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

Scott/ RD: That -25 to -30 was a personal record for me but a lot of that central Canada hunting involves temps at 0 to 10 below. I've killed other bucks down to -10 up there.

But that -30 stuff is a very different cold that eats at you very quickly. It's dangerous. When it warmed to 10 below during the day, bright and sunny, it was almost pleasant and I left the stand to kick around the bush a bit without a problem.

But as the sun began to set the air was dead still and you could feel the temps plummet. That buck ( my best whitetail from Canada), waited until the last light to cross that field and did it on the run. I killed him at about 80 yards.

I am glad i did it, but would not want to do it again...but hey, we go there to hunt.It gets cold...what are you supposed to do? Stay indoors? You can't kill one that way!

If I was unwilling to hunt in -20 and colder, there are years I would hardly get out at all...

I think the coldest temp I've ever killed a critter in 9 years of hunting in Alaska was about 32. Not counting wuffs.

Have shot quite a few critters well South of zero. Also ran a series of tests with different actions several years ago. Let them get below zero and spritzed them with water, threw snow on warm actions and set them out in the cold, etc.

No action, enclosed or not proved any better than the others and all froze at least several times. That included a pre-64 70, 700, Seven, A-Bort, 77, and several others.

All had been cleaned with lighter fluid and lubed with Dri-Slide.

Not sure I agree with completely degreasing a rifle before hunting with it for several reasons. While dry lube is a great invention and works great in cold weather as a replacement for a good quality gun oil, it doesn't provide any real protection for moisture and rust on metal parts. Even in VERY cold weather, metal parts will eventually thaw out and moisture is the first thing to land on those metal parts and rust will follow very quickly. Degreasing with a re-oiling after the hunt would be a better solution, IMHO.

One anecdote of several I have- A buddy of mine and I were hunting deer in Eastern Oregon one year. He had his new-to-him Pre 64 Model 70 30-06 and had a chance at a good deer. Pulled the trigger and nothing happened. Tried recocking and pulled the trigger and nothing happened. When he got back to camp and told me the story, I started to investigate and the firing pin never had seemed to drop, so I opened up his bolt and checked it out. Had to show him how to do it as he had never learned how to remove the firing pin on a Win 70.

The firing pin and spring were so rusted, the firing pin couldn't move when released. Took it apart and cleaned everything up and oiled it up and it worked great after that and for many years after until he sold the rifle to a brother in law. A small amount of good gun oil would have prevented that occurence, dry lube wouldn't have. That year it just happens it was close to 0 degrees several mornings, warming to a balmy 50 during the days. Just a few miles south of there, at Seneca springs, if I remember correctly, we held the record for coldest recorded spot in the lower 48 for many years- something like -46F. I hunted there a few years and was glad to find a "warmer" place to hunt.

Bob

Sheister- you are wrong. U didn't specify what the "dry-lube" was, either.

Eezox and Corrosion-X both provide both lubrication and protection from rust when applied properly and allowed to dry. I haven't used anything else in over 20 years, and have found both products to be superior to dry/degreased only, dry graphite, Rem-oil, or any other such wet product.

Of course disassembly, wipedown, re-lubing is the best course- but can you do it nightly on a hunting trip? It absolutely should be done after any trip in rough weather.

And as I said (during the season/trip)- either leave the gun outside where it won't condense up, or if bringing it into a warm cabin, wrap it up in some sort of insulation so it warms slowly without creating condensation.

If hunting in a rain, absolutely do anything you can to dry the innards out, especially if freezing temps are to be encountered later. I've been known to lay the bolt out on a WARM surface- like the edge of a stove, for several hours or overnight to drive out any moisture before going out the next day.

There is no one magic solution- just depends on what's going on.

I have done some impromptu predator hunting on several occasions when the temps were -40 or so. I don�t normally go to far from the truck when its much colder than that but have on occasion. You can�t control the temp or when you see a nice fox o coyote trotting along. I always cleaned everything with break parts cleaner and then put a very light dusting of lube with a paint brush.

Because...


I've been deer hunting in -35F a couple (actually, several) times.. Buds in the camp went further north and the temp up there at the time was close to -45F.. Everything went fine - but we all used M70s at the time.. Well, a couple of older men carried them sweet 742s and they, naturally, ended up being single-shot rifles until they thawed out..

For the pos Rem trigger - degreasing/de-oiling/whatever may/may not work.. Why, you ask? Because moving a rifle from one temp extreme to another can/will cause condensation (in many states) to build up inside that pos trigger and cause malfunctions.. Extreme hunting conditions are NOT the place for any enclosed trigger, period..

JMVHO... FWIW..

42* below when I rolled out on this morning, four or so years ago. If you dress for it, stay moving, and there's little or no wind, it's very doable...and productive.

Like Bob said earlier, I degrease my bolt, and trigger with lighter fluid and run it dry. The only mechanical problems I've ever had in extreme cold is missfires with small rifle primers...

Pat, no wind is crucial!

As you're well aware, -40F ambient is way easier than -40F windchill. Hardest part has got to be pacing ones self in order not to start sweating.


Other than blowing the heat off of a engine on a block heater, thank God windchill doesn't affect mechanical devices.

I would be more worried about a scope breaking in really cold temps than anything. Cold temps are hard on things.

Those are very unlucky critters that the POS trigger worked. ...... ....

Lee, ok we all like to joke around here with each other, but if I may, I have a serious question. With any enclosed trigger, if you ran a lite amount of Eezox, would that help with any condensation (I would think it would and it's "rated" to -95F) ?
If it's condensation, would leaving the rifle in a vehicle help after the degreasing/cleaning as Pat suggested doing with Zippo ? If there is any merit to what I'm thinking, about the only harm oiling could/would do would act as a attractant (helping dirt/dust) stick to parts which I could see. As I said earlier, I joke around with you and BobinNH about the CRF thing, but make NO mistake, I value and respect both your opinions.

Regards,

Roy

PS: I have three BG hunting rigs that have been Black-T finished and require no lube whatsoever. Birdsong, disassembles trigger mechanisms and coats all internal parts (screws, pins, springs...everything !!!). All parts of the firing pin mechanism are disassembled and coated as well. Black-T is a self lubricating finish). The soldiers from the 10th Mountain Div use rifles with Walter's coating and have for years.

Because it gives you a working frame of reference for these off-season discussions.

Pat,
Was that a two-fer shot or you just drug them together?

I leave my rifle outside on the porch when hunting in those sort of conditions to prevent moisture issues.

Perzakly...

RD: The times I have seen enclosed triggers "quit", it was not from extreme cold....it was from just enough cold that snow and water got down into the trigger, must have melted from temps or body heat (hands carrying rifle near body? I don't know) and then temps dropped just enough after the snowstorm to cause everything to ice up and freeze. Two Remingtons quit that afternoon/evening.Neither would fire.

But it was not super cold....maybe the low 20's(?)

The other times were caused by accumulated red Wyoming dust and grit getting down into the trigger,likely mixing with a bit of lubricant,and gumming things up...that dust out west gets into everything.

Anymore ,like Pat, I mostly run things pretty dry;but I do wipe down firing pin spring,external parts, etc with a very LIGHT application of Ballistol, wiped on with a rag and not poured into parts. This seems to work well. I also make sure the inside of the bolt body is "clean".

Likely Lee sees more of this than any of us, since he's a gunsmith. I just mention what I have bumped into.

My friend had a CRF freeze shut, meaning you couldn't even open the bolt. Guess you could have fired it single shot to preserve to superior reputation of CRF designs though. We beat on the bolt handle pretty hard and it wouldn't budge till we got the rifle back inside and it warmed up .

I suppose you can get anything frozen enough that it doesn't work.

What kind of rifle was it?

Although I don't hunt in the super cold conditions mentioned in the thread, a 'lube' (actually more of a rust preventative) that I recently 'rediscovered' is Beeman MP5 oil. I had a bottle of it I bought over 20 years just laying around and decided to give it a try.

It is super thin and non gumming and penetrates then dries. I use it very sparingly on firing pins after a complete cleaning and degreasing with brake cleaner. The innanet says birchwood Casey barricade is the same stuff. Since I have never used barricade, I wouldn't know.

MP5

barricade