Tavor extreme cold weather work up.

Armedsask

Armedsask

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Saskatchewan
Since the temperature is balmy -33°, -47° with the windchill, I figure it would be a perfect day to do some shooting!

Took the Tavor out to see what a desert rifle would do in the extreme cold. Did some quick sight checking on some pop bottles at 50 yards or so. 5 rounds, some small adjustments, and she was dialed in. Functioned almost flawlessly. Had one nasty jam where the round jammed up and the bolt road forward on top of it, creating a huge dent in the case. Racked the charging handle and it cleared itself. I'd attribute this to a mag problem as I've had it before in other rifles with these mags. It could have also been because I am still running oil in the gun and haven't changed over to graphite lube for the winter. Ran every shot after that.

Rifle was not clean, but not super dirty, didn't affect anything. Had some slight fogging issues with the MEPRO but that was due moving from the cold to the warm truck to thaw out.

Cold didn't seem to affect the "plastic". After a minute my coat was sounding like it was made of tin foil but the rifle still felt just solid and not brittle at all. I didn't abuse it though, I'm not going to beat up my $3000 rifle.
 
I've had really good success with OTIS - Special Forces Dry Lube. Another fella up here put me on to it as the liquid lube freezes or at best turns to a gel.

I now us it for almost everything, and have had zero problems. Anyone else with an opinion on it? I wouldn't use it for a lube craving AR (not that I've owned one... but hope to soon :) ) but I now trust it with anything else, including my M305, which did a 100 round fast as I could load and fire 5 round mags with a buddy torture test. After which, the action still seemed completely lubed.
 
Oh come on now. It's not a "real" cold weather review without the "drop" test :p.

I use G96. When I was living in those wonderful cold conditions with -30 to -50 winters this stuff worked as if it were a warm summer day. My pistol was exposed to the cold and no problems.

I went shooting once in this stuff with my personal firearms. No problems, except it didn't take long until I couldn't feel my hands or feet. After that winter became indoor .22LR time :D I really hate the cold.
 
I have been using Remington factory Dry Lube. not sure what it is made of though, but again I run in it in all my AR,s in the winter. I still use proper greese in my Garands though. I have not run my CZ-858 in the winter and im on the fence as to which way to go with the lube, any suggestions?
 
In my experience, the synthetic oils and greases perform well when the brass monkeys have all moved indoors to avoid the unpleasant loss of their nutz.
I know there is mixed feelings about the Militec products, but I have used the oil and grease for years with no issues in wear or function of my firearms.
I have started to lean towards G96, and synthetic wheel bearing grease (Mobil 1), and again have had no issues.
I feel that no one product can 'do it all', and with oil and grease, I can cover all of the possible lubrication requirements.

PS...I find it interesting that my most recent SIG pistol, an X-5 Tactical (SAO, 9MM,current sidearm of the OPP Tactical boys!), comes with a tube of "SIG" grease! (It appears similar to the Militec synthetic product.) SIG had previously shipped their pistols with a sample of TW25B white 'grease'.
 
Great thread AmedSask. Good to see your outside using it:rockOn:...now when mine comes in I can use it at -40 with a bit more confidence; although I wont do the "drop test" either.

I think the last sig I got from Questar had sig oil in it...but they bring theirs in directly, so I can only guess what the Canadian retail ones have with them lube wise (?)
 
Levi Garrett said:
What group will it shoot @ 100 meters, every try for accuracy?
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I'm still running the POS Mepro sight so no accuracy tests yet. Need to get other projects done so I can build a base.

ViktorF said:
now when mine comes in I can use it at -40 with a bit more confidence; although I wont do the "drop test" either.
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I don't care what it is or whether it was designed to work in arctic temperatures, everything will break at -40. :D
 
Yes, I have the old, giant reticule. It's a great sight, don't get me wrong, but the big reticule is terrible for shooting anything further away than 50 yards.

First time I sighted it in at 100 yards, the dot was bigger than my target. Heck, we had to move closer yesterday because the dot was bigger than the pop bottles we were shooting at.
 
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I don't trust CLP on my rifles in those temperatures (actually I don't use it period) because I find the teflon gums up, but straight gun oil has never caused a problem for me. To add to that, oil is hydrophobic so unlike straight graphite it will keep condensation away from your working parts and they will be much less likely to freeze up. I do like lithium grease as well but haven't tried it below -5.
 
A real cold test - leave your rifle out there for a few hours, with a round chambered adn then fire.

Next, take it to a warm room, let the water condense and then take it our again to fire......
 
greentips said:
A real cold test - leave your rifle out there for a few hours, with a round chambered adn then fire.

Next, take it to a warm room, let the water condense and then take it our again to fire......
Click to expand...

I did something similar last year... I left a magazine outside in the snow for three hours at minus 30. Put it into my warm gun and emptied it. Then I left the Tavor outside for an hour and put a warm mag/ammo in it and emptied that.
 
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