Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 23

Thread: Summer Is Here. 114 And Shot Our Steel Challenge Match.

  1. #1
    Member
    Join Date
    Feb 2020
    Location
    Surprise Az.

    Summer Is Here. 114 And Shot Our Steel Challenge Match.

    O.K. lets preface this by saying I like the heat. I'm just not as young as I was.

    I would spend hours in the sun practicing Archery and USPSA when I was younger and I was good at both. Now I'm a C- Class shooter for SCSA, I don't shoot Archery or USPSA anymore.

    I went prepared. I had 6 large bottles of Gatorade, 4 bottles of water, electrolyte packets to put in my water, a cooling vest and towels but I still managed to get so worn out I cramped up on the last 3 stages and when I got home I almost passed out but held onto the car and missed hitting the floor.

    I had to shoot the last two stages. 5 - to - Go and Smoke and Hope are just too much fun to not shoot them. Even the Match Director came up to me in his golfcart to see if I was o.k. I lied and he let me continue.

    Next week's match, the weather is only supposed to be 103 so I'm going to shoot it again. I've added some salt tablets to my refrigerated cooler and I think this will help me get threw the day

  2. #2
    Site Supporter
    Join Date
    Jan 2012
    Location
    Fort Worth, TX
    If you tell that story to your cardiologist, he/she'll let you skip your stress test this year.

    Be safe out there!
    "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." - Thomas Jefferson, Virginia Constitution, Draft 1, 1776

  3. #3
    Site Supporter
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Location
    SC
    Take care of yourself out there man.

    I’m not your parents or anything of that nature.

    But if you almost lost consciousness when you got home. You probably should take it easy and see if there is some kind of conditioning you can do to work up to this?

    I’m not a Dr. or anything, but I’d just imagine there are folks in your life that would care a lot if AzShooter passed out or had a medical issue out on the range.

    Do you have a chair/stool you can sit on or a fan to bring with to help out with the heat?

    If the match director is checking on you - I’d probably say you may have given visual indicators you weren’t in good shape. I’ll leave it at that and no disrespect intended.
    God Bless,

    Brandon

  4. #4
    Revolvers Revolvers 1911s Stephanie B's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    East 860 by South 413
    Dude. (Shaking head) Just.... dude.
    If we have to march off into the next world, let us walk there on the bodies of our enemies.

  5. #5
    I’m not sure if there’s any conditioning that gets you ready for 114 degrees. At that temperature you need to drink like 3 liters of water an hour to survive.

    Especially if there’s an age related condition…


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  6. #6
    Site Supporter
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Erie County, NY
    Been there on the cramps. When I was shooting in TX, I became a fan of Pedialyte for adults. I take some of that, Minute Maid small OJs and plain water. Eric Lamberson in TX has a blog post how he got home and went over on the floor. I've seen some folks close to a heat collapse.

    One of our group would also bring a big ice chest stoked with sports drinks.

    Our SOs would tell everyone to drink. Rule of thumb was that if you can't pee, you are on the brink.

    Crappy guns laws in NYS but no inferno.

    Stay safe! Also watch the sun - SPF the crap out of yourself. I know from experience, sigh.

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by AzShooter View Post
    . . . when I got home I almost passed out but held onto the car and missed hitting the floor.
    I'm not worried about you, you being a responsible adult and all. It's the thought of all those other drivers whose lives you could have catastrophically rearranged had things worked out even slightly differently.

    If you were my brother, we'd open a bottle of Jack Daniel's and have a long talk about judgement.

    All that said, I'm glad you made it.


    Duces

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by john c View Post
    I’m not sure if there’s any conditioning that gets you ready for 114 degrees. At that temperature you need to drink like 3 liters of water an hour to survive.

    Especially if there’s an age related condition…
    Oh, you can definitely acclimatize for that kind of ambient temperature in the desert in it of itself if one is a healthy adult, simply due to how dry the air is; the wet-bulb temperature is more than enough to allow you to stay okay if you're properly hydrating. The problem comes up when there's other factors besides the raw ambient temperature; e.g., sun exposure, wind, etc. At that kind of temperature, wind isn't always helpful, because it just becomes a convection oven of sorts, and can heat you up faster. Being in the sun adds another heat source besides just the ambient temperature, and can be a huge source of issue; I run in the sun to help keep myself acclimatized (nothing quite like finishing a run and then sweating for another 40 minutes afterwards, even after a shower and sitting in AC), but I'm only doing ~2 to ~4 miles, before I'm uncomfortable enough to decide to stop (though nowhere near being actually dangerously close to overheating); however, if I'm running after sundown, even in just the minutes after during the sunset, I can easily truck on for another 6 to 10 miles with much less exertion.

    I would strongly suggest a sun umbrella and portable seating for when you're not shooting. The shade is a huge difference in the desert, enough that we have plenty of folks on the SAR team that will carry one as part of their kit (I've been meaning to buy one to stick in my rescue pack, will probably do it after this post), in conjunction with our other shade building materials. If you're older, hydration alone is not necessarily going to be enough, simply because your body's ability to thermoregulate has degraded.

    I'll also note that heat stroke will absolutely fuck you up. Even if you don't die, you can easily have life-altering consequences. Even heat exhaustion can cause issues that linger for weeks, so I would be exceedingly cautious about the coming match, simply because it may take your body quite some time to recover, and if you haven't fully recovered, you'd be at an elevated risk of heat-related illnesses again.
    Last edited by Default.mp3; 06-14-2022 at 12:56 PM.

  9. #9
    Site Supporter 1911Nut's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Location
    Arizona
    I am a lifetime AZ resident and live in Mesa, AZ. I regularly shoot pistol matches in the Mesa and Phoenix area. I am 74 years old. In addition to competing in the matches, I usually perform a fairly high level of RO work at the local matches in which I participate.

    I love to shoot. But I am very, very careful about staying hydrated and monitoring myself for signs of heat stress.

    But doing it in 114 degree heat, receiving input from others on the range that you look like you might be in physical distress, driving home through Phoenix area traffic and almost passing out before you get in the house is really absurd.

    I am not a physician. but IMHO, you are quite fortunate you did not experience a far, far worse incident.

    All that risk to shoot bullets at pieces of steel in 114 degree heat in the AZ desert?

    Re-think your strategy - please.

  10. #10
    Member eb07's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2013
    Location
    AZ High Desert
    The summer is my favorite time to be out in the desert, hiking, exploring, shooting.

    Everyone else is hiding in the AC, pool, or lakes.

    Just hydrate properly (I use electrolyte packets), and wear proper clothing such as hats, long sleeves, pants, water wicking socks and ventilated shoes, carry enough water you are GTG.

    Over 25 years and never an issue.

User Tag List

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •