How well does your gun work in the cold?

[BBQDawg]

I don't shoot in the cold much here in South Mississippi and have only been shooting USPSA since August this year. However, we have had a little cool weather come through this weekend and was supposed to have a shoot today that got cancelled late yesterday due to all rain we've gotten the last few days as well. At any rate, I was out practicing yesterday morning while it was 41 degrees, wind chill in the mid 30's, damp and wet from all the rain, and I don't see how you guys shoot in those colder temperatures. Government model 1911 shot and worked fine, but I was horrible! I was cold, hands were cold, gloves I had were too cumbersome, hands were too cold without them. Struggled getting good grip on gun, missed targets at times completely, couldn't keep follow up shots on target at times, etc. I practice with a shot timer, record my scores, time, hit factors, and penalties and noticed that the longer I was out there the slower my times were and my scores were getting worse. Don't think I could shoot very well at all in some of that cold weather you guys seem to shoot in. Oh, I would shoot because I'm hooked on it, but I can tell now I would not be able to shoot very well. I'm trying to figure out how to dress warm enough to shoot in event have a shoot that takes place in cold weather. Wife thought I'd lost my mind being out there yesterday and even considering shooting in this weather!

[CHLChris]

As my squad was huddling in a dozen layers of clothing, each, only taking off our coats and gloves right at the line, I just kept remembering that there for sure were matches going on between Idaho and North Dakota that were orders of magnitude colder. You just do your best and drink a lot of hot liquids out of that Thermos.

Taping targets was really challenging, though. The tape just did NOT want to stick!

[whitedog]

Do what others won't so you can do what they can't. As I drink hot cocoa by the fire. ?

[Zerwas]

Living in Minnesota, we have more than our share of cold weather shooting. Just a couple of my observations during extreme cold <10:

I use only FP10 gun oil on my handguns when it gets really cold. Even some full synthetic oils (Militec etc) are too thick when it gets REALLY cold.

More importantly, I experienced more magazine related issues than what I expected. Leaving a loaded magazine on the belt between stages proved disastrous as the magazines just wouldn't work in the extreme cold. I found that keeping the magazines in an inside jacket pocket with hand warmers keeps the magazine warm enough to give you a fighting chance to work for the stage.

[Ultimo-Hombre]

Was -2 here this morning.

I start to bitch about the cold but then I look at my grandfathers rifle....

He fought in the Winter war 1939 against the Russians, he told me about the -40 temps and how they had to make thier own gun oil and cut it with fuel oil.

[Ultimo-Hombre]

Temperatures from 20 to 130 have no effect on the metals used in firearms and ammo. Drop below 20F, steels become more brittle and their fracture toughness is greatly reduced.

So -6 today.

Will shooting a cold soaked tight tolerance gun at these temps cause damage?

[MarkCO]

Temperatures from 20 to 130 have no effect on the metals used in firearms and ammo. Drop below 20F, steels become more brittle and their fracture toughness is greatly reduced.

So -6 today.

Will shooting a cold soaked tight tolerance gun at these temps cause damage?

I don't really know one way or the other. I do see an increased number of steel failures at sub zero temperatures in some industries. I won't run a "dry" semi-auto no matter what. I won't shoot my 1911s when it gets below 20F.

[Whoops!]

If you use oil year round you won't have to worry about it, I love M-pro 7. I've never had an issue with cold or snow, it's the damn sand that ruins my magazines. Curse you desert!

[Reshoot]

I ran a little test today, with my open gun, at 32 degrees F. Made some changes to the gun, and the load, so needed to do some testing anyhow.

I placed the gun, and loaded magazine, in my outdoor wood rack for 1 hour (to keep it out of the sun). Condition of the gun was dirty, from a match on November 2nd. It was cleaned and lubed, prior to that match, with the thin Gun Butter.

She ran flawlessly, and I put it away dirty. I plan to test again, on Thursday, when temperatures are supposed to be in the teens. BURR

[40S&W]

Use Royal Purple Synfilm & run on the wet side and you won't have any problems. I run this stuff year round without a hitch. Will be shooting "Frozen Steel" Steel Challenge 6 stages Jan. 5th in NE Pennsylvania and have no concerns using my 9mm or 38SC 2011 Open Guns.

[MarkCO]

I use Royal Purple too.

[CHA-LEE]

I use slide glide lite in my EAA Witness Limited year round with no issues. During the winter months here in Colorado we will have some 20 degree shooting days and I have not had any gun malfunctions. Shooting in the really cold weather is more of a battle with having frozen fingers than anything else for me.

[Nimitz]

Living here in Florida I think Ben Stoeger's winter shooting technique is the way to go ... don't . Just dry fire during the winter ..... And exactly how do you all pick up your brass in the snow ...?

[motosapiens]

I was too much of a pansy to shoot last weekend since I was out of town for work all week, but we had several fairly cold matches last year here in southwestern Idaho, with temperatures in the low single-digits at best. I didn't do anything different to my cz75, a light coating of regular slide glide on the rails and stuff. It worked perfectly. I *suspect* that my 1911 would be finickier about that because it's a much tighter gun. Perhaps I'll try it out this week.

I think not shooting in the winter is a great option for a world-class GM. For a beginner shooter like myself, I need the live fire to sort of validate my dryfire practice and verify that I am working on the right things. You can put a tarp down to catch your brass, or just stomp the snow flat if there's not too much of it. I already get kind of stir-crazy in the winter, so it's nice to do something outside every week even if it's stoopid cold.

So -6 today.
Will shooting a cold soaked tight tolerance gun at these temps cause damage?

Don't go shooting first thing in the morning. It was 11 below at my house yesterday. Too cold to even take the dogs for a walk without them getting frostbite and whining. It's 20 degrees warmer in the afternoon.

[CHLChris]

Lots of glistening brass just left over at our match because almost nobody wanted to take their gloves off to pick it up or waste the needed energy to bend over. Usually we're all over it like vultures. The one guy who stretched himself to pick some up was welcome to it for all I cared at 20 degrees and windy.

[bikerburgess]

last weekend temp at match time was about 15deg took a brand new GLOCK 21 out of the box and shot the match with no problems, so whatever the factory lubes them with works fine in the cold.

[Ben Stoeger]

I have only ever had cold related issues when I used about a gallon of heavy slide glide in sub freezing weather. Other than that... I can't think of having problems.

On the other hand... my body doesn't like the cold as much as my gat does.

[Craig N]

Like the old mom on Golden Girls.......cast your mind back to Winter 1991 and a young man just starting to shoot IPSC. A Taurus PT99AF is supposed to be a semi-auto gun, unless you use grease in the winter time.....then it becomes a single shot with box feed magazine. If it hadn't have been soooo dang cold I might have shot more then 2 of the 5 stages LOL.

[Norther]

Well, today is a beautiful sunny day, with the temp a balmy -20 F. So I had to try this. I loaded my 1911 up with nine, and left it cocked and locked outside for over an hour. It was lubed as it left the last match, wet with Mobil 1 synthetic 10W30. The first round misfired, and the hammer fall seemed sluggish. The primer had a small dimple. The next eight fired fine, but the gun was pretty slow-moving. This is a harsher test than any carry gun would see, because concealment means under clothes with my warm body. I think I will switch to 0W20 weight though. Now I need to go apologize to my Trophy Match...

[MarkCO]

Well, today is a beautiful sunny day, with the temp a balmy -20 F. So I had to try this. I loaded my 1911 up with nine, and left it cocked and locked outside for over an hour. It was lubed as it left the last match, wet with Mobil 1 synthetic 10W30. The first round misfired, and the hammer fall seemed sluggish. The primer had a small dimple. The next eight fired fine, but the gun was pretty slow-moving. This is a harsher test than any carry gun would see, because concealment means under clothes with my warm body. I think I will switch to 0W20 weight though. Now I need to go apologize to my Trophy Match...

I use a mixture of 30wt and ATF, both synthetic, 50/50 which has several good properties. Use it year round. Condolences to the TM.

[Steve RA]

Way better than I do !!!

[Zoomy]

I just had to experiment. I cleaned and lubed my 2011 LTD earlier this week using Tetra on the rails and a thin coat around the barrel. The rest of the lube job I used Weapon Shield. I put it in the deep freeze this morning at -5 degrees along with a full magazine of .40 S&W. Took it outside this evening and loaded up. The magazine took a little extra push to seat. Slide rack took a little extra effort but not too much.

Fired one round. Eveything seemed to go fine, maybe a little slow on the cycle. I then fired five rounds as fast as I could and everything went fine. The gun was now warmed up a little and the rest of the magazine went fine. Only problem was the fiber optic front sight cracked in the middle at some point and fell out after the 11th shot. The empty magazine dropped out without any assistance.

I broke it down to inspect and to the naked eye all looked well. Not something I plan on doing again but I just had to try it.

[Ray_Z]

Sorry to disagree with you. I use synthetic grease and never have problems with the cold. It worked fine when they were building the Alaska pipe line. My local auto parts store is my best place to get it.

[mag17]

Glock 34 with some synthetic grease and no issues - approx. 200 rounds....

[Ray_Z]

I was using it when I lived in Cincinnati at temperatures too stupid to be out in. Never had a problem. That is unless you call watching the sights shake uncontrollably a problem.