AR reliability below freezing

[rjmt]

Mobil 1 0W-20 is the only oil to use on guns in any temperature. And a quart of it, cheaper than any "gun oil", will last you a long time.

I'll try our Subaru oil in one of my 6.5 Grendel ARs and get back to you next year
I have one AR lower running 3 uppers, each upper has a dedicated bolt, will be a good comparative test

 

[P7M13]

wait, doesn't every on on this forum baby their ARs like I do?!?!

Phuk no. You kiddin' me? I *might* clean my ARs once a year. [edit] I will remove the bolt and inspect before taking the AR out shooting. If it's gummed or too dirty, I'll clean and lube the BCG. [/edit]
Other guns like shotguns or boltys? Yes, inspected 2x a year and cleaned if it's dirty (meaning it's been shot).
Holy black smoke poles? After every outing. Pistols? When they're filthy.

 

[TTSX]

Vietnam-era, we used LSA or LSA-T. LSA was rated for use down to -58 degrees F.

I was an ordnanceman, among other things, and never knew of any M-16's freezing.

There was another product, LAW, used by the Army specifically for Arctic conditions less -70 degrees. I never saw any, but we didn't miss it.

Jiminy crickets, -70 is a whole lotta no way from me. I'm a water based organism, not alcohol like some members here on the weekend

 

[GrayGoose]

I'm a water based organism, not alcohol like some members here on the weekend

I'll drink to that. Cheers!
But wait, why only on the weekend?

 

[orygun]

When I took the new AR out yesterday, I forgot two things.
1; Lube the bolt
2; ear protection.

So, I lifted the hood on the old Ford, pulled the power steering dipstick and lubed the bolt with ATF.
Then I dug around and found some heavy duty paper rags. cut a couple of strips, rolled them tight and stuffed them in my ears.
Both seemed to work well, but it wasn't freezing.

 

[Koda]

I would think for the test to be more practical, the frozen gun would have to also be fired in the same temperature... or the effects of ice or frozen lube are just going to warm up too quickly as the gun does from firing.

Brassfetcher did an interesting test on freezing different lubes on a 1911 frozen down to -65deg. The two top performers, as tested, were Remington Rem Oil and Pro-Shot Zero Friction. Breakfree and Outers did the worst.

Now if I ever find myself in -65deg weather -AND- in need of a gun I made some bad life choices.
Im more curious of what gun lube freezes up in weather I might find here like -10deg but Ive never seen a study done on that.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSsUYSd0k1Q

 

[rjmt]

I'll drink to that. Cheers!
But wait, why only on the weekend?

 

[TTSX]

I'm more interested in how a gun will work in 120° weather where cooling down is a much slower process. Seems more realistic to more people than sub zero

 

[Nosferatu]

When I took the new AR out yesterday, I forgot two things.
1; Lube the bolt
2; ear protection.

So, I lifted the hood on the old Ford, pulled the power steering dipstick and lubed the bolt with ATF.
Then I dug around and found some heavy duty paper rags. cut a couple of strips, rolled them tight and stuffed them in my ears.
Both seemed to work well, but it wasn't freezing.

View attachment 1991146

Pro tip: If you take that same dipstick, stick it in one ear and carefully thread it through to the other ear, you'll never hear another gunshot again!

 

[orygun]

To me the sub zero temps come with hunting. I never use grease on my rifle and I don't bring it inside where it can warm up.

 

[P7M13]

I'm more interested in how a gun will work in 120° weather where cooling down is a much slower process. Seems more realistic to more people than sub zero

Sub zero is for the coming nuclear winter, brought to us all by Brandon and Putin.

 

[GrayGoose]

I would think for the test to be more practical, the frozen gun would have to also be fired in the same temperature... or the effects of ice or frozen lube are just going to warm up too quickly as the gun does from firing.

Brassfetcher did an interesting test on freezing different lubes on a 1911 frozen down to -65deg. The two top performers, as tested, were Remington Rem Oil and Pro-Shot Zero Friction. Breakfree and Outers did the worst.

Now if I ever find myself in -65deg weather -AND- in need of a gun I made some bad life choices.
Im more curious of what gun lube freezes up in weather I might find here like -10deg but Ive never seen a study done on that.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSsUYSd0k1Q

That got me wondering... if you deep freeze a SIG in liquid nitrogen, then drop it, would it go off or would it just shatter into a thousand siglets?

 

[orygun]

Pro tip: If you take that same dipstick, stick it in one ear and carefully thread it through to the other ear, you'll never hear another gunshot again!

No doubt.

There was no way I was shooting that gun without something in my ears. I learned a long time ago how loud an AR is. I don't need to see if they still are.

 

[rjmt]

I'm more interested in how a gun will work in 120° weather where cooling down is a much slower process. Seems more realistic to more people than sub zero

We have our own weather station out here on the North Fork, I've never registered a temp over 114
sorry, can't help you on that one

 

[orygun]

We have our own weather station out here on the North Fork, I've never registered a temp over 114
sorry, can't help you on that one

We had 116 here summer of '23. Nutz!

 

[Koda]

To me the sub zero temps come with hunting. I never use grease on my rifle and I don't bring it inside where it can warm up.

It often is for me too, Ive heard to use grease on the back of the bolt lugs, its often well below freezing but Ive never had my bolt lock up so far but its something Ive wondered about.

This years elk hunt. We had to move to lower elevation it just kept snowing.

 

[Koda]

That got me wondering... if you deep freeze a SIG in liquid nitrogen, then drop it, would it go off or would it just shatter into a thousand siglets?

I hear they fire just out of protest in any temp lower than 75 degrees...

 

[ilikegunspdx]

Freezing rifles test. I didn't watch because no Charlie in the video but I did watch the freezing shotgun test they did which was worth the time. But Charlie was in that one.

View: https://youtu.be/LbjpIP5ShH0?si=D7YjqRl9HGzQuZ9O

 

[Nosferatu]

I'm more interested in how a gun will work in 120° weather where cooling down is a much slower process. Seems more realistic to more people than sub zero

I used to work summers out at Gunsite where we'd get temps into the 120's sometimes. I don't remember any specific failures that could be attributed to heat, although they would shut down any outdoor stuff when it got that hot since they don't need anyone collapsing from heat exhaustion.

I've done plenty of shooting in the 110-ish range. Militec-1 and Mobil1 seemed to work just fine.

 

[P7M13]

It often is for me too, Ive heard to use grease on the back of the bolt lugs, its often well below freezing but Ive never had my bolt lock up so far but its something Ive wondered about.

This years elk hunt. We had to move to lower elevation it just kept snowing.
View attachment 1991167

Looks like we were in similar areas. I was up east of Diamond Peak, and damn, that snow got deep! I didn't see any tracks.