Cold freezing weather shooting

[Major Tom]

I've long held the opinion that shooting a firearm in freezing cold you should wipe excess oil from the mechanizim. Shooting my 1920 luger 30 cal. was sluggish but had a light film of oil in it's innards. Sluggish as in bolt not closing all the way in battery. My friends 1918 9mm failed to fire quite often.
What do you gentlemen do in a situation like this?

[Edward Tinker]

I wait until it gets warmer

However, having been in the army, when we fired in sub-zero weather, less oil is better

[tomaustin]

in the winters of 1961 and 62, I was training troops in Colorado at Camp Hale on the continental divide at Leadville.

much of it dealt with artillery.

at -20 we fired a battery of 105 howitzers....they froze in the open position after 1 round....we finished the day doing our training by hollering "BOOM" each time the guns were to be fired....

the lows at night stopped on the thermometer at -50 because that was the bottom of the scale------don't know what the temp actually was....

[sheepherder]

Originally Posted by Major Tom

I've long held the opinion that shooting a firearm in freezing cold you should wipe excess oil from the mechanizim.

I believe the Marines in Korea found this out the hard way...

My 2008 Ford Escape uses 5w-20 motor oil; big new battery, snowstorm Sunday night and 16 inches of snow, 7 degrees F that night. Today, the Escape was very slow starting...Urr, urr, urr, vroom...

I hope it doesn't go 'boom' even one time...

[Kiwi]

warm it up in your armpit - Luger not 105mm

Camping out in cold weather the sleeping bag gets crowded
Water bottle
Flashlight
daytime base layer and socks
Firearm de jour

[lugerholsterrepair]

Use a silicone based lube.

[gunbugs]

Back in the day, when I was in my late teens and early 20's. A friend and I would go to the range in the dead of winter. As we would typically miss the short window of daylight, we would pull the car up between the benches at the range, and use the headlights to illuminate the target. we would sit or stand at the front of the car, with the headlights on either side of us. The temps would range from 0F to -30 to -40F. The guns would usually function well, but we used Arctic grade hydraulic oil for lube, and then only sparingly on the important friction points. We found at that time, late 70's or so, that most of the commercial "gun oils" would gel up at sub-zero temps. These days, many of the quality synthetic gun lubes on the market are good for low temps, and have operating ranges printed on the container.http://forum.lugerforum.com/attachme...1&d=1642650993

[Edward Tinker]

hey, clever stuff! As a kid you were clever, that is cool

[gunbugs]

I was only a little clever, but I had a habit of listening to people that were smarter than me. The early 80's were a son of a gun up here. We were "cool" all right. I remember bitter cold temps, at times -50F with no "wind chill", for a couple weeks at a time. The intersections would be littered with broken fan belts, and it was common to come out in the morning and find a flat tire on your car, oh joy. Or, the older cars didn't like to run or start at those temps. Even plugged in with the block heaters or circulating heaters running all night. We were always happy when it "warmed up" to -20 F. Then things started working again. I'm still here after 52 years, so it isn't all that bad.

[Sonofeugene]

It’s no secret that conventional lubes of all kinds, guns, autos, trucks, etc., get thick when it gets cold. But, if you clean off all that lube that is everywhere on your weapon and replace it with a light weight, FULLY synthetic oil, you won’t have that problem of the gun not operating properly.

By way of example many years ago, I had a 1982 Toyota pickup that I drove up to Squaw Valley to go skiing. In the morning it was about zero and my truck was frozen nearly solid. Engine, transmission, etc. I had to wait a few hours while the sun warmed it a bit before I could start it.

I went skiing again about a month later. But in the meantime I switched to a full synthetic in the same weight in the engine, transmission, both differentials, and the transfer case. And even though it was even colder, the engine spun over and started as if it was a sunny day. And I could get it into gear easily as well.

[spangy]

COLD SUCKS ... having lived through 70 Canadian winters you can take that bit of knowledge to the bank.

[jeb111]

When I used to guide hunters there were a couple times in subzero weather when the hunters had trouble working their bolts. When back in camp or the ranch we would clean them and not bother with oil. I never minded the deep cold, I just would worry about the wildlife and the livestock. Deep freeze weather is hard on both. Never thought about shooting for fun, coyote hunting doesn't count.
Jim

[sheepherder]

I remember reading somewhere that during the cold war [no pun intended] the Soviet Army made turning off a truck engine in Winter Siberia an offense punishable by death...

I think we should have that law here, especially for women/wives who start car and immediately put it in gear and go, regardless of -7 degree weather...

[aldo35]

That's harsh

[Neil Young]

I lost a very nice deer one time in very cold weather. I had no issue, that I remember, cycling the bolt, but the cold oil inside the bolt made the striker so sluggish that the primer was barely dented and failed to fire. When it warmed up some back at the cabin, the same cartridge fired with no problem. I learned the lesson, even though I am a slow learner.

[cirelaw]

Thank God We Live In Florida!

[Wilhelm]

Originally Posted by Kiwi

warm it up in your armpit - Luger not 105mm

Camping out in cold weather the sleeping bag gets crowded
Water bottle
Flashlight
daytime base layer and socks
Firearm de jour

I did that a couple weekends ago at 12 degrees F. HK P7.

[MikeP]

Test fired a recent purchase recently. Temp was +2.
I live where I shoot off my porch.
Times like this, I can stand just inside with the door open and shoot from there ifn' I really get the urge.
I enjoy going outside to play in that stuff less and less.

[tomaustin]

in the winter in the oil field, NO engines were shut down except for maintenance....

[Mac Cat]

In Texas, when it gets cold, the electricity and water go away, because we are not connected to the national electric grid !?