Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Action and/or trigger problems at minus 40 degrees f ?

At 40 below what kind of problems show up with remington actions and various brands of triggers? I have a couple of old remington triggers I have not swapped out yet and I am looking at rifle basix. Do y'all have any odd feeding problems? What about CRF Rugers at 40 below?

Aren't you supposed to pull apart the bolt and degrease everything super dry?

None with mine, First of all none are ever lubed with wet stuff. I use EEzox or Corrosion X under ALL weather conditions.

Second, at 40 below they are in the rack and I'm in the sauce.....

What las said.

I had one freeze up on me on time..fired when safety was taken off. This is the problem with the rem trigger.. If you use a rem. make sure all the grease and oil is removed from the trigger as it turns hard as a rock in the cold and trigger parts don't move. I much prefer old model 70s for big game hunting..never had a problem with my older Sakos or mausers either.. I don't use rugers much any more but have an all weather 223 I used to use for predator calling, never had any issues with it. Another good trigger design. Did a Dayton tarsier kit in it..

I had the firing pin on a Rem 700 freeze up at a lot warmer temp than that. Around plus 22f if I recall correctly. It was a rifle that I had bought, from a friend, and I asked him about cleaning the bolt and he told me he cleaned it every time he cleaned the rifle. Turns out, he knew nothing about taking the bolt apart and just squirted oil everywhere and wiped it off. Inside was full of oil and grime. It did fire on the second try and I killed the deer. miles

Like LAS, I use a bit of Corrosion X only.....no lubes.....-40 is getting dangerous....stay home.

I wipe all oil off of the inside of the bolt before season.

I use CRC Brake Cleaner to flush trigger mechanisms and spray a very light coat of Eezox on bolt lugs.

The only box triggers I have now are in Sako rifles, the remainder are variations of open Mauser triggers. On the box triggers, I make it a habit to clean and flush out the triggers with Ronson lighter fluid. Once it evaporates, is leaves a light lubrication that does not freeze up. I'd most definitely remove any greasy lube from the bolt and firing pin, and if I was going in temps as cold as you describe, I may do the same as the box trigger, and hose everything down with the lighter fluid.

-40, stay by the fire, that's dangerous!-Muddy-

On review, I was maybe a little flippant. I have a Remington 700, and a 725 with original (tweaked) triggers. Two Ruger 77s with original (tweaked) triggers. One M98 with Timney. All run 2.5-3.0 trigger pull.

I use the 725, one 77, and the M98 in cold weather down to maybe 15 below. After that, I stay home.

The rest stands.

Truth is - ain't no real dif between maybe 25 degrees and anything colder if one is working with wet lubes. As said before, I use dry-to-touch stuff. It doesn't freeze, thicken, nor collect crud.

If one is not confident of complete hand disassembly/cleaning of mechanisms, either soak it in one of the other things mentioned, or have a gunsmith or knowledgeble person do a complete dis-assembly/cleaning/dry lube. All of my rifles get done every 3 or 4 years if used. Just did the 725 after last having done it 4 years back-with regular use since - it was cruddy inside the trigger mechanism, and a bit inside the bolt. Replaced the spongy original (50 year old?) striker spring with an over-strength Wolff. Much better!

Condensation moisture collected in the innards from in/out shelter or from blowing snow travel is of concern. Try not to subject the rifle to above/below freezing temperature changes - leave the rifle outside once outside, or wrap it in insulation before bringing them inside to slowly warm and prevent condensation which may later freeze or rust.

I got out of the truck one morning in Alberta and the truck thermometer said -30 degrees.It warmed all the way up to -10 that day,and I killed a buck in the last minutes of daylight....was told it was -25 at that time.

I had degreased the rifle, wiped down the firing pin assembly and ran it dry. It was a well worn pre 64 action that was slicker than snot anyway,and it worked fine when it had to.

Being out hunting in temps of -30 is insane....I won't do that again anytime soon.But everyone should do it once.

Why?

I would personally not go outside to 'recreate' if it's -20F or colder. Throw in a little breeze and look out!

Gummed up actions and triggers will create problems way before -40..

And yeah, I'm not going very far away from a reliable heat source at those temps.

For the same reasons people climb ice chutes(sp?) and jump out of planes.

In case you haven't noticed it's pretty gawd damned boring out there and you have to do somethinginvolving some risk or you shrivel up like a prune.

There ain't nothing I need to do in -40, -20 for that matter.

I was up to my nuts one New Year's day steelhead fishing and the temp was a balmy 0 degrees. I'll never wade fish in 0 degree weather again.

Man you said a mouthful Bob. My first foray to Sask saw temps -20F plus. One day it warmed up to -26F at midday. Coming from NJ, it was quite the shocker. Of course, to add to the "experience" the wind was blowing hard enough that the snow appeared to be falling sideways. Got off the plane in Newark International with a t-shirt and felt comfy.........
The beauty of Black-T is that you run the rifle dry, no lube necessary anywhere. So long as the trigger is flushed, just in case of any residual lubes/dirt/debris, it's full steam ahead.

For the same hammer to the thumb reason. It feels so good when one stops!

BTDT too on the Salmon River in upper NYS. Pchuck that schitt...