"Let It Rain" was the title of a story my uncle, Art Popham, wrote for Outdoor Life about a half-century ago. Good title, good story, and things really haven't changed much. We didn't have Gore-Tex back then, but we had rubber and rubberized fabric for our bodies. We also had the same old problems for our feet and our rifles, namely boots and saddle scabbards that, no matter how well oiled, were bound to leak sooner or later.

Hunting in the rain isn't usually productive, but sometimes you get caught in it and have no choice but to do the best you can. This was the beginning of a long, wet day on New Zealand's South Island, one of many areas where rainy weather is common.

But, realistically, we could stay almost as dry back then as we could today, and we could keep our gear almost as dry. The real problem--or at least the problem I will try to address here--is how you can shoot in the rain and how seriously rain can affect your shooting.

The first rule is really simple: Don't go out in the rain unless you absolutely have to. There are no advantages but lots of disadvantages: You will be miserable. Your visibility will be limited. Your equipment will require extra maintenance.

These things would be acceptable if the hunting opportunities were increased, but usually they are not. Light mist means nothing, but very few animals across the world move during a hard rain. They don't like it much more than you do, so they hunker down and wait for it to pass. Good idea.

Unfortunately, animals have better early-warning indicators than we do, so we're much more likely to be caught out in the rain than they are. This is especially true since we tend to be on tighter schedules, and we're likely to go out even when the skies are seriously threatening. Too, while it's unlikely to find game moving during a hard rain, most animals move well after a storm. So, at least under some circumstances, you want to be out there when the weather clears. Or, in hilly country, perhaps you've spotted some game and you're just starting to move in. Then the rain moves in instead, and you have to wait it out.

Either way, you're going to get wet. How miserable you are depends on how good your rain gear is. How effective your rifle will be depends on other factors. First let's address shooting when you've just been caught in a sudden shower. Your rifle may rust later, but your immediate issue, just supposing you catch a critter as foolish as you are and out in the rain, is making the shot.

The primary problem is visibility. Rain loves to collect on optical lenses. At best, rain restricts visibility, but just a few seconds of a really hard rain can totally obscure a riflescope. This is simply a fact: In a hard rain delaying tactics are the only option.

Personally, and with apologies to all who make them, I don't like scope covers. See-through covers reduce vision. Flip-ups take precious milliseconds to release. If the scope is mounted really low, the way most of us want it, the bolt may not clear. Thank God I do most of my hunting in fairly dry country where I don't often have to worry about this. If you hunt in rainy country or you go into country where it might be rainy, it's different. You need to get a scope cover you understand, whether see-through, flip up, snap up or snap off. Learn how to use it, fast and sure. Even then, if it's really raining a scope cover will only buy you a few seconds, and a rain-sheeting lens coating like Bushnell's Rain Guard will only buy you a few more.