Shooting in cold weather?

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little_airwolf

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With this coldsnap hitting Calgary and area. I never thought about shooting when its cold. Say -20 to -30+
So if you are shooting outside. Is there any risk of issues to the barrel and metal/plastic stock/receiver?
Could the barrel warp with heat stress shooting then stoping, hen shooting again?
 
no- or at least I've never seen it and I've been in Calgary since 66- what you might find is failures to fire b/c of the lubricants on your firing pin/mech and the bolt may not return to battery as smartly as it should- the cure for that is low temperature grease- or dry graphite or nothing at all- in other words, you may have to "help" the bolt via the bolt handle to make sure its fully forward BEFORE you pull/squeeze the trigger- to do otherwise may do an out of battery discharge-
 
plastic will be more brittle as the temperature drops into the -40 range and the lubricants will transform from thin viscous liquids into molasses like semi solids, rendering the firearm inoperable. ammo will be adversely affected as well, with some rounds not firing at all, and those that do fire having greatly reduced performance. under these conditions, barrel damage is highly unlikely in a 22 rimfire.
 
case in point- we were out at the black diamond range one day and it must have been at least -40- we were shooting an 8mm mauser and a lee enfield no5- the mauser fired, but the lee didn't or couldn't - the cold had slowed the firing pin to the point where the pin didn't have enough strength to fire the primer- the mauser uses a different system
 
I haven't had any problems with things braking in -20C. Cleaning of all lubricants from your trigger group and bolt is a good idea as mentioned above. The barrel will get some condensation on the inside but that will not harm it. Accuracy goes down hill when it gets cold but you can work with it. I always bring a cooler for my ammo and add a couple of glycol packs that I heat up in the microwave before I leave My home. I usually reload all of my mags in the car and keep them "under my coat" until I shoot. Keeping ammo worm makes a huge difference. I did an informal cold weather ammo test last year to compare "warm" SK Std+ and "cold" Lapua Polar Biathlon in -20C. The "warm" SK outshot the Pollar Biathlon; it wasn't even close.
Kody
 
I would think frost bite would be a main concern.
As for firearms using a very light weight lubricate would be advisable. Once you are done shooting and go to clean, the rifle will sweat so immediate cleaning and oil then a secondary cleaning the next day.
The plastic stocks for the most part are resin and fiberglass mixtures so they shouldn't be hurt. Unless you are using it as a bat at -40 then maybe there is an issue.
 
No, no, no, and no. Really cold = dry lube.

Having done annual weapons qualification in -27, and hunted Camp Wainwright well into the bitter -30's, the adverse cold will likely damage your ambitions long before your rifle.
 
t-star said:
case in point- we were out at the black diamond range one day and it must have been at least -40- we were shooting an 8mm mauser and a lee enfield no5- the mauser fired, but the lee didn't or couldn't - the cold had slowed the firing pin to the point where the pin didn't have enough strength to fire the primer- the mauser uses a different system
Click to expand...

Then you had the wrong type of lube, or too much of it, in the Enfield. There's a reason why the Canadian Rangers up north still use the Enfield, in temperatures lower than -40.

To answer the OP's question - shoot away. You aren't going to hurt the rifle.
 
I shot year round west of Calgary for years when I was young & foolish. Brought my rifle/shot gun with me slinged over my back riding out and back on my motorcycle. I shot over pen sights, no optics then and never had an issue other than with freezing hands when 1st off my bike in the minus 30/40 days. Today's illuminated scopes may be an issue at cold temps as batteries dislike really cold weather.

Wolf
 
grew up on a farm outside of Calgary and spent my entire youth shooting almost every afternoon evening, have never had a gun get damaged from cold.
now i live wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy up north and initially i ran into problems with my pistols and ARs and semi auto 22's not cycling due to cold (-40 to -50) but i did some research and started using G96 cleaners and oils and i have never had a problem since i transitioned over to G96.

as for the plastic stocks, if my M305 which bucks like a bull when you hit the trigger dosnt shatter its crappy plastic stock in -40 weather then every stock should be fine.
 
If you are shooting 22 rimfire in the cold weather, most standard and match type rimfire ammo will not be very consistent.

However, if you get your hands on some of the ammo made for biathlon [Lapua Polar Biathlon, for example] your results will be much better.

Regards, Dave.
 
I went shooting one day @ -25. The 10/22 (that normally cycles perfectly) was constantly getting FTF's with Butler creek mags, but was good with Ruger 10 round rotary mags and my CZ858 cycled no problem!
 
this was from last Feb, -24 in the sun with my new ruger rimfire shooting blazzers.
plastic stock no problems, gun cycling no problem, cheap ammo no problem.
just happen to have that video uploaded already is the only reason im linking, that and im bored at work.

 
I've done lots of cold weather shooting and the only problems I've ever encountered was inaccuracy from 22lr below about -20 and frostbite on my trigger finger. I don't hunt upland game birds with rimfires anymore when it's that cold due to the inconsistency of the ammunition at very cold temperatures.
 
in my youth i use to shoot for pelts (not that kind of pelts!)
Beaver and muskrat and such.
-20 to -30 and never noticed any problems with the 22LR.
muskrats you need to kill them by hitting them in the nose (tip of the head) or you ruin the pelt, so you have to be pretty exact for them, never had any problems.
im kinda interested to go out this winter when it his -30 to -50 and do some accuracy tests now that this thread is up.
 
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