Gun Training in Hot Weather

Here's another important video from the Personal Defense Network. No matter how much we talk about training in context the fact is you're probably not gonna come to the range wearing shorts and a t-shirt all the time especially if you're gonna be spending the whole day out in the rain it's probably not a good idea. Just like someone who wears a business suit all day and carries a firearm to defend themselves. We expect you to train completely in context and in that suit or at least a very similar suit maybe one that you bought at a thrift shop that's a little bit disposable out at the range occasionally. And certainly I expect that if you're gonna carry in shorts, that you're gonna go out to the range every once in a while and practice deploying your firearm from the shorts.

But the fact is if you're going to be out on the range all day, this is a much more appropriate way to dress. You're gonna be out in the sun. You're gonna be out in the heat. You're gonna want that lightweight long sleeve protective shirt. You gonna want the lightweight pants but you're also still going to want that good, heavy belt.

You're probably gonna want that hat to keep the sun off your head. And of course, you've got good footwear. Once you're out here at the range and you've dedicated your day to training you need to make sure you can get through that day without hurting yourself. Remember, we always talk about injuries being something that prevents you from being able to do what it was you were training to do in the first place. If you get dehydrated, if you get so worn out that you can't protect yourself on the way home or even worse, if you get into a heat stroke mode or even any kind of dehydration mode.

Now you're in a situation where you may not be able to work and you certainly aren't gonna be any condition to defend yourself or do any of the things you were supposed to be practicing to do. So the long sleeves, the lightweight but long pants, the good sturdy belt to help carry your gear. All of these things are important even when you're training in hot weather. Another thing like these ranges out here with US training center is to have a covered area, have a place you can go to get out of the sun. You can go get in the shade.

You can take a break. That's where you can do your debrief. That's where you can do your reloading. That's where you can do any weapons maintenance you might need to do. Make sure that you do take breaks and you're not truly out in the sun absolutely all day long.

There's no reason to do that to yourself. If you are gonna be in and out of that break area one thing you're certainly gonna want to have there is hydration. Now, a lot of things have been said about hydration and it's probably pretty obvious. It's been beaten into our heads, you know hydrate or you're gonna be in trouble. Make you hydrate frequently.

You want to put yourself on some kind of a schedule make sure you're consuming some amount of water over some period of time. Now there's been a lot of different recommendations. I'm not a medical doctor. I'm not gonna give you a recommendation for what that should be, but it's something that you can decide for yourself. You can seek out based on the area in which you're working, the typical standards that the people you're working with recommend, figure out what it is.

Maybe it's gonna be a court per hour. Maybe it's gonna be a litre per half day whatever it's gonna be make sure that you set a standard and stick to it. That's the best way to get yourself through that day. We talk about hydration. Of course, water is gonna be the simplest way to go.

Making sure that you have water onsite, make sure that you have access to water. Good, clean, fresh water is always going to be a great bet when it comes to hydration. But if you're out in the sun and you're sweating you're gonna want to replace those electrolytes as well. You wanna make sure that the things your body needs to keep running are still there. And that's where the sports drinks and these things come into play.

Now you may wanna dilute them, you may want to go half and half, you know split this up with half the water half the sports drink and drink that throughout the day. Another thing, if you don't want to go through the trouble effort, expense of going out and getting the sports drinks and looking for a product like this, there are products now available where you get these strips that actually contain all the electrolytes you need. And they're designed to work with regular water. So you simply take this, put it in on the tongue, let it dissolve and drink regular water. It's real easy to have these in your range bag, in your pocket, carry these around all the time.

You can always find the water to go with them. Other things we wanna look at of course is our protective eyewear and make sure we have that. Make sure we have the protective eyewear out here while we're out there, not just to protect us from the fragments and the things that we're worried about. If there's a catastrophic malfunction with the gun, as far as safety glasses that we would wear all the time when we're shooting, but also to make sure that we have good lenses that are gonna protect us from the sun, protect us from the glare make sure we can see what's going on and that we're protecting our eyes in the longterm. Last piece of equipment I have out here of course is a hydration pack.

These are things that are very common on ranges they're certainly common in tactical environments for law enforcement and military personnel. These are really convenient. You can fill them up with your sports string. You can fill them up with your water. You can even get some of them that actually have bladders which are pre stocked with the sports string type product the electrolyte containing powder inside you fill it up with water.

You get that proper mix while you're hydrating. You simply wear that on your back. You've got your hose and you can be hydrating constantly throughout the day. So that's another good option. They're available from several companies.

The considerations for your training environment are important to think about when you get ready to go train in that hot environment, just because you're going out to train doesn't mean you're always doing the right thing. Your training resources are always limited. One of them is time and other one of them may be the venue. If you live in an area where it's hot nine months out of the year, or it's just happens to be hot on the day that you are going to go to the range, you need to prepare appropriately. Make sure you're dressed appropriately.

You have the right extra pieces of equipment to keep yourself safe, keep yourself strong and make that training the best it possibly can be throughout that hot day. Well just because it's a hot day, doesn't mean I'm not gonna train all the things you just saw; falling down, unorthodox shooting positions, reloads, malfunction clearing. Maybe I dropped the magazine had to reach back down and pick it up. I'm gonna be going to my knees and be rolling around on the ground. If I'd have tried to do all that in shorts and a t-shirt obviously I'd have some scratches and abrasions at the very least.

Even shooting up against steel. I wasn't using the frangible ammunition that I'm using today. I might be worried about splash pieces of metal coming back, pieces of jacket lead coming back at me scratching the exposed skin. If I were wearing shorts or if I had been wearing short sleeve shirt. The fact is when we're training in hot weather we need to wear what's smart, lightweight but still protective clothing.

Understanding these considerations allows us to do the type of training that we need to do. To be able to remain competent, remain skilled and be efficient in that middle of that dynamic critical incident. Understanding that by wearing the proper gear, we can still train even in a hot weather environment at a high pace. You can see all the movement, all the dynamics, up and down reloads, multiple targets, balance of speed and precision switching from large targets to small targets being able to balance whether I'm sticking that gun out and focusing on the threat or coming back and focusing on that front sight when I need to, to take the more precise shots. All of that is an important part of training, rolling around on the ground is part of training.

You might get hurt. You might get knocked down. You might trip understanding that is obviously part of your normal training regimen. To say that you're gonna come out in hot weather and wear shorts and wear short sleeve t-shirts and get hurt while you're training doesn't make any sense. Take into consideration all of the advice that we've given in terms of hot weather training environments.

Remember that the clothing you wear during hot weather is gonna dictate the types of firearms and other gear that you can carry and the way that you're gonna carry. Make sure that you train in context. Obviously, I'm training today for a regular firearm on the hip without a concealment garment. If I were actually training for hot weather I might have that subcompact semiautomatic in the cargo pocket, just like I would in the shorts that I might be wearing on an average day when I'm going out to the boat or just going out to lunch. Hot weather shouldn't stop you from training and certainly hot weather Isn't gonna stop you from carrying a firearm to protect yourself.

Do it right, do it smart and be safe. Check out more videos just like this one at the Personal Defense Network.