Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Functioning in sub zero temps

Friends,

This last weekend I was up at a friends house in central Idaho for a shoot. Aside from the camaraderie, it was a great opportunity to see how gear and people would function in the cold.

On the drive up I had the heater going full blast in my old FJ62, and it was still not quite enough. My local weather was around 13 below, with the wind chill factor it was around 35 below.

I ended up driving with some of my late season hunting/mountaineering clothing, as it was a fairly chilly ride. The next morning I ended up using my backpack stove inside the rig to un-thaw everything.







I dang near broke the key off in the door trying to get the old FJ unlocked. The local temp was 17 below and there was a very slight breeze. A good opportunity to see how things would function.



At the gathering we started off with some pistol drills and it was immediately apparent, and discussed that the handgun ammo was not performing like it did in warmer weather. I was running a G34 and it felt sluggish, as if I was shooting .380s. I was using a mix of Blazer ball and some Federal ball. instead of the usual sharp crack of a report, the ammo was making a light "Pop" sound. Very scientific, I know, but I did not have a chrono and I doubt one would work long in the temperature anyways. The G34 seemed to be barely cycling. I had a single failure to fire, and in examining the round, it had a very light primer strike. On a second go-round, the cartridge fired.

On a personal performance note, I noted that my speed was restricted by clothing, and overall I felt like I was losing 15% or so on the combo of speed and accuracy. On the positive side, I have a fiber optic front sight, and it was so bright, due to all the snow, that it looked like it could have been battery powered.

Also, as could be expected, due to loading mags, and handling metal, hands/fingers got pretty cold, and there was nowhere near the normal tactile feel of the trigger. It was not a huge issue, due to being quite familiar with the trigger pull on the Austrian plastic guns, but i noted that it could be a real problem if you were working with unfamiliar gear

Rifles. I was running my old, ultra reliable Colt that I have had since the 90s. This is where things really fell apart. We were taking turns doing a drill and when it was my turn I stepped up and dropped the hammer, only to hear a "CLICK". I did the usual immediate action stuff and 3 more times all I received was a "CLICK". The gun was fairly well lubed with a teflon based lubricant, and it was absolutely dead in the water.

I ended up pulling my BCG, and using a leatherman, I held it over some red hot coals in the outdoor stove. After heating it up, I disassembled it, wiped almost all of the lube off and re-assembled it.

After that the rifle ran flawlessly.

I also noted, and multiple people discussed that the rifle ammo/powder did not seem to be affected hardly at all by the extreme cold.



Overall it was a fun gathering, with great people, and an excellent opportunity to examine how semi autos functioned in that environment.

Also, I took some pics while I was traveling.

These guys were not far from Craters of the Moon N.P.

Mackay Idaho:

I'm curious why you would want to re-freeze (un-thaw)everything inside the rig.

Good pictures!

Love the old buildings.

And yeah, in that weather the critters are burning more energy than they can take in even if the feed was high quality!


Casey

As usual excellent!!! Thanks..

Mackay,
Great photos! Beautiful place over your way. I have noticed, in my own cold(-20 and lower) winter camping/slogineering epics that cold has some crazy effects on darn near everything. How does that cartridge stove do for you in subzero temps?

When it is sub zero, the animals tend to stay down low, so lots of opportunities for viewing.







These pics really does not do this ice flow justice. This is the main Salmon river near Challis.

The canister stoves really don't run as well when you get to a certain sub zero temp. That said I have learned when I am outdoors in such weather to keep the canister inside a jacket pocket, and not exposed as much.

I never did get a decent pic of these turkeys, but there were a few down on the road.

To be honest Mackay I am more interested in how the old 60 series held up to the cold.

Pahsimeroi river geese:



Main Salmon. What guard rails?

Nice pics. I drove through there last week I think I saw those bulls.

Mirrors my own experience. I always buy my winter sleeping bags with a little more room so I can keep canisters, batteries, etc. warm over night. I was able to run my Jetboil last winter in the Stanley area at -25F for at least long enough to boil enough water for breakfast, as long as I kept the canister warm beforehand. Great fun! Thanks again for those pics!

Cheers~

Gratuitous Land Cruiser shot!




Driving home in a white out was a bit of a pain. Sometimes it was rather hard to tell where the edge of the road was.




Fortunately the transportation department attaches markers above the T posts, on the side of the road, for when the posts get buried in the snow.

The tough part is that you have to keep the heater going full blast on the windshield, so the toes never actually get warm. My toes were quite numb by the time a got to Salmon Idaho.