Researching the perfect Alaska hunting rifle I have learned that my OEM synthetic stock might just shatter in the Alaska cold, and that I should consider an upgrade. Is this just more innernet BS? My particular stock in question is either a Hogue or a paddle stock on a MK II Ruger.

Thanks in advance!

You’ll be just fine with your Ruger boat paddle or your Hogue. 👍

I have shot every rifle I own at -40 thats below zero and never had a stock crack,break,or shatter. Even the ruger boat paddle (zytel). Never a problem. But what does happen at colder Temps the recoil pad becomes a recoil transfer pad. (Hard as a rock)

Mmm hmm, you shot a rifle at -40*.?

I call bullpucky on that one.

Steel don't like mass pressure at -40* there buckwheat.

Really?

You have a source for this?.

I used to shoot at minus 25-30, with no problem.

Long ways from -25 to -40*.

las;
Good afternoon to you sir, I trust this finds you well and your Thanksgiving was a good one.

Thankfully for me, the tales I'll relate are all in the dim past, but since I grew up in Saskatchewan, I am quite conversant in chilly weather.

My late father decided that I would miss a week of high school when I was 15 and we went the 35 miles on the seismic cut line to stay in his trapper buddy's line shack. According to the thermometer on the side of the cabin it actually hit a high of -35° one day. I do recall that "nature stops" were absolutely brief in those conditions!

My then brand new wife said she'd try whitetail hunting with me and so I set up a bunch of straw for a ground blind at the end of a hay field we had. That day it got up to -38°, not including the ever present Saskatchewan wind. When a buck finally appeared near dark, she shot it, stood up and said, "I'll go get the pickup now and meet you at the buck thanks"...

While I didn't have a chronograph then, I stacked up some herbicide cans and put them out in a field to test how much more the bullets dropped on cold days. I want to say the coldest day I shot was more or less -42° though I can't recall whether I'd converted to Celsius by then or not.....

We had no plastic stocked center fire rifles back then, but I do recall that my Remington Mowhawk .22 did do odd things coming in and out from room temps to sub, sub zero sometimes. That's likely because the scope mount on them is that little piece of tin that fits over the nylon stock/receiver, but that's a guess on my part as well.

Lastly, the Canadian Rangers up in the Territories shoot quite a bit at however cold it gets up there and that's one reason they didn't get gas operated guns as I recall, though I've never personally run an auto at anything colder than -10° or there abouts.

All the best to you as we head into colder temperatures and shorter days once again sir. I hope your wood pile is full and you all stay well.

Dwayne

A few years back, two of us went on a winter cow moose hunt.70 miles in by sno-go we set the wall tent and wood stove.
After camp was set, we put dinner on the stove and tried to pour a nice sundowner but the Crown Royal wouldn't pour.....froze.
How cold was that?......damned cold. The next morning we harvested our cows and headed home with no thought to rifle
metallurgy.

Been here a long time but seldom ever post but this time I couldn't resist. 6MM obviously hasn't been in North Dakota in the winter either. If you couldn't shoot a rifle at 40 below you'd have to pack them away until spring. This is only partly being a wise ass (smile). I will admit to having fired a rifle at those temps and it didn't explode and the bullet exited the barrel. But then I've only lived here 73 years and don't know what others experiences might have been.

Gotta love Alaska. For every out-of-state hunter humping a $10,000 rifle, there are a thousand Alaskans filling their tags with hand-me-down, wood stocked rifles, milsurp rescues, and $300 Walmart guns, and guns I can’t name. And wearing Carhartts.

Shouldn't be a concern, I've fired lots of synthetic at minus 50 or colder, only one I'm aware of having problems was the early Ram Lines but they were injection molded. When glass stocks first started, a few manufacturers sent me samples to try out and never saw a problem. Bigger problem was trying to avoid double-based powders, ..... they liked pressure excursions at cold temps!!
When you live here and want meat, you quickly learn to deal with Real Cold!!

Shouldn't be a concern, I've fired lots of synthetic at minus 50 or colder, only one I'm aware of having problems was the early Ram Lines but they were injection molded. When glass stocks first started, a few manufacturers sent me samples to try out and never saw a problem. Bigger problem was trying to avoid double-based powders, ..... they liked pressure excursions at cold temps!!
When you live here and want meat, you quickly learn to deal with Real Cold!!

I always find it humorous when a man is to arrogant or to stupid to realize when they are wrong. But I'm guessing there will be no apology from Remington6mm.
You have my pitty must have been the way you were raised.
ErichTheRed

VernAK;
Good evening to you sir, thanks for your input into the thread and I trust all is well as can be in your world tonight.

Your hunting tale reminded me of a buddy in Whitehorse who was either on a First Nations high school experience hunt or a special draw for bison, I forget now which it was, but it was either late January or February.

He said that when they shot a cow, with two of them working as fast as they could to part up the bison it kept on freezing solid on them as soon as they skinned out a portion of it. He said too that it was " a royal bugger" getting the hide folded up onto to the toboggan they pulled behind their snow machines.

While I'm sure he told me just how cold it was, I forget that part now, but I'd given him a quilted Arctic Cat brand face mask for snowmobiling when he moved north and it was another time he phoned to thank me for it!

Honestly I'm not sure I could deal with extreme cold anymore, I've seen -48° without wind chill a couple times and stuff just didn't like to work anymore at those temperatures - sort of like your Crown Royal!

Thanks again for the cow hunt story and all the best to you folks as we head into shorter days and colder weather.

Dwayne

Talus,
You tell the truth. When I first hunted here in Alaska I used a stevens 200 in a 243 win. Killed my first caribou just fine. And used key brand bibs I couldn't afford carhartt back then.

Doubt the stocks ,synthetic,or wood will crack. What may happen in extreme cold though is your firing pin will freeze up if you use excessive oil or lubricant. I had this happen twice as a kid in a Remington 788. Temp was around -10* or so.If it is really cold, I wipe all lubricant off my bolt, and trigger. I haven't had one freeze up since I have done this, and I hunt coyotes all winter, and it gets pretty cold.

Remington6mm,
Energize some sort of grey matter before stating your ignorance.

It’s a bit comical to get called out on shooting in extreme arctic conditions by someone who lives where they’ve rarely ever seen a frost.

Don't worry about it, I doubt he'll be back.

That is an old wife's tale ! I don't know how many stainless steel Ruger mini-14's there are riding on snow machines and dog sled that are regularly used well below -40 !

The difference between -40 and +60 is only 100 degrees. Barrel steel will be tempered at around 1100 degrees. When they are exposed to cryogenics to align grain structure in the barrel steel it is placed in liquid Nitrogen for a period of several hours at about 300 below zero.

40 below isn’t something barrel steel is going to recognize.

Well said. Apparently he never spent any time hunting in Barrow Ak. Or had a rifle at Dead Horse, not to mention Tok, Fairbanks, and various other places. Would probably catch a cold. I wouldn't have been able to get my Caribou in Barrow if my Ruger Mk II with Zytel stock was such a wimp.

I’m late to the party, but the coherent posts have let you know that it’s BS.

At one time no one would pour concrete foundations in Fairbanks, believing the concrete would turn to powder and crumble in the -50* cold. Also not true.

You’re lucky it froze. I’m sure you’re aware that one can damage their esophagus drinking liquids that cold.

Like the bear gun advice from folks who have never seen one!

I used to go caribou hunting in Ambler with my wood stocked Remington 788 in 22-250 when it was -45F with constant 40-50 mph wind. The gun would work fine but the caribou would freeze solid so you threw them in the basketsled and haul them to the school's machine shop for processing. Locals would stack them in strange positions. I will never forget four caribou sat in chairs with an empty bootleg bottle of R+R and hands of cards froze to their hooves. I figured out the guy had one of those dogs playing poker posters. You can get some interesting malfunctions on scopes, mounts, triggers and freezing firing pins if you take them out and them haul them back into your house. The moisture and heat inside the house really messes with them. Now I don't know what a carbon fiber compound bow might do if you shot it at -50F but most rifles are fine.

True statement. I used to do SAR/Medevac in Western AK. We had a case where a guy in a (dry) village took a swig of vodka that was left outside while it was -40 ish. His esophagus swelled up, and he had to have a tracheaotomy done by the local clinic nurse (he was lucky that they had a staffed clinic- a lot of villages don't). We helicoptered him to Nome, where he got a jet ride to Anchorage.

Oh, and I've shot rifles at -40... no issues, just keep them dry (lube).

Yup. Some will have a nip to “warm” themselves. Also, usually not realizing that the temporary warmth they perceive is dilating blood vessels accelerating heat loss.

The OP's question was about his stock in the extreme cold. I really doubt anyone not very accustomed to extreme cold is going to want to spend much time outdoors shooting a rifle in it, so I am inclined to say "don't worry about it."

But I once saw an expensive (plastic) suitcase get dropped off a tailgate after being in minus 50 for about an hour, and and the thing shattered in a thousand pieces. So I guess if I was really serious about shooting in 25 below I would try to find out what that particular stock material will take.

i left an AR-10 chambered in a 243 WIN. this AR had a Nightforce scope attached ,so i left this AR outside at my cabin it was -30 below for 12 hours then shot rifle still hit target well at 300yards and empty case ejected just fine so i shot the AR-10 again and it still shot well and ejected the empty case. i was testing this rifle AR10 /243 Win. for future coyote hunting in the cold . My test was done by the Canadian border in Northern Minnesota it gets dang cold up there.

First, why are you putting an asterisk behind -40?

Second, you are full of bullpucky. I have lived in Montana for over 60 years, and have shot rifles at -40 several times with zero problems.

Hi Dwayne,

Saw this in your first post here: "I want to say the coldest day I shot was more or less -42° though I can't recall whether I'd converted to Celsius by then or not....."

One interesting bit of trivia is that -40 is where Fahrenheit and Celsius coincide.

Sometimes I hunt in Saskatchewan or Alberta in late November. I noticed the power selection ring on my Zeiss Conquest scope gets stuck and can't be turned when it is about -20f. I'm wondering if this is common among all brands of scopes or some unaffected by extreme cold?
Thanks in advance

LOL. Thats asking for a miracle from him.

Hope all is well with you Dan.

Jeff

And thats what I was thinking I learned first of last winter.

I can do math. And not really....

I may be crazy, but I'm not completely stupid. Emphasis on completely.

Nor have I ever needed meat that badly. In younger days out of Pt Hope, and Barrow, i liimited my winter hunts to no colder than -30. In due time, I got older, but not ncessarily smarter. Much of my hunting was done solo, and there are a lot of more important things to worry about in remote country cold temps than a non-existant problem of guns exploding from cold.

The 2010-2018 period in Kotebue I wussed out and made it no colder than -15. Temps colder than that are best used to watch the sun dogs snarling and the snow blowing, over the steam of a hot buttered rum.

In the early days in Prudhoe they used czst steel pipe wrenches in big sizes, like 48". In deep cold they would often shatter when "clanged" together. They started buying aluminum...

I have shot quite a bit in cold weather...

Wow. Guess all those rifles, pistols, machine guns, mortars, howitzers and tank cannons and whatever else we fired at -40F were just imaginary? Firing a rifle at -40F is not just ok, it's within the REQUIRED operating range for US military weapons. Yes, I did spend some time at the Army Cold Regions Test Center at FT Greely AK. And no, the steel alloys in military rifles ain't that much different that commercial sporting rifles.

Oh year, no issues with plastic stocks either. But some stuff they tried to use LCD displays on were a complete failure well before -40F.

Like many others who have responded here I am shocked and stunned that I survived the discharge of rifles in -30 to -40 C ...... but thanks to Remington6mm I know better than to risk my wellbeing in the future by such uninformed choices.

Please note sarcasm font in use above.

Sarcasm font off. Wishing everyone a wonderful day.

I spent 3 years in AK. my rifle was a Rem 721 3006 with a 4 power weaver scope... never a lick of trouble with it,, I always got within 100 yds of any thing I wanted to shoot...

I'm pretty sure I didn't say the -40 would blow any gun, it's just any thing made of steel does not like -40 weather. Gear boxes, electrical systems, engines.
As far as hunting in that kind of weather, that is real stupid. If you don't have your meat locker filled up before the cold stuff comes in, well your planning skills are severally lacking.

Blaze away girls, so far you are a bunch of amateurs at bashing.

When Alaska had the 20A moose registration hunts they held them in January-February time frame to allow the Tanana and Delta River to freeze so moose hunters could get into the subunits. The Coldest we ever hunted was up the little delta river -40 that morning... Ph uck was it cold.. Yeah it’s not very smart but man it was hell of adventure.

Now we Alaskans don't drive at -40 or colder because vehicle engines will??? (not like it)

Maybe administrator should get involved here. Before this turns into something else.

The day we left the little delta according to thermometer it was -15. 4 of us I was the last sled lord the overflow was bad. Our buddy who’s been doing this forever was leading after our first overflow encounter. He pulled over told us to not bunch up and to space out. Just in case a sled got hung up in the overflow. So they all make it through, I take off and when I got close to the bank my sled just stopped. We got it yanked out and saw my track sucked up tree limb stopped the track with that broke my clutch. I had to be towed 30 miles to where we parked our trucks.

Maybe you should have just avoided coming back. You are not helping your position at all...

John, I'm up river from the little delta. Yep some years overflow can be bad. To your right in that picture was an inland trail to keep off the known overflow locations. Don't know your buddy, but check in with me if u ever run that spot again. I wouldn't wish frostbite on anyone.

That looks like a very bad day...

Were you able to at least run the engine for grip heat?

Rem6mm,
Thanks for stating the fking obvious, that mechanical devices and guns can be troublesome in below zero weather.

As an amateur learning from your keen woodsman skills, we've all learned so much from you. Thanks for blessing us Alaskans with your knowledge.

We popped the belt off and had it running.. then shut it off then we realized why didn’t we keep it running lol. We stopped to fire it up, by then everything was froze couldn’t even pull the pull start. So bundled up had on Arctic’s mittens off we went..

We did the hunt again in 2012 and we pretty much stuck to that trail you are talking about😁

Oh I was using a stainless ruger 77 in a 350 Remington mag. Stock didn’t shatter and gun didn’t blow up.

Bullshit! 🤣

This...

LOL

Oh, you're so welcome.
Anything to help you wonderful people.

You are hardier souls than me for hunting in those temps. You obviously have hardier guns than 6MM Dim.

Anymore I keep the dumb chit I used to do, to a minimum.

It gets -40 here too occasionally (very rarely) and I never had any such problems with any of my firearms in the cold. I don't go out shooting much at those temps however, but I do have firearms in the truck bed held in clamps on the roll bar, and I have used them to kill coyotes and sometimes a cow if they needed to be put down. I use Mobile 1 full synthetic 90% mixed 10% ATF for all my guns. I have not found anything that works better so far. From as cold as it gets to as hot as it gets in Wyoming, my guns have always worked. Any guns that I'd worry about are not guns I keep. The one that gets the most "outside carry" is an AK47 and it's been 100% reliable in every case I ever fired it. No jams, no misfires and no malfunctions of any kind ..........ever.

When I was a younger man (much younger man) I was a Marine in Force Recon and we did train in ALL KINDS of conditions. The coldest place I ever trained in was north of Ft Greeley in a combined Army, Air Force and Marine Corp operation, or the time we cross-trained with the Canadian Army in northern Yukon. We fired M60s and M16s and the Canadians fired MAG machine Guns and FALs (C1s I think they called them) It was early February north of Ft Greeley, and it was December/January with the Canadians. Keeping the weapons dry lubed was important, but no breakages were reported that I know of. In Yukon I don't know how cold it was, but it was going from -55 to -67 in the Ft Greeley Op. It was about the same in Yukon.

So the idea that the guns would break is not something I would tend to believe. All of them had plastic stocks, hand-guards and grips. And our M16s were made of Aluminum too. If you get them wet from heating up and melting some snow on them it's important to get them blown out so they don't cool and clog with ice. So using weapons in such cold conditions is something you have to learn about, but breaking them was not what we saw. I never did anyway.........

Lubes were used but their main function was to keep the ice from adhering. The Canadians brought a cold weather oil which I think was an automatic transmission fluid. A light coat and the ice could be shoved off the metal. It would not grab the steel. The US Army had some kind of cold weather lube, (not LSA bus something with 3 letters. I can't remember what it was called now) and it seemed to work somewhat, but not as well as what the Canadians give us. One Candida soldier told me it was not something made for firearms, but was what they got from their truckers. It was pink in color.

There was the time I went for a swim in the delta river in November few yrs back. Biggest mistake telling my wife, she goes we probably should get a will done for you lol. After that I really throttled back on the dumbchit 😁

Shocked, I tell you, just shocked.

We know you are.. now tell us more about exploding steel at -40..

Never said anything about steel exploding. That is typical inability of you not being able to understand simple english.

But then, nobody and I mean nobody really expects you to understand much of anything.

Did you get the name of 79 because your mother couldn't remember your name was chitforbrains?

I wouldn't worry about the stock breaking, but if you want it to go bang when you pull the trigger, it needs to be dry, as in oil free. From my experience on my firearm at -30 or colder the oil prevented the firing pin from moving fast enough to light off the primer. It was a hammer gun and it was comical watching the hammer slowly oooooze forward and then nothing....!

Maybe there is some lube nowadays that dont drag. I have found I prefer to not hunt much below -20 ish.

Makes one more appreciate Chosin Reservoir, 1950..

Damn, now that's pretty damn cold............! did a winter cow hunt out of Delta few years back, it was -30 or colder. Thank gawd for arctic ovens....! Either we had more powerful whiskey or it wasn't as cold.....!

I don’t think you even understand what you wrote.. the only chit for brains is your dumb ass.. Then again you are from Seattle so you obviously know more than the rest of us..

I'm not from Seattle.

Go back and show us where I said guns blew up.

So you live in a suburb of Seattle....

Stop while you are ahead Mr. Seattle..

Yeah he pretty much told a guy he’s full of chit saying he didn’t shoot a rifle in -40 weather
This is what he posted “ Mmm hmm, you shot a rifle at -40*.?
I call bullpucky on that one.
Steel don't like mass pressure at -40* there buckwheat.”

If the last part doesn’t mean a rifle won’t blow up then what does it mean? To me and others it clearly mean the rifle will blow up.

Yeah steel not liking mass pressure at -40 sure sounds like it's gonna blow. We had one night at Rod range where it was close to 50 below and tanks were doing night fire, guess that 120mm didn't have any issues with mass pressure at 50 below, neither did the M2 or M240's....

Remington6mm be along to tell you, you are full of chit..

Mule Deer;
Good afternoon to you John, I hope that the last day of November finds you and Eileen well and since we're on the topic - warm and dry too!

One thing I'm dead certain of is that deep winter cold can come any time it feels like on the prairies after about the second week of October.

Thanks for reminding me of that bit of information, I believe I "used to know" that but as with too many things these days.... It's funny too in that having grown up with Imperial measures, then being around a lot of US folks and then converting to metric I'm doing all sorts of mental math gymnastics trying to make anything from temperature to fuel mileage make sense to me.

Our girls who grew up with the metric system have little patience for me when I say the house is warm at 75° when I've got the wood stove going, but will be okay talking about the temperature outside in Celsius.

We used to have a name for it when the weather outside was below -40° - Damn Cold! I suspect nowadays some of the younger set who've spent time in the oil patch would have even more descriptive vernacular for it.

As far as hunting in the cold, when we left Saskatchewan there was only a 2 week deer season and it was in November, so if one wanted to hunt deer it was a given it would be in the cold. Similarly to what some of our Alaskan brethren have stated too, the moose season in Saskatchewan was either late November or early December since that was the only way to get into the areas to hunt.

The time I spoke of going in with my late father, it was 35 miles through mostly muskeg via snowmobile. Some years if it didn't snow enough, Dad and his hunting crew just couldn't make it in.

Lastly, someday perhaps I'll attempt to put pen to paper as it were to chronicle some of the adventures of my youth, mostly for posterity as that lifestyle is now gone as far as I can see. There will be including therein a few "Damn Cold" day stories where machinery broke in the strangest of ways, but we figured that was just par for the snow covered course back then.

Thanks again and all the best to you and Eileen as we head into the shortest days and some chillier weather on both sides of the medicine line.

Dwayne

79s. "So you live in a suburb of Seattle".

I guess that means you are from 4th Ave, downtown, Anchorage? Ain't that where all the crack ho's live? You from that part of Alaska, ain't you?

Yah, go ahead and tell us about all your dad's.

We are lucky on the prairies that not all of the November -early December hunting season are not overly cold all month. There is always at least a miserable week.

There have been a few years from very early November right into December it was “damn cold” as Dwayne said above with deep snow all season.

If you didn’t hunt -30 to -40 you did not hunt.

Lots of our late season cow elk hunting is in December - January up in Peace River country. That’s damn cold.

On a side note thanks to all the Alaskans, folks from Northern USA and Canada who have kept this thread interesting and pleasant despite the prodding to descend into the all too common internet flame and bitch session.

Hope y’all had wonderful thanksgivings.

Lubricant Arctic Weight (LAW)

When one is in a hole , one should quit digging

Just scrolled back noticed lots of poster from the southern USA are being cordial and informative as well. My apologies for ignoring y’all in my post above.

You are so dumb you don’t realize who said what, that was Yetti that said you lived in the suburbs. I said your retard ass lives in Seattle.. now tell us again about exploding steel at -40..

I never been able to find that stuff, probably have it wainwright and greely

I need popcorn this is better then TV

Anything is better than TV........

Thanks Dwayne, hope you are all doing well too!

Loved this: "One thing I'm dead certain of is that deep winter cold can come any time it feels like on the prairies after about the second week of October."

The coldest place I've lived and hunted was the northeastern corner of Montana, which is definitely prairie, with an hour's drive of both North Dakota and Saskatchewan. One winter day got to at least -50 F. below; the local thermometers ranged down to -58. That was damn cold--but that day was absolutely still.

The coldest day during that so-called "cold snap" was around -40--but with winds from 30-40 mph. Talk about wind chill!

Good hunting,
John

If I was to guess a BRIM FROST exercise in about 1986 would I be close?

Some rules of thumb we used to live by:
- Fun stops at about -20
- Schitt really breaks at an accelerated rate at -30
- Overflow sucks and can be a stone cold killer
- Every object you’re run into at extreme cold temperatures is hard as a rock. Doing that at just about any speed can end your life (think frozen trees/staubs in a river)

Epstein didn’t kill himself

I'll bet most people in lower 48 don't even know what overflow is.
I had never heard of it until I moved to Alaska.
And strange thing is I never hunt caribou during the fall hunt. I prefer -20-/-25 late winter on the Taylor Hwy. A person can spend a month up there and not see another person. No bugs, no heat. Just quiet.....

Completey not Army approved, but we used LPS 1 on our M-60D's when door gunning in the winter:

itwprobrands.com/product/lps-1


I actually don't remember if we had access to LAW, but we, being an Aviation unit, had tons of other lubricants available to try (obviously CLP didn't work). Coldest temp I remember shooting in was -45 (C). Specifically that temperature because that is the low temp limit for starting or shutting down an engine or APU on the UH-60. We had to search around different military airfields to find a place to legally land and get fuel. We started at Ft. Greely, but it dropped to -50 while we were out training. Ft Wainwright reported -48, and then Eilson AFB when they understood our issue, reported -44 (wink wink). We still sat idling on the ground at Eilson for almost an hour waiting for the APU to warm up enough to start. (too many failed starts, and you get a fire out the exhaust).

Akbob5:
Good evening to you sir, I hope that this last day of November treated you in an acceptable manner and that this finds you well.

You talked about overflow and like John's statement about Celsius and Fahrenheit meeting at -40° I knew I was familiar with something like it, but had to look it up before I responded.

My eldest sister for years was an RN in northern communities in the 3 western provinces, one of them being the oldest settlement in Saskatchewan, a little Metis and First Nations community called Cumberland House.

Of course if it was the oldest, it was a fur trading post and then again by extension it was on a river, in this case the Saskatchewan which is the combined North and South Saskatchewan at that point, so it's going pretty good and is quite wide. The interesting thing is that Cumberland House is on an island and everything going in or out of town has to cross the river.

As you can surmise, that's a sticky wicket for several months of the year until the ice is thick enough to run first snow machines, then pickups and finally semis across it.

Some years when the overflow was bad there were several locals that would go through, never to be seen again.

Anyways sir, thanks for twigging my memories of times spent up there long, long ago. All the best to you folks as the days get short and cold. may you stay well, warm and dry.

Dwayne

Awesome thread guys! Soaking up the knowledge here.

Coldest I've ever shot a rifle was zero degrees F. Right here in central Washington. Everything was just peachy.

But this -40 degree stuff being spoken about? Oh goodness - I'd MUCH rather be inside, tossing another log on the fire and making something warm to drink. Bless you all.

Guy

Its all realative to what you are used to. I've been used to below 0 temps for months, and when we were out riding our snowmachines, it got so hot that we stripped down to hoodies... it had gotten up to +25 and felt like summer.

Conversely, I was working day shift in Iraq one lovely summer. I switched to night shift, and I remember sitting outside smoking an Iraqi Bazaar couterfeit Marlboro at about 2 in the AM. The breeze picked up and I was sitting on my hands... kinda chilly... I looked up, and it was 98 on the thermometer.


The body gets acclimated in a few months.

Absolutely true my brother. Stay safe if you’re still serving.

Random anecdote that has nothing to do with the thread, but I've had a few after work drinks, and this is the campfire, so par for the course....

Living in Alaska, people from outside always ask "what's the coldest you've ever seen?" For years, I could accurately say "-65 in Florida". Yup, I was in the McKinley Climatic Laboratory at Eglin AFB, FL which is a refrigerated hangar for testing. Inside was an (at the time) new C-130J model. They were doing engine runs in the hangar at -65 with the new Rolls Royce motors.

Later, I was sent to the lower 48 for training. It was over 6 months, so the .gov paid for me to move down there, allowing me to take my personal pickup, and household goods. It was January, 2005. I loaded up my F-150 for a trip to Mississisppi. Wanting to take my motorcycle, I borrowed my buddy's Case 580 backhoe. I needed a new battery because of the cold. I got it started, and used the bucket to load my bike in the back of the pickup. The .gov was paying for a ferry ride from Haines to Bellingham, so I had a departure time to meet at Haines. Haines is about a 12 hour drive from where I was living, so I had to leave the house about 10PM. It was roughly -25 ish at the house, and I headed northeast in the truck.

I hit Glennallen for gas, and it was -40 according to the bank sign. At the Tok cutoff, it was -72, and I heard a clunk from under the truck. I crawled under with a flashlight and saw ATF leaking from the transfer case. Not wanting to deal with it, I put it in 2WD and kept going. Made it through the border, and at Beaver Creek, it was -68. Started to Haines Junction, and heard a flapping noise from under the hood. Popped the hood, and saw that my serpentine belt was delaminating. The serpentine belt runs EVERYTHING in a 98 F-150. I nursed it along, kept the RPMs as low as possible, and made it to Haines, AK. With 2 hours to kill, I went to the Haines auto parts store... asked for a serpentine belt for a 98 F-150 with a 4.6. He looks in his computer, has a bad look on his face, then asks "Windsor or Romeo?" (engine). I tell him it's a Romeo. He looks up on the pegboard behind the counter and pulls one of the 3 belts off to hand one to me.... "there you go, that's $97.99." Holy crap, he has it. I happily paid, and changed it in the parking lot.

I take the truck to the ferry terminal, load it, then have 3 easy days of drinking the Inside Passage.

Get to Bellingham, take the truck to the Ford Dealer (truck had an extended warranty). Guy shows me back of the transfer case, and the yoke coming off the transfer case, and the rubber seal was shattered. Guy said he'd never seen anything liike it before (LOL). Fix it with a $100 deductable, and I'm on my way. 3 days later, and I'm riding my bike while visiting my Uncle in Bulverde TX at 70 degrees.

"We used to have a name for it when the weather outside was below -40° - Damn Cold! laugh I suspect nowadays some of the younger set who've spent time in the oil patch would have even more descriptive vernacular for it."

In Barrow we called it "ala-damned-pa". Alapa being Inupiat for "it's cold". Spelling might be off.

I've gone into over-flow 3 times. Salt water. Dangerous stuff!

People in NW Aaska die every year going into overflow, or through the ice on rivers or lakes, or the ocean. A few years back a couple left Kotzebue headed for, I think Noatak, drunk, in the dark, underdressed, no sled or survival gear (would not have helped anyway), on one machine, and took a wrong turn on Kotzebue Sound (trails are marked with branches frozen upright into the ice). They went into the drink, either a lead or thin ice over a lead. The gal was found several months later in the summer, out of Pt Hope, nearly 200 miles north, up the coast. He was never found.

The coldest I've ever been out in (not for long!!!) was 53 below with a 50mph wind - Gusts a bit higher. Not estimates, measured. Pt. Hope.

About 65 below in calm conditions, Interior.

I like SC Alaska, thank you very much.

Quite the range of temps and activity a week or so!

Only difference I ever noticed was on an old 03-A3 30-06. 150 gr bullets sighted at 60-70 degrees - shot a bit lower at -20 degrees.
Using 4064 powder.

Thanks brother, I got out 7 years ago... now I work for a living lol.

Well, i have fired a rifle in 120 f and it didn't even melt

I call bullpuckey on that one. People can't survive at 120 degrees.

Good firsthand information. Thanks you. 👍

Yeah but I woulda.....

Witless in Seattle.

Jim

dennisinaz;
Top of the morning to you sir, I trust this first crisp and clear morning of December finds you all well.

With apologies to one and all for my continued trips into the rhubarb on this thread, your statement reminded me of another story which I'll attempt to share with brevity.

Back in the mid '80's I worked at a test orchard which was owned by a combination of the BC gov and the BC Fruit Grower's Association. As such we'd get foreign exchange students sometimes.

This particular year we ended up with a wee wisp of a lass from Holland. I'd suggest she was 6'1" and roughly 180lb - which was good because she needed to be that size to carry around all that knowledge, as in she knew everything.

One morning shortly after arriving in June, as the Okanagan sun began to beat down upon us, she asked me how hot it got here. I replied that since we're a semi-desert - cactus, sagebrush, rattle snakes and scorpions - that it could get pretty warm and that I'd seen it 45°C - 113°F a couple times.

She snorted and said, "I don't believe that! At 40°C one's blood will overheat and we die." Since she didn't appear to be interested in learning there was a difference between internal body temperature and external temps, I didn't attempt to explain.

Fast forward to the 3rd week of July that year, I had to go down to the temperature gauge on the sand at the end of one block of trees to record the daily temperature, humidity and any rainfall - none - as was done daily.

That day, was a pretty warm one and the temp gauge read 46°C or 115°F, so when I walked back up to record that, she asked what it was and I told her.

She said, "What? How can that be? So hot??"

Being "that guy" when I was younger, I looked at her and said, "That's correct and we're all dead now..."

She didn't find it even a wee bit amusing, but I thought our coworker who was standing beside us was going to need medical assistance he was laughing so hard!

As mentioned, it must be tough to know everything there is to know about everything. Luckily I've never suffered from that myself!

All the best to you as we head into days cooler than 120° sir.

Dwayne

Few things are heavier than an airplane stuck in overflow.

I had to look it up. This thread is the first I've heard of it.

Dry heat! 😏

^^^I knew there had to be an explanaton^^

Best to just sit back and read when you don't know what your talking about. It's only +23 here this morning and almost to cold to be sitting in a tree stand. Stay warm and shoot straight friends.

I observed an interesting overflow several times on Kotzebue Sound when I lived there.

The incoming tide would crack the ice out away from shore, from underneath pressure, water would gush up through the crack, carrying tom cod or smelt/herring with it.

The ravens loved it. There would be hundreds out there feeding on the fish.

The first over-flow I went through years before , farther north, out of Pt Hope, was actually up a river a few miles. A strong north wind pushed water into the lagoon and up the river, lifting the ice and cracking it along the shorelines, with subsequent overflow., skimmed over with thin ice and falling snow by the time we headed back to town from a weekend caribou hunt. My partner was riding the sled behind, after his 3-wheeler had brokendown.

When the snowmachine went through, I got wet to above my waist, but we got it out again, non running. I had to leave it there for another day. The sled and rider had not gone in.

Fortunately I had a complete change of dry clothes on the sled except for my outer layers Getting nekkid at 12 degrees and in a 10 mph wind (it had dropped) was a lot of fun, as was the 12 mile hike back to the village, in frozen snow pants and lower parka. We got picked up 4 miles from the village by other hunters, which was nice.

Remember, this is the Arctic - no trees, firewood, or shelter, except for whatever snow bank one might be able to dig a cave in. Which is what I did overnight when I went out 3 weeks later (storms) to get my machine back to town, using a borrowed machine and sled. By this time, my snowmachine and sled were buried beneath about 8 feet of snow, so the cave I dug after probing for it seved a dual purpose. There were big bear tracks just outside when I got up at daylight the next morning, having slept in the cave on the frozen caribou in the sled that I was towing when I went in.

"Adventure" is way over-rated, trust me.

There is a reason to have an "Eskimo parka" in that country, and mine saved my butt on that occasion, and at least one other time. For those wondering, an Eskimo parka is a pull-over, made of mouton sheep skins, skin out, deep hood edged with, preferably, wolverine fur, so it can be folded out to make a tunnel in front of one's face. This not only protects the face from wind and frostbite, but lets one breath somewhat warmer air than ambient The body of the parka is fairly loose fitting which provides an airflow from bottom, and out the neck, which helps remove body moisture from inside. It works best in very cold conditions. You still don't want to work too hard and get all sweaty, tho.

That can kill you quicker than a gun barrel shattering from the cold!

Over the centuries, those Eskimos have learned a thing or two.

Yeeeeaahhh, the Russian front, Korea....

Dwayne if you wrote a book I’d buy it in a heartbeat!

Bullpuckey. Not directed at anyone I just wanted to write bullpuckey. I’ve never typed that before. Oh wait I spelled it wrong. Too late, I ain’t going back....

I cannot image that kind of cold.
Worst I did was zero w 30 MPH wind.
Only day BIL had off that week to deer hunt.
Drove a soft top jeep about an hr to my spot, was frozen by the time we got there (soft doors).
Idled for a while, didn't warm up.
Told him one loop around CRP and done.
Made it 75 yards from the vehicle, and then there was a corner, so we'd get less wind.
Told him I would shoot a rabbit.

Went a bit and my TC Renegade barked.
He asked where the rabbit was (rose bush area by the edge of hardwoods).
Told him no rabbit, deer, way down a gully inside the woods.

Was bedded behind a log out of the wind. Ears gave him away. Never got up.
Was like jagged concrete, side of that ravine, dressing that deer.

Painful, but out of the wind.

Now I click the Weather Channel and have a hottie tell me if I should get out of bed or not.

Screw that cold and blowing weather.
Zero w 30mph winds was as bad as I've been and that was bad enough.
If I'm a midwest sissy so be it.

No stock issue but plastic does not like the cold scope cover release broke today. Also, snow got in the bolt and chamber from a dropped round in the snow, tried to chamber it would not so stopped trying and pulled the bolt, cost us a second caribou, when I got home gentle tap of cleaning rod after rifle warmed up round dropped free. Long way from home when it happened.

Kurt,
I hear yah. I had a tiny bit of snow fall off sled handle onto a ruger bolt action. It got in gun down near sear. Cylced round into chamber pulled the trigger: Nothing! There was no place for the firing pin be held back because of this tiny bit of snow.

So bolt essentially closed on a live round with firing pin resting on the primer. It couldve went off while cycling gun.

Toughest, simplest bolt rifle, rendered useless by a tiny bit of fking snow!

Another time, was coming back home with my freight sled loaded with 800 lbs of sheefish. Dogs picked up speed as we hit land. Drop into an alder choked gully : caribou everywhere!

Rip out the blr winter gun: shuck the lever, click. Shuck the lever again, pull trigger: click. Last ditch effort: pull out the 357 mag trail gun, got off one shot as they disappered into the alders: MISS.

My dogs kept looking back as if to say rest of way home: what an idiot. Never did winter hunt again with that darn blr.



If you're fool enough to hunt in winter, carry a couple bottles of heet in the yellow bottle. I buy this sht by the 40 bottle box, to power my dog food cooker. When a rifle is frost or snow seized from a fall or some other scenario, douse that s.o.b. with heet. It's almost as effective as a thaw near the wood stove.

Instantly de-ices rifle. Evaporates off even in below zero. Doesnt hurt plastics or gun finish. It's quick enough to save a caribou hunt, ask me how I know........

Bou were tough to get close to hiked into lake, snowmachiners kept ruining our stalks 4 times, bou to the left was 818 yards rangefinder was spotty on read till light conditions changed . Brown dirt speck middle is my cow I shot 515 yards, pics were from cell phone 8 x zoom.

Michael good tip on the heet.






280 AI Forbes

Thanks (Mainer in Ak) for those observations and the fix of HEET for de-icing treatment. I will remember that. Out of doors i carry a wool Bison Gear waste pack or essentials pack and in it i have a bunch of fire starting methods and equipment andni have a Swedish mess kit with German eating utinsils, empty water bladder and a stainless Kleen Canteen bottle. My essentials kit. The mess kit has a Trangia alcohol stove and i carry extra alcohol fuel in an small and a larger containers for cooking and in a pinch it can do the same duty as HEET. Thats good to know that the alcohol fuel can have various uses beside just heat for cooking and water boiling.

Well I’ve been in an honest sixty below and although I wasn’t hunting or shooting I honestly doubt I would be. Having said that my two rifles that would of been with me were stocked with a MacMillian and MPT stock. Both handled 20 below no issues.