i live in Minnesota so times are cold here too, i was out call`n coyotes had a 22-250 Remington 700 my rifle froze up on me so that coyote lived. second time my 338 Remington 700 froze up on a elk hunt we were 10 miles from camp with two friends we all had 338 Remington 700`s S.S. ,we were up high on mules lots of snow , cold 10-20 degrees started snowing and raining half way up rifles were all in open scabbards on the mules. lots of grizzly bears and bear sign in that area we were in NW corner of Yellowstone park big sow grizzly and 2 cubs came out around 50-60 feet from me my mule was nuts and screaming i pulled my rifle the friends pulled their rifles too, momma grizzly ran away with cubs that`s when we found out all 3 rifles were froze up . we were dang lucky . i had my Alaskan Winchester pre-64 338 Win.mag with that i had brought out in Wyoming from another friend , so i carried that rifle the rest of the hunt up in the mountains and never carried or used a Remington 700 again in cold weather or big game hunting ever again. i do have a Remington 30 express i do carry sometimes this 30 Express won`t freeze up . glad some have had better luck than i have had with a Remington 700 .
With so many never having an issue even in what I call not fun weather, I have to simply say the ones with issues are going operator error.
There are lubes and such that I won't use on triggers or BOLTs in wet/subfreezing weather. But thats been common knowledge since I was old enough to read books. IE don't run em wet if you think you will get wet or sub freezing.
As to having a gun in the open in the rain, I'm not sure who thinks that was smart. Yet I see hunters show up all the time in AK that have no way to keep their guns dry in bad weather. There are various cheap light sleeves you put them in. I carry spares now because a 10,000 dollar gun soaking wet and freezing weather won't work either very often.
I'd offer to say most folks with issues need to learn to blow the triggers out and learn about graphite and clean the bolts well and springs etc... and same same.
As to safety freezing, well one way to avoid is never use the safety. Or keep it also clean and dry.
