmup time around the wood stove. (Thanks, Reed!)

This likely brings up the question: why train in such extreme conditions? It certainly isn’t because it’s comfortable. If I wanted to be comfortable, I’d be at home with a cup of tea and a good book… or in bed, because that sounds pretty nice right now too. We definitely don’t do it so we can brag about it later. Who wants to go around bragging about something that makes most people think you’re crazy?

So why train handgun drills at almost 20 below?

We tell our students that it’s important to train for the environment we expect to fight in. Good defensive instructors are always looking for ways to introduce realism into their lessons and drills. After all, if our students’ skills, mindset, and gear aren’t readily adaptable to their likely real-world defensive scenario, then all we are preparing them to do is fail. Good instructors also find ways to push the boundaries of their students’ skills, tactics, and mindset. One of the ways we can accomplish this is by having students perform against a physically demanding challenge or handicap—like forcing them to clear a malfunction one-handed or having them do pushups prior to shooting a drill that requires precision marksmanship.

Training at sub-zero temperature puts our skills, our gear, and our attitudes to the test. It forces us to slow down and focus when we want to hurry up and get warm. To breathe and feel the spontaneous break of the trigger when our numb fingers just want to hammer it and move on.

No one pretends being cold is fun… but we have fun. Seriously. Maybe lead smacking steel just sounds more satisfying when you had to fight nature and self to make the shot. Maybe laughs feel warmer when you’re huddled around a crackling wood stove. So far, people aren’t lining up to train on cold winter evenings, but the ones who show up are a special breed. It takes humor and grit to face the punishment and challenge of shooting in the raw Alaskan cold. It takes motivation. As it turns out, if you’ve got humor, grit, and motivation and you find yourself facing a challenge with others like you, you have friends. Or maybe you’re just crazy.

If you’re interested in outside-the-box tactical training that will challenge and prepare you as a protector, consider joining us for one of our courses. We promise it isn’t always this cold.