How well does your gun work in the cold?

[ak_tech]

For 20 years in Alaska I shot in weather down to -40 deg as a LEO and in 3 gun at about 10 deg. I have tried just about everything on just about every kind of guns including glocks and 2011. Everything is miserable at -40 including the guns. In my experience very light oil works the best. Grease and heavy oil have both frozen and gummed up the gun. Also 1911s are down right painful to hold onto and I have seen glocks and other polymer guns crack when left for too long in the cold. Also, as other have said mags are harder to insert. That said glocks and 2011s worked ok as long as they're not over oiled. I have also used the dry silicon lube with some success.

[xdcr]

A light oil like Fp-10 works well.

[Givo08]

I use light slide glide with a couple drops of militec mixed on on slide rails on my single stack guns and they work fine down to 15-20 degrees. I have not tested them in colder weather and have no desire to.

FYI, the agency I work for provides a dry lubricant for extreme (sub zero) cold weather environments.

[twodownzero]

I use Lubriplate NGLI #0 grease and it works fine all year long, even in Iowa in sub zero temperatures.

[Solidgun]

CLP works to -15F on various types of guns. I tested several guns in the cold as I was curious about this.

[jdlincoln]

I use Amsoil Polymeric Synthetic Off Road grease on my XDM summer and winter, gun runs fine below zero now that I've removed enough of the over travel stop from my PR trigger. There's a match today that I was all packed and set to go to but it's only 10F. I know the gun would run, but decided I wouldnt.

JD

[Zoomy]

Normal cold weather does not affect steel as much aluminum. In our company we would shrink fit parts that would normally need several thousand psi to accomlish by placing them into dry ice at -110 F. These parts had been hardened to 64Rc and only shrunk .0006.

They still required 1000-1200 psi to press in since there was still .0004 press fit left after cooling in dry ice and this was done without any lubricants. Since they are used in aircraft they had to be x-rayed after assembly. We never had one fail inspection.

I think synthetics are the way to go in very cold weather as that is the only thing that would affect function. But then again my experiment I wrote about earlier in this thread showed no significant function problems using Tetra grease and Weapon Shield when firing a custom 2011 LTD stored in a -5F freezer.

Edited February 17, 2014 by Zoomy

[gino_aki]

I don't know...we're not allowed to have matches up at Haleakala National Park.

[Severian]

My M&P Pro has not problems at all in sub-freezing cold. I use Brownell's Friction Defense all year around.

[thermobollocks]

My M&P Pro has not problems at all in sub-freezing cold. I use Brownell's Friction Defense all year around.

Same for me.

My 1100 did not like being greased in 20 degree weather with about 80% humidity though.

[SSGJohnV]

CLP is rated to be used up here in Alaska, so that's what I use when I shoot at outside comps in the winter. Been down to -15 or so. When shooting indoor I use whatever I have on hand. Hoppes lube, Rem Oil, militec, clp, that kinda thing. A drop on the rails, drop on the barrel hood and off I go. I clean my guns thoroughly every 150-200 rounds anyhow, so as long as they are lubed I don't worry too much.