Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Cold weather reliability.

A hammer fired gun should be more reliable in very cold weather. The firing pin in a conventional bolt rifle seems vulnerable to hanging up if it's lubed or wet and it freezes.

What say you?

Define "very cold".

As for me, I'd be a whole helluva lot more worried about MY hammer freezing in any weather that cold than about the firing assembly on my rifle.

Tests I ran last winter at below zero proved I could not get a firing pin to freeze... but triggers are a whole other story...

I have never had a firing pin or trigger freeze,even at -30.

I haven't hunted in the Great White North yet so I guess I'm just conjecturing. I wonder if it might be the other way around. An open hammer would leave more room for snow, freezing rain etc. to enter into the lockwork and freeae up. I'm thinking a more sealed system like a firing pin would be less susceptable.
As Sitka said though, triggers are another story............especially if it's a Remington.... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />............DJ

I use my 700 remingtons in our cold Alberta and Saskatchewan conditions every year,and have never had a problem.Unless you spray lube on the triggers or build up condensation,they don't freeze.

Funny, I could clean the trigger very thoroughly on any of a number of actions and get them to freeze up solid everytime... The 700 was no worse than a pre-64 70... Hmmm!
art

Not necessarily true. The firing pins on many hammer guns are dependant on a return spring. If that freezes due to moisture or heavy lube, you will get misfires.

In cold weather hunting, say 30F or less, I advise my customers to ensure there's NO lube there to hang anything up. It's worked for me for over 35 years and I've hunted deer at times when it was 25 below zero.. It was NOT fun, BTW.. LOL..

I can only tell you my own experiences,that being that I have never had a trigger or a firing pin freeze in over 30 years of hunting in cold conditions.

Stubby
I abused bare barreled actions to the max, waterwise. I expected worse on the 700 and better of the 70, but both failed.
art

If you are going to expose the internals to water in cold temperatures,any action will freeze.When I am around water in cold temperatures,I am extra careful to keep the action dry.Luckily where I hunt,when it is very cold,the water in the area is usually frozen,so there isn't a real problem.

LOL.. Well, from where YOU live, I'm surprised that atoms still move.. Isn't absolute zero something like -452F? Hehehehe...

I wonder how a muzzle loader would work up there.. You'd probably need an acetylene torch to fire the sob.... And then just how do you light the torch?? LMAO...

I remember TV news pix of some place in AK when it was -80 or so outside. People never shut off their car/truck engines because they'd never start again. Oil changes on heavy equipment was done while the engines were running.

And you HUNT in that stuff??? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

It is interesting to read stories about this in the Korean War. Our boys had a heck of a time keeping the gun parts from freezing. There are surely some good lessons learned there. If I remember correctly, my uncle said they had to shoot them bone dry/clean or they would not fire at all. And he also slept with his M1 in the sleeping bag.

Dry lube like mica or powdered graphite seems to work very well for me on rifle parts that I don't want to use any type of liquid/oil/gel type lube ...

try pulling the firing pin assy, degreasing it completely, and giving it a brush of that powdered graphite that's used to keep cylinder locks running smoothly ... try the same thing on your trigger ... that stuff works miracles on keeping metal on metal conditions from showing any signs of friction, and it isn't something that's subject to freezing ...

Now, if your action/bolt/firing pin assy gets wet during a sub-freezing temperature hunt, well ... not much will help you short of disassembly and drying it off before it freezes ...

I started this topic just for a fun and theoretical disccusion. I have never had a gun freeze up for any reason either but it has happened to others.

I was just thinking that a hammer like not only the traditional guns but the Savage 99 and Garand have might not release and slam into the firiing pin where a bolt action might drag due to being gummed up.

The firing pin retraction spring might bust loose with the first shot too. Just gun talk.

Savage, I was worried about that in my tang safety Ruger M77270 win once, took the rifle to my smith, this was in Kansas, and he ordered and installed a german firing pin spring that was rated at about 24 Lbs, verses the factory spring that I believe is around 19-20 Lbs. That was supposed to be something that would help. In all my years hunting in bad weather, snow, freezing rain , etc, I've never had one freeze up on me. Scopes are a different story.

I've never had a gun freeze and have hunted in some pretty cold weather, although I'm sure not as cold as Sitka deer! I use lubricants but make sure I use a good synthetic which supposedly doesn't thicken in extreme cold, I figure it will keep moisture from sticking to it. Have any of you tried a good synthetic in extremely cold weather and what have you found out?