That was exactly my journey. I shot on a pretty good varsity rifle team in college. Three-position free rifle. All the hot and heavy gear, pretty much the guy in the 'nosewheel pilots' side of the meme above. I was working towards a slot on the national team, but upon graduation I decided it was time to switch to a shooting discipline that was less gear-intensive, and not so friggin' hot in the summer. So I started over with free pistol and precision air pistol and never looked back.
How much did the rifle guys sweat? I was at a World Cup in Rio many years ago; the national range had a bar on premises, and doping control set up in a side room they had available. I believe they were testing the top three finishers in each event, plus two more at random, though I wasn't a member of either group... Anyway, the pistol shooters would come in, produce a urine sample, and leave. The rifle shooters were generally too dehydrated after the match, so they were given a beer and left to chill in the bar for half an hour before their drug testing. I found that hilarious.